Fol. 1v: Comments on Genesis.

Fols. 2r-6r: Comments on Pentateuch, discusses Rashi, perhaps in two different Ashkenazi hands. Marginal notes, some introduced by abbreviation: msh”kh. On fol. 6r: selik hiddushe Torah t[oda] le[-el] yit[barakh].

Fol. 6r-v: Comments on the Book of Esther, citing R.꧒ Abraham.

Fol. 7: Iggeret ha-Hitnatzlut by Yedaya Penini Bedersi, a letter in defense of philosophical studies, addressed to Solomon ibn Adret (the beginning only). See J. Schirman, The History of Hebrew Poetry in Christian Spain and Southern France. S🌳upplemented and annotated by E. Fleischer, (1997), p. 500 (in Hebrew), who calls the letter, "a courageous and fascinating document."

Fols. 8r-12r: Notes on the Pent🍰ateuch, mainly on Rashi, written in an Ashkenazi scrip🍨t on parts of the pages.

Fols. 14r-70v: Pizmonim Hadashim, 158 poems (there is gap between poem nos.145 and 156). Poems for various festivals and other occasions, in North African square and cursive script. Fol. 38r: according to the rite of Ancona, this may suggest that it was written in Italy. The compositions include poems for bridegroom and bride, blessings for various societies (including yeshivat shalom, fol. 50v-51v), and a blessing for the writer’s sister, the bride, and for his brother-in-law, the bridegroom (fol. 51r, on the margin, in a different hand). On fol. 52v is a pizmon bi-leshon kodesh ve-yishmael (poem in a mixture of Hebrew and Turkish), on fol. 53v is a poem from the book Mizbah Yaakov [Venice, 1662].

Tunes are indicated as well, some in theᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ vernacular, in 𒈔Hebrew characters.

Sotheby’s is grateful to Menahem Schmelzer z”l and Benjamin Richler for ca♔taloguing this manuscrip෴t.

Provenance

Heschel (?) (owner’s inscription, fol.13v) — Leopold Zunz (owner’s inscription on front flyleaf: Zunz ms. 37)

Physical Description

70 leaves on paper, 7 ½ x 5 inches; 191 x 127 mm, fols. 2r-6r pricked and ruled, written in brown ink in various Ashkenazi, Italian, and North African scripts, being parts of various manuscripts bound together; fragment 😼of fol. 1 inlaid, fols. 2-8 extended with partial loss of text, fol. 8 frayed at edges and laid down, fols. 9-13 extended and remargined, inner margins of several leaves strengthened along inside margins, lower inside margin of fol. 68 repaired with minor loss to text, some worming in fols. 36-45, some staining at the end. Black paste paper over boards.

Literature

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 231) lists the poems