Manuscript, sermons for the High Holidays, the Torah portions and various occasions, with poems, handwritten by the author R. Yehudah de Milhau. [Provence, ca. 1715].
Provençal semi-cursive script. Autograph writing of author. On front endpaper and last leaf appear his (calligraphic) signatures: "Yehudah de Milhau". Decorations and illustrations on several pages (figures of birds, a flower vase and floral patterns on pp. 4b, 7b, 8a, 9b, 137a, 193a, 195b).
On p. 36a, end of one of the sermons dated Yom Kippur 1713. On p. 110b: "Yesterday day and night I delivered these two sermons at the circumcision of the son of my sister Rosia, with the sandak being my brother Yitzchak with his betrothed, and the mohel Aharon Rouen, the cantor David de Carcassonne, maftir Binyamin son of Shmuel de Carcassonne, Parashat Lech Lecha, 11th Cheshvan [1714]…".
The sermons incorporate poems written by the author, sometimes as a sort of introduction or Reshut to the sermon (such as p. 177a). Some of them bear variations of his name as an acrostic (such as "Yehudah D Chazak" or "I am Yehudah de Milhau Chazak", pp. 15a, 59a, 99a, 125b, 155b, 195b) or an alphabetical or reverse alphabetical acrostic (pp. 32a, 77a, 144b, 198a).
In addition to the poems there are sections at the beginning of the sermons requesting leave to speak, for example on p. 146a (on the phenomenon see: Tovia Preschel, Netilat Reshut LaDerashah, Or HaMizrach, XXXIII, 1, pp. 85 ff.).
De Milhau is a known family of Carpentras and neighboring communities in the Venaissin region of southern France: Avignon, Cavaillon and L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. No more is known to us about the author R. Yehudah de Milhau. He may be the father of R. David Milhau of L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, recorded in: Henri Gross, Gallia Judaica, Paris, 1897, p. 345.
[1], 1-185, 189-204 leaves (original foliation; total of 202 leaves, including about 16 blank leaves). 24 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains. Wear and minor tears to margins of several leaves, repaired with paper. Front endpaper repaired by mounting on new paper. New binding.
