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. You can also see examples of the fine decorative penwork—red filagree—that is found on so many pages of this work. Such decoration was common in manuscripts of this period, and it is found even in copies of the Gutenberg Bible. 

On this page you will notice that part of the original prayer has been censored. If you read Hebrew, you may recognize that this is the Alenu prayer, which, in its pre-censored version, declares the worthlessness of other gods and the truth of the Jewish God. The manuscript, written before the regime of censorship, originally included the full text, but when, in the 16th century, the church became aware of the “dangers” of disseminating many copies of writings in print, manuscripts were retrospectively censored as well, as here. Notably, in the margin you will see terms suggested as replacements for what has been censored, seeking to generalize the message of the prayer so that Christian censors wouldn’t object.