Prayerbook (23 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. In Hebrew. 224 + 256 pages. 150 x 95 mm. (c. 6 x 3.5 inches) Original blue blind stamped binding is a bit worn. Text block solid, hinges exposed.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. In Hebrew. 779 + 234 + 88 Pages. 6 x 8.5 x 2.25 Inches. Ex library with deaccession stamp. Vocalized Hebrew with vocalized Yiddish at the bottom of each pages. Everything, including all commentaries, are vowelized (= have nikud).

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. In Hebrew. 467 pagesd. 19 x 13 cm. Title page in black and red lettering.

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 210 pages. Stefanie Markovits "Rushing Into Print: 'Participatory Journalism' During the Crimean War" / Joseph Nugent "The Sword and the Prayerbook: Ideals of Authentic Irish Manliness" / Kevin McLaughlin "Culture and Messianism: Disinterestedness in Arnold" (BT#41).

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 23 And 24th ed. Bi-lingual text, German and Hebrew. Very top and bottom of spine strip are rubbed. XX + 482 pages. 21 x 14 cm.

Hardcover, Half Leather. Condition: Very Good. In Hebrew and Yiddish. The Yiddish is the bottom half of the pages. Both the Hebrew and Yiddish are vowelized (have nikud). Faulty pagination. (10 unnumbered leaves), leaf 9, leaves 12 to 146. The first 3 leaves, including te title page are here, but there are a few leaves lacking after that and also at the end, after megillat Ruth. 23 x 17 cm. Pinkish cloth over boards and leather spine. Pages a bit yellowed.

Meist englisch-hebräischer Paralleltext. - Vorsätze mit eingeklebten Zusätzen, dadurch etw. fleckig.

Manuscript on paper, 8vo in 6s, pp. [50], [6(blank)]; in German, neatly written in a single hand in dark brown ink, calligraphic title within manuscript border, titles and initials in a larger gothic script, ruled in pencil; title a little foxed, a few minor stains, small smudge to inner margin pp. [1213], old adhesion to pp. [2021] affecting a few characters of text; sewn, spine reinforced with (later?) brown cloth.An attractive early nineteenth-century Catholic prayerbook in German, containing prayers for both daily use and for use during Mass. This manuscript, likely produced domestically for personal devotional use, records a variety of prayers, beginning with morning prayer and evening prayers and including prayers for using during Mass, for before and after Communion, for Confession, of thanksgiving, as well as a general prayer, a prayer for a Godly life, and a prayer for a blessed death. Language: German.

Single volume, illuminated manuscript on 18th-century Western (?) ruled paper, in Arabic, 236 leaves, collation: i12, ii-xii10, xiii8, xiv6, complete, 98 x 70 mm; single column, 7 lines black naskh with some headings in white (against gold banners), opening two sections copied within circular devices set within elaborate borders with decorations extending into the margins, illuminated polychrome head-piece and 9 hilya and full-page diagrams in the text, verses thoughout marked with gilt roundels, all edges stained pink, a few small smudges of areas of thumbing, overall bright and attractive condition; housed in contemporary leather over paste-boards with flap, traced of gold hand-painting to flap, rebacked, leather to lower board torn with partial loss. A charming prayerbook containing excerpts from the Qur'an, du'a (prayers) and hilya, presented in an attractive portable pocket-sized format. The patron of this volume would likely have requested the copying of their favourite excerpts from the Qur'an alongside specifically selected prayers for personal use. The volume contains the following Qur'anic excerpts and Du'a, including: Surah Ya-Sin (36:1-36:83, complete); Surah al-Fath (48:1-48:29, complete); Surah An-Naba (78:1-78:40, complete); 'Surah Al-Kursi' being Ayatul Kursi from Surah Al-Baqarah (2:255); Surah Al-Baqarah (2:285-2:286); Surah Ad-Duhaa (93:1-93:11, complete); Surah Ash-Sharh (94:1-94:8, complete); Surah At-Tin (95:1-95:8, complete); Surah Al-Asr (103:1-103:3, complete); Surah Al-Kawthar (108:1-108:3, complete); Surah Al-Kafirun (109:1-109:6, complete); Surah An-Nasr (110:1-110:3, complete); Surah Al-Ikhlas (112:1-112:4, complete); Surah Al-Falaq (113:1-113:5, complete); Surah An-Nas (114:1-114:6, complete); Surah Al-Fatihah (1:1-1:7, complete); Du'a Hilya Sharif (multiple variations thereof); Du'a Kanz al-Arash Sharif; Du'a Sharif Kanz al-Arash; Du'a Munarik; Du'a Mubarak; Du'a Adam; Du'a Aksha; Du'a Sharif Akshiyat; Du'a Abd'Allah Sharif; Du'a Ahad'nama Sharif; Du'a Marjan Sharif; Fal Qur'an Azim, among others.

