Siddur for weekdays copied and translated into ancient Spanish by Spanish or Portuguese ‘anusim’/forced converts. Rare and especially exciting historic item.
This is most of the siddur for weekdays, written in ancient Spanish (apparently one of the Castilian dialects) by Jewish forced converts of Spain, in the early to mid 16th century (c. 1530-1550)
The leaves contain a ‘water-mark’ in the form of a hand with a flower, with some similarity to the common water-marks of the 16th century.
There is a siddur from the Jewish Portuguese anusim from 1553 that is known; its form and other characteristics are similar to this siddur.
Our people’s chronicles are full of stories of heroism, passed down from father to son, stories of forced converts in Spain and Portugal, who at great personal risk tried with all their might and in very creative ways to preserve their Jewishness in secret. A great many of them were burned at the stake – at the infamous auto-de-fé, with the Shema prayers on their lips. This is a siddur written by one of those very Jews, and astonishingly, survived that horrible period. First-rate museum piece! …
There is an opinion included from the expert Mr. Shlomo Zucker, manuscript division of the National and University Library, Jerusalem. (Ret.)
Approximately 170 pages and parts of pages. 10.5×15 cm. The leaves were removed from the binding in poor condition with tears and many worming perforations and professionally restored. Not bound.
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