Sefer HaMinhagim of Rabbi Avraham Klausner – Riva di Trento, 1558 – First Edition of an Early Ashkenazic Book of Customs

Sefer HaMinhagim of Rabbi Avraham Klausner – Riva di Trento, 1558 – First Edition of an Early Ashkenazic Book of Customs

Minhagim of R. Avraham Klausner, with selected glosses. Riva di Trento: Yaakov Marcaria and Antonio Bruin, 1558. First edition.

First edition of an early book of Ashkenazi customs, including customs, laws and prayers following the French and Ashkenazi rite, according to the days of the year. The main part of the book is based primarily on Siddur Rashi and Machzor Vitri, along with several other sources, with additions by R. Yechizkiyah of Magdeburg and R. Chaim Paltiel; the latter glossated the book based on Ashkenazi customs. The glosses on the margins include those of R. Avraham Klausner, some of which name him explicitly, giving this work its name.

On the last leaf is printed an interesting story: "I, the scribe, personally had this experience, that I vowed to fast Mondays and Thursdays for an entire year, and Tishah BeAv of that year fell on a Tuesday, and the Torah scholar R. Lipman of Neustadt and R. Mendel Klausner permitted me to have only one cooked dish of lentils with no oil and no other supplement".

R. Avraham Klausner (Maharak), a Torah scholar of Austria, rabbi and yeshiva dean in Vienna in the 14th century. His disciples, the Maharil and R. Eizik of Tyrnau, authored famous Minhagim books which quote many sayings from their teacher; their teacher's Minhagim book was likely the inspiration for their own. R. Avraham Klausner's halachic rulings are also cited in the writings of Mahari Weil and other Ashkenazi rabbis.

Short handwritten gloss on p. 23b.

28, 33-43, [1] leaf. 15 cm. Good condition. Stains. Marginal open tear to one leaf, repaired with paper filling. New parchment binding.