(Seder Tephilah mikol Hashanah) [prayers through the year]

AUCTION 5 |
Tuesday, June 23rd,
1998 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art
Lot 195
(LITURGY)
(Seder Tephilah mikol Hashanah) [prayers through the year]
Venice: Giovanni di Gara 1599
Est: $15,000 - $18,000
A Sixteenth Century Machzor of Remarkable Rarity
The only reference to this Prayer-book is by Y. Rivkind, (Pinkas I (New York, 1928) p.265) who records just one incomplete copy, located in The Jewish Theological Seminary and lacking the first 64 leaves. Additionally, he ERRONEOUSLY records the format as12mo! Habermann follows the same citation as does Vinograd. The Machzor is entirely unlocated elsewhere.
Of particular bibliographic interest are the 20 leaves of Week-day Readings from the Pentateuch, WHICH ARE OF BOTH DIFFERENT TYPE-FACE AND LAY-OUT FROM THE REST OF THE MACHZOR. The Index-leaf states that they are to be paginated 1-20, but in fact the pagination is entirely different although the final leaf is INDEED numbered f.20. ONE CAN ONLY PUT SENSE TO THIS BIBLIOGRAPHIC PUZZLE BY COMPARING THIS MACHZOR WITH THE ONLY OTHER COPY EXTANT (LOCATED AT JTS, NY) AND WHICH IS SIMILARLY MISPAGINATED. IT APPEARS THAT DI GARA RE-USED THE 20 LEAVES FROM AN EARLIER EDITION AND THEN ATTEMPTED TO MODIFY THE PAGINATION TO ACCORD WITH THE PRESENT MACHZOR