Seder Tefillot ha-Nashim ha-Meyuhadot la-hen (Order of Prayers Exclusively for Women) [Italy ]: 1740

23 leaves (3 1/8 x 2 in.; 80 x 50 mm). Manuscript on paper, written in brown ink in eighteenth century Italian Hebrew square script; eleven lines to the page; catchwords; title page illustrated in architectural motif. Lightly soiled. Gilt edges; decorated endpapers. Contemporary brown morocco, covers with gilt-tooled frame with oval cornerpieces and central initials C.D.R.; housed in a modern brown limp leather slipcase, titles stamped in Hebrew.

C.D.R.-initials stamped on boards.

Chava Weissler, Voices of the Matriarchs: Listening to the Prayers of Early Modern Jewish Women (Boston, 1998).

As with many manuscripts created especially for women, this tiny prayerbook is small enough to be placed in a pocket. The text includes the appropriate prayers and blessings for candlelighting on the eve of the Sabbath, a series of supplications to be recited at various points before, during and after ritual immersion in a mikveh, and prayers for the several stages of pregnancy.  Women near the end of their terms are encouraged to pray that their child not be born on the Sabbath in order that no one need inadvertently violate the Sabbath on their behalf.  Also included is a special prayer to be recited by a woman who has merited the birth of a son, on the occasion of the child's circumcision.