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Manchester. The John Rylands Library, Hebrew MS 39

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Source
Manchester Digital Collections
Library
The John Rylands Library
Shelfmark
  • Hebrew MS 39
Biblissima authority file
Language
  • Hebrew
  • Yiddish
  • Ladino
Title
    • Haggadah (הגדה של פסח)
    • Matteh Aharon (מטה אהרן | Aaron's Rod)
    • Perush 'al Haggadah shel Pesah (פרוש על הגדה של פסח | Commentary on the Passover Haggadah)
    • Perush al Pi ha-Sod (פרוש על פי הסוד | Commentary according to the Secret [Meaning])
    • see more
Agent
Description
  • Extent:
    41 ff. (ii+41+ii) Leaf height: 322 mm, width: 250 mm. Written height: 230 mm, width: 172 mm.
    Binding:

    Black leather binding with gold-tooling on back and front boards. Gold-tooled text on spine reading "BOOK / OF THE / PASSOVER / AND HIST / OF KING / PHARAOH / WRITTEN / AND THE / CUTTS / DONE WITH / A PEN". Gilt edges. Paste down and fly-leaves are marbled paper.


    Decoration:

    The Haggadah was illustrated by the same scribe and includes four types of decoration:

    1. A copper-engraved title page.


    2. Small painted panels with (a) 10 biblical illustrations (plus the ten plagues), (b) 29 textual and (c) 12 ritual illustrations within the text columns.


    3. Large painted medium-sized engraved initial-words to the main text and the commentaries, most of them framed by ornaments.