Folio (204 x 300 mm). 46 ff. Arabic manuscript on paper. Black sini script in nine lines with red verse markers, titles in red, glossing in black. With beautifully illuminated full-page 'unwan with Chinese influence on designs, in gold, blue, red, green, and black. 18th century cloth and paper wrappers. A fascinating example of Chinese Muslim calligraphy and manuscript culture, with prayers in praise of Mohammed written out in the distinctive Sini script used by Muslim populations in China for hundreds of years, here accompanied by extensive glossing in the particularly Chinese-Muslim xiao'erjing (or xiaojing) script. The latter is adapted from the Arabic alphabet - with a few Persian borrowings - and is used to write out various dialects of Chinese phonetically. It appears here in interlinear and sometimes even in uncommon, vertically-written marginal glosses of the text. - Because xiaojing is famously flexible in adapting to various local Chinese dialects at various points in history, xiaojing manuscript survivals such as this one may serve an historical linguistic purpose: "An in-depth study of xiaojing transliterations carried out with the help of linguists while especially taking into account the unusual graph features may help to reconstruct the Chinese language spoken at the time under scrutiny" (Sobieroj, p. 182). - For a prayerbook, or indeed many sacred manuscripts such as the Qur'an, the use of xiaojing glosses was a growing manuscript tradition in 16th century China: "A reform of the Muslim educational system in China took place in the 16th century, when the gedimu (< qadim "old") system of mosque schools with Koranic recitation under an ahong (= 'imam) was replaced by the jingtang jiaoyu 'scripture hall education', in which Arabic was used pronounced with Chinese sounds, e.g., 'salam as sa liang mu'. In this education a systematic alphabetic representation of Chinese with Arabic letters (xiaojing) was developed, which is still used irregularly by Chinese Muslims" (Versteegh, p. 498). Through dated Safar 990 Hijri (September 1582) in the colophon, this copy may in fact be a later 18th century copy of a 16th century text. However, if indeed a 16th century original, it would be one of the earliest extant manuscript examples of xiaojing glosses. Regardless, it is a rare and valuable example of Sino-Arabic manuscript tradition, and the Muslim history of China. - Light exterior wear, binding a touch delicate. - Florian Sobieroj, "Standardisation in Manuscripts written in Sino-Arabic Scripts and xiaojing". In: Creating Standards. Interactions with Arabic script in 12 manuscript cultures, ed. by Dmitry Bondarev, Alessandro Gori & Lameen Souag (Berlin & Boston, 2019), pp. 177-216. Kees Versteegh, Arabica, Vol. 48.4, Linguistique Arabe: Sociolinguistique et Histoire de la Langue (2001), pp. 470-508.

