(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

Back to Catalogue

Lot 195
(LITURGY)

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

According to Aschkenazi rite. With instructions in Yiddish printed in Wayber-taytsch type. ff.(1-13 lacking),14-15, (16-28 lacking), 29-32, (33-36 lacking), 37-283 (i.e. 282), (281 lacking), +ff.20 Week-day Readings from the Pentateuch, f.1 (Index leaf), ff.5 Prayers for the Sick, lacking 2 closing leaves. Mispaginated. Several initial leaves supplied in manuscript, few marginal tears expertly repaired with minimal loss, stained in places. Modern boards. Sm. 4to Vinograd, Venice 904 (unseen); Habermann, di Gara 199 (unseen)

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