What is the Sasson Codex, the biblical text that became the most valuable manuscript in history when it was sold for US$38 million

The oldest and most complete Hebrew Bible on record was purchased Thursday at Sotheby’s auction house in New York for $38.1 million, making it the most valuable manuscript ever sold at auction.

The Sassoon Codex, the oldest surviving copy of the manuscript containing the 24 books of the Hebrew Biblewould have been written about 1,100 years ago.

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Former US ambassador Alfred Moses purchased the text for the Museum of the Jewish People (ANU) in Tel Aviv, Israel. “The Hebrew Bible is the most influential in history and constitutes the foundation of western civilizationMoses said.

“I’m glad to know that it belongs to the Jewish people. My mission, realizing the historical significance of the Sassoon Codex, was to make it reside in a globally accessible location for everyone.”

The Museum of the Jewish People (ANU) in Tel Aviv expects about 10,000 visitors to see the specimen. (EPA).

This auction exceeded $30.8 million paid by Microsoft co-founderBill Gates, in 1994 for the Leicester Codex, Leonardo da Vinci’s scientific notebook.

But it fell short of the auction record for a historical document, set by fund manager Ken Griffin, who bought a printed copy of the first edition of the United States Constitution for US$43.2 million.

The Sassoon Codex owes its name to its previous owner, david solomon sassoonwho acquired it in 1929 and assembled in his London home the largest and most important private collection of Hebrew manuscripts in the world.

centuries of annotations

The text of the Hebrew Bible, whose 24 books make up what Christians call the Old Testament, was in constant flux until the early Middle Ages, when Jewish scholars known as masoretas began to create a body of notes to standardize it.

The Aleppo Code, created around 930, is considered the most authoritative Masoretic text. However, only 295 of the original 487 pages survive because of the damage caused by a fire in the Syrian city of Aleppo in 1947.

The Sasson Codex is the oldest surviving copy of a Hebrew Bible manuscript. (REUTERS).

According to Sotheby’s auction house, the Sasson Codex whose carbon dating indicates that It was created around the year 900, only 12 pages are missing.

“This is the first time that a almost complete book of the hebrew bible with the vowel points, the cantilena and the footnotes that tell the scribes how the text should be worded correctly,” Sharon Mintz, the auction house’s lead specialist for Jewish artifacts, said in March.

Centuries of notations and inscriptions reveal that the manuscript was sold by a man named Khalaf ben Abraham to Isaac ben Ezekiel al-Attar, who later transferred the property to his two sons, Ezequiel and Maimon.

In the 13th century, the codex was dedicated to a synagogue in Makisin, in north-eastern Syria.

After the destruction of the city by the Mongols at the end of the 13th century or by the Timurids at the beginning of the 15th century, the manuscript was entrusted to Salama ibn Abi al-Fakhr for safekeeping. Then it disappeared for 500 years.

The The last owner of the Codex Sassoon has been the Swiss investor Jacqui Safrawho bought it for $2.5 million at auction in London in 1989.

Source: Elcomercio