Ibur Shanim [on the Calendar and custom]

IBN SUSAN, ISSACHAR

Giovanni di Gara

Venice

1579

Second, amended edition. Numerous Calendrical tables and spheres. On final blank, notations in an old Sephardi cursive hand

Vinograd, Venice 640; Habermann, di Gara 52; Adams I-20

First appeared in Constantinople 1564 under the title Tikun Issachar. However, the author writes in the introduction to the present edition, that the present Venice edition is preferable, as the text of the original edition is corrupt. Ibn Susan (1539-72) a member of an illustrious Moroccan Family, lived most of his life in the Land of Israel. His researches among the Mostarabian Community (the ancient Jewish community permanently resident in the Holy Land) resulted in the present work, a code of synagogue custom, liturgical usage, Biblical readings and the unique way of life that existed among the Jews of the Holy Land. After 1492, many of these native customs fell into disuse due to the influx of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula who carried with them the by now regnant “Minhag Sepharad”