Shem Tov Bible with ‘miraculous journey of survival’ sells at auction for $6.9 million
Rare 14th century codex survived centuries of wars and turmoil before being sold to private individuals who ‘look forward’ to making it public, Sotheby’s says
A rare 14th-century bible originating in Spain was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York for $6.9 million on Tuesday, The Guardian reported.
It was bought by “private individuals who, understanding its supreme importance, are looking forward to making it available to the public,” Sharon Liberman Mintz, international senior Judaica specialist for books and manuscripts at the auction house, told The Guardian.
“I think anybody who purchases a book of this magnitude understands that it needs to be made available to the widest audience possible and is not going to bury it in some small library.”
The Shem Tov Bible was written in 1312 by Rabbi Shem Tov Ibn Gaon, who was able to take it with him to the Holy Land before he died in the city of Safed around 1330. In this way, he saved it from the 1391 antisemitic riots across Spain and the 15th-century expulsion of Jews by the Spanish Inquisition. However, that was only the beginning of the tome’s turbulent journey.
“Then it gets to Israel, which is overrun by the crusaders… [and] it manages to escape that,” said Liberman Mintz. “It goes to Baghdad, and we know that the Jewish community of Baghdad witnessed all kinds of upheavals. It somehow makes its way to Tripoli. It’s in London during the Second World War – or probably in Letchworth – and it survives the war. It’s had a miraculous journey of survival.”
The elaborately embellished 800-page bible draws on aesthetic styles of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, resulting in a unique artistic combination.
“This was written in Christian Spain in 1312, but the Christians and the Jews are living with all this Islamicate mudéjar [Moorish] architecture and they’re seeing all of the cultural aesthetics of Islamic Spain around them still,” Liberman Mintz told The Guardian.
Aside from its striking artistic style, the bible has been long believed to serve as an amulet of sorts.
Specifically, a reference to the book from the late 1860s described it as a “tried and true talisman” for women in labor, the newspaper said.
Furthermore, the book extensively cites a lost ancient bible known as the Hilleli Codex and includes some 2,000 smaller letters thought to have particular importance in Jewish mysticism.
