SEDER TIKKUN HATSOT (KABBALISTIC MIDNIGHT VIGIL), SCRIBE: JOSEPH ABRAHAM GIRON, CASALE MONFERRATO: 1795
Auction Closed
June 5, 04:47 PM GMT
Estimate
1,500 - 2,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
SEDER TIKKUN HATSOT (KABBALISTIC MIDNIGHT VIGIL), SCRIBE: JOSEPH ABRAHAM GIRON, CASALE MONFERRATO: 1795
18 folios (5 3/8 x 3 7/8 in.; 137 x 99 mm) on paper; modern foliation in pencil in Arabic numerals in upper-outer margin of recto; written in an elegant Italian semi-cursive script in dark brown ink on twelve long lines; ruled in blind; headers throughout; intermittent vocalization of selected words. Small tears in lower edges of ff. 1, 10. Modern tooled turquoise leather; title lettered in gilt on upper board and spine; modern paper flyleaves and pastedowns.
Seder tikkun hatsot, the liturgy recited at midnight to mourn the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and pray for its rebuilding, originated in the Middle Ages among a select group of pious Jews but gained considerable popularity with the spread of Lurianic Kabbalah and the introduction of coffee in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In Italy, to which the liquid stimulant only arrived in the mid-seventeenth century, the ritual was relatively slow in overtaking the earlier practice of reciting similar texts before daybreak (as part of so-called Shomerim la-Boker societies). By the middle of the eighteenth century, however, it had, in some Italian cities, considerably displaced or outstripped the predawn service. The present manuscript is a beautifully-executed, pocket-size copy of these prayers that reflects the growing popularity of Tikkun hatsot in this period.
Provenance
Joseph Abraham Giron (f. 1r)
Elijah Moses Meystre (f. 1r)
Literature
Elliott Horowitz, “Coffee, Coffeehouses, and the Nocturnal Rituals of
Early Modern Jewry,” AJS Review 14,1 (Spring 1989): 17-46.