Marriage Contract. Solemnizes marriage of Joseph ben Moses ben Abraham Azulai to Rosa bat Isaac ben Jacob Cuenque. Signed by groom and witnesses, including Samuel Ouaknine.

(KETHUBAH).

Ponta Delgada (Azores)

25th Kislev, 1831

Text in cursive Sephardic script on vellum, set within Mirhab-shaped floral design and surrounded by Biblical verses.

This Kethubah provides a window into the history of the exotic Jewish community of the Azores Islands, a Portuguese possession in the North Atlantic, approximately 950 miles in distance from Lisbon. Though Marranos settled in the islands in the 16th and 17th centuries, they left no written record and recorded Jewish settlement begins only in 1818 with the arrival of Jews from Morocco. By 1848, the Jewish population of the Azores had reached 250, of which the majority resided in Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel Island. The present Kethubah dates from the year 1831, five years prior to the formal establishment of the Ponta Delgada Jewish community. (See EJ, Vol. III, col. 1012). For a related item, see Kestenbaum & Company, Sale 43, Lot 252, for the manuscript memoir of Mimon Abohbot (1800-75), who served as religious leader of the community of Angra do Heroísmo on Terceira, another island in the Azores group.