A pleasantly produced, pocket-sized parodic Purim panoply.

The tradition of playfully mimicking the language, format, and terminology of canonical religious texts—whether biblical, Talmudic, or liturgical—in connection with the holiday of Purim goes back at least to the twelfth century with the composition of Menahem ben Aaron’s Leil shikkorim, a sort of anti-piyyut (liturgical poem) written on the model of a Passover parallel called Leil shimmurim. In the first half of the fourteenth century, two Provencal rabbinic scholars compiled the first Purim parodies of the Talmud: Massekhet purim (in four chapters) by Kalonymos ben Kalonymos (1286-after 1328) and Megillat setarim (in three chapters) by Levi ben Gerson (Ralbag; 1288-1344). Ralbag also composed a pseudo-biblical treatise entitled Sefer havakbuk ha-navi. (These three Provencal works have generally been printed and copied together for centuries since the first edition [Pesaro, 1513].) Later still, in the latter half of the seventeenth century, an anonymous (Ashkenazic?) author produced a new Massekhet purim in several chapters, which continued to be elaborated and expanded (under various titles) by successive generations of scribes into the eighte🦂enth century.

The present lot comprises (or comprised) all of these texts, and more, in one compact volume: the seventeenth-century Massekhet purim (here styled Massekhet shikkorim) in five chapters (pp. 3-30); Sefer havakbuk ha-navi in nine chapters (pp. 31-39); Ki-kelot yeini, a wine poem attributed to Rabbi Solomon Ibn Gabirol (Rashbag; ca. 1021-ca. 1058) (p. 40); and Megillat setarim combined with Kalonymos ben Kalonymos’ Massekhet purim (seven chapters total) under the general title Massekhet purim (pp. 41-112). (According to its title page, the manuscript would have originally included Leil shikkorim and other songs for Purim, though these have not been preserved.) Its scribe, Eliezer Hayyim bar Mordechai Mella of Reggio, is known to have copied Seder avodat E-lohim, a collection of private prayers, some of them kabbalistically tinged, that same year, 1715 (now part of a private collection in Jerusalem). The present volume was 🥂purchase🗹d by David Solomon Sassoon on June 6, 1912, from a seller based in Italy. 

Physical Description

112 of about 120 pages (5 1/2 x 4 in.; 140 x 100 mm) (collation: i-vii⁸) on paper (p. 2 blank); original foliation in pen in Hebrew characters in upper-outer corners of rectos; modern pagination in pencil in Arabic numerals in lower margins at center (cited); written in Italian square (headings, headers, and incipits) and semi-cursive (text body) scripts in light brown ink; single-column text of nineteen lines per page; justification of lines via dilation or contraction of final letters, abbreviation, and insertion of spacওe fillers; headers; horizontal catchwords in lower margins of each page; corrections, strikethroughs, and/or marginalia in primary and secondary hands; modern marginal pencil mark on p. 27. Tapering text on pp. 1, 30. Probably lacking about 4 folios at the end; slight scattered staining and dampstaining (stains covering some text on pp. 16-17, 32-33); closely cropped at foot; small worm track on pp. 85-112, affecting only individual l🤡etters. Modern brown buckram, slightly worn and warped; paper ticket with title and date affixed to spine; paper ticket with shelf mark affixed to base of spine; modern paper flyleaves and pastedowns.

Literature

Roni ♌Cohen, “Carnival and Canon: Medieval Parodies for Purim” (PhD𓃲 diss., Tel Aviv University, 2021).

Roni Cohen, “From Ridicule to Ritual: Standardization and Canonization Processes in the Transmission of Purim Parodic Literature,” Medioevi 7 (2021): 225-249.

Israel Davidson, Parody in Jewish Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1907), 19-28, 44-47, 115-13ꩲ4, 172-187.

A.M. Habermann, “Massekhetot purim le-nusseha’oteihen,” Mahanayim 67 (March 1962): 28-41.

A.M. Habermann, “Massekhet purim mahaduroteha u-defuseha,” Areshet 5 (1982): 136-144.

David Solomon Sassoon, Ohel Dawid: Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London, vol൲. 1 ([Oxford]: Oxford University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, 1932), 472-473 (no. 35😼3).