(Liturgy). Monteil, Abraham, (Ed.) Seder Ha’Ashmoroth MeRosh Chodesh Elul Ve’Asereth Yemei Teshuvah [early morning prayers from the New Moon of Elul through the Ten Days of Repentance]

(FRENCH JUDAICA).

Hertz Levi Rofe & son-in-law

Amsterdam

1763

According to the Rite of the Communities of Carpentras, L’isle and Cavaillon. FIRST EDITION. With variant title-page.

Vinograd, Amsterdam 1823.

Abraham Monteil, editor of this prayer book, was a native of L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, smallest of “the four holy communities” of Comtat Venaissin, the papal territory in Southern France that historically provided a safe haven for Jews fleeing the provinces of Languedoc and Provence, from whence they were expelled by the French monarchs. (The other three communities were: Avignon, Carpentras, and Cavaillon.) The Jews of the Comtat had their own synagogue rite, which Cecil Roth notes to be “of very considerable historical and literary interest.” According to Roth (see p. 85 in his Studies in Books and Booklore cited below), the title page on this copy which also mentions L’isle and Cavaillon is a rare variant of which only a small number of copies were published (not cited by Vinograd). See C. Roth, “The Liturgy of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin,” Journal of Jewish Bibliography I (1939) p. 99-105.