A Rare Hebrew Illuminated Manuscript—One of Very Few Surviving Examples from Medieval Germany—Undergoes Treatment at the MFA Houston
The first piece of Judaica to enter the museum’s collection, the “Montefiore Mainz Mahzor” undergoes conservation supported by the TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund
- By TEFAF Editors
- Museum Restoration Fund
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) houses an encyclopedic collection of nearly 70,000 works of art from antiquity to the present. With the support of the TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund, the MFAH started conservation efforts on the Montefiore Mainz Mahzor (circa 1310-20) in 2022. A rare Hebrew illuminated manuscript, the Mahzor is one of the very few surviving examples from medieval Germany. It was acquired in 2018 as the first piece of Judaica to enter the museum’s collection and prompted the endowment of a new gallery for Judaica.
Such manuscripts, including the MFAH’s Mahzor, belonged to the entire congregation and were displayed publicly and paged through by all. Its worn pages, some long ago incised or cut away, are palimpsests of generations of congregants. TMRF support allows MFAH conservators to undertake an in-depth study of ethical and culturally appropriate conservation treatment of the manuscript, which carries deep significance within the Jewish community.
The Montefiore Mainz Mahzor, German, circa 1310-20. Illuminated manuscript on parchment; codex of 299 leaves, each ruled in ink, pricked, and written in black and red ink in Ashkenazi script. Closed: 10.2 x 40.6 x 30.5 cm (4 x 16 x 12 in.). Collection Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Museum purchase funded by the Brown Foundation Accessions Endowment Fund. Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
The treatment includes consolidation of leather on the manuscript’s cover, which has lifted over time, and losses and tears of the manuscript’s parchment will be mended and stabilized. The parchment used in the Mahzor comes from the skin of a kosher animal and the text and illuminations would have been produced under the same strict guidelines (halakha). Conservation of illuminated manuscripts often requires consolidation—a process that refers to strengthening the bond between pigment and parchment, typically with non-Kosher gelatin. In the Jewish tradition, a scribe (sofer) is usually enlisted to restore sacred texts. Before undertaking conservation of the Mahzor, the museum’s conservators determined culturally appropriate methods and materials of treatment after extensive discussion with stakeholders, researchers, and colleagues to preserve the essential values of the Mainz Mahzor as a cultural, religious, and research object—and a work of great beauty.
Ahead of its conservation, the Montefiore Mainz Mahzor was on view at TEFAF New York 2022. Photo: Julian Cassady.
