Printed in Ferrara in 1553, this Spanish prayer book offered access to the services of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur for readers who could not readily understand Hebrew. Among its intended readers were Iberian conversos: descendants of Jews compelled to become Christians, some of whom left Spain or Portugal to practice Judaism openly. Their knowledge of Jewish tradition varied. For those raised within Christian society, joining a Jewish community could require learning the prayers and practices of an unfamiliar religious life.

Abraham ben Solomon Usque, the book’s publisher, had himself left Portugal, where he was known as Duarte Pinhel, and settled in Ferrara. His press helped supply the books through which Iberian exiles could encounter Jewish texts in a language they understood. In the same year, he also participated in publishing the celebrated Ferrara Bible in Spanish. 

The title page brings this meeting of languages into view. An architectural border, with columns supporting an ornamented arch, frames the text like an entrance. At its head stands the Hebrew word מחזור, “mahzor,” a festival prayer book. Beneath it, Gothic lettering announces the Spanish title: “Order of Rosh Hashanah and Kippur.” The following lines explain that the work has been “translated into Spanish and newly corrected through the labor and diligence of Abraham Usque, son of Solomon Usque, Portuguese,” and “printed in his house and at his expense.” The imprint dates the book to 15 Elul 5313, placing a Spanish-language publication within the Jewish calendar.

The historian Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi described the re-education of former conversos as a sustained effort in which vernacular books played a central role. Prayer books and biblical translations opened Jewish worship and scripture to readers with little Hebrew; other works taught religious law or addressed beliefs formed under Christianity. This sixteenth-century mahzor belongs to the earlier history of the process he traced in seventeenth-century communities.

Here, translation provides a means of participation. A reader could follow the High Holy Day services, understand their appeals for forgiveness, and learn their language of repentance. At approximately fifteen centimeters tall, the volume was small enough to carry and consult during worship. Its Spanish text in Latin letters joined a familiar reading culture to renewed Jewish practice. Printing helped make that return possible.