Cluj-Napoca, Ms. O. 301

The Library of the Romanian Academy (Cluj-Napoca, Romania)

Codex

Parchment

Calf. Ivory. Very thin. Very good quality. No holes, no stitches. With damp damage on the margins and sporadically affecting the decorations and the text. Quires begin on the flesh side (flesh side faces flesh side, hair side faces hair side). Hair follicles also visible on the flesh side. 19th-20th century cardboard binding (Adrian Papahagi). 34 quinions, one ternion (pp. 635-662) and one defective quinion (V-IV with penultimate fol. a stub – pp. 663-680). First two quires missing. Q. 27 as marked by the Hebrew scribe precedes Q. 26 in the binding). Sewn in four stations at 15mm distance from the top and the bottom with a doubly folded thick white cotton thread. No interstation distances. Two short outer stations (20 mm at the bottom, 15 mm at the top), two long inner stations (45-47mm) (analysis based on middle of the quire on p.107-8).

Brown (iron-gall)

There is ruling

Hard point

Grid of single vertical and horizontal lines

19

20

Ruled on the flesh side in relief with a sharp instrument which left no coloured trace. A double line marks from top to bottom the margins of the text frame.
Pricking visible in the outer margins sporadically (mostly cut out when the folios were trimmed). 20 pricks for 20 ruled lines.
Final ruled line not written on.
19 written lines for the body of the text - prayer. Ritual explanations are written in smaller letters - in this case, the written line does not follow the ruled lines.

159

123

92

67

Thickness: between 60 (spine) and 70 mm.
Measurements taken on p. 227.

1399

יום א' ב' ניסן קט"ן

14th Century CE

The colophon on p. 414 reads:
חזק מישאל הסופר
כבודך ה' יום א' ב' ניסן קט"ן
The date, Sunday 2nd Nisan 5159 corresponds to the Julian calendar date 9th March 1399, despite the awkward order of the letters in the Hebrew year (קט"ן rather than קנ''ט).

Italy

With marginal annotations in Italo-Ashkenazi and Italo-Sephardi hands.

Hebrew

Latin ownership note on p. 197.

Mahzor Minhag Roma (so Birnbaum - see bibliography below).

Sporadic

Tiberian

Only the prayers are vocalised.

https://sfardata.nli.org.il/#/manuscript/YY094 (Date accessed: 2025-08-04)

990000571910205171

https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/manuscripts/hebrew-manuscripts/itempage?vid=KTIV&scope=KTIV&docId=PNX_MANUSCRIPTS990000571910205171&SearchTxt=cluj%20napoca (Date accessed: 2025-08-04)

Eleazar Birnbaum, "Maḥzor Roma: The Cluj Manuscript Dated 5159 A.M./ 1399 C.E. and the Public Fast in
Rome in 1321 C.E," Vol. 76 No. 2 (1985), pp. 59-95.