Rodrigues-Monsanto, Jacob. Calendrier Hébraïque...pour servir pendant Cinquante Années. Text in French and Hebrew

(FRENCH JUDAICA).

Chez Racle

Bordeaux

1814

Includes tables indicating postal delivery times, the rise and fall of the tides, sunset and the onset of the Sabbath; also a chronology of Jewish history. Copyright signature by the Author on verso of title. Uncut

The Paul-Louis-Bernard (David) Drach Copy. Drach, (1791-1865), born in Strasbourg, received a traditional rabbinic education. In 1813, he married a daughter of Emmanuel Deutz, the Chief Rabbi of France. Thereafter he was appointed head of the Jewish School of Paris, also publishing translations of traditional liturgical texts. On Easter 1823, Drach scandalized French Jewry, having himself baptized into the Catholic Church amidst much pomp and ceremony. He then spent nearly two years seeking to obtain parental control of his three children whom his wife had secretly taken to London.This traditional Jewish Calendar, with the weekly Pentateuch readings, Holiday and Fast Days, testifies to Drach’s struggle with his wife, noting his travel itineraries and personal anniversaries. He eventually succeeded in winning over his children to Christianity (Drach notes here the dates of their baptism) and later they took Holy Orders. Drach also won over to the Church his brother-in-law, Simon Deutz - later to gain infamy for denouncing the Duchess of Berry to the police following her conspiracy against Louis Philippe (see Calendrier, p.92). One particularly bizarre annotation by Drach predicts his own death: “Cet almanach finit dans l’annee dans laquelle je mourrai 1864.” See EJ, VI col.191. A later owner of the volume was the bibliographer Giacomo Manzoni, with his signature and notations on end-papers