(LITURGY)
Machzor mikol HaShanah [festival prayers for the ...

Machzor mikol HaShanah [festival prayers for the entire year]. According to the Aschkenazic Rite.
Two parts in one volume. Title within wreath-like decoration over architectural columns. On verso, printer’s mark of Tobias Foa (Yaari, Hebrew Printers Marks, no. 21). Initials historiated. Many marginal annotations. Tipped in: Notes from the various Valmadonna consultants (the librarian, the binder and Prof. Abramsky).
A unique bibliophilic copy: Eight leaves with variant textual layout additionally provided (and so indicated). ff. 394. A made-up copy. Small loss on title, several leaves stained or with neat paper repairs. Modern cream boards. Housed in custom slip-case. Thick 4to. Vinograd, Sabbioneta 42 & Cremona 40; Benayahu, Cremona 28.

Tobias Foa-Vicenzo Conti-Giovanni di Gara, Sabbioneta-Cremona-Venice: 1556-1560.

This important Aschkenazic Machzor took years to complete. Begun in Sabbioneta in the house of Tobias Foa, it was completed in Cremona on the eve of the New Year [5]321 (1560) by Vicenzo Conti (as explained in the colophon at the end of the volume). Folios 225-232 were printed in Venice as a variant section by di Gara.
     According to Meir Benayahu, this Machzor, as noted on the title, is a second edition of the Aschkenazic machzor printed earlier in Salonika in 1548-9 for use by the Italian Aschkenazic community of that city. However one of the novel additions to the present edition are the many kabbalistic commentaries to the prayers.
     From a typographical perspective, the Sabbioneta Machzor is something of a mystery. Considering it was printed in different cities, clearly the transition was hardly seamless. The great bibliographers, such as Steinschneider, Sonne, and Berliner tried to make sense of the way in which various letters occur in the edition. Benayahu believed he found the demarcation line between Sabbioneta and Cremona. Signatures 1 through 36 (f.144), as well as signatures 38-39, are clearly Sabbioneta. From signature 40 (f.157) to the end is certainly Cremona. Signature 37 resembles neither Sabbioneta nor Cremona, and Benayahu reasoned that it is an imitation of the first, Salonikan edition.
     To add to the puzzle, it seems that the second part of the Machzor went through two printings, each marked by slight variations. See Benayahu, HaDephus Ha’Ivri BeCremona (1971), pp. 139-178.