Seder shel Rosh Hashanah keMinhag Carpentras [Service for New Year According to the Rite of Carpentras]

(FRENCH JUDAICA)

Carpentras

1728

With nikud (vowel points). Title within hand-drawn design

Cecil Roth, Studies in Books and Booklore (172), p. 82

The scribe has signed on the title "Gad bar Immanuel Milhaud." According to Roth, Gad b. Immanuel Milhaud was active between the years 1691-1769 in Lisle sur Sorgue and Cavaillon. Another manuscript of his is found in the Elkan Nathan Adler Collection of The Jewish Theological Seminary. "Cut off for centuries from their fellow Jews in other countries, the communities … evolved in the course of time their own particular species of Jewish culture, ranging from their Judeo-Provencal patois to their characteristic synagogal architecture, from their pronunciation of Hebrew to their folklore, from their calligraphy to their cuisine. Above all, as was natural, they evolved their own rite of prayers—the former Provencal rite, embellished with local peculiarities, prayers to suit local conditions, and hymns by local poets.Centuries after the invention of printing, they continued to copy their liturgical works by hand" (Cecil Roth, Studies in Books and Booklore, pp. 81-2)