Seder Tefiloth mikol HaShanah KeMinhag Kehiloth Ashkenazim [Order of Prayers for the Entire Year]. According to the rite of German-speaking lands.

(LITURGY).

Ambrosius Froben [and Israel Zifroni]

Basle

1579

Vinograd, Basle 138.

The first Hebrew prayer-book printed in Switzerland. It is exceedingly rare to find a prayer-book in this state. The pristine nature of this copy may very likely be attributable to its having remained undisturbed for centuries in the library of Perseigne Abbey, a Cistercian Monastery near Neuchâtel, a mere fifty miles from where it came off the press in Basle. The monks were clearly unaware of the small volume’s true identity, as they mislabeled the binding to read “Biblia Hebraica.” The Siddur was later acquired by the renowned Hebrew scholar Paul Humbert (1885-1972), professor and librarian at the University of Neuchâtel. Prijs records only two copies of this Siddur, located in the British Library and at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Ambrosius Froben belonged to the third generation of his family’s Hebrew printing operation in Basle. Concurrent to his printing of the present work, he was also in the midst of preparing the Basle Talmud (1578-80), which was to be heavily censored by Church operatives. An impeccable copy of a highly scarce volume.