Mahzor ke-Minhag Roma (Daily and Festival Prayers according to the Roman Rite), Soncino and Casal Maggiore: B'nai Soncino (Sons fo [Israel Nathan] Soncino), Tishri 5246 (10 September - 9 October) - 20 Elul 5246 (21 August 1486).

166 + 154 ff. (10 7/8 x 7 1/2 in.; 275 x 190 mm). Two volumes bound in one, ff. 1-17, 71 (partial), 311-320 lacking, replaced in facsimile excepting the blank f.1; additional manuscript prayers penned on f166v., occasional marginalia; censored throughout (by Gio[vanni] Antonio Costanzi); several leaves laid to size with some loss of text, skillfully repaired; some staining. Tinted edges. Modern chestnut morocco.

Salomon di Isache Menaghen, Rome-his signature on front free endpaper; Alfredo Sabato Toaff ( Chief Rabbi of Livorno, father of Elio Toaff, Chief Rabbi of Rome)-his ex libris; By descent to Prof. Ariel Toaff, Tel Aviv- his ex libris.

A.K. Offenberg, Hebrew Incunabula in Public Collections, Nieuwkoop 1990, no. 83; P. Tishby, "Defuse Eres (Incunabulim)," Kiryat Sefer 64 (1992-1993), p. 698-709, no. 39; I. Yudlov, "Ha-Mahazorim ha-Rishonim ke-Minhag bene Roma: Soncino 5246 - Fano 5264," Kiryat Sefer 64 (1992-1993), p. 1435-1448; Sh. Iakerson, Catalogue of Hebrew Incunabula from Collection of the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York 2004, vol. 1, no. 30; A.K. Offenberg, Catalogue of the Books printed in the XVth Century now in the British Library, London 2004, p. 42-44.

The first Mahzor ever printed; the only Hebrew book ever printed in Casal Maggiore

Contents: Daily, Sabbath and festival prayers for the entire year, including several liturgical hymns, Tractate Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) with Maimonides' commentary, Passover Haggadah and five Megillot. With halakhot from the Sefer ha-Tadir by Moshe ben Yekutiel min ha-Adumim (De Rossi).

Decoration: The Mahzor has twelve initial word panels printed in large hollow type with each letter set within a separate panel with foliate and floral background. Vol. 1: (fol. 5r,. 6v in facsimile) f. 26r, 70v, 98r,106v, 123v,  141v; Vol. 2, f. 1v, 117v, 122v, 130r. An additional initial word panel is printed within a round medallion, on a foliate and floral background in vol. 1, f. 72r.

In 1454 a pair of Jewish brothers named Samuel and Simon departed from Fuerth and arrived in Italy, where they obtained permission from Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, to settle near Cremona in the town of Soncino. The brothers soon adopted the name of their new town as their surname. By the 1480s, Samuel's son and grandson, Israel Nathan Soncino and Joshua Solomon Soncino, along with other family members had formed the earliest dynasty of Hebrew printing.  Collectively, members of the Soncino family would print the majority of Hebrew incunabula in Italy. 

While in Soncino, the family presses produced Hebrew books at a blistering pace, producing some 35 books between 1483 and 1490 with the dates attested to by the colophons of the various volumes.  Between April, 1486 and May, 1487 however, the Soncinos, for unknown reasons, relocated their presses to nearby Casal Maggiore.  Among the many problems this  presented to the printers, one stands out dramatically. The Roman Rite Mahzor, the first comprehensive Hebrew liturgy to ever go to press, was at that moment in the middle of production.  According to the colophon of the Mahzor, work was begun in Soncino in the autumn of 1485 and completed in Casal Maggiore on the 21^st of August, 1486.  With the two volumes being printed in tandem, the relocation was clearly unexpected and the presses were actually shifted in the midst of the printing.  By ingeniously tracking the use of remaindered leaves from this edition in a later 1504 Fano edition, Yudlov has demonstrated that the first 11 quires of volume I and the first 7 quires of volume II were printed in Soncino while the balance of each (11 and 12 quires, respectively) was printed in Casal Maggiore.

By May of 1487, whatever had driven the Soncinos from their native town was either no longer an issue or else had been resolved in such a fashion as to allow them to return. It remains unknown whether the events that precipitated the peregrinations of the Soncinos from Soncino to Casalmaggiore and back again were economic or religious in nature; perhaps they were neither, or both.  Within a decade, the "First Family" of Hebrew printing would expand their printing activities, leaving both Soncino and Casal Maggiore behind to print Hebrew books in the Italian towns of Brescia, Barco, Fano, Pesaro, Ortona, Rimini, and Cesena and beyond Italy as far afield as Istanbul, Salonika and Cairo.