A Hebrew Bible billed as the oldest nearly-complete example in the world is set to hit the auction block at Sotheby’s New York this May with an estimate of $30 million to $50 million.
It’s dubbed the “Codex Sassoon” by the auction house in reference to its onetime owner, the collector and philanthropist David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942). If it sells for its high estimate it will become the most expensive manuscript or book to ever sell at auction.
“We came to this estimate because this is the most significant document or manuscript to come up for sale in, I don’t know, forever,” says Sharon Mintz, a senior Judaica specialist in Sotheby’s books and manuscripts department. Given how singular the codex is, she continues, the only comparables were other sales of very different objects, including Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook, known as the Codex Leicester, which Bill Gates purchased in 1994 for $30.8 million. A copy of the US Constitution, acquired by Citadel founder Ken Griffin in 2021 for $43.2 million, was another deemed to be a peer. “And that was one of multiple,” Mintz says in reference to the constitution. “We’re talking about a singular manuscript.”
The Codex Sassoon, which is being sold by the investor Jacqui Safra, dates to the late 9th or early 10th century, and contains all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible; it’s missing some pages from Genesis.
Covering some 396 parchment sheets, the Codex Sassoon carries markings indicating its early owners, including the 13th century Jewish community of Makisin, located in present-day Syria. Its provenance then becomes murky for the better part of the millennium, but when Sassoon purchased the bible in 1929, it re-emerged as a globally recognized artifact.
Today its only contemporaries are the Aleppo Codex, which was assembled in the early 10th century, and the Leningrad Codex, a complete manuscript of the Bible which is thought to have been written about a century later. In contrast with the nearly complete Codex Sassoon, only around 300 of the roughly 487 original folios of the Codex Aleppo survive.
Given that the Codex Sassoon is more than a thousand years old, “it’s in remarkably good condition,” says Mintz. “Over the years it’s been restored, and it’s been re-bound multiple times.” The parchment, she continues, “is extremely durable material, it’s a stable, strong structure, and the ink is good.” (Pro-tip: Mintz says rare books should be handled with clean hands, not gloves, which aren’t tactile enough to turn a page.)
The Codex Sassoon will travel to London, where it will be on view at Sotheby’s from February 22- 28, after which it will travel to Tel Aviv, Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York.
Despite its lofty estimate, Mintz anticipates a range of buyers. “We think there’s a wide market of people who’d be interested,” she says. The codex, she continues, “would be the jewel in the crown of an institutional collection.” It could also, she says, “appeal to many private buyers who are looking for masterpiece objects, things of tremendous religious, historical, and spiritual value.”
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