Small 16mo (85 x 100 mm). (423), (3 blank) pp. German manuscript in red and black ink on paper, written in an upright, semi-cursive gothic hand, with Lombardic initials in red, rubricated throughout. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over bevelled wooden boards, 2 strap fastenings with brass clasps. A charming, pocket-sized Catholic manuscript prayerbook in German, written in red and black, bound in contemporary blind-tooled pigskin, both manuscript and binding probably the work of a monastery in Ravensburg or the surrounding region. - The manuscript begins with prayers to the Virgin Mary on 19 leaves (a1-c3) and continues with three series of rosary prayers on 47 leaves (c3-i1), further prayers to the Virgin Mary on 28 leaves (i1-m4), prayers for various days from Palm Sunday to Easter on 18 leaves (m4-o5), prayers for the 24 hours on 56 leaves (o5-x4), further rosary prayers in five parts on 21 leaves (x4-z8), the litany of all saints on 20 leaves (z8-2c3), and the litany of specific saints, including St Augustine, on 10 leaves (2c3-2d4). - The manuscript is very regular in its structure, only a few blank leaves have been removed: the final quire used for the prayerbook text itself ends with a blank leaf, followed by stubs of 3 leaves that have been torn out. The quires that contain the text of the prayerbook collate: [a]-[2c]8 [2d]8 (- 2d6, 7, 8) = [212], [1 blank] ff. The 17th century binder trimmed most of the quire signatures (quire a probably had none), but on the first leaf of a few quires one can see the top of the letter that was shaved (confirming the collation): i, k, r, s. The top of some letter or mark, also shaved, can be seen in the same position on c3, f2 and 2d1-4, but it is not clear what they are. The endpapers appear to have been a quire of four leaves at the front and a quire of six leaves at the back, probably each with its first leaf removed and the outermost remaining leaf pasted down. - The paper is almost certainly of foolscap size, nearly all watermarked with the Ravensburg coat of arms (a castle represented as a gate between two towers, standing upon a corbel). The gate in the present watermarks probably has a door under a peaked roof, rather than a portcullis, but this and the initial(s) or other sign in the corbel are difficult to make out because each watermark is divided between four leaves with the central parts lost in trimming. The crenellated battlement of each tower is rounded, has three merlons, and sits directly on a rounded slab, the battlement having no narrower neck leading to the slab. Each tower has one window, connected to the wall on the gate side by (in most cases) two diagonal wires that form a triangle with the wall as its base and the point touching the window. We have not found an example in the literature with this triangular link, but otherwise the present watermarks resemble many from the period 1655 to 1675 (Piccard III, group IX, 171-186 & 253-259, plus many scattered throughout group VIII). Those in quires a, f and probably b and g have two initials (probably "HL") flanking the corbel; the literature shows no initials in that position before 1666. This suggests that the manuscript was probably produced in the period ca. 1665 to ca. 1675. One Ravensburg castle mark in WZIS has an HL monogram in the corbel, but not the initials flanking it, and the style of the castle is completely different: it is not clear whether it dates from 1666 or between 1686 and 1700. Not surprisingly, Ravensburg castle watermarks appear most frequently in Ravensburg (in Upper Swabia, just north of Lake Constance), but also in the vicinity (Konstanz, Weingarten, Salem, Überlingen); they are rare elsewhere. - The endpapers were probably made from one of the paper stocks used for the manuscript itself (one leaf shows one side of the foot of the Ravensburg castle watermark, with no initials flanking the corbel), suggesting that the production of the manuscript and its binding were closely tied, perhaps at a monastery in the region. Three bifolia show parts of a different watermark: two bifolia in quire c show a crown, perhaps from a coat of arms or an Imperial double-headed eagle, while one in quire l shows what may be the foot of a coat of arms or possibly the tip of the tail of an eagle, with scroll decorations. - In a 16mo in 8s, one expects each quire to represent a half-sheet, and each sheet would provide one half sheet with a watermark and one without. Here, eight quires show parts of a watermark in four of the eight leaves, and six show no watermark. But even these quires were not consistently made from regularly folded half sheets: some were assembled from separate bifolia, so that some of the watermarks appear at the foot of the fore-edge rather than its head. Most of the quires a-l and a few others show parts of watermarks in 1, 2 or 3 leaves, demonstrating that they contain bifolia from different half-sheets. In quire e, three leaves show one of the two towers from a Ravensburg castle watermark, proving that they come from parts of two different sheets (c and l, which include parts of a different kind of watermark, also mix bifolia from different sheets). - Some minor and mostly marginal foxing, a hole in l6 and 7, a small marginal tear in l8 and insignificant ones in a few other leaves, but still in good condition. The binding has a hole in the pigskin covering the spine, along one of the supports, is slightly soiled and most of the blue colouring of the edges of the leaves is lost. The centrepiece on the front board does not appear to be worn, but its image (probably the Virgin Mary or a female saint) is nevertheless difficult to make out: perhaps the binder did not impress it strongly. The binding also remains in good condition. - One or more early owners of the present manuscript have written six pages of further prayers on the endpapers (2 at the front and 4 at the back), mostly in a single contemporary hand, including "ein gebeid der Reponsori.