    4. The main text and the commentaries are enclosed in gilded borders.


    Folio 1a: The title page is framed by an ornamental border of woodcarving imitation that encloses two large and six smaller medallions. The two central small medallions contain the title written in square and semi-cursive script. The six other medallions enclose biblical illustrations, beneath each of which is a banderol with the caption. Top (large, oval medallion): Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, between them the Tree of Knowledge around which is coiled the serpent giving the apple to Eve. Inscribed (in Hebrew): ‘and she took the fruit and did eat and gave also her husband with her’ (Gen. 3:6). Centre (first register, right): The cherub expelling Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. Inscribed: ‘Adam and Eve’. Centre (first register, left): The kneeling Noah, assisting the animals to enter the ark. Inscribed: ‘The generation of the flood’. Centre (second register, right): The Ziggurat-shaped tower of Babel. Inscribed: ‘The generation of the division’. Centre (second register, left): On the right the city of Sodom in flames, on the left Lot sitting with one of his daughters in his lap, while the second daughter is offering wine in a golden cup. Inscribed: ‘The overthrowing of Sodom’. Bottom (large, oval medallion): Rebecca meeting Eliezer at the well and offering him water. There is no caption. The small medallions have ornamental frames similar to the one enclosing the entire page. The two large medallions have elaborate Rococo frames. The background is filled with fine gold hatching.
    Folio 2b: First six rituals of the seder. Top (right to left): Kiddush (sanctification); Ur’chatz (washing). Centre (right to left): Karpas (vegetable); Yachatz (breaking). Bottom (right to left): Magid (the story); Rachtzah (washing).
    Folio 3a: Last eight rituals of the seder. Top (right to left): Motzi matzah (blessing over the matzah); Maror (bitter herbs). Centre (right to left): Korekh (the sandwich); Shulchan Orekh (dinner). Bottom (right to left): Tzafun berakh (Afikoman and grace after the meal); Hallel nirtzah (praises and closing).
    Folio 4b: Medium-sized initial-word with pen-drawn decoration in ink, imitating copper engraving technique, within a Rococo cartouche, surrounded by flowers. Smaller decorated initial-words in a similar technique are heading the commentaries in the side columns. Behind both cartouches elaborate draperies topped by a crown provide the setting.
    Folio 6a: The five rabbis of Bene Beraq are conversing in a closed room with no windows around a table with an open book on it. The five elderly wise men are all bare headed, wear large antique tunics some of which have gold thread embroidered decorations. The lively colours of the clothes sharply contrast with the almost monochrome grey walls.
    Folio 7b: Of the parable of the four sons, only the wise son is presented: he is wearing the garments of the high priest, the breastplate with the twelve stones on it (Ex. 28:17 ff.), and a headgear with the name שדי written on it. Golden bells are all around his robe. Three Roman soldiers standing by seem to mock him.
    Folio 8b: Abraham destroying the idols illustrating the passage ‘our forefathers were idol worshippers’, which refers to a Midrash related in b. Pesahim 118a and Gen. R. 38:10. Abraham is seen smashing the statues with a stick; fragments of the statues lie on the ground. At his left a burning altar, in the background a cityscape. Below the illustration, two ink crowns and a decorative band.
    Folio 9b: Three boys sitting at a table. The man who sets the table looks at them angrily. His wife stares at them suspiciously through a crack in the door. The boys look scared. Literal illustration to the text ‘You will know that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs’. The boys symbolize the seed, the older couple are the hosts in the strange land.
    Folio 10a: Two flowers in the text panel and a snake coiling from the text panel.
    Folio 10b: Laban searching Jacob’s belongings. Illustration to the text ‘Go forth and learn what Laban the Aramean wanted to do to our father Jacob.’
    Folio 11a: Elaborate large-sized letters painted in pink, blue and green are shaped by curling ribbons decorated in grisaille technique.
    Folio 11b: Illustration to the text ‘Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons’. A group of people is walking towards a city with a pyramid.
    Folio 12b: Illustration to the text ‘They set taskmasters (over the people of Israel) to make them suffer with their burdens and they built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pitom and Ramses.’ The building of the cities is depicted in a neoclassical setting but with a pyramid in the centre background. The Israelite slaves are poorly dressed and wear no shoes. The taskmaster on the other hand is dressed in a rich robe with gold thread.
    Folio 13b: Pharaoh’s daughter finds Moses in the river. Illustration to the text: ‘"Our labor," this refers to the "children," as it is said: "Every boy that is born, you shall throw into the river and every girl you shall keep alive".’
    Folio 15a: Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh. Aaron’s stick has turned into a snake; the Pharaoh’s magicians turned their staff in a snake as well, but Aaron’ snake swallows the other snake. Illustration to the text ‘Take into your hand this staff with which you shall perform the signs.’
    Folio 15b: Five small illustration panels with plagues, accompanied by the Hebrew name as superscript. Top (right to left): Blood; frogs. Centre (right to left): Lice, wild beasts. Bottom: Pestilence.
    Folio 16a: Five small illustration panels with plagues, accompanied by the Hebrew name as superscript. Top (right to left): Boils; hail. Centre (right to left): Locusts; darkness. Bottom: Death of the firstborn.
    Folio 17b: Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea. Moses and the Israelites are safe on the other side. Illustration to the text that discusses by how many plagues the Egyptians were struck at sea.
    Folio 19a: Moses with the two tablets of stone; commandments numbered in Roman numerals starting in the left tablet. Illustration to the text of Dayenu (‘if he had given us the Torah’).
    Folio 19b: Two ornamental vases at the bottom of the page.
    Folio 20a: The three symbols of Passover given by Rabban Gamaliel are illustrated by little genre scenes: ‘Pesah’, a shepherd with a lamb; ‘Matzah’, a young man bringing round matzot on a tray.
    Folio 20b: The third symbol of Passover: ‘Maror’, a man holding up a branch of a green plant.
    Folio 27a: Ornamental vase.
    Folio 27b: Medium-sized initial-word שפוך written in ink within a Rococo cartouche coloured in sepia on a light marble-imitation ground. Naturalistic flowers on both sides of the cartouche.
    Folio 28a: David, wearing a royal cape with ermine lining, his crown and a scepter at his feet, is kneeling and praying within a rotunda topped by a dome supported by columns and open on one side like a stage. A lectern with an open book is also in the hall. Illustration to the text.
    Folio 29a: The letters of the song ‘Hodu’ are colored in gold, yellow, pink, blue and green.
    Folio 29b: The letters of the song are decorated with ink ornaments, at the end of every line a decorative ink pattern. The letter lamed in the lowest line even shows a small bearded man.
    Folio 34b: The Temple of Jerusalem, represented as a basilica-type building with a peristyle façade, surrounded by a wall. In the background a cityscape, surrounded by a city wall with several buildings in it, one of which seems to be the Dome of the Rock.
    Folio 35a: Illustrations to the piyyut יודע מי ("Who knows..?"). The small panels visualizing the symbols of each number are placed in the center of the page, between the text and the commentaries. Number one: the sky with concentric clouds, in the centre a triangle inscribed by the letter yod. Two: the horned Moses, kneeling, holds the two round-topped tablets of the Law, inscribed with the incipit of the commandments in Hebrew, this time from right to left. Three: the three Patriarchs pouring over a book in a room.
    Folio 35b: Illustrations to the piyyut יודע מי. Four: the four Matriarchs pouring over a book in a similar room. Five: a Tora scroll on a table.
    Folio 36a: Illustrations to the piyyut יודע מי. Six: a man studying the Mishnah. Behind him shelves loaded with books. Seven: a woman pronouncing the Sabbath benediction.
    Folio 36b: Illustrations to the piyyut יודע מי. Eight: a young boy being circumcised. Nine: a young pregnant women on the terrace of a house.
    Folio 37a: Illustrations to the piyyut יודע מי. Ten: the ten commandments inscribed on the two round-topped stone tablets, here again from left to right and written in English instead of Hebrew. Eleven: a man asleep in the field, above him the eleven stars.
    Folio 37b: Illustrations to the piyyut יודע מי. Twelve: Joseph makes himself known to his brethren, who are the ancestors of the twelve tribes.
    Folio 38a: Illustrations to the piyyut יודע מי. Thirteen: the thirteen attributes of mercy are illustrated by a man praying in front of an altar; he holds a banderol inscribed with וחנון [...] רחום אל (Ex. 34:6).
    Folio 38b: Illustrations to the poem גדיא חד ("Only one kid") placed in small panels in the center of the pages, between the text and commentaries. The lamb and the cat devouring the lamb, the dog attacking the cat.
    Folio 39a: Illustrations to the poem גדיא חד. The stick threatening the dog; the fire burning the stick.
    Folio 39b: Illustrations to the poem גדיא חד. The water extinguishing the fire; the oxen drinking the water.
    Folio 40a: Illustrations to the poem גדיא חד. The butcher about to slaughter the ox; death about to kill the butcher.
    Folio 40b: Illustration to the poem גדיא חד. The thunder of the Lord smiting death. Above the large letters at the bottom of the page are monochrome floral motives and penwork patterns.


