The Biographies of Illuminated Manuscript Haggadot

A pictorial and analytical examination of Haggadot, from the medieval era to the twenty-first century.

The nearly one-thousand-year-old Jewish ritual book for the Passover holiday is called a Haggadah. During the medieval period the only way these could be created was as unique, beautifully manuscripts decorated with gold, silver or brilliant colors. The pictorial content and style varied according to their geographic location in Europe.

Even after the invention of the printing press, the allure of these unique single-copy, manuscript Haggadot never ceased, leading to a brief period of their resurgence in the eighteenth century. Once again in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries they continue to be created.

Scholars of medieval manuscripts often find that words like "illustration" or "decoration" are inadequate in conveying how the words, pictures and patterning form part of a seamless whole. For that reason, Cyril Mazansky and other scholars use the word "illumination" to emphasize how the glorious effects achieved by the range of materials and colors truly illuminate the written word.

The Biographies of Illuminated Manuscript Haggadot is about detailed and interesting aspects of a cross-section of these manuscripts, covering both the content and their subsequent journeys throughout the three time periods of their creation. A section of background explanatory chapters precedes the descriptions of the selected individual Haggadot. These are accompanied by many illuminations.