Yemenite Liturgical Manuscript

A Yemenite liturgical MS codex (incomplete) containing lamentations (qinot), penitential hymns (selichot and maranot) for the Ninth of Av and for mourners in Hebrew and Aramaic. Includes compositions of the medieval Hebrew poets of Spain (Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Judah ha-Levi, Abraham Ibn Ezra) and other well-known hymns of the Sephardi rite, as well as poems known only from the Yemenite rite. Also, bound into the codex are astronomical texts in Judaeo-Arabic, including mention of lunar mansions and prognostications by quivering. In between the leather and sack cloth binding is a parchment leaf containing text from Pirke Avot, Mishnah 1: 4-8. Other leaves are hidden between the leather, but they are too damaged and crumbled to retrieve. The version of the prayer for the dead (Kaddish) is according to the Baladi (local) Yemenite rite.

The texts are handwritten in black ink by multiple scribes; some leaves show evidence of scribal practice. The liturgical texts are vocalized with Babylonian supra-linear vowel signs. One leaf of parchment and several crumbling leaves are hidden in the binding. The manuscript also contains dried leaves (possibly sorghum) in between ff.40-41; green threads in between ff.75-76; a printed text in between ff.100-101, and a patterned cloth insert bound into the pages between ff.104-105.