Single volume, lithographed from a manuscript in Arabic, 160pp., complete, 125 x 80 mm; printed from a manuscript in single column, 7 lines bold naskh script with vocalisation and diacritics, leaves a little browned and some very small chips to outer edges of margins (not affecting text), numerous early ink inscriptions in English including a list of contents and a part-translation of the colophon; contemporary quarter leather over marbled boards, a little rubbed.

Single volume, illuminated manuscript on paper, in Arabic, 161 leaves plus a final free blank at the end of the volume, complete, 173 x 103 mm; single column, 11 lines fine black naskh, chapter headings in gold throughout, contemporary catch-words, text-block ruled in gold and blue, final two leaves loose becoming loose otherwise in very good and very clean condition; contemporary diced red leather morocco, covers ruled in border of small circular tooling in blind, extremities very slightly rubbed, a very nice copy. A very attractive copy of the popular collection prayers entitled al-Sahifah al-Kamilah, intended for daily use. Copied in a very fine naskh script by the apparently unrecorded scribe 'Abdullah al-Husayni al-Nayrizi, described in the colophon as the son of Aqa Mirza 'Ali Reza.

Condition: Good. Salzburg 1783 Johann Franz Mayer. 'Auserlesene Morgends Abends Mess Geicht und Communion.' 8vo., 316pp., frontis engraving, titlepage in red and black, full leather. Good, leather worn, leaves lightly foxed and spotted. Binding secure. Rare.

Hardcover. Condition: Fair. In Hebrew and Yiddish. The Yiddish is vowelized (has nikud). Large format and large type (lettering). 340 pages. 11 x 8.5 inches.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Israeliltische Gebetordnung fur synagoge und schule, wie zuer hauslichen gottesverehrung. Bearbeitet und aus auftrag der Kongil. Wurttemb. Oberkirchenbehorde. Herausgegeben von Dr. Joseph Maier, Kirchenrath und Rabbiner zu Stuttgart. In zwei banden. Erester Band, for weekday, Sabbath and the three Festivals. Verlag der J. B. Metzler'chen. Buchhandlung, 1861 Volume 1 of 2. All edges gilt. Very attractive original binding. Pages 218-245 have musical notations with German text. Most of the book is bilingual with the Hebrew page facing the German page. Front blanks have inscriptions noting the births of several children in the Einstein family in the middle of the 19th century: Heinrich, Ricka, Julie, Alexander, and a penciled note in German.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Monastic prayerbook, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum, [Italy (perhaps Brescia), fifteenth century], 123 leaves (plus a modern paper endleaf at each end), wants leaves at beginning (including a Calendar if one originally opened the book) and end, collation: i7 (wants first leaf), ii-vii8, viii4 (but without losses to text), ix-xvi8, catchwords throughout, text in double column of 25 lines of a small late gothic bookhand, with some ornamental penwork cadels in upper margin, one- and 2-line initials in alternate red and blue, larger initials in red and blue panels with penwork in same colours, a few spaces left for initials, darkened at edges through use, some areas of ink flaking away from pages, discoloured and slightly cockled throughout, evidently missing leaves at front and back and kept disbound for some time: with leaves at each end discoloured (that at front worse, with blank margin of first leaf torn away), overall fair and legible condition, 153 x 105mm.; modern limp vellum binding. ? Provenance: 1. Written for use in fifteenth-century Italy. The absence of a Calendar robs us of much that might localise the book more precisely, but the presence of St. Gaudentius (bishop of Brescia until his death in 410) in the Litany might suggest an origin there. 2. In the library of the Jesuits of Turin (founded 1567) by the eighteenth century: their ex libris marks at heads of first leaf ("Collegii Taurinensi Soc. Jesu ."). 3. Bought by the present owner from Leo S. Olschki of Lucignano, in June 1982. The volume now comprises: a Psalter; prayers and a Litany of saints; readings for various Canonical Hours and the feasts of various saints (SS. Martin, Catherine and Andrew); Canticles (ending abruptly).

