Seder ḳitsur zemirot Yiśraʾel ke-minhag ḳ.ḳ. Sefaradim. סדר קצור זמירות ישראל כמנהג ק"ק ספרדים. [Occasional poems and hymns according to the Sephardi usage].
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: Seder ḳitsur zemirot Yiśraʾel ke-minhag ḳ.ḳ. Sefaradim. סדר קצור זמירות ישראל כמנהג ק"ק ספרדים. [Occasional poems and hymns according to the Sephardi usage].
Classmark: MS ROTH/23
Creator(s): Dato, Mordechai(poet); Najara, Israel ben Moses (1555?-1625?)(poet)
Date(s): 529 [1768 or 1769]–1792
Language: Hebrew
Size and medium: 46 leaves : paper, illustrations
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/115447
Description
Hebrew title supplied from title page. English title derived from Roth, "Catalogue", in Alexander Marx: Jubilee Volume, vol. 1 (New York, 1950), no. 23.
Dates of production: In title page text: Ṭevet 529 (11 December 1768–8 January 1769) in a chronogram (see the text in the following note); Italian colophon at the end of the text (folio 43v): 12 December 1792 (see the text of the colophon below in ‘scribal information’).
Place of production: Ferrara (see title page text below):
Text on title page: סדר קצור זמירות ישראל שכמנהג ק"ק ספרדים נעשה בחדש טבת שנת כי תפארת ע'ז'מ'ו' א'ת'ה' פירארה.
Summary (all references refer to the modern pencil foliation):
Contains hymns for festivals and special Shabatot (including Shabat ḥatan) according to the rites of the Sephardic community in Ferrara.
Many of the hymns in MS Roth 23 were published in the enlarged edition of Zemirot Yiśraʾel by Israel ben Moses Najara (1555?–1625?) (1st ed.: Venice 1599–1600). Some of the hymns, however, were, according to Roth, never printed.
Next to the liturgical poems authored by Israel ben Moses Najara, MS Roth 23 contains, piyuṭim by other authors, like:
הגות פלאות עמקו (folios 6v–7v) by Yaʿaḳov ben Yitsḥaḳ Tsahalon (1630-1693): 'Hymn for the evening prayer on Shabbat during Ḥanukah to commemorate an event in 448’, that is, a fire in the bakery in the Ferrara Ghetto in 1687 (other manuscripts date the fire to 468 (1707); Roth, "Catalogue", in Marx: Jubilee Volume, (1950), no. 23.dates it to 1677) (see also Davidson, Otsar ha-Shirah, vol. 4 (New York 1937), 384, no. 645 which refers to the printing of a reworked, later version of the hymn in 1894).
אשמחה היום באל איום (folio 12) by Menahem ben Judah de Lonzano (b. 1550, d. before 1624) (see Davidson, Otsar, vol.1 , 366, no. 8100).
אפתח שיר בשפתי ולשון לבי תרון (folio 16v–17v) by Mordecai Dato (1525–after 1596) (see Davidson, Otsar, vol.1 , 328, no. 7220).
בי חן חבר פי אל דבר (folio 29v–30v) by Imanuʾel Riḳi and Bila פיורא (acrostic) (see Davidson, Otsar ha-Shirah, vol. 4 (New York 1937), 129-130, no. 47).
מה רב טובך אשר צפנת ליראיך (folio 42v), special hymn to commemorate Aaron Berechiah ben Moses of Modena (1549-1639) (השכבה הנוהגים לומר לבעל אשמורת הבקר במועדים) (not in Davidson).
מנוחה נכונה בישיבה העליונה … ומחיצת נפש ... אהרן ברכיה מודינא זצוק"ל אשר אזן וחבר ותקן למשכימי קום סדר אשמורת הבקר בק"ק מודינא ...והוא אשר חבר ספר מעבר יבק (folio 43) (see Davidson, Otsar ha-Shirah, vol. 3, 155, no. 1866).
In contrast to most manuscripts of ‘Seder ḳitsur zemirot Yiśraʾel’, MS Roth 23 has no index; a single line in folio 46r indicates that the scribe was intending to compose one.
State of text: Relatively well preserved; underwent conservation work.
Bibliographical note:
Roth, "Catalogue", in Alexander Marx: Jubilee Volume, vol. 1 (New York, 1950), no. 23.
National Library of Israel (NLI), Online Catalogue, system-no. 990001856060205171. The NLI’s description is based on the microfilm of MS Roth 23 made on behalf of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts of the NLI during the 1960s. The microfilm can now be downloaded in a digitised form from the NLI-webpage.
Davis, Handlist 164 (Leeds, 2005), no. 23.
Decoration
The item's title page and its whole layout imitate the appearance of a printed Hebraic book; all decorations (penwork) most likely by the scribe.
Decoration 1: Title page is decorated with a double border filled with flower ornaments; the border evokes the shape of a gate with triangular tympanum; the inside of the latter is decorated with three flowers in triangular pots; flowers are drawn left and right from the tympanum as well.
Decoration 2: Tail-piece in the form of three bushes with flowers in pots (folio 43v).
Decoration 3: Vertical bounding lines are drawn in ink across every page.
Decoration 4: Ornamental horizontal dividing lines (see, e.g., folios 12v, 21v, and 31v).
Decoration 5: Refrains, or important words are stressed with para-textual elements and ornamental frames.
Decoration 6: Running titles.
Decoration 7: Hebrew foliation by the scribe.
Decoration 8: Ornamented catchwords.
Decoration 9: Different script sizes for different parts of the text. Initials words and headings are in bigger bolder script; instructions and running titles are in smaller square script.
Decoration 10: Completion formulas.
Decoration 11: Poetic spacing.
Physical characteristics
Foliation: ii (i is paste-down) + 46 + ii (ii is paste-down); modern pencil foliation, upper left recto; erratic Hebrew foliation by the scribe begins after the title page, runs up to לט, then jumps back to כ and runs from there again to כב (=43); title page verso and folios 44v–45v, 46v are blank; 44r was originally blank.
Collation: 1¹⁰(10 is cancelled) 2–4⁸ 5⁶ 6⁸(8 is cancelled).
Catchwords: horizontal, every page.
Number of lines: 16-19.
Script: Italian square Hebrew script.
Ms. codex: width 149mm height 201mm
Binding
18th-century(?) quarter bound; decorated paper (yellow pink printed pattern) over boards, brown leather spine.
Vocalisation and cantillation
All liturgical parts are vocalised.
Scribal information
Scribe of the item is עזריאל רוקה or עזריה; Italian colophon in Latin cursive at the end of the text (folio 43v): "Adi 26 Deciem[br]o? 1792 Ferrara Io Bonaiuto Rocca o terminato il presente סדר זמירות ישראל con la iuto del altis[si]mo Sig[nor]e Iddio Benedeto che Sija lodatto il Suo Santo nome ineterno אכי׳׳ר."
Former owners and annotations
Owner's note on title page: פנחס ישראל ריגייו (Pinḥas Yiśraʾel Regiyo).
Folio 44r: Acquisition note in Italian dated to 22 March 1812 .
Some notes in pencil, most likely in Roth’s hand, indicate when a hymn has an acrostic with the author’s name.
Roth’s description of MS Roth 23, cut out from a copy of his printed catalogue, and his ex-libris are attached to the front paste-down.
Access and usage
Access
This material is not subject to restrictions under Data Protection or other relevant legislation that might limit access. However, other protections, such as donor conditions or conservation considerations, may still apply where advised.