Geniza Lab

Accounts in Hebrew and Ladino on dated alphanumerically on 1v and 7v as 5600AM (התר) which is 1839/1840CE. There is a large title on 1r possibly indicating that all 14 folios of this fragment, or at least this page, served as a "פנקס הכנסה והוצאה" (a register of income and expenses). In certain places the lists are organized by the weekly parsha readings of the liturgical calendar and then in other contexts the full calendar months are noted instead. On 1v there is a note in Judaeo-Spanish mentioning payment to a communal gabbay "me debe mi senyor padre 155 grushes a el anyo ke me izo de akhnasa [collection?] a el gabbay." The parsha reading system of recordkeeping is common across communal registers from earlier in the nineteenth century and in the eighteenth century. The register fragment is a rich source for tracing surnames, such as Beniste (1r), Cesana (1r, 2r), Franko (2r), Kaballero (2v), and others. A list of calculations on 7v has a peculiar entry "baqshīsh del kalsado de Kandia" ("a payment from the drunkard from Candia"). See Kohen and Kohen-Gordon's dictionary entry of Ladino for "kalsado". In the later folios, the content shifts away from entries about people's payments to inventory lists of goods such as: "asucar/sugar", "limon/lemon," portuqal/orange," "miliḥ/salt" (10v).Taken together, this register fragment represents one of the largest from the nineteenth century and holds a vast array data for further examination. MCD.