Machzor according to the [Italian] Ashkenazi rite, with the Hadrat Kodesh commentary, Part II, Selichot and prayers for the High Holidays and Tishrei festivals. Venice: Zuan (Giovanni) di Gara for Zuan (Giovanni) Bragadin, [1600].
The volume contains many hundreds of glosses in Italian script, with original commentaries, critiques and discussions on the Hadrat Kodesh commentary, emendations to the prayer and commentary texts, instructions and practices for prayer, amounting to an entire work on the machzor for the High Holidays and Tishrei festivals.
We have identified the author as R. Avraham Segre, Rabbi of Casale Monferrato, a leading Italian rabbi in the 18th century. His teachers, R. Gavriel Pontremoli and R. Yehudah Briel, are mentioned in several places (for example: R. Pontremoli on pp. 13b, 89a, 153a, 220b, and R. Briel on pp. 79a, 130b).
In some places, R. Avraham emends the text of the prayers or piyyutim, sometimes based on an accurate text he possessed and other times by conjecture. For example, he added and deleted words in the prayer for the leader, Hineni HeAni MiMaas (on p. 55a, writing: "I corrected it as you can see, and in my humble opinion it is correct this way"). In several places he uses the term "if I will have the strength", when writing that in his opinion a change or correction should be made.
In many places he critiques or argues with the commentator. Likewise, he adds many of his own commentaries on the prayers and piyyutim. In several places he cites the Arizal and other kabbalistic ideas.
In many places he refers to his novellae which he had written elsewhere (for example, p. 72b: "See my novellae on the Mishnah…"; ibid: "and what I wrote on Ein Yisrael in my commentary"; p. 191a: "as I wrote in my novellae, see there"). In several places he refers to what he wrote "in my responsa", on various topics (on p. 52a he discusses the recitation of Zochrenu LeChaim at length, referring several times to "my responsa"; several handwritten drafts of that responsum, with contents parallel to the present commentary, are extant in the Russian State Library in Moscow, Ms. Guenzburg 528).

R. Avraham Segre, a leading Italian rabbi in the early 18th century, kabbalist, rabbi and posek in Casale Monferrato (sometimes signs his name as "Asi", the initials of his name). A disciple of R. Gavriel Pontremoli and R. Yehudah Briel, he had exchanges with the leading Italian kabbalists of his generation; R. Mordechai Shmuel Ghirondi writes: "R. Avraham Segre was a kabbalist and pious man who held kabbalistic discussions with R. Gur Aryeh Finzi of Mantua, a disciple of R. Moshe Zacuto; R. Binyamin HaKohen of Reggio; and the kabbalist R. Yosef Ergas of Livorno…" (Toldot Gedolei Yisrael, p. 4).

R. Avraham was involved in the Ramchal controversy, when he was asked to examine him in 1730, and he was a fierce opponent of the Sabbatean Nechemiah Hayyun. R. Moshe (Maharam) Chagiz, addressing R. Shimshon Morpurgo in relation to the Ramchal affair, calls R. Avraham Segre "the great rabbi, perfectly virtuous… to whom secrets are revealed".
R. Avraham was a friend, and by some accounts also the teacher, of R. Yitzchak Lampronti. The two studied together under R. Yehudah Briel in Mantua. He is among those who in 1750 gave approbation to R. Lampronti's Pachad Yitzchak, a book which also cites his halachic responsa. Some of his other responsa were printed in contemporary rabbis' books. Many of his works remain in manuscript. The Ashkenazi-rite machzor Shaar Bat Rabim (Part II, Venice, 1712-1715) contains a supplication for plague authored by R. Avraham Segre.
Familial inscription on verso of title page on the passing of "my father and teacher Yosef Baruch Foa", "my mother and teacher Beila MehaKohanim", and "my brother-in-law the official Yehoshua Foa" in 1737, signed by "Avraham Foa". At the top of the title page, signatures (in Latin characters) of "S.D.F.".

315 leaves. Approx. 31 cm. Good-fair condition. Stains, including dampstains. Tears and wear to several leaves, some affecting text, some repaired with paper. Some glosses slightly trimmed. Old binding, with leather spine.

Provenance: collection of R. Prof. Elia Samuel Artom