[Pinḳas be-ʿIvrit ṿe-Iṭalḳit-Yehudit : ʿim mikhtavim, shirim, piyuṭim, pitgamim, ṿe-khu. / nikhtav ʿal yede Shelomoh di Ḳandiʾah]. [פנקס בעברית ואיטלקית־יהודית : עם מכתבים, שירים, פיוטים, פתגמים, וכו׳ / נכתב על ידי שלמה די קאנדיאה]. [Notebook : with poems, aphorisms, love letters in Judaeo-Italian, and a long Sabbath-poem, 'Ben venuta o bella sposa' in Judaeo-Italian, et cetera / written by Solomon Candia].
Contains digital mediaDetails
Type of record: Archive
Title: [Pinḳas be-ʿIvrit ṿe-Iṭalḳit-Yehudit : ʿim mikhtavim, shirim, piyuṭim, pitgamim, ṿe-khu. / nikhtav ʿal yede Shelomoh di Ḳandiʾah]. [פנקס בעברית ואיטלקית־יהודית : עם מכתבים, שירים, פיוטים, פתגמים, וכו׳ / נכתב על ידי שלמה די קאנדיאה]. [Notebook : with poems, aphorisms, love letters in Judaeo-Italian, and a long Sabbath-poem, 'Ben venuta o bella sposa' in Judaeo-Italian, et cetera / written by Solomon Candia].
Classmark: MS ROTH/701
Creator(s): Fano, Menahem Azariah da (1548-1620)(poet); Dato, Mordechai(poet)
Date(s): [c 1590–1641]
Language: Hebrew; Judaeo-Italian; Italian
Size and medium: 78 leaves : paper
Manifest: https://iiif.library.leeds.ac.uk/presentation/cc/jbcrgjs8
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/115724
Description
Hebrew title supplied by cataloguer. English title derived from Roth, "Catalogue", in Alexander Marx: Jubilee Volume, vol. 1 (New York, 1950), no. 701.
Variant titles:
Maḥberet. מחברת.
Igron. אגרון.
Igrot. אגרות.
Pitgeme Oraita. פתגמי אורייתא.
Pitgeme ha-Talmud. פתגמי התלמוד.
Letter book.
Summary:
Letter- and commonplace book with family register written by Solomon di Candia; most entries are in Hebrew some in Judaeo-Italian.
The item is a rich source for day-to-day life and culture (festivals, marriage, education, history of material texts, Love, business, et cetera) of Jews in 16th-century North-Italy.
Among the poems are a Hebrew poem by Menaḥem of Fano and a long Judaeo-Italian Shabat hymn by Mordecai Dato.
Production date:
The bulk of the text was probably written around 1590 and 1630, when Shelomoh Candia died; his son Yehudah added some later entries, including one regarding the death of his father during the great plague in Italy.
Contents:
1. folios 1–26: Collection of copied letters (Hebrew and Judaeo-Italian) most of which are by Solomon di Candia, among them: Letter to Yehudah signed by שלמה די קאניאה (folio 1); letter to ה׳׳ה האשל הגדול האלוף במהר׳׳ר מאיר בק נר׳׳ו dated to Av 550? [1590?] (folios 1v–2r); letter to אברהם פישקרול (=Avraham [ben Ḳalonimus] Pescarolo?) about Torah study with expositions (folio 7); recommendation letter for יצחק בן אליה אשכנזי (Yitsḥaḳ ben Eliyah Ashkenazi) from Safed (folios 7v–8v); letter concerning the borrowing of a book (folio 8v–9v); letters in Judaeo-Italian (folios 9v–10r, 11r–15r); letter regarding Purim gift from bridegroom to bride (מתנת פורים) (folio 14r); poem and letter in Judaeo-Italian (folios 16v–17r); letter asking relative for suitable clothes to attend a wedding at Busseto (בוסיטו) (folio 17v); letter about how יקותיאל קרמי (Yeḳutiʾel Carmi) from
Milano thwarted the expulsion of the community in the year 553 [1592 or 1593] (folio 23r).
