Collection ID: 0021 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Rylands Sephardi Haggadah

Call number

Hebrew MS 6
(Manchester, United Kingdom, University of Manchester, University of Manchester Library, Hebrew Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• Former: Crawford MS 6

Publisher

University of Manchester Library

Language

Hebrew

Origin

Place

Catalonia, Spain

Summary

This manuscript is an illuminated fourteenth-century Sephardi Haggadah from Catalonia.

Extent

I+57+ii; 280 x 230 mm

Foliation

Modern pencil foliation; Arabic numerals; top outer corner of side a of each folio

Support

Parchment

Binding

Non-original brown leather binding with gilded decorations

Layout

Folios 2a-4b, 8a-10b, 21b-36a and 54a-57b, text is in long line of 14 written lines; folios 5b-7b and 37b-53b, text is in long line of 30 written lines; folios 20a-21a, text is in long line of 18 written lines; caption accompanying the minatures on folios 13b-19b written in between 2 and 4 lines

Decoration

Seven types of decoration; 1. Eleven full-page paintings with a cycle of biblical illustrations (folios 13b-19a), ending in a panel (folio 19b) of four scenes representing the Passover celebration; 2. Eleven illustrations of the text set in the margins (folios 20a, 21b, 22b, 23a, 28a, 28b, 30b) or within the script column (folios 31a, 31b); 3. Painted initial-word panels and marginal scrolls with grotesques on almost every page between folios 20a-36a; 4. Filigree penwork initial-word panels on folios 5b, 7b-10b, 37b-53b; 5. Initial-word panels decorated by red and blue filigree penwork on folios 4b-10b, 37b-51b. 6; Micrography on folios 5b, 6a, 37b, 38r, 40b, 41a, 42b, 43a, 47b, 48a, 50b and 51a; 7. Additional prayers decorated with painted panels (Folios 54a-57b), including one text illustration in the margin (folio 54a). Script and paintings of this unit executed by craftsmen who did not take part in the decoration of the original manuscript

Script

Sephardi square hand

Subjects topical

• Religion
• Bible. Old Testament
• Judaism
• Haggadah

Genres

• Manuscripts, European

Keywords

• Haggadah
• Biblical
• 14th century
• Spain
• Jewish
• Illustration
• Miniature
• Painting
• History
• Scripture
• Micrography

Licenses

• Text

  Images are ©2017 The University of Manchester Library Special Collections and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

• Text

  Metadata is ©2017 The University of Manchester Library Special Collections and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Table of contents

• 2a — Hymns for the first night of Passover
• 5b — Laws for Passover
• 5b — Marginal text: 82 laws for the observance of Passover
• 7b — Hymnic sequel
• 8a — Order of Passover
• 9b — Marginal text: 83 Hymnic sequel
• 20a — The Haggadah
• 20a — Marginal text: Commentary on the Hallel
• 37b — Hymns for the first day of Passover
• 37b — Marginal text: the Pentateuchal Passages read at Passover
• 41a — Hymns for the second day of Passover
• 43a — Hymns for the Intermediate Sabbath
• 48a — Hymns for the seventh day
• 51a — Hymns for the last day

Decorations

• 5b — Micrography
• 6a — Micrography
• 13b — Full-page miniature, upper right to left, Moses with Jethro's flock (Exodus 3:1); Moses and the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:5); lower right to left, Moses answers the Lord, holding up his rod – a shepherd's staff (Exodus 4:2); his rod turns into a serpent (Exodus 4:4); Moses holds the serpent (Exodus 4:4)
• 14a — Full-page miniature, upper right to left, Moses's hand first becomes leprous, then is healed (Exodus 4: 6-7); lower right to left, Moses and Zipporah return to Egypt with her sons (Exodus 4:20); Zipporah circumcises her son
• 14b — Full-page miniature, upper right to left, Moses embraces Aaron (Exodus 4:27); Moses tells Aaron the Lord's words (Exodus 4:28); lower, Moses and Aaron speak to the elders of the children of Israel (Exodus 4: 30-31)
• 15a — Full-page miniature, upper, Moses and Aaron give the Lord's message to the Pharaoh (Exodus 5:1); lower, An Egyptian taskmaster oversees the people of Israel who are brickmaking (Exodus 5:13)
• 15b — Full-page miniature, upper, Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh; Aaron's rod, as a snake, eats two other snakes (Exodus 7: 10-12); lower, First Plague: Aaron's rod turns the river Nile into blood (Exodus 7:20-21)
• 16a — Full-page miniature, upper, Second Plague: Plague of frogs (Exodus 8:6); lower, Third Plague: Plague of lice (Exodus 8:16-19)
• 16b — Full-page miniature, upper, Fourth Plague: Pharaoh and his wise men are attacked by wild beasts (Exodus 9:6); lower, Fifth Plague: Cattle destroyed by pestilence (Exodus 9:6)
• 17a — Full-page miniature, upper, Sixth Plague: Plague of Boils (Exodus 9:10-11); lower, Plague of hail which strikes the Egyptians but not the Israelites
• 17b — Full-page miniature, upper, Eighth Plague: Plague of locusts (Exodus 10:14-15); lower, Ninth Plague: Plague of darkness; the Israelites are unaffected
• 18a — Full-page miniature, upper, Tenth Plague: Death of the first-born (Exodus 12:29); lower, The Israelites borrow gold vessels from the Egyptians (Exodus 12:36)
• 18b — Full-page miniature, upper, The Israelites leave the walled city of Ramses; lower, Pharaoh and his army pursue the Israelites (Exodus 14:8)
• 19a — Full-page miniature, Moses, Aaron and the Israelites walk on dry land, while Pharaoh (centre, right) and the Egyptians drown (Exodus 12:27-28)
• 19b — Full-page miniature, upper, Preparation for the Passover meal; Seder meal; lower, right to left, A servant brings wine to his master; A couple at the seder table eat bitter herbs, attended by a servant offering wine
• 20a — Gilded initial-words אתאן מפרקא on a painted blue panel, topped with fine floral decoration ending in a dragon figure
• 20a — A servant pour the first cup of wine
• 21b — Marginal decoration, a reclining man holds a vessel; other figures in floral decoration
• 22a — Marginal decoration, a man sticking out his tongue in floral decoration
• 22b — Marginal decoration, Rabbi Eleazar, seated with a book, points to his name in a gilded panel
• 23a — Marginal decoration, above, the wise son, represented as an old man seated with a book, points to the text; below, the wicked son, represented as a Moorish soldier
• 27b — Marginal decoration, An archer shooting a hare
• 28a — Marginal decoration, Rabbi Jose with a book
• 28b — Marginal decoration, Rabbi Eliezer (upper) and Rabbi Akiva (lower) reading
• 29b — Marginal decoration, Grotesques and a hare hunt
• 30a — Marginal decoration, Grotesques
• 30b — Marginal decoration, Rabban Gamaliel reading beneath a canopy
• 31a — Small miniature, Burnished disc of the matzah
• 31b — Small miniature, Panel depicting the maror on a burnished gold field
• 32b — Marginal decoration, Grotesques
• 33a — Marginal decoration, Grotesque, a squirrel and a snail
• 33b — Marginal decoration, Grotesques
• 37b — Micrography
• 38a — Micrography
• 40b — Micrography
• 41a — Micrography
• 42b — Micrography
• 43a — Micrography
• 47b — Micrography
• 48a — Micrography
• 50b — Micrography
• 51a — Micrography
• 54a — Marginal decoration, Seated man holds a cup of wine