    Acquisition:
    Acquired by Enriqueta Rylands in 1892 from John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer and later bequeathed to the The John Rylands Library.
    Layout:

    Long line with up to 26 written lines for the main text. Ruling in ink.


    Collation:

    1 leaf + ten quires of 2 bifolia. Catchwords at the bottom left corner of each page, corresponding to the commentaries.


    Script:
    Square script, known as Otiyot Amsterdam.Semi-cursive script for the title, known as Otiyot Amsterdam.
    Data Source(s):
    Description based on Alexander Samely's unpublished draft catalogue, description of decorations by Gabrielle Sed-Rajna, revised and expanded by Stefania Silvestri, Renate Smithuis and Nienke Valk.
    Subject(s):
    Haggadah; Cabala; Mysticism; Mysticism Judaism; Prayer Judaism; Judaism Liturgy Texts
    Abstract:

    The Rylands Leipnik Haggadah is a Passover Haggadah copied and partially decorated by Joseph ben David of Leipnik (Moravia, Czech Republic) in Altona near Hamburg in the first half of the eighteenth century. The well-known scribe/artist imitates the printed type known as “letters of Amsterdam” (otiyot Amsterdam) developed by Hebrew book printers in seventeenth-century Amsterdam. Iconographically speaking, the Haggadah is based on the 1695 Amsterdam printed Haggadah. The decorations comprise a copper-engraved title-page, painted panels, painted engraved initial-words framed by ornaments and gilded borders. The Rylands Leipnik Haggadah combines the Ashkenazic and Sephardic rites and includes liturgical instructions in Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino. It also contains three commentaries, namely a commentary by the medieval Spanish scholar Isaac Abravanel, the seventeenth-century Aaron’s Rod by Aaron ben Moses Teomim and the anonymous mystical Commentary according to the Secret [Meaning]. As Iris Fishof has shown, what is special about this particularly fine Haggadah is the fact that Joseph Leipnik seems to have completed his work on it in London in close collaboration with a Christian artist, who produced the miniatures and some further decorations. Most likely the manuscript was commissioned by a member of the English aristocracy. The date of production stated in the manuscript is 1710. Most scholars place it in 1740, i.e. in the period of Joseph Leipnik’s greatest activity.


    Foliation:

    Modern pencil foliation in Arabic numerals at the top outer corner of side a of each folio.


    Format:
    Codex
    Material:
    Coated paper.
    Provenance:
    Back fly-leaf: handwritten in ink "19438" and "No 39".
    Back fly-leaf: handwritten in pencil "39 / Jewish / Date 5561 (1900) / 5470 / 191 / 1900 / 1709 AD. / Written at Leipnick near Hamburg / [...]" and below, in the hand of Frank TaylorTaylor, Frank, 1910- "No. - written by Joseph son of David / of Laipnick at Altona, / near Hamburg, 1709/1710 / Ex. inf. Dr. Cecil Roth. / 26 April 1960 / F. Taylor".
    Back paste-down: gold-lettered bookplate reading "E / BIBLIOTHECA / SPENCERIANA".

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  • Provided by The University of Manchester. Zooming image © University of Manchester Library, All rights reserved. Images and Metadata made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Images and Metadata made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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