Oh, my! I totally want this thing! Gorgeous copy of the Sarajevo Haggadah of 14th century.

Rabrrrrrr

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Wed Mar-04-09 11:24 AM
Original message

Oh, my! I totally want this thing! Gorgeous copy of the Sarajevo Haggadah of 14th century.

Edited on Wed Mar-04-09 12:16 PM by Rabrrrrrr

Wow!

Picture page:

http://www.levenger.com/Pagetemplates/Product/MorePhotos.asp

The original page: I had to tinyurl it because it wasn't formatting properly, but this link also is to levenger.com:

http://tinyurl.com/azt69q

on edit: took me three times, but I finally got the letters in the right order for "haggadah"

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sammythecat

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Wed Mar-04-09 12:07 PM
Response to Original message

1. You come up with the weirdest shit.

I was tempted to say something sarcastic as a joke, but I started reading about the thing and it has a fascinating history. Bleached calfskin illuminated with copper and gold, I imagine it was fairly near priceless even back in the day. Incredible to read it almost got "Talibaned" during the Inquisition.

I read that a 1991 estimate put it's value at $700 million. Astounding. I figure after you get up to half a billion dollars or so, just consider it priceless and call it a day.

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Rabrrrrrr

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Wed Mar-04-09 03:28 PM
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4. Talibaned, indeed - I shudder to think of the incredible stuff the Catholic fuckwits talibaned.

And I'm sure the only reason that the Bishop whoever saved this one from destruction did so because he thought it might get good resale value someday if the church ever ran out of money.

I doubt it had anything to do with respect for the art or the culture from which it came.

(excepting, of course, respect for the potential MONETARY value of the art)

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FKA MNChimpH8R

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Wed Mar-04-09 12:16 PM
Response to Original message

2. I used to work for a judge who collected Judaica

He would flip over this. What a beautiful book.

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charlie and algernon

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Wed Mar-04-09 12:31 PM
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3. I hate to give out a secret, but you should check out shopgoodwill.com

Goodwill has their own online auction site and I've found some great books for an absolute bargain. I won a 1940 copy of Leaves of Grass for 7 bucks!!! Rare book dealers are selling it for over $500. I haven't found anything from the 14th Century, but they always have books and antiques from the 1800s.

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