Amsterdam, J.L. Joachimsthal, 1879 - 1882. 8 (of 9) volumes. Contemporary red morocco with gilt decorations on front and back boards, spines gilt, a.e.g., (spine ends sl. dam.). Hebrew and Dutch text. - Prayer for: Den avond van den verzoendag; Eersten en tweeden dag van het Paaschfeest; Zevenden en achtsten dag van het Paaschfeest; Eersten dag van het nieuwjaarsfeest; Tweeden dag van het nieuwjaarsfeest; Sabbath der middeldagen van het loofhuttenfeest, het slotfeest en het vreugde feest der wet; Eersten en tweeden dag van het loofhuttenfeest; Eerste en tweeden dag van het wekenfeest. - A fine set.

[Bologna. c. 1490-1500.] Manuscript on vellum (95 x 70 mm). Nineteenth-century dark brown morocco, borders tooled in blind to a rope design, unidentified Italian arms blocked in blind to boards, blue silk endleaves, housed in a modern custom-made black cloth box; ff. ii, 144, ii; 1-28, 3-810 (f. 31 in 4, apparently in original condition on a stub and with outer edge made-up), 9~sup~8~sup~, 10-15~sup~10~sup~, complete; written in a round gothic bookhand in brown ink for 11 lines to a page, ruled in light brown, early manuscript foliation to upper corners (ff. 98 and 138 numbered twice), written space c. 60 x 45 mm; rubrics in red, 1-line initials alternately in red and blue, 2-line initials of liquid gold on blue, red, or green grounds with fine penwork, large illuminated 7-line initial 'S' (f. 31~sup~v~sup~) enclosing Virgin and Child against a black ground, initial entwined by elaborate foliage, painted in green and blue, heightened in gold, and set against a magenta ground, with accompanying panel border including jewels and pearls, and large 5-line historiated initial 'D' (f. 86~sup~r~sup~) painted magenta and green including jewels and pearls, against blue and gold grounds, with matching full-page partial border; extremities of binding very lightly rubbed; a little smudging to page with historiated initial, occasional small stain, but generally very well preserved; title to second front flyleaf and ownership inscription to lifted rear pastedown in an early nineteenth-century hand in black ink, late nineteenth- century bookplate after sixteenth-century design with initials 'T.N.D.L.', twentieth-century bookplates to front free endpaper (see below).An elegant manuscript prayerbook on vellum, produced in Bologna in the 1490s, apparently the result of collaboration between the calligrapher Pierantonio Sallando and an illuminator from the circle of the great painter and jeweller Francesco Marmitta, featuring numerous devotional indulgences with guidance in the vernacular. Illumination:The Mass of the Virgin ('Missa Beatae Mariae Virginis', f. 31~sup~v~sup~) opens with a large illuminated initial 'S' depicting a half-length Virgin adoring the Christ Child, and an elaborate full-page border. The colour palette (dark red, blue, green, black and gold) and the use of attenuated architectural forms, jewels and foliage place this manuscript alongside a group of Books of Hours produced for aristocratic patrons in Bologna around 1500 (cf. Medica). Many of these manuscripts resulted from the partnership between illuminators in Bologna - the most influential among them Francesco Marmitta (c. 1460-1505) - and the prolific calligrapher Pierantonio Sallando (c. 1460-1540). Together