Book cover for Mahzor prayer book with leather case
Giuseppe Merlini Italian
Publisher Stamperia Bragadina Italian
Precious covers for liturgical prayer books are a staple of eighteenth-century Jewish material culture and decorative arts. The silver exterior is enveloped by a rocaille design and a lightly hammered ground that incorporates shell motifs and a central rhomboidal cartouche with family crests. These book covers have been passed down through generations, perhaps on the occasion of the merging of two families, as indicated by the two different family devices on either side. Made by Giuseppe Merlini (1746–1760), a silversmith with a prominent career in Rome and Florence, this book cover attests to the small but affluent community of the Roman Jewish community during the eighteenth century. Encased within is a Mazhor, a prayerbook for the full Jewish cycle of Festivals and Fast days, printed in Venice and published by one of the best-known Jewish publishers, Tobias ben Eliezer Foà.
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