Moshe Rieti. Maon HaShoalim [“Abode of the Supplicants.”] With: Barchi Nafshi (admonitions by Rabbeinu Bachya); And: Seder Avodah (Sephardic rite). <<With translation into rhymed Italian by Devorà Ascarelli.>>

<<THE VERY FIRST PUBLICATION OF A JEWISH WOMAN’S WRITINGS. OF EXCEPTIONAL RARITY >> (JNUL possesses only a photocopy). This book contains the translations into Italian by Devorà Ascarelli of Hebrew liturgical selections. It also contains her own poetry in Italian and is the only source of historical information about her. According to the work’s preface by David della Rocca of Rome, Devorà and her husband Joseph (Giuseppe) Ascarelli lived in Rome. Their family associated with a community of Spanish exiles and they were among the leadership of the Catalan community of Rome. The title page of the book indicates in Italian that these liturgical works were “Vulgarizati dalla Mag. Madonna Devorà Ascarelli Hebrea” (translated by the great lady Devorà Ascarelli, a Jew). Not mentioned on the title page but included in this work are also two sonnets by her: Il Ritratto di Susanna (The Picture of Susannah), based on the Apocrypha story of Susannah and the Elders; and Quanto e’ in me di Celeste (Whatever in me is of Heaven); as well an anonymous short poem dedicated to her: Ape, ingegnosa voli (Fly, O Clever Bee). Modern translations of Ascarelli’s poems by Vladimir Rus appear in Sondra Henry and Emily Taitz, Written Out of History: A Hidden Legacy of Jewish Women Revealed Through Their Writing And Letters (1978) pp. 130–31.