The Medieval Haggadah

Discusses four illuminated haggadot, manuscripts created for use at home services on Passover, all created in the early twelfth century.

Emerging in Spain after 1250, Jewish narrative figurative painting became a central feature in a group of illuminated Passover Haggadot in the early decades of the fourteenth century. Illuminated Haggadot from Medieval Spain describes how the Sephardic Haggadot reflect different visualizations of scripture under various conditions and aimed at a variety of audiences. Though the specifics of the creation of these works remain a mystery, this book delves into the cultural struggles that existed during this period in history and shows how those conflicts influenced the work. The culture surrounding the creators of the Sephardic Haggadot was saturated in conflict revolving around acculturation, polemics with Christianity, and struggles within Sephardic Jewry itself. Kogman-Appel presents the Sephardic Haggadot as visual manifestations of a minority struggling for cultural identity both in relation to the dominant culture and within its own realm.

The first-ever facsimile edition of one of the most beautifully decorated and important Hebrew manuscripts from medieval Europe Commissioned by wealthy patrons in the Middle Ages, the Haggadot are among the most beautifully decorated Hebrew manuscripts. The "Brother" Haggadah—so-called because of its close, fraternal relationship to the Rylands Haggadah in the collection of the John Rylands Library, Manchester—is one of the finest of these to have survived. Created by Sephardi (or “southern”) artists and scribes in Catalonia in the second quarter of the fourteenth century, it sets out the liturgy and sequence of the Passover Seder. This exquisitely produced facsimile of the “Brother” Haggadah is accompanied by an introduction by medieval scholar professor Marc Michael Epstein focusing on the historical background of the Passover and iconographic scheme of the manuscript; an essay on its provenance by Ilana Tahan, head of the Hebrew and Christian collections at the British Library; and an essay by Hebrew scholar Eliezer Laine that looks at the Shaltiel family, former owners of the manuscript. The book also contains a translation of the poems and commentary in the manuscript by the late Raphael Lowe, former Goldsmid Professor of Hebrew at University College London, and a translation of the Haggadah liturgy.

Accompanying an exhibition at Les Enluminures, New York, this scholarly book includes chapters on the art, iconography, and historical context of a remarkable medieval manuscript: a Haggadah with seventy-five watercolor paintings created in the circle of the famous artist Giovannino de' Grassi (d. 1398) in Milan in the late fourteenth century. The

Arthur Szyk (pronounced “Shick”) created his magnificent Haggadah in !--?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /--Lodz, on the eve of the Nazi occupation of his native Poland. There is no Haggadah like it, before or since, filled with sumptuous paintings of Jewish heroes and stunning calligraphy.!--?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /-- This edition, the first since 1940 to be reproduced from Szyk’s original art, boasts a newly commissioned and extremely practical English text by Rabbi Byron L. Sherwin, ideal for use at any family Seder, and a special commentary section by Rabbi Sherwin and Irvin Ungar gives insight into both the rituals of the Seder and Szyk’s rich illustrations. The Szyk Haggadah will transform the Seder, bringing the story of the Exodus from Egypt into a more contemporary light.

Introduction: for the love of books / Marc Michael Epstein -- The people of the book/books of the people: illuminating the canon / Hartley Lachter and Marc Michael Epstein -- Parchments and palimpsests: scribe, illuminator, patron, audience / Marc Michael Epstein -- The illuminated page: materials, methods, and techniques / Barbara Wolff -- Mapping the territory: ʼArbʻah kanfot maʼareẓ, the four corners of the medieval Jewish world. Ereẓ Yisrael/The land of Israel: homeland and center / Marc Michael Epstein ; Italia/Italy: the first western diaspora / Marc Michael Epstein ; Ashkenaz: Franco-Germany, England, Central, and East Europe / Eva Frojmovic with Marc Michael Epstein ; Sepharad and ʻArav: Spain and the Middle East / Raymond P. Scheindlin with Marc Michael Epstein ; The problem of national style / Eva Frojmovic with Marc Michael Epstein -- Iconography: telling the story / Marc Michael Epstein -- Dialogue and disputation: cultural negotiation / Marc Michael Epstein -- This world centered on the home: women, marriage, and the family / Shalom Sahar -- Glimpses of Jewish life: reality or illusion? / Marc Michael Epstein -- Incidental details: margins and meaning / Marc Michael Epstein -- Sacred and profane: naked ladies in the Haggadah? / Ágnes Vető -- Other worlds: fantastic horizons and unseen universes / Hartley Lachter wtih Marc Michael Epstein -- Zion and Jerusalem: the sum of all beauty, the joy of all the earth / Shalom Sahar -- In the royal court: Jewish illumination in an age of printing / Marc Michael Epstein -- A Yiddish Minhagim manuscript / Diane Wolfthal -- Illuminating the present: contemporary Jewish illumination / Susan Vick with Marc Michael Epstein -- Continuing the journey: annotated bibliography and manuscript descriptions / Jenna Siman Jacobs with Marc Michael Epstein.