Just measure (Kav ha-Yashar) and Orchard of pomegranates (Pardes Rimonim)

Unknown

Paper folio with text written in Hebrew in an Oriental script, copied in the 18th or 19th century by a non-professional scribe in North Africa or the Middle East. The recto appears to be the title page for Kav ha-Yashar (Just measure) and a prayer from Pardes Rimonim (Orchard of pomegranates) is written on the verso. The title on the recto, ספר קב הישר (Sefer Kav ha-Yashar), is written beneath בשם רחמן (in the name of the Merciful One). Below this the scribe has written 'I am hereby beginning to write the Sefer Kav ha-Yashar, with the help of the Name (=God)', followed by a blessing on anyone who reads it (spelled incorrectly) and a curse on anyone who steals it. The drawing is probably a series of columns in emulation of contemporary printed-book title pages, with the beginning of the alphabet written in the damaged right-hand panel. Beneath the title for Kav ha-Yashar on the verso is a prayer from the Kabbalistic work Pardes Rimonim (An orchard of pomegranates).