Spanish). Meah Berachoth [collected prayers and instructions issued for Marrano refugees]

(LITURGY

Albertus Magnus

Amsterdam

1687

Text in Hebrew and Spanish. Engraved frontispiece by the Jewish artist Benjamin Godiness depicting Man’s Five Senses by way of the performance of five ceremonial acts.

Vinograd, Amsterdam 550; Fuks, Amsterdam 606; Gans, Memorbook p.141; Roth, Jewish Art col. 474

Included in the Meah Berachoth are; the Hagadah for Passover, a recipe for Charoseth, instructions for constructing a Mikvah, an index of blessings for the entire year including relevant laws and commentary according to Sephardic rite, a perpetual liturgical calendar, prayers for the sick, prayers for the last rites, and prayers for Martyrs who were burned at the stake by the Spanish Inquisition for the sanctification of the name of God. The Meah Berachoth is the only known Hebrew publication by the gentile Albertus Magnus. A publisher, bookseller and bookbinder, he did not have a printing house of his own, though his name appears on several Dutch publications. It is difficult to ascertain who printed the Meah Berachoth for Magnus. Fuks suggests David de Castro Tartas as the most plausible, due to his experience printing other such bilingual works.