Rothschild Prayerbook

Opening from the Rothschild Prayerbook; Requiem Mass left. The borders depict rich silks illusionistically.

The Rothschild Prayerbook or Rothschild Hours (both titles are used for other books),[1] is an important Flemish illuminated manuscript book of hours, compiled c. 1500–1520 by a number of artists.[2]

It has 254 folios, with a page size of 228 × 160 mm. After a Nazi-era confiscation from the Austrian branch of the Rothschild family, it was in the Austrian National Library in Vienna as Codex Vindobonensis S.N. 2844, before being returned. Since its sale in 1999 it has held the world record price at auction for an illuminated manuscript. In 2014 it was purchased by Australian businessman Kerry Stokes from Christie's New York[3] and is on display in the National Library of Australia.[4]

  1. ^ The "Rothschild Prayer Book" is also a Florentine Hebrew manuscript of 1492, and the British Library has a 14th century French "Rothschild Book of Hours", often the "London Rothschild Hours". There is another "Rothschild Hours", made in Rouen c. 1465, see Auction catalogue
  2. ^ Dates vary - 1500-1510 here, 1510-1520 according to Walther and Norbert, and Finns.
  3. ^ "RELEASE: CHRISTIE'S ANNOUNCES CENTERPIECE OF THE RENAISSANCE SALE DURING OLD MASTERS WEEK IN NEW YORK: 'THE ROTHSCHILD PRAYERBOOK' Magnificent Masterpiece of Renaissance Art And".
  4. ^ "Revealing the Rothschild Prayer Book". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 2015-05-21.