EILU MEAH BRACHOTH, AND OTHER PRELIMININARY BLESSINGS AND PRAYERS. ROMAN RITE.

(LITURGY).

circa

North-East Italy, Ferrara (?)

1460-70

Manuscript on vellum. Four leaves (two bifolia), 18-19 lines, written in an Italian square and cursive script with nikud. Plus marginalia citing the Abudraham. Enclosed within two frames.

Richly illuminated opening page with the word “Eilu” in burnished gold on a blue panel with white tracery. The word “Baruch” in gold on a dark red panel, full illuminated border with classical pediment on top and sprays of flowers within frenzied gold penwork in the Ferrarese style. Coat-of-arms at foot (a stag rampant argent) in a wreath in a panel of Ferrarese penwork. (Arms not recorded by Roth and Pisa on Italian Jewish Heraldry, but possibly Corbineli of Florence). This elegant illumination is in the style of Ferrarese manuscripts painted in the court of Borso d’Este, 1450-71.