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Detailed record for Harley 5686

Part 1 ff. 1-384 
Title Festival prayer book (mahzor) with miscellaneous works in the margins
Origin Italy, N. (Reggio nell'Emilia)
Date 1466
Language Hebrew
Script Italian semi-cursive and Ashkenazi square script, partially punctuated
Scribe Leon ben Joshua de Rossi of Cesena
Artists The workshop of one of the artists of Duke Borso d'Este, probably Giorgio d'Alemagna
Decoration 6 miniatures in colours and gold (27v, 28, 60, 60v, 61, 61v). Decorated initial-word panels with floral border inhabited by birds, in colours and gold (ff. 8, 156). 2 initial-word panels with penwork decoration, in blue and red ink (ff. 12v, 14v). Numerous initial-word panels decorated with pen-flourishing, in red ink. Maniculae (e.g. ff. 45, 111).
Dimensions in mm 265 x 195
 
Part 2 ff. 385-418v 
Title Seder tahanunim (supplicatory prayers)
Origin Italy, N. (Bologna)
Date 1427
Language Hebrew
Script Ashkenazi square and Italian semi-cursive scriptm partially punctuated
Scribe Isaac ben Obadiah ben David of Forli
Decoration 1 decorated initial-word panel, in colorus and gold (f. 385).
Dimensions in mm 265 x 195
 
Part 3 ff. 419v-449 
Title Psalms (ff. 419v-440); various litugical texts (ff. 441v-449)
Origin Italy
Date Second half of the fifteenth century
Language Hebrew
Script Italian semi-cursive, partially punctuated
Decoration 1 carmina figurata, in colours (f. 440).
Dimensions in mm 265 x 195
 
Official foliation ff. 449 (+2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end), 2 unoliated leaves after f. 384
Collation 48 quires: i2 (ff. 1a-2a), ii8-1 (ff. 1-7), iii10 (ff. 8-17), iv10 (ff. 18-27), v10 (ff. 28-37), vi10 (ff. 38-47), vii10 (ff. 48-57), viii10 (ff. 58-67), ix10 (ff. 68-77), x10 (ff. 78-87), xi8 (ff. 88-95), xii10 (ff. 96-105), xiii10 (ff. 106-115), xiv10 (ff. 116-125), xv10 (ff. 126-135), xvi10 (ff. 136-145), xvii10 (ff. 146-155), xviii10 (ff. 156-165), xix10 (ff. 166-175), xx10 (ff. 176-185), xxi10 (ff. 186-195), xxii10 (ff. 196-205), xxiii10 (ff. 206-215), xxiv10 (ff. 216-225), xxv10 (ff. 226-235), xxvi10 (ff. 236-245), xxvii10 (ff. 246-255), xxviii10 (ff. 256-265), xxix10 (ff. 266-275), xxx10 (ff. 276-285), xxxi8 (ff. 286-293), xxxii10 (ff. 294-303), xxxiii10 (ff. 304-313), xxxiv10 (ff. 314-323), xxxv10 (ff. 324-333), xxxvi10 (ff. 334-343), xxxvii6 (ff. 344-351), xxxviii10 (ff. 352-359), xxxix10 (ff. 360-369), xl8 (ff. 370-377), xlieight (ff. 378-384b), xlii10 (ff. 385-394), xliii10 (ff. 395-404), xliv10 (ff. 405-414), xlv8 (ff. 415-422), xlvinine (ff. 423-431), xlvii10 (ff. 432-441), xlviii8 (ff. 442-449). Catchwords.
Form Parchment codex
Binding Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather.
Provenance Isaac ben Obadiah ben David of Forli, scribe: inscribed with his name in a colophon, Bologna, 23 Elul, [5]187 [1427] (f. 418v).
Joseph Cohen ben Solomon Cohen, patron of part 2: inscribed with his name in a colophon, Bologna, 23 Elul, [5]187 [1427] (f. 418v); Leon ben Joshua de Rossi of Cesena, scribe: inscribed with his name in a colophon, Reggio nell'Emilia, [5]226 (or [5]224?) [1466 or 1464] (f. 377v).
Joab Emmanuel Finzi: patron of part 1 according to Narkiss (see Narkiss, 1984, p. 306).
Hippolite of Ferrara, Franciscan censor (active at the end of the 16th century-beginning of 17th century, in Cremona?): inscribed with his name, 1601 (f. 449), see William Popper, The Censorship of Hebrew Books (New York: KTAV Publishing House, 1969), appendix § 18-19, 93.
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts: inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley, ‘18 die mensis Januarii, A.D. 1723/4’ (f. 1; see Wright and Wright 1966).
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.
Notes Ruling is visible. Pricking is visible in quire xlv. Hebrew foliation from f. 8. Erasures (e.g., ff. 78, 179v, 187v, 331v, 380, 436).
Select bibliography A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 5686.

George Margoliouth, Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1899-1935; vols I-III repr. 1965); IV, Introduction, Indexes, ed. by Jacob Leveen (London: British Museum, 1977), II, no. 629 and III, no. 1048.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 370 n. 1.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 246, 459.

The´re`se and Mendel Metzger, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages: Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts of the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries (New York: Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1982), p. 304.

Bezalel Narkiss, 'Three Jewish Art Patrons in Mediaeval Italy', in Festschrift Reuben R. Hecht (Koren Publishers Jerusalem Ltd., 1984), pp. 296-307 (pp. 306-07).

Mortara Luisa Ottolenghi, “Manoscritti Emiliagno-Romagnoli del XIV-XV secolo. Un punto d’Incontro tra miniatori cristiani ed ebrei?” in Atti del terzo convegno tenuto a Idice, Bologna, nei giorni 9-11 novembre 1982 Associazione italiana per lo studio del giudaismo. Convegno (3rd: 1982: Idice, Italy), (Roma: Carucci, 1985), pp. 103-13 (pp. 111-12).

Ilana Tahan, Hebrew Manuscripts: The Power of Script and Image (London, British Library, 2007), pp. 76-78.


Images
Part  1   ff. 1-384
Festival prayer book (mahzor) with miscellaneous works in the margins
* * *
 
Decorated initial-word panel

f. 8
Decorated initial-word panel		 Inscription

f. 8
Inscription		 Shabbat bride

f. 27v
Shabbat bride
 
Shabbat bride

f. 27v
Shabbat bride		 Shabbat bride

f. 28
Shabbat bride		 Shabbat in the synagogue

f. 28
Shabbat in the synagogue
 
Shabbat bride

f. 28
Shabbat bride		 Prayer

f. 60
Prayer		 Prayer

f. 60
Prayer
 
Exodus

ff. 60v-61
Exodus		 Crossing the Red Sea

f. 60v
Crossing the Red Sea		 Passover Eve celebration

f. 61v
Passover Eve celebration
 
Seder table

f. 61v
Seder table		 Decorated initial-word panel

f. 156
Decorated initial-word panel		 Initial-word panel

f. 156
Initial-word panel
 
Decorated initial-word panel

f. 385
Decorated initial-word panel		 ~Carmina figurata~

f. 440
Carmina figurata
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