Photo Credit: Israel Mizrahi
While book inscriptions are commonly found in rabbinic works, you don’t expect to find gift inscriptions from one spouse to another. An 1828 edition of the Peri Megadim printed in Lemberg that I recently acquired contained a beautiful inscription on the free-end with the writer describing how this book was gifted to him by his beloved wife in honor of Rosh Hashanah 5631.
The inscription is loosely translated as:
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In the year 5631 (1870)
a gift sent to me from my wife
my dear wife of my bosom, the notable and modest
Mrs. Raza, the daughter of R. Yehuda Glans. On the great, holy and awesome day, the day of remembrance 5631, above all women she shall be blessed forever and ever, Amen!
Reuven, son of Rabbi Yaakov Haim Blatt Shelit”a
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