(FRENCH JUDAICA).

<<An attractive and unusual volume of printed and manuscript prayers.>> This volume is comprised of two separate manuscripts that were combined together in the 17th-century together with one of the 16th-century’s rarest Hebrew printed prayer-books. Thus creating a full, complete text for use all year round. Very finely written, the manuscripts consists of 19 leaves of daily, Sabbath and holiday prayers at the front of the volume and 20 leaves of Selichoth and other matter at the end of the volume. The colophon on f. 16b is signed by the scribe Shimshon ben Yochanan Halevi Segal on the 28th Nissan, 1640 in the Alsatian town of Uhrwiller (Uhrweiler). A most charming prayer then follows: “May I, my children, grandchildren and all who come after me pray from this Siddur and may our prayers be accepted by God and may all our destroyed places be rebuilt.” Shimshon also signs his name on f. 18a stating that he inherited the volume from his father. The colophon for the second manuscript, located at the rear of this volume is signed by the scribe Yitzchak bar Shlomo (Itzik Pasnom Katz) on Rosh Chodesh Av 1619, also in the Alsation town of Uhrwiller. The later scribe Shimshon bar Yochanan Halevi Segal combined his manuscript along with the earlier manuscript that was already bound together with the highly scarce Augsburg printed Machzor, thus creating a complete unit. Of note, this copy of the Augsburg Machzor contains the rare leaves of fascicle 3, which are lacking in the Mehlman copy. For another manuscript composed by Shimshon ben Yochanan Halevi Segal, see Sotheby’s New York, Judaica, November 30th, 2005, Lot 171.