Tehillim – Large Format Manuscript on Parchment – Mladá Boleslav, 1719

Tehillim – Large Format Manuscript on Parchment – Mladá Boleslav, 1719
Large manuscript on parchment, Tehillim – "Arranged for the days of the week and whoever recites it each day is promised the World to Come". [Mladá Boleslav, Bohemia], 1719.
A complete manuscript, particularly large and impressive (format for a cantor). At the beginning is an artistically illustrated title page with architectural structures and vegetal and geometric motifs. At the top of the title page is the figure of King David playing the harp. Artistic, distinct and neat, scribal writing, vowelized (partially with te'amim). Enlarged initials.
The manuscript opens with a prayer "To recite before Tehillim" and after the prayer is a list of the Shir Shel Yom for weekdays and Festivals. The pages are titled: "Tehillim for Sunday", "Tehillim for Monday", etc. Two prayers to recite after Tehillim appear at the end of the book. Enclosed at the end of the volume are two additional parchment leaves by a different writer with a prayer for the sick.
On the verso of the title page is a dedication for a Tehillim group, which apparently was active in Mladá Boleslav: "The volunteers to recite in the synagogue evening, morning and noon, Zmirot Israel … they have undertook... to write the book on elaborate parchment sheets so that it will be known for a long time… they have written… the following names". Further is a list of members: Avraham, son of the late R’ Yosef Mordechai Katz of Mladá Boleslav; Ya’akov, son of R’ Mordechai; Yosef, son of R’ Leib Sabatky; Yitzchak, son of R’ David; Simcha, son of R’ Meir; Yehuda, son of R’ Eliezer; Eliezer, son of R’ Aharon; Moshe son of R’ Shimi”.
The community of Mladá Boleslav near Prague was one of the oldest Jewish communities of Bohemia. Many great prominent rabbis served in its rabbinate: Rabbi Shabtai Sheftel Horowitz, author of Vavei Amudim [son of the Shla]; Rabbi Shmuel son of R’ Yosef Yaski of Lublin, author of Lechem Rav; and others. At the time this book of Tehillim was written, the Rabbi of Mladá Boleslav was Rabbi Moshe HaLevi Brandeis, who was called “R’ Moshe Charif” (died in 1760), and later [from 1733] served as Av Beit Din of Mainz [see: The City of Mladá Boleslav and its Rabbis”, by Rabbi Zvi HaLevi Horowitz, Otzar HaChaim (Ehrenreich) anthology, Year 8, pp. 16-26].
[2], 54, [2] leaves. 36 cm. Good-fair condition. Many stains and wear. Faded ink on title page illustration. Tears to several leaves. Several loose or detached leaves. Ancient leather binding, torn and damaged.