The Orden de oraciones de mes arreo (Ferrara 1555) and a Bakasah composed by Abraham Usque

Abstract

The British Library owns the only known copy of a prayer-book composed in 1555 by Abraham Usque: the Libro de Oraciones de mes arreo. Usque was well aware of the difficulties, encountered by many former Marranos still unfamiliar with Jewish liturgy, to follow the sometime long and complicated synagogue service. Abraham tried to provide a simplified version of the Siddur and abridged some part of it. In the Prologue he claimed to have presented the prayers in a plain and straight way (arreo): without the necessity of having to leaf through the book to find the continuation of the service. Abraham inserted in his Siddur a new prayer by which he asked the Lord to put an end to the sufferings of Israel, to raise up a scion of David and to restore His people to its ancient glory and dignity. The Author wanted to provide a reassuring answer to the anxieties and hopes of his generation. Likewise the Jews who left Spain in 1492, also the Portuguese Marranos who reached Ferrara towards the middle of the XVI^century, continued to cherish the deeply rooted cultural values of their erstwhile homeland and considered their departure from Iberian Peninsula as a most catastrophic event. Abraham Usque asked the Lord to be content with the punishments already inflicted to His people and to grant His pardon to the sons of Israel who had completely abandoned every idolatrie practice.