Cod. Heb. 32: ”The little Prayer Book”
Last update: 05-14-2010 02:50 PMLink to the digital facsimile
Cod. Heb. 32, locally known as ”The little Prayer Book” is - next to Cod. Heb. 37 , “The Copenhagen Maimonides” – the most well-known of the manuscripts in the Royal Library’s Judaica Collection. The reason is not only that details have been reproduced as post cards etc., but also because the facsimile editions have made their way to private book shelves, both in Denmark and abroad.
In the following, a short overview of the contents and history of the manuscript will be given. More details on its iconography etc. can be found in the extensive introduction by Iris Fishof to the 1983 facsimile edition (see below).
Contents of the manuscript
The contents of the manuscript are:
- ברכת המזון
Birkat ha-mazon ('grace after meals'): the benediction recited after every meal containing bread or matsot (the unleavened Passover bread)
- ברכת הנהנין
Birkat ha-nehenin ('benediction of enjoyments'): benedictions for different experiences, here also including death and bereavment; and
- קריאת שמע
Qri’at Shma‘ (reading of the Shma‘): the bedtime prayer.
How the manuscript came to end in Copenhagen is unfortunately also a mystery, but in the course of the 18th century, it was acquired by the book collector Count Otto Thott (1703-1785). When he passed away, his manuscript collection was left by will to The Royal Library. In connection with its transfer to the Royal Library, Cod Heb. 32 was described as one of the wonders of the collection: "The smallest Hebrew book in the Thott endowment is the Jews' book of daily prayers, with painted figures, showing the customs pertaining to the prayers." (Ekkard, 1794, p. 92). It seems however not to be included in the printed catalogue of the Thott collection (see below), maybe because it was written in a non-Western language.
References
Institute of The Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem (chose "Copen Hebr 32")
Carl S. Petersen
