HANDSOME LIVORNO-PRINTED JEWISH PRAYER BOOK, IN CONTEMPORARY MOROCCO WITH BRASS FURNITURE

(JUDAICA—SEPHARDIC LITURGY). Sefer Tefilot ha-Kadosh, ke-minhag kahal Kadosh [Prayer book]. Livorno: Salomon Belforti, circa 1838. Octavo, contemporary full black morocco, brass furniture, raised bands, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt; ll. 216. $1800.

Scarce 19th-century Livorno-printed prayer book, printed by Solomon Belforte, in handsome contemporary morocco binding with brass furniture. With a finely penned page in Hebrew manuscript bound in at rear.

In the 19th century Livorno "became the printer for Jewries across the whole of North Africa" (Yerushalmi, 55). "Leghorn [Livorno] also became a center of Hebrew printing… Sixteen printers set up in Leghorn between 1763 and 1870, the most important being the house of Solomon Belforte which supplied the North African and Levantine market with liturgical books until the outbreak of World War II" (Encyclopaedia Judaica, X). Text in Hebrew. Vinograd, Livorno 823. Late 19th-century ink owner inscriptions in French.

Several leaves roughly handled and expertly repaired. Expert repairs to binding, without one brass cornerpiece and catch. A very good copy.