Ashkenazi Rite Machzor - Venice, 1600 - Many Handwritten Glosses - Customs of the Ashkenazi Community in Sofia ...

Ashkenazi Rite Machzor - Venice, 1600 - Many Handwritten Glosses - Customs of the Ashkenazi Community in Sofia (Bulgaria)
Machzor according to the rite of the Ashkenazi community (in Italy), with the Hadrat Kodesh commentary, Part II, Selichot and prayers for the High Holidays and the festivals of Tishrei. Venice: Zuan (Giovanni) di Gara for Zuan Bragadin, [1600].
Hundreds of glosses (some trimmed) in Sephardic script, including many lengthy ones. The glosses consist of commentaries to the machzor, often relating to the words of the commentator printed in the machzor (most begin with "VeLi Nireh" - and it appears to me). Some also pertain to kavanot and Kabbalah, and many of them contain instructions for the cantor (such as customs and tunes), documenting the customs of the Ashkenazi community in Sofia (Bulgaria); or corrections to the text (for instance, in the HaYom TeAmetzenu piyyut, the addition of a new passage: "Today, you will avenge the spilt blood of you servant" - pp. 87b and 233b).
The author of these glosses is R. Menachem HaLevi Burla, a Torah scholar of Sofia. Some of the glosses bear his signature: "Menachem Burla". The glosses document many customs observed in the writer's community. For instance: on p. [306a], a lengthy gloss regarding the number of Shofar sounds blown on Rosh Hashana, and at which points one should blow during the prayer service: "The custom of the Ashkenazi community here in Sofia regarding the Shofar blowing of the repetition of Musaf… and following the prayer service, we are accustomed here in this community to blow sixty sounds, but I did not find a reason for this…"; on p. 7a (and 6b) - at the beginning of the Selichot for the days preceding Rosh Hashanah: "And the custom here in the Ashkenazi community is to recite the Psalms and Kamti BeAshmoret like the Sephardim, followed by Ashrei"; on p. 49a: "It says in the customs… and so I saw written [---] our custom"; p. 155a - Yom Kippur night: "On Shabbat we do not recite Avinu Malkenu, only in Ne'ila, here in Sofia".
A deleted signature on the title page: "Kalonymus Yosef…" (R. Yosef Kalonymus HaLevi, a dayan of Sofia at the end of the 17th century, his signature appears on a testimony from the Sofia Beit Din in 1679, printed in Responsa Chacham Tzvi section 95).
315 leaves. 28.5 cm. Fair condition. Stains. Dampstains. Extensive wear to some leaves. Many tears affecting text, repaired with paper. Much damage. Title page trimmed, affecting border. Several leaves trimmed close to text, affecting page headings. Old binding.