Marmitta and Sallando developed the sophisticated architectural borders, such as those of the present prayerbook, that became a hallmark of Bologna's finest High Renaissance manuscripts. Their most celebrated and luxurious joint effort is the Offiziolo Durazzo (Genoa, Bib. Civ. Berio, m.r.cf.Arm.I).Our prayerbook was apparently also written by Sallando. The illumination may be ascribed to the same painter who collaborated with Marmitta on the Rangoni-Bentivoglio Hours (Baltimore, WAG, ms W.469) and contributed to other Hours written by Sallando in Oxford (Bodleian Library, ms Canon. Liturg. 260), Bassano del Grappa (Bib. Civ., Esp. 4 ms 1564), and the Hours of Giovanni II Bentivoglio (Morgan Lib. Ms M.53). In the present manuscript, the two large initials and borders on f. 31~sup~v~sup~ and f. 86 share similar forms and colour palette. Stylistically closely related borders are found in one of Sallando's most famous commissions, the Hours of Bonaparte Ghisilieri illuminated by Amico Aspertini, Perugino and Matteo da Milano (BL, Yates Thompson 29).Contents:Calendar (ff. 2~sup~r~sup~-19~sup~v~sup~); Confessio generalis (ff. 20~sup~r~sup~-21~sup~r~sup~); Gospel Extracts (ff. 21~sup~r~sup~-31~sup~r~sup~); Missa Beatae Mariae Virginis (ff. 31~sup~v~sup~-49~sup~r~sup~); Prayer of St Augustine opening 'Deus propicius esto mihi peccatori' (ff. 49~sup~v~sup~-51~sup~v~sup~); Fifteen prayers on the Passion as said daily by St Bridget and indulgenced by Boniface VIII, opening 'O domine iesu christe eterna dulcedo' (ff. 51~sup~v~sup~-80~sup~r~sup~); Apostles Creed (ff. 80~sup~r~sup~-81~sup~r~sup~); Sequence of prayers (ff. 81~sup~v~sup~-85~sup~r~sup~), to be said daily while kneeling before an image of Christ to keep from the pain of Hell, to gain divine assistance, counsel and favour, and when body or soul are in danger; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany (ff. 86~sup~r~sup~-116~sup~v~sup~); Prayers and devotions addressed to God, opening with Psalm 68 and including two prayers naming the owner, 'famulo tuo Jacobo' (ff. 125~sup~v~sup~, 126~sup~v~sup~, and 133~sup~r~sup~), and ending with a prayer to protect when travelling and a prayer to the Guardian Angel (ff. 117-134); Prayers attributed to St Bernard and other indulgenced prayers (ff. 135-143~sup~v~sup~).From f. 79~sup~v~sup~ (the heading opening the sequence of devotional prayers to be recited before an image of Christ), the subject headings for individual orations appear in the vernacular to more clearly remind our Jacobus of the function of each prayer, even through the prayers themselves are to be recited in Latin. 'In formal books of hours, manuscript or printed, the prayers are almost always in Latin - even if the pardon or promise is in [the vernacular]. This again raises questions about whether the prayers were actually understood, or merely recited as a mechanistic device to procure the pardon' (Swanson, p. 222). The final prayers deal with indulgences, e.g. 'the following verses are those which we read that the devil appeared to St Bernard. And they bring great virtue and merit to he who reads them every day; he will not die without confession, nor experience the punishments of Hell; and he will know the day of his death' (f. 136, trans.); another offers 6666 days' indulgen.

