Akdamuth vegam Ruth.

(LITURGY).

Moses ben Kalman Speyer

(Frankfurt am Main)

1721

First edition . Two title pages; Corner of first title repaired not affecting text, tear f.12 repaired. Lightly soiled. Aramaic and Hebrew in square Hebrew script with nikkud; Yiddish in waybertaytsh. Modern sea-green buckram, titles stamped on spine.

Vinograd, Frankfurt am Main 393; St. Cat. Bodl. 6306.1 col. 1700.

First edition of the first dedicated copy of Akdamuth, accompanied by Megillat Ruth. Akdamuth is a prominent liturgical poem (piyyut) written in Aramaic, by Rabbi Meir bar Yitzchak of Orléans in the late 11th century. The poem is an elaborately rhymed paean of praise for God, His Torah, and His people. To this day, Akdamuth is recited in almost all Aschkenazic synagogues on the first day of Shavuoth, at the beginning of the Torah reading. The printer Moses ben Kalman Speyer explains the reason for this minuscule volume on the first title page: “So that each one may carry it close to their bosom and not search endlessly [for the text, which was absent from most prayer books of the time.]” The edition also features an interlinear translation of the difficult poetic Aramaic into Yiddish, so that readers would fully understand the words they were reciting. To further enhance the desirability and functionality of this small volume, Speyer also included another text recited only on Shavuoth - the Book of Ruth.