Geniza Lab

Printed treatise in Ladino and Hebrew. Translation of Mishna Avot.

Printed Haggada in Ladino and Hebrew.

Printed Haggada in Ladino and Hebrew. One side contains the Hallel with Ladino translation on the side. The other side contains remnants of lovely illuminations of the Israelites in the wilderness, along with Ladino translations of Hebrew text that is now missing. The format is identical to T-S Misc.17.107, except that that one appears to be in Judaeo-Italian and this one in Ladino.

Printed Haggada in Ladino and Hebrew. The capitals contain lovely illuminations.

Printed Haggada with lovely illuminations.

Printed treatise in Ladino. Laws of prayer (Oraḥ Ḥayyim).

Printed treatise in Ladino and Hebrew. Biblical concordance/dictionary.

Printed treatise in Ladino and Hebrew. Commentary on Genesis (parashat Noah).

Literary text. Printed. In Latin and Hebrew. On sacrifices.

Printed Haggada in Hebrew and Judaeo-Italian. There are lovely illuminations, captioned with lines of poetry. The format is identical to T-S Misc.15.69, except that that one appears to be in Ladino and this in Judaeo-Italian.

Printed treatise in Ladino and Hebrew. Glosses on the Torah (parashat Yitro).

Printed treatise in Ladino. Two bifolia from Sefer Yosippon.

Bifolium from a printed book. Retelling of Megillat Esther in Ladino poetry, in stanzas of eight verses each with an ABBAACCA rhyme scheme.

The frontispiece and the first daf of the Sabbioneta Kiddushin (printed Elul 5313 = 1543 CE), under the rule of Vespesiano Gonzaga and in the Hebrew press by then owned by Tobias b. Eliezer Foa. Apart from intrinsic interest, there are several annotations on the frontispiece. At the top is a signature. Below is a short book list, naming twice a work by the מהרימ"ט = Joseph Trani (ca. 1569–1639), the book עדות ביהוסף, and תשובות הרא״ם = the responsa of Eliyyahu Mizrahi (ca. 1455–1526). Below the lovely illuminated capitals is an ownership note: הצעיר יצחק סורבונה (?). At the bottom adjacent to the printing information appears to be the name Thomas spelled according to its French pronunciation and given a typically Jewish honorific: כה״ר טומה. On verso, there is rudimentary alphabetical practice and a line in cursive Hebrew script, perhaps Ladino (לאש . . . אינטרא. . . .).

A curious fragment that looks like it was torn out of a notebook. It is hard to make anything of the writing on the small pages. There may be remnants of very large letters underlying or overlying the text. On the large pages, there is a ketubba for ʿAmram b. Yeshuʿa ha-Zaqen and Sitt al-Nās, dated 24 Tevet 1477 (1165 CE) and invoking the reshut of the Gaon Netanel ha-Levi (recto), it seems including some of the trousseau (verso). ASE.

Three fragments of a letter from Mukram(?) to Abū l-Bahā' reminding him that he promised to send him a chessboard (? naṭʿ). He urges him to deliver it to his house in Fustat before Shabbat and to select the best one that he has. ASE.

Recto: Interesting accounts in Judaeo-Arabic, partly in the first person ("Friday: baṭṭāl. Sunday: I went out. . . "). Mentions a donkey and its provender. Verso: Pen trials in Hebrew, including a few lines of poetry

6 lines of a document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe describing the circumstances in which ḥujaj or other documents should be drawn up in Muslim courts instead of Jewish courts "because thus they will be valid (?)" (li-anna bi-dhālika tuthbatu). Someone else has recopied some of the words in the spaces between the lines. ASE

Letter in Judaeo-Arabic, no earlier than 1425 CE because it mentions gold Ashrafī coins, to a certain Yiṣḥaq addressed as ha-Sar. The addressee's letter arrived with al-Ḥajj Ḥasan al-Bābā. The writer went together with al-Bābā to the amir, the deputy of the citadel, and read to him the decrees (marāsīm) and some sort of declaration of allegiance (? אעטא אלסמע ואלטאעה). A Genoese Frank was summoned (an ambassador, per Goitein, Med Soc, I, 43) and the decree was read to him as well. The decree is in two versions (maktūbayn), one according to sharʿī law and one according to Genoese. The remainder of the letter is damaged and difficult to follow; the "masṭūr" of the decree is mentioned; 100 Ashrafīs; and a consultation of a qāḍī. Merits further examination.

Recto: Fragments of two lines of a state document in a chancery hand. Mentions the phrase "yataḍamman mablagh" and possibly "the village known as Ṭur Sīnā." Verso: The page is filled with mirror-image Arabic script. It seems to be the imprint of a deed of sale. Needs further examination.