A Russian Orthodox service book for Easter and the week following it, in the Old Church Slavonic language, printed, published and bound at the Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves) in Kiev. The monastery was established in the 11th century. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the Orthodox Churches in Russia and Ukraine developed independently. The power of the Czars allowed the Russian Orthodox Church to dominate, so that the Ukrainian Church came under the Moscow Patriarchate in 1686. The Monastery of the Caves is therefore now Ukrainian Orthodox, but fell under the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church when the present service book was published. It nevertheless had its own traditions and rites, so that the present book should be regarded as part of the Ukrainian heritage.The only other copy we have located is at Amsterdam University Library, one of three Easter service books by the Kiev Pechersk Lavra recorded on WorldCat, all octavos. With a lengthy cyrillic inscription on an endleaf. The sewing is somewhat loose and as a result a few leaves are tattered at the edges. There are occasional minor smudges and drops of candle wax. Much of the gold-tooling has rubbed off the binding and the spine is slightly damaged. In spite of these minor defects, the book is in good condition, especially for a book of this nature.l For the Kiev bindery: S. A. Klepikov, "Historical notes on Ukrainian bookbinding", in: The book collector, 15 (1966), pp. 135-142. Contemporary gold-panel-stamped and gold-tooled calf by the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, sewn on 4 cords, with a panel stamp of Jesus on the front board (9.7 x 4.5 cm, perhaps with a name in the left half of the lower border) and a panel stamp of Maria with the serpent holding an apple under her feet (9.5 x 4.3 cm), each in a gold-tooled border and with another gold-tooled border around the whole board, gold-tooled spine with "Kanonu Paskhi" (Easter Canon) in Old Slavonic capitals in the second of five compartments, gilt edges. The endpapers, like the paper of the book itself, are laid and have a blue-green cast. Easter liturgy in Old Church Slavonic, with title-page and about 20 other pages printed in red and black, the title in a woodcut border and with a woodcut Paschal lamb, a full-page engraving of Jesus's Resurrection (10 x 6 cm) on the back of the title-page, all pages after the title-page with borders made up of 4 woodcut strips, woodcut head- and tailpieces and decorated initials (a 17 mm and a 9 mm series), and decorations built up from cast fleurons. Set in 3 sizes of Old Slavonic poluustav cyrillic type. Printed on laid paper with a blue-green cast.

A fascinating example of Chinese Muslim calligraphy and manuscript culture, with prayers in praise of Mohammed written out in the distinctive Sini script used by Muslim populations in China for hundreds of years, here accompanied by extensive glossing in the particularly Chinese-Muslim xiao'erjing (or xiaojing) script. The latter is adapted from the Arabic alphabet - with a few Persian borrowings - and used to write out various dialects of Chinese phonetically. It appears here in interlinear and sometimes even in uncommon, vertically-written marginal glosses of the text. Because xiaojing is famously flexible in adapting to various local Chinese dialects at various points in history, xiaojing manuscript survivals such as this one may serve an historical linguistic purpose: "An in-depth study of xiaojing transliterations carried out with the help of linguists while especially taking into account the unusual graph features may help to reconstruct the Chinese language spoken at the time under scrutiny" (Sobieroj, p. 182) - For a prayerbook, or indeed many sacred manuscripts such as the Qur'an, the use of xiaojing glosses was a growing manuscript tradition in 16th century China: - "A reform of the Muslim educational system in China took place in the 16th century, when the gedimu (< qadam "old") system of mosque schools with Koranic recitation under an ahong (= 'imam), was replaced by the jingtang jiaoyu "scripture hall education", in which Arabic was used pronounced with Chinese sounds, e.g., salam as sa liang mu. In this education a systematic alphabetic representation of Chinese with Arabic letters (xiaojing) was developed, which is still used irregularly by Chinese Muslims" (Versteegh, p. 498). Through dated Safar 990 Hijri (September 1582) on the colophon, this copy may in fact be a later 18th-century copy of a 16th-century text. However, if indeed a 16th-century original it would be one of the earliest extant manuscript examples of xiaojing glosses. Regardless, it is a rare and valuable example of Sino-Arabic manuscript tradition, and the Muslim history of China.Light exterior wear, binding a touch delicate.l Florian Sobieroj, "Standardisation in Manuscripts written in Sino-Arabic Scripts and xiaojing". In: Creating Standards. Interactions with Arabic script in 12 manuscript cultures, ed. by Dmitry Bondarev, Alessandro Gori & Lameen Souag (Berlin & Boston, 2019), pp. 177-216. Kees Versteegh, Arabica, Vol. 48.4, Linguistique Arabe: Sociolinguistique et Histoire de la Langue (2001), pp. 470-508. 18th-century cloth and paper wrappers. Arabic manuscript on paper. Black sini script in nine lines with red verse markers, titles in red, glossing in black. With beautifully illuminated full-page 'Unwan with Chinese influence on designs, in gold, blue, red, green, and black. Pages: 46 ll.

