A rare complete copy of a mahzor with an unusually complicated printing history.

After the completion of the folio-format Ashkenazic-rite mahzor printed in Salonika circa 1550 (see lot 241), the Foa press, under the management of Tobias’ sons Eliezer and Mordechai, began a second, quarto edition, hoping to improve upon the work of their predecessors. Due to unforeseen, and as yet incompletely understood, circumstances, however, the production of this liturgy was interrupted soon after it began toward the end of 1556. When the Foa printshop was shuttered (likely under ecclesiastical duress) in the spring of 1559, the work had to be transferred to Conti’s press in Cremona and was not finished until the eve of Rosh Hashanah 5321 (September 1560). In the colophon, the editor bemoans his inability to make all the enhancements he had planned, apologetically noting, “I swear by the heavens and the earth that it was not out of avarice or stinginess, God forbid, that I held myself back; rather, I saw that the very stars of the heavens fought against me from their courses [see Judg. 5:20] until I arrived at the haven of the end of the year. [At that point,] I said in my heart, ‘I will follow those who abbreviate [see Ruth 2:7]; let the year, and the long [kelalot] and short of this mahzor, come to an end.’”

The main differe🐻nces between the Salonika and Sabbioneta-Cremona editions, aside from size, pertain to the placement of the halakhic (and certain liturgical) material, as well as slight variations in content. Additionally, because they were printing in Italy, the Sabbioneta and Cremona publishers had to self-censor certain passages by either leaving blank spaces (filled in by hand in this copy) or changing the wording itself. Even these precautions, however, did not 🌱save volumes like the present one from subsequent expurgation by Christian censors.

The Sabbioneta-Cremona mahzor was reprinted in Venice in 1567 in two versions: one according to the Western Ashkenazic rite and the other according to the Eas🎉ter🍌n Ashkenazic (Polish) rite.

Provenance

Samson Levi (f. [1r])

Eliezer David Levi (?) (f. [1r])

The Library of the ꦏJewish Theological Semin꧋ary of America [the Mayer Sulzberger copy] (f. 392v)

Literature

Meir Benayahu, Ha-defus ha-ivri bi-cremona (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute; Mossad Harav Kook, 1971), ♋139-178, 213-215 (no. 28).

Isaac Rivkind, “Le-ma’amaro shel mar yesha‘yah sonne: he’arah nosefet,” Kiryat sefer 5,1-2 (1928): 162-164.

Isaiah Sonne, “Shtei mahadurot mi-mahzor ke-minhag ha-ashkenazim she-nidpas be-sabbioneta-cremona, [5]317-[5]321,” Kiryat sefer 3,2-3 (1927): 173-176.

Isaiah Sonne, “Tokh kedei keri’ah,” Kiryat sefer 4,1 (1930): 275-282, at pp. 275-276.

Vinograd, Sabbioneta 42 and Cremona 30

Avraham Yaari, “Ha-madpisim benei foa,” in Mehkerei sefer: perakim be-toledot ha-sefer ha-ivri (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1958), 323-419, at ppಌ. 364-365 (no. 23).