Siddur (Daily Prayer Book) According to the Western Ashkenazic Rite, [Germany, 14th-15th century]

A handsomely produced volume that migrated from Germany to Italy.

In the Middle Ages, the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe developed independent prayer usages that differed from one another in terms of both their general contours and the specific formulations of many of the statutory prayers. Even within Ashkenazic Jewry, distinctions existed separating what eventually came to be referred to as minhag Ashkenaz, the Western Ashkenazic rite followed in Western Germany (particularly in the Rhineland), Alsace, Switzerland, and parts of Northern Italy, from minhag Polin, the Eastern Ashkenazic or Polish rite followed in Central/Eastern Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, and points further east. The present lot is an aesthetically accomplished example of a Western Ashkenazic siddur containing the standard prayers for weekdays, the Sabbath, Rosh Hodesh, festivals, the High Holidays, Purim, weddings, and circumcisions, as well as piyyutim (liturgical poems) recited on festivals and special Sabbaths; it even includes a Passover Haggadah and Pirkei avot (Ethics of the Fathers)!

Though presumably created in Germany—the Yiddish words dos blat (the leaf) appear in the rubric at the bottom of f. 44r—the book made its way to Northern Italy by the early sixteenth century (see Provenance), likely during one of the waves of immigration of Ashkenazic Jews that followed various bouts of persecution and/or expulsion in Central Europe. It was evidently censored after it arrived there, with numerous passages thoroughly scratched out, though it is not clear by whom. The fact that the censor took care to avoid deleting divine names (for the most part; see ff. 34r, 180r-v) may indicate that this was an instance of Jewish self-censorship meant to forestall the more drastic measures of a potential Christian censor. On the other hand, the Latin-character text on the volume’s penultimate leaf, dated 1612, may indicate that the volume was in fact ultimately reviewed by a Christian censor.

Another noteworthy feature of this siddur is the excision of many of its empty margins, a practice current among communities that lacked the resources to afford parchment for ritual items like tefillin (phylacteries) and mezuzot.

While the identity of the scribe is nowhere divulged explicitly, the marking of the Hebrew letters mem, shin, and he in two successive passages on f. 5r-v may indicate that his name was Moses. We can likewise suggest that the book’s original patron was a certain Jacob, because the men accorded the honors of hatan torah and hatan be-reshit in the Simhat Torah service (see ff. 117r-118v) are named Aaron ben Jacob and Mordechai ben Jacob, respectively.

Liturgical and other works utilized on a regular basis are, by their very nature, particularly susceptible to the ravages of time and the wear of extensive use. This siddur stands today as a valuable witness to the spiritual life and practice of generations of Ashkenazim living in Germany and Italy.

Contents

ff. 1r-21v: morning service for weekdays, Shabbat, and festivals;

ff. 22r-25v: evening service for weekdays, Shabbat, and festivals;

ff. 25v-35v: morning service for Shabbat;

ff. 35v-36r: afternoon service for Shabbat;

ff. 36r-38r: evening service following Shabbat;

ff. 38r-40r: musaf service for Rosh Hodesh;

ff. 40v-45v: festival amidah;

ff. 45v-46v: Purim;

ff. 46v-47v: hatavat halom;

ff. 47v-48r: eiruvin;

f. 48r-v: birkat ha-levanah;

ff. 48v-50v: seventy verses to be recited following morning service;

ff. 50v-52v: mourning service;

ff. 52v-56v: circumcision and wedding services;

f. 57r-v: Haggadah;

ff. 58r-68v: Pirkei avot 1:1-4:1a, 6:3b-end;

ff. 68v-82r: Rosh Hashanah;

ff. 82r-102v: Yom Kippur;

ff. 102v-115r: hosha‘not;

ff. 115v-121r: Simhat Torah service;

ff. 121r-136r: ma‘arivim for Passover;

ff. 136r-143r: ma‘arivim for Shavuot;

ff. 143r-152r: ma‘arivim for Sukkot;

ff. 152r-155v: Shabbat be-reshit;

ff. 155v-158v: Shabbat rosh hodesh;

ff. 158v-162v: Shabbat nahamu;

ff. 162v-168v, 177r-180v: Shabbat hatan;

ff. 173r-176v, 185r: Sabbaths between Passover and Shavuot;

ff. 180v-184v: Shabbat berit milah;

ff. 184v, 169r-173r: hafsakah sheniyyah;

ff. 185r-188v, 191r-193r: Sabbaths between 17 Tammuz and 9 Av;

ff. 193r-194r: insertions in kedushah of musaf on various special Sabbaths;

f. 194v: ownership inscriptions;

ff. 195r-198r: Shabbat shuvah;

ff. 198r-200v: Shabbat hol ha-mo‘ed sukkot;

ff. 200v-204r: piyyutim for Simhat Torah;

ff. 204r-v, 189r-190v, 205r-v: Shabbat hanukkah;

ff. 205v-206r: hafsakah rishonah;

f. 206v: birth records of the children of Moses Kalonymos and Hannah of Venice: Mattithiah, Naphtali Herts, Rachel(?), Judah Leib, and Abraham; and censor’s signature(?), 1612;

f. 207r: various later prayers.