A charming little 16mo Catholic manuscript prayerbook in German, written in red and black on paper in a contemporary blind-tooled pigskin binding, the manuscript and binding probably made in a monastery in Ravensburg or the surrounding region. It begins with prayers to the Virgin Mary on 19 leaves (a1-c3) and continues with three series of rosary prayers on 47 leaves (c3-i1), further prayers to the Virgin Mary on 28 leaves (i1-m4), prayers for various days from Palm Sunday to Easter on 18 leaves (m4-o5), prayers for the twenty-four hours on 56 leaves (o5-x4), further rosary prayers in five parts on 21 leaves (x4-z8), the litany of all saints on 20 leaves (z8-2c3) and the litany of specific saints, including Augustine, on 10 leaves (2c3-2d4).The manuscript is very regular in its structure, except that a few blank leaves have been removed.One or more early owners of the present manuscript have written 6 pages of further prayers on the endpapers (2 at the front and 4 at the back), most in a single contemporary hand, including "ein gebeid der Reponsori deß H: Bonaventura ."; "So du nun mirackel suchst der Godt ."; "Wo man alle nacht mit Jesu schlaffe soll, ."; "Fünff vögelen singen, daß es in den Rainen ." (five songs, numbered 1 to 5). There is also a 2-line inscription on the back paste-down. Parts of the front paste-down, which probably contained an owner's inscription, have been removed or defaced, but one can still see bits of an early inscription. The manuscript shows some minor and mostly marginal foxing, a hole in l6 and 7, a small marginal tear in l8 and insignificant ones in a few other leaves, but it remains in good condition. The binding has a hole in the pigskin covering the spine, along one of the supports, is slightly soiled and most of the blue colouring of the edges of the leaves is lost. The centrepiece on the front board does not appear to be worn, but its image (probably the Virgin Mary or a female saint) is nevertheless difficult to make out: perhaps the binder did not impress it strongly. The binding also remains in good condition. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over bevelled wooden (beechwood?) boards, sewn on 3 double supports, each board with a double rectangular frame of multiple fillets, the inner frame with an oval centrepiece stamp (32 x 22 mm: the front with a female figure (the Virgin Mary or a saint?) in a decorative border; the back divided by 2 diagonal double lines and 4 diagonal double arcs into 4 inner and 8 outer fields, each filled with arabesque decorations, the outer fields darkened so that the inner fields form a lighter lozenge with concaved sides), an arabesque stamp inside each corner of the inner frame and a decorative border between the inner and outer frames built up from at least 2 straight branches with leaves and at least 4 rosettes (5, 6 and 7 petalled), fillets on spine and turn-ins. In total more than 100 impressions of about 9 stamps. Further with 2 strap fastenings with brass clasps (each with an owner's(?) stamp: 1.5 mm roman capital initials "LH" above a 3 mm head in profile, facing right), catchplates and anchor plates, plain headbands, blue edges. With 27 mm roman capital initials "BR" in brown ink on the foot edge. German manuscript in red and black ink on paper, written in an upright, semi-cursive gothic hand, with so-called lombardic initials in red (a few 2-line and hundreds of 1-line), rubricated throughout. With 11 lines per page, text block 7 x 5.5 cm. Pages: [423], [3 blank] pp. plus 3 endleaves at the front and 5 at the back. Small 16mo in 8s (10 x 8.5 x 4 cm; leaf: 9 x 7.5 cm).

Amsterdam, J.L. Joachimsthal, 5642 - 1882. Contemporary half calf. Hebrew and Dutch text.