Seder le-Arba Zomoth u-le-Arba Parshiyoth ke-Minhag Carpentras (The Carpentras Rite for Four Fasts and Four Special Readings)

(LITURGY).

Hertz Levi Rofe and his Son-in-law Kosman

Amsterdam

1762

First Edition. On p. 4, coat-of-arms showing a lion with a tower, which was originally the printer’s mark of Immanuel Benveniste during the years 1641-1659. See Ya’ari, Hebrew Printers’ Marks, no. 60; Fuks,pp.146-147.Cornucopia and floral arrangements as page breaks. Owner’s Hebrew inscription opposite p. 1, and on pp. 25a and 48b: “Gad de Carcassonne.” (According to EJ, Vol. 5, col. 160, the Family name “Carcassonne” was retained by several families in the region of Comtat-Venaissin, though the Jews were expelled from Carcassonne in 1394.)

Vinograd, Amsterdam 1811

The editor of this liturgy, Abraham Monteil, was a native of L’Isle (L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue), smallest of “the four holy communities” of Comtat Venaissin, the papal territory in Southern France that historically provided a safe haven for Jews fleeing the provinces of Languedoc and Provence, from whence they were expelled by the French monarchs. (The other three communities in this tetrapolis were: Avignon, Carpentras, and Cavaillon.) The Jews of the Comtat had their own synagogue rite, now fallen into disuse. See C.Roth, “The Liturgy of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin,” Journal of Jewish Bibliography I (1939) p. 99-105; reprinted in Cecil Roth, Studies in Books and Booklore (1972), pp. 81-87; EJ, Vol. 5, cols. 208, 859; Vol. 9, col.105; Vol. 11, col. 402.