Luach [Annual calendar].

Auction 92 | Thursday, February 18th, 2021 at 1:00pm
Fine Judaica: Rare Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters & Graphic Arts

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Lot 9
(ITALY).

Luach [Annual calendar].

Hebrew manuscript finely written on paper in square and cursive calligraphic Italian hand by <<Aharon Masliah b. Yirmiyahu Romanini.>> Single shet, laid down onto card. 15.5 x 21.5 inches (39 x 55 cm).

Trieste: 1890-91

Est: $1,000 - $1,500
PRICE REALIZED $1,200
This broadside calendar was “lettered here in Trieste by order of the officers of the Bet HaKnesset Rishon” for display in the Synagogue. It contains detailed information regarding the entire year beginning with Rosh Hashanah; the dates of Sabbaths and holidays, times of commencement, relevant Torah and haftarahs portions to be chanted, the times of the seasons and other calculations. Most interesting introductory paragraph records the number of years of important events in the history of the world to date: “3985 years since the Deluge, 3702 years since the birth of Abraham, 1703 years since the sealing of the Mishnah, 400 years since the invention of printing, 163 years from the birth of Moses Mendelssohn of Dessau,  91 years since the birth of the famous scholar, light of our generation, instructor at the Rabbinical Seminary of Padua, Rabbi Shada’l, 26 years since his death, 42 years from the ascension to the throne of our Emperor Franz Josef…” At the left side is a list of the Yahrzeits of the rabbis and sages native to Trieste over the prior 150 years. Among the names listed are Rabbis Isaac Formaggini, Benjamin Segre, Abraham Hai Cologna, Meir Randegger, Samuel David Luzzatto and others. Also listed is Sir Moses Montefiore, not a Triestine, but surely the man most admired by Jews worldwide in his time, and a near-native son of Italy. Aharon Masliah Romanini, also known by his Italian name Aronne Prospero Romanini (1827-1908), was a skilled Torah scribe and Hebrew poet, famed in his time for his verse, as well as a teacher of Torah, and cantor in Trieste. The obituary in Il Corriere Israelitico notes: “He was a Sofer unparalleled for his very elegant and precise writing. He composed Hebrew poems on various subjects with grand fecundity, highly praised and dear to the lovers of our language, for its simplicity and clarity of form, and for that purity of style to which the Italian school of Hebrew poets has accustomed us.” (December 31, 1908, p. 250).