Decorated Manuscript, Hoshanot and Piyyutim for Simchat Torah – Apam Rite – Asti, 1801

Decorated Manuscript, Hoshanot and Piyyutim for Simchat Torah – Apam Rite – Asti, 1801

Manuscript, Hoshanot and piyyutim for Simchat Torah, according to the Apam (Asti-Fossano-Moncalvo) rite. Asti, [1801].

Square script, vocalized. Commentaries and instructions in smaller script, unvocalized. Fine decorations throughout the manuscript.

Colophon of scribe at end of Hoshanot (p. 14b): "I the scribe, dust and ashes, Yaakov Yehoshua son of Zerach Uri Katzigin of Asti, 1801".

Piyyutim for Simchat Torah begin on p. 16b. Written in large letters, in frames, without a commentary.

The commentary on the Hoshanot is copied from the Shaar Bat Rabim machzor, Part II, Venice 1715, leaves 333-337. The commentary begins: "The proofreaders say, we ardently desire to know and make known why the commentator did not comment on the Hoshanot piyyutim… But we found an excellent and sufficient commentary in the Italian rite machzor…".

Leaf 15 was bound at a later time, with verses to recite after the conclusion of Hoshanot (with an Italian caption stating that the prayer should be recited "while the chazan is saying the names"). On the margins of the leaf: "Asti, 25th Tishrei 1884".

Inside the board is an ownership inscription: "Brothers Hartom son of Refael Binyamin".

[22] leaves. 27 cm. Good condition. Stains, including dark stains. Marginal tear to one leaf. Cardboard binding, with light damage.

Provenance: Collection of Rabbi Prof. Eliyah Shmuel Hartom, Jerusalem.

The Apam Rite

"Apam" is an acronym for the communities of Asti, Fossano, and Moncalvo. All three communities were established by Jewish exiles from France who settled in the Piedmont region of Italy after being expelled from France in the 14th century. Once in Italy, most Jewish émigrés from France adopted the customs and traditions of the communities that absorbed them, and only these three communities clung to the French traditions they arrived with, thus preserving the ancient French rite. The French rite resembles the Ashkenazic rite, but differs from it both in its own particular versions of some of the prayers, and in the distinctive piyyutim that are peculiar to it. Siddurim associated with the Apam rite were never printed, and they survive only in manuscript form (on the Apam rite see: Zunz, Rites of Synagogue Liturgy, Breuer-Fraenkel Hebrew translation, Jerusalem 2016, pp. 64-65; Goldschmidt, Leket Shichchah UPeah LeMachzor Apam, Kiryat Sefer XXX, Jerusalem 1955, pp. 118-136).