Obj. ID: 1279
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts  Vienna Mahzor for Hazzan, Upper Rhein, 1350?

The manuscript is an undated mahzor of the Ashkenazi rite, which includes the prayers for Shabbat Hanukkah, the four special Sabbaths, Purim, Passover and Shavuot. It was probably the first part of a two-volume mahzor for Jewish festivals, the second part including the prayers for New Year, Day of Atonement and Sukkot is missing. Some prayers are specific to the Upper Rhine region's custome (Worms, Mainz, Köln), such as Arvit for the last night of Passover (fols. 306v-309, see: Goldsmidth, Passover, pp. 368-371), Arvit for the second day of Shavuot (fols. 408v-412, see: Goldshmidt, Shavuot, 2000, p. 42 and ff.). The ofanim (one of the part of the Reading of Shema in the morning service) were added later in the margins, some of them probably by the scribe himself (e.g. fols. 51), while other additions to the prayer are in semi-cursive Ashkenazi script by a later scribe (fols. 115, 129v, 147-167), Yisrael, who marked his name with a crown within his text (see fol. 157v). Part of these additions are according the Polish rite.

This mahzor has no colophon stating the place and date of production, nor the names of the scribe or the patron. However its codicological and paleographical features clearly indicate its 14th century Ashkenazi origins.

The style of the four illuminated initial word panels opening four of the yozerot (special hymns for the Morning service; fols. 26, 49v, 173v, 338, see: Decoration Program) is very close to that of a group of Hebrew illuminated manuscripts produced in the Upper Rhine area during the first half of the 14th century (see: Sed-Rajna, “G. Filigree Ornaments”, 1986/87). Amongst this group is a mahzor for the High Holidays, today housed in a private collection in France (see: Sed-Rajna, Bibliothèques de France, 1994, no. 68), also missing the colophon, but whose script and rite are attributed to Northern France around 1300, while its decoration is attributed to Upper Rhine region of the first or the second decades of the 14th century (see: ibid., p. 174). The style of the decoration of our mahzor is not as delicate and accurate as the mahzor in the Private Collection. However, both manuscripts are decorated with the same decorative motives, colours and compositions: both include initial word panels on a filigree background, decorated with extending tendrils and fleuronné framing the text space in the outer and inner margins, and with medallions encircling hybrids and various kind of animals in spare-ground technique on a coloured ground. Moreover, in both manuscripts the fleuronné framing the text is composed of an  "I" band decoration stemming from the panel's sides and running along the text column, decorated with bold circles, and both share the same filigree motif of the "drop" at the lower margins, filled with an animal motif (see for example on fol. 338 in our manuscript, and on fol. 22 in the Private Collection mahzor). This particular type of frame for the text space is typical of the Upper Rhine School of Illumination of Latin manuscripts. It can be found in manuscripts produced in the area of Basel around 1330, such as the Antiponarium housed in Aarau (Kantonsbibliothek, ms. Muri 11), where on fol. 257v appears also the inhabited, drop-shaped medallion (see: Beer, E. J., oberrheinischen Buchmalerei, 1959, Abb. 51-55). (Andreas and/or Karl-George: you are welcomed to make your comments to this comparison, maybe you can find something even more relevant to compare!!).

Other Hebrew manuscripts produced and illuminated in the Upper Rhine region are the “Double Mahzor” of Vienna and Jerusalem (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, cod. Hebr. 163, see cat. No.-----,  & Jerusalem, Jewish National and University Library, Hebr. 8° 5214); the "Vienna SeMaG" (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, cod. Hebr. 34 I-II, see cat. No.-----); the “Cambridge Hagiographa” (Cambridge University Library, Ms Ee 5.9), the only one dated and signed (dated 1347). These manuscripts seem to be the last group to have been illuminated in the Upper Rhine region before the expulsion of the Jew from the area in 1349 (see remarks on "Vienna SeMaG", cat. No.-----).

The script of our manuscript seems different from that of the other manuscripts of the group, being less accurate, thicker and smaller in proportions, with almost no difference of passages between the quill's strokes, comparing with the other manuscripts. Moreover, its quires are composed of 8 leaves, as the Private Collection manuscript, while the other of the "later" group are composed mostly of 12 leaves. It can be concluded that the present mahzor has been copied around the same area, and then decorated by a less skilled artist under the influence of a manuscript similar to that in the Private Collection around the second half of the 14th century.