❧ Description
Anthology of biblical commentaries on the Five Megillot and Ecclesiastes, compiled and copied in Morocco between 1585 and 1587. The manuscript brings together commentaries by Castilian-Sephardic authorities (Naḥmanide, Yiṣḥaq Aramah, Avraham Naḥmias) alongside commentaries by Provençal-Moroccan figures (Moshe Narboni, Yehuda Uzziel) — an example of the Sephardic-Maghrebi intellectual synthesis a century after the expulsion of 1492. The collection covers the Song of Songs (fol. 1), Lamentations (fol. 77), Esther (fol. 132), and Ecclesiastes (fol. 187). David ibn Hayyim signed the compilation, completed in Morocco on 7 Eloul 5345 = 1585; Avraham ben Musa was the copyist, Yaqov ben Sha’ul the patron — a precious Moroccan triad of rabbinic activity in the aftermath of 1492.
Provenance: 1 Compilation carried out in Morocco by David ibn Hayyim, completed on 7 Eloul 5345 = 1585 (colophon) 2 Copy made in Morocco by Avraham ben Musa for Yaqov ben Sha'ul; no. 1 completed in 5347 = 1587 3 Owner: R'fael [name illegible] (fol. 1) 4 David Oppenheim Collection (1664-1736) 5 Bodleian Library, 1829 (Opp. Add. series)
Codicological notice — origin Morocco; copyist: Avraham ben Musa [family name uncertain]; script: oriental; folios: 216 folios; dimensions: folio; old catalogues: Neubauer Catalogue 1886 · 2334; editorial status: Unpublished.
— Source: Mémoires des Manuscrits Juifs du Moyen-Âge Maghrébin (MMJMM / Collectif GMPL), https://mmjmm.org/corpus/catalogue/bodleian-opp-add-4to-106; manuscript held at the Bodleian Library (Oxford).
