Seder Tephiloth u-Mizmorim she-Omrim be-Chol Yom Kodem ha-Ma’amadoth…Seder Tikun Chatzoth Laylah ve-Yom [Pre-Dawn Prayers…The Midnight and Midday Vigil]

NAVARRA, MENACHEM

Verona

1745

Manuscript in Hebrew. Square lettering with nikud (vowel points) and where appropriate, te’amim (cantillation). On title ornate pen-and-ink surround. One divisional title

Autograph (?) Manuscript of R. Menachem Navarra’s Tikun Chatzoth Menachem Navarra, rabbi of Verona, was a graduate of the University of Padua and licensed to practice medicine. He was a correspondent of R. Ezekiel Landau. (See Landau, She’eloth u-Teshuvoth Noda bi-Yehudah (Lemberg, 1859), Part II, 32b). The final leaf of this manuscript contains a hymn of thanksgiving for deliverance from the anti-Jewish riot at Verona of 15th Shevat, 1745. Roth surmises that it was Navarra who composed the poem. See C. Roth, “Rabbi Menahem Navarra: His Life and Times, 1717-1777,” JQR, (n.s.), Vol. XV (1925); reprinted in Roth, Gleanings (1967), pp. 200-239. It is highly likely this is the autograph manuscript by Navarra himself before the book went to press in Mantua the following year. One notes that the printed edition of this manuscript (Mantua: Raphael Chaim d’Italia, 1746) differs in order, but not in substance from the manuscript version. See Kestenbaum & Company, Sale XXXI, Lot 223