* I wish to express my deep gratitude to Dov Cohen, who referred me to various sources, including all the sources about Dr. Maimon Levy’s life. I am also grateful to Elena Romero and Edwin Seroussi for their help and advice along the way. FROM WRITTEN TEXT TO FOLKSONG: ON SOME ASPECTS OF THE JUDEO-SPANISH (LADINO) CANCIONERO ON THE EVE OF MODERN ERA* Rivka HAVASSY Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan (Israel) In the years 2001-2009 I participated in the project Incipitario sefardí: El antiguo cancionero judeoespañol en fuentes hebreas (siglos XV-XIX). Prof. Iacob Hassán actively followed the project with his invaluable advice and insights, and helped shape the final presentation of the data and publication of the project, which was dedicated to him (Seroussi 2009). One of the incipits (melody indications) of various piyutim (liturgical poems) from the 16 th century and on was the verse «Alma mía, luz del día, mis ojos lloran por vos», which referred to a well known contemporary song, unidentified yet (Seroussi 2009: 159-161). Searching for remnants of this song in the Judeo-Spanish poetic repertory, we encountered indications of two early commercial recordings of Judeo- Spanish songs, titled Alma mía vino la hora or just Alma mía (Bresler 2008). Though we could not establish a connection between the incipit and these recordings, the search for equivalents in the oral tradition led indirectly to this paper. I present here two songs in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) composed toward the end of the 20 th century and documented in the oral tradition of the Sephardi communities in the Ottoman Empire. Both songs were composed by the same author, appeared in print in various publications and were commercially recorded in the beginning of the 20 th century. I examine the printed texts and the recorded versions and compare them with versions documented in the oral tradition. The comparison suggests possible