Marriage Contract. Solemnizes the marriage of the groom Aharon ben Mosheh Mercado ben Moshe ben Ephraim and the bride Bilia (also known as Bechorah) daughter of Hayim Daniel de Leon Parisiado.

AA (KETHUBAH)

Ruse, (Bulgaria), 10th Mar-Cheshvan, 1831.

Black ink and watercolor on thick paper, the upper margin ornately scalloped. Italianate and Islamic-influenced double-arch design with colorful floral and geometric motifs. Three paragraphs in Sephardic semi-cursive script: standard kethubah language in the right arch, conditions and bride's dowry in the left arch

The wedding took place in "Oronik, on the River Tuna," i.e., the Bulgarian town of Ruse on the River Danube. The National Library of Israel's global kethuboth database locates just one other early kethubah from Ruse, dated 1848, presently in a private collection in London. Ruse, or Rusçuk, as it was often called, especially under the Ottomans before Bulgarian independence in 1878, was (and is) the country's major port on the Danube. The Jewish community there was established in the late 18th century by Sephardim from what is now the former Yugoslavia. Regarding the bride's family name, Parisiado: the best known Parisiado was Sasson Bechor Mosheh Parisiado, born in Bosnia in 1823, author of the multi-volume Shemen Sasson, longtime head of Bet-El, and the leading Jerusalem kabbalist of his generation. For more on Ruse, see Z. Keren, The Jews of Rusçuk: From Periphery to Capital of the Tuna Vilayeti (2011). On Bulgarian kethuboth in general, see Sabar p. 240.