2. folio 27r: שיר על ויסע ויבא ויט שחבר הרמ׳׳ע מפאנו יצ׳׳ו (in Hebrew).
3. folios 27v–34r: Poems, expositions, letters, and hymns, among them: Poem for the wedding of יוסף … בן הקציו כמה׳׳ר משולם לוי and בת שבע … בת האלוף כמה׳׳ר שמעון לוי (folio 28r); לכה דודי לקראת שבת (folio 30v); short hymn for Shabbat in Judaeo-Italian (34r).
4. folios 34r–54r:Judaeo-Italian hymn for the Shabbat by Mordekhai Daṭo: אורה וויאין או בילה ספוסה (‘Ora vien ò bella sposa’; the refrain of the second part of the hymn "Ben venuta o bella sposa" is written in Latin script in folio 47r).
5. folios 54v–67: Poems, letters, and hymns; beginning with Pesaḥ hymns: חד גדיא and [אחד מי יודע].
6. folios 68–77: Proverbs mostly from the Talmud organised according to the Alefbeth; letters and invitations.
7. folio 78v: Family register entries by Solomon Candia: Birth of son יהודה , 22 Ḥeshṿan 365 [1604] and his circumcision (folio 77v); birth of daughter, דולצה (Dulce), 19 Kisleṿ 368 [1607] and her death, 14 Ṭevet 381 [1621]; fragment of entry, possibly birth of daughter, חנה (Ḥanah), 377 [1616 or 1617] (fragment pasted to free end-paper).
8. folio 74: Family register entries, added by יהודא [בן שלמה] קנדיאה (Yehudah ben Shelomoh Ḳandiah): Death of his father, Sunday, 27 Tamuz 390 [1630] and baby son משה, Tuesday, 15 Av 390 [1630] during the plague (74r); death of son מצליח (Matsliaḥ), Thursday, 5 Tamuz 402 (Thursday, 13 June 1641) (74v).
Roth published the hymn Ora vien ò bella sposa (folios 34–50) in an Italian transcription with introduction and French translation in his, "Un hymne sabbatique du XVIe siècle en judéo-italien", Revue des études juives 80 (1925), no. 159: 60–80; no. 160: 182–206; and 81 (1925), no. 161: 55–78.
State of text: Fragile with loss of text and most likely leaves missing at the end; of some leaves, only fragments are are extant; frayed edges; pest damage; stained; faded ink, felting paper; unprofessionally repaired with tape and plastic sheets; item underwent some conservation work.
Insertions: Leaf with detailed notes on content of MS Roth 701 in Roth’s hand.
Bibliographical note:
Roth, "Un hymne sabbatique du XVIe siècle en judéo-italien", Revue des études juives 80 (1925), no. 159: 60–80; no. 160: 182–206; and 81 (1925) no. 161: 55–78.
Roth, "Catalogue", in Alexander Marx: Jubilee Volume, vol. 1 (New York, 1950), no. 701.
National Library of Israel (NLI), Online Catalogue, system-no. 990001859940205171. The NLI’s description is based on the microfilm of MS Roth 701 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. 701.
Physical characteristics
Foliation: iii (i is paste-down) + 78 (foliated as 1–77) + iii (iii is paste-down); modern pencil foliation, upper left recto; some fragments are pasted to lower free end-paper or kept in envelope with item.
Catchwords: horizontal, mostly only on versos, irregular.
Number of lines: irregular.
Script: Italian cursive Hebrew script; Latin script.
Ms. codex: width 140mm height 194mm
Binding
Quarter black goatskin bound with dark blue cloth over boards; blind-tooled decorations on spine which is gilt-lettered with ענינים שונים כ׳׳י; the gilt-lettering "MS Roth 701" was added in 1998; MS Roth 704 has similar binding.
Former owners and annotations
Solomon di Candia and Judah ben Solomon di Candia.
Roth’s description of MS Roth 701, cut out from a copy of his printed catalogue, is attached to front paste-down; his ex-libris is attached below the cut-out; the bookplate for “The Cecil Roth Collection”, which was designed in a collaboration between Roth and the University of Leeds, is attached to upper free end-paper verso.
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