Folio, (392 x 272 mm). Hebrew manuscript on paper. 223 pp., i11 (i1 removed), ii-viii12, ix7 (ix8 removed]). Italian/Provençal square and semi-cursive scripts in dark brown ink, single columns of 27 lines, ruled in blind, biblical and liturgical texts vocalised. With headers, decorated catchwords, enlarged incipits, ornamental piyyut layouts, embellished initial word panels and floral and decorative elements. Contemporary calf, spine in six compartments with raised bands and gilt designs, shelfmark lettered in gilt, original paper flyleaves and pastedowns. Original brown leather bumped, scratched, and worn, tailband exposed. Scattered staining, foxing, and dogearing to lower corners, doodle of a house on flyleaf opposite title-page, small holes on pages 103-104 and 169-170 not affecting text, minor worming at foot of pages 135-210, short tears in lower edges of pages 141-142, 171-172, and 197-204; overall well preserved and in good condition.

The volume begins with a handsome title-page, framed with a Baroque-style architectural border that situates it nicely at the confluence of French and Italian influence in Avignon. At the bottom, the name of the volume's original patron was inscribed, but has been removed by a later owner, although some characters are still legible. The subsequent pages are written in neat, skilled square and semi-cursive Hebrew scripts, with attractive decorative elements.

Even amongst themselves, the four Jewish communities in the Comtat (Avignon, Cavaillon, Carpentras, and L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue) all had diverging traditions of worship, necessitating separate prayer-books. As the slow growth of liberty for Jews in the eighteenth century weakened the isolation of the Provençal communities, their traditions consequently came under threat, with the community of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue having disappeared completely by the time of the Revolution.

This volume is a vital source for a large number of the Piyyutim of the Avignon rite, which do not appear in the various printings of it that were issued between 1763 and 1767 in Amsterdam and Avignon, or even the more complete edition published in Aix-en-Provence in 1855. It was consequently of extreme interest to David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942), the British bibliophile who sought out unique volumes illustrative of the history of Judaism. Born in India to a Baghdadi Jewish family, Sassoon travelled the world in search of rare Jewish books, ultimately amassing a collection of over 1200 manuscripts. His armorial bookplate with mottos in Hebrew and Latin graces the front pastedown.

The distinctive traditions of one of Europe's smallest Jewish communities, preserved in the library of one of the most noted Jewish collectors.

Provenance:

- Original patron's name erased from where it had been inscribed in the escutcheon at the foot of the title page.

- David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942), British bibliophile of Baghdadi Jewish ancestry, with his bookplate on the pastedown of the upper board.

- Sotheby's, New York, Sassoon: A Golden Legacy, 17 Dec. 2020, Lot 60.

- French private collection.

B. Richler, "Ketuvei-yad ivriyyim she-nitpatselu", Asuppot 1 (1987), pp. 105-158, at 143, no. 96. C. Roth, "The Liturgies of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin", Journal of Jewish Bibliography 1:4 (July 1939), pp. 99-105. D. S. Sassoon, O. Dawid: Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library (London, 1932) I, xxx-xxxi, xlv; II, 831-833, no. 1024.