Seder HaQuinternotto shel Yamim Nora’im [“An Ordered Manuscript-Compendium - [ancient Italian word] - for the Days of Awe.”]

(LITURGY).

Genoa

1795

Manuscript in Hebrew, written in a square and semi-cursive Italian hand on thick paper. Title within elaborate border. First words of each hymn in large square letters, several within illustrated box. Penultimate leaf with illustration of the Messiah on a donkey led by a man blowing a shofar.

Order of special liturgical hymns for the High Holidays as recited in Moncalvo. The copy was written for Nechamah Jaffe, by Elisha ben Moshe Segre, a resident of the city Genoa. Only those hymns not found in the Aschkenazi Machzor are incorporated here. The Jewish community of Moncalvo, a small town in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy, belonged to a group of three communities known as Apa’m (i.e., Asti, Fossano, Moncalvo) with a unique liturgy resulting from the combination of ancient French, Provencal and German rites. The primary differences from other rituals are limited to the prayers on the Days of Awe and the accompanying melodies. There are no written texts of this liturgy and only the officiating Cantor had use of a complete copy of the manuscript text. For more on this rite, see Y.D. Markon, Ma’amar al Machzor Minhag Apa’m, in: George Kohut Festschrift (New York, 1935), pp. 89-101; and EJ, Vol. XII, cols. 240-41.