Notebook of Meir Azancot, [ca. 1779]

Fols. 3r-6v: Sefer Mussar Haskel of Hai Gaon.

Fols. 7r-11r: Kaarat Kesef by Joseph Ezobi, from the printed edition of 1578.

Fols. 12r-16v: Poems, including one by Abraham ibn Ezra.

Fols. 20v-37r: Notes on Tractate Megillah, on Shulhan Arukh, Orah Hayyim and on other passages.

Fol. 42r-v: Riddle, with sketch, and acrostic of author's name.

Fols. 46r-48v: On the zodiac, and other notes.

Fol. 96r: Notice on death of author's father (1779), on the death of Joseph Gedalia (1779), of Hayyim Gedalia (1786), and a personal note.

Fols. 98r-106v: Various notes on Tosafot, Massora, etc.

Meir Azancot, son of Joseph, was born in Agadir in the year 1758 according to his entries on fols. 1r and 2r. His signature can be found on fols. 2r, 6v, and 10v. There is a poem with an acrostic of his name on fol. 12r.

Sotheby’s is grateful to Menahem Schmelzer z”l and Benjamin Richler for cataloguing this manuscript.

Provenance

Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 268)

Physical Description

107 leaves on paper (many leaves blank, including fols. 49-95), 6 ¼ x 4 ¼ inches; 159 x 110 mm, written in black and brown ink in North African (Moroccan) script, eighteenth-nineteenth century; faint dampstaining, library stamp on first folio and f. 106. Library buckram binding.

Literature

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 364); A. I. Laredo, Les noms des juifs du Maroc, (1978), pp. 248-251, Meir Azancot, however, is not mentioned