Ritual circumciser’s often owned their own, personal copies of books (“mohel books”) containing works pertaining to the circumcision ritual and prayers and recitations to accompany the ceremony. In the 17th-18th centuries and beyond, some commissioned the creation of beautiful, decorated manuscript copies for their use over time. These volumes typically included the circumciser’s record of the circumcisions he performed, including the dates of the ritual and the names given to the infants. These lists constitute a valuable record of the lives of specific Jewish communities. 

On this page, you see the enlarged word “and he cut,” as in “and he cut with him a covenant” (Nechemiah 9:8). This scriptural portion is part of the preparatory recitations for morning prayers, but it has a special place at the circumcision, as it speaks, using the regular biblical idiom, of “cutting a covenant”—which is, of course, precisely what will happen at the circumcision ceremony.