This beautiful siddur (prayer book), following the Roman rite, was written by the great Italian scribe, Abraham Farissol (ca. 1451- ca. 1525). Farissol performed many responsibilities in the Jewish communities of northern Italy, but he was particularly sought after as a scribe. This siddur is distinguished by Farissol’s magnificent writing, on fine parchment.  

Farissol’s style is clear and elegant, following forms that are easier to read and write than older scribal writing. This style is clearly influenced by the new “humanistic script,” invented in the early 15th century and used by Christian scribes for the writing of Latin. 

On this still beautiful page, we witness the ravages of time as well as intentional destruction—the scratching out of images that once graced the rondels. In the bottom two, you can see that a later owner (perhaps the one who did the damage) wrote in “Shema Yisrael,” advertising his piety. The rondel on the right of the page has not been completely effaced, and, if you look carefully, you can still see blue pigment on the top and green on the bottom. Were these sky and grass? We believe that these spaces were once graced with images of the young woman for whom this manuscript was produced as a wedding present. The later owner seems to have been uncomfortable with images of women in his siddur.