Seder Tefilot, Zolkiew, 1761, Bound in a Contemporary Silver Binding

An unrecorded women’s bilingual Hebrew–Yiddish prayerbook from the famed Zolkiew printing press.

An unrecorded Zolkiew siddur from the important press founded by the Amsterdam master printer Uri Fayvush (Phoebus) ben Aharon ha‑Levi and continued by his descendants. For roughly eight decades (c. 1690s–1770s), Zolkiew was effectively the only Hebrew/Jewish printing center within the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth. The press specialized in rabbinic, kabbalistic, and ethical works, and this bilingual prayerbook geared toward women is a rare exception. According to the title page, it was published by Gershon, grandson of Uri Fayvush, in partnership with the son‑in‑law and son of his brother Aharon.

The book offers the Ashkenazic rite with a verbatim Yiddish translation, together with brief instructional notes, edifying Yiddish exhortations, and a selection of women’s tkhines (supplicatory prayers). Such bilingual prayerbooks were aimed especially at women, who were often unable to understand the original Hebrew text.

The volume is bound in a luxurious silver filigree binding, a format frequently used for presentation copies and gifts for women, underscoring the book’s role as a cherished personal and devotional artifact. On the flyleaf, the woman who owned this volume has added Yiddish inscriptions containing the dates of the passing of her father, mother, and husband, a poignant testimony to the siddur’s role in domestic devotion and commemoration. The lavish binding and the handwritten notes suggest that the prayerbook was owned by a woman of wealth and education. No other copies of this printed volume are known to exist.

Physical Description

8vo, 333 leaves (176 x 104 mm). Type: Hebrew text in square Ashkenazic type, fully vocalized for the prayers; Yiddish translation in vaybertaytsh (“women’s type”), the semi‑cursive Yiddish face standard in 16th–18th‑century Ashkenazic printing. Forty-five blank pages bound at the rear. Hebrew inscriptions on the flyleaf records the yahrzeit dates of the owner's father, mother, and husband.

Binding: contemporary silver binding formed of shaped filigree panels over maroon velvet, centered by raised rosettes and central oval cartouches; all edges gilt.