Provenance

Moses Kalonymos, Venice, [5]294-[5]297 [1533-1536] (f. 206v)

Menahem of Pisa (f. 206v)

Joel Hefets [Gentili?], [5]396 [1636] (ff. 194v, 206v) 

Baruch P. (f. 194v) 

Solomon Halberstam (shelf mark affixed to pastedown of upper board and inscribed on front flyleaf)

Physical Description

206 of at least 254 folios on parchment, 2 replacement folios on paper (10 x 8 7/8 in.; 255 x 227 mm) (likely original collation: [i_1-8 lacking], ii⁷ [ii₁ lacking], iii⁸, iv⁶ [iv_1,8 lacking], [v_1-8 lacking], vi⁶ [vi_1,8 lacking], vii⁶ [vii_2,7 lacking], viii-x⁸, [xi_1-8 lacking], xii⁸, [xiii_1-8 lacking], xiv-xxviii⁸, xxix⁸ +2, xxx¹⁰, [xxxi_1-8 or _1-10 lacking], xxxii³ [xxx₂ lacking]); premodern foliation in pen in Hebrew characters in upper-outer corners of rectos, often cropped, running 9-10 numbers behind modern foliation; modern foliation in pencil in Arabic numerals in upper-outer corners of rectos (ff. 1-76, 76a-207); written in elegant Ashkenazic square (text body) and semi-cursive (some rubrics) scripts in brown ink; single-column or poetically laid out text of nineteen lines per page (except ff. 36v, 44v-45v); ruled in plummet; justification of lines via dilation or contraction of final letters, insertion of space fillers, use of anticipatory letters, abbreviation, and distanced (beyond the line of justification) inscription of final letters; remnants of decoration surrounding horizontal catchwords on ff. 80v, 152v, 168v, 184v; Tiberian vocalization of liturgical text (rubrics unvocalized); Tetragrammaton abbreviated to two yodin followed by a long flag; corrections and marginalia in primary and secondary hands. Enlarged incipits; extensive rubrication, especially of incipits but also of acrostics and emphasized texts; blue/purple highlights on ff. 122r-144v; many letters flourished (e.g., 203r); the Song of the Sea (Ex. 15) laid out to look like brickwork on ff. 11r-12r. Probably lacking at least 48 folios (see collation); ff. 36, 39, the outer portion of f. 15r, and much of f. 34v are later Italian replacements (by two different hands) on paper (with further repairs in edges); quire xxv (comprising ff. 169-176) misbound and should be between ff. 184-185; ff. 189-190 (originally the middle bifolium of quire xxxi) misbound as the middle bifolium of quire xxix and should be between ff. 204-205; scattered staining and thumbing, heavier toward front and rear (see, esp., ff. 1r, 15r-27v, 63r, 204r-207v), rest largely clean; some creasing, smudging of ink, and abrasion and washing out of text; gutters often strengthened; natural parchment flaws, at times sewn or patched; margins cropped, sometimes slightly affecting marginal text; some damage toward front partially silked; small punctures in ff. 6, 168; repairs in edges of ff. 12, 15-27, 35-37, 206-207, sometimes slightly affecting text; sensitive texts censored on, e.g., ff. 18r, 29r, 32v, 34r (divine names preserved), 69v, 73v, 75r, 76v-76a, 83v, 90v, 98r, 121v, 123r-124r, 128r, 132v, 133v-134r, 140r, 143v, 154r-v, 173v-175v, 176v, 180r-v (divine names mostly preserved), 185r-v, 187r-v, 188v-192v, 194r; lower and/or outer margins of ff. 67, 70, 72, 74, 76a, 79-80, 85, 90, 110-112, 114-118, 129-130, 135-136, 158-159, 169, 171-173, 181-184, 189-190, 192 cropped; tear repaired in lower-outer corner of f. 84; small wormhole affecting individual letters on ff. 186v-188v, 191r-193r. Three-quarters morocco over cloth boards, slightly scuffed; Hebrew title and Montefiore shelf mark (no. 205) lettered in gilt on red lettering pieces on spine; modern paper flyleaves and pastedowns; paper ticket with Montefiore and Halberstam shelf marks affixed to pastedown of upper board.

Literature

Solomon Joachim Halberstam, Kohelet shelomoh (Vienna: A. Fanto, 1890), 48-49 (no. 260).

Hartwig Hirschfeld, Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew MSS. of the Montefiore Library (London: Macmillan and Co.; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1904), 62 (no. 205).