Asarah Ma'amarot, Menahem Azariah of Fano, Italy: [ca.1600] Manuscript on Paper

Small folio (11 1/2 x 7 3/4 in.; 285 x 192 mm). collation: 1-41^{4=164 leaves, written in brown ink in an Italian semi-cursive Hebrew script, chapter and division headings in square Hebrew script, unruled, 40 lines, catchwords, modern foliation in pencil; first leaf mounted, title soiled, some leaves folded to preserve text at time of cropping, corners rounded, waterstains at lower corners and occasionally at upper margin, some chapter headings with flaking and loss to oxidization. Elaborate ownership monogram (Sephardic type)  upper corner folio 2r- contents note f.2r. Nineteenth century bibliographic inscription in German on inside front board. Eighteenth-nineteenth century vellum over boards, title on spine.}

Jacob Klatzkin—his bookplate on inside of front board

On the various versions and rescensions of 'Asarah Ma'amarot, see, Joseph Avivi, "Kabbalistic Writings of Rabbi Menahem 'Azariah mi-Fano" (Hebrew). Sefunot, 4, (1989), pp. 347-375; On the dating of the paper, see, C.M. Briquet, Les Filigranes, # 763, Arbalète (crossbow), Ferrara 1597?

Small folio (11 1/2 x 7 3/4 in.; 285 x 192 mm). collation: 1-414=164 leaves, written in brown ink in an Italian semi-cursive Hebrew script, chapter and division headings in square Hebrew script, unruled, 40 lines, catchwords, modern foliation in pencil; first leaf mounted, title soiled, some leaves folded to preserve text at time of cropping, corners rounded, waterstains at lower corners and occasionally at upper margin, some chapter headings with flaking and loss to oxidization. Elaborate ownership monogram (Sephardic type) upper corner folio 2r- contents note f.2r. 19th cent bibliographic inscription in German on inside front board. 18-19th century vellum over boards, title on spine.
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Asarah Ma'amarot is Azariah da Fano's best known work, a series of ten kabbalistic expositions derived in large part from discourses delivered by him on festivals, particularly Rosh ha-Shanah. The first three essays were published in Venice in 1597 but the editio princeps only included the first three essays out of the ten that comprise the entire work: The present manuscript begins with the fourth essay, Ma'amar Me'ah Kesitah which comprises nearly half of the entire volume and which is divided into 100 subsections as implied by the title. The remainder of the work follows in order.

The manuscript is written in an extremely fine Italian semi-cursive hand which may be paleographically associated with the late 16^th or early 17^th centuries. Unfortunately, the name of the scribe remains unknown. The paper bears a watermark that Briquet locates in Ferrara in 1597, the very same year that the first printed edition of the first three essays appeared. These factors, in combination with the contents of the manuscript (comprising the last seven, and as of 1597, yet unpublished parts of the work) indicate that the present lot was written in that year, or very shortly thereafter, to augment the printed edition.

There is however one more possibility that nust be seriously considered. This copy is what is known as a scribal "fair copy" meaning a clean copy of an already corrected draft. The fact that Azariah da Fano was still alive until 1620 may suggest that this copy of the remaining unpublished essays of Asarah Ma'amarot were written at his direction or even perhaps by him.

Contents: f.1r-v: Blank; f.2r-84v: Ma'amar Me'ah Kesitah; f.85r-88v: Blank; f.89r- 114v: Ma'amar Shabattot ha-Shem (in 7 sections); f115r-116v: Blank; f.117r-130r: Ma'amar ha-Milu'im; f.130v-140v: Ma'amar ha-'Ittim; f141r-146v: Ma'amar ha-Reki'im; f.147r-151r: Ma'amar ha-Yesodot; f.151v-160r: Ma'amar Shivrei Luhot; f.160v-162r: Yemin ha-Shem Rommema; f.162r-163v: Yemin ha-Shem 'Oseh Hayil; f.164r-v:Blank.