Dragon Haggadah

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The Dragon Haggadah is a codex from the late 13th century, which is kept in the State and University Library Hamburg and has the inventory number Codex Hebraicus 155 there . It got its name because dragons appear several times as a motif of book illumination.

description

The codex has 116 parchment sheets in the format 18.1–18.8 × 13.3–13.6 cm. It is an early illuminated Passover Haggadah . It is incomplete; both beginning and end are missing.

calligraphy

The Hebrew text of the Haggadah is seven lines, the Hallel ten lines in Italian square script and semi-italics. The text has been partially vocalized.

Book illumination

The lower margin of the first half of the Codex is decorated with illustrations made by two illuminators on almost every page. The illustrations explain the text, depict food, rites and customs; there are also drolleries . The opposite sides relate to each other in the decoration. Bistritzky regards the execution as somewhat naive compared to other contemporary works of Jewish book illumination, but shows an interesting pictorial program. Examples:

  • 5v: For the text of the Hawdala "Blessed be you, God, who sanctifies Israel and the festive days", a festive bouquet ( Lulav ) for the Feast of Tabernacles is shown with the comment: "This is a Lulav."
  • 6r: For the text of the Hawdala "Praise you, ... he distinguishes ... between the seventh day and the six days of work", Adam is shown with the inscription: "The first man."
  • 9v / 10r: Passover dishes egg and karpas (vegetables).
  • 17v / 18r: Illustration of the ritual four questions: the naive son and the bad son, dressed as knights, sit on wild animals.
  • 23v: A woman gives birth to six children. The illustration apparently refers to the text: "The children of Israel were fruitful, spread, multiplied and became extraordinarily strong."
  • 39v / 40r: Symbolic food at the Passover festival: matzo , lamb and maror (bitter cabbage).

history

Some clues point to Italy as the place of origin of the manuscript:

  • the Passover rite is Italian, e.g. B. the order of the four questions corresponds to that in Machsor Roma.
  • on fol. 21v there is a note for the illustrator: "Abramo"

The manuscript was created between 1280 and 1320. In the early 18th century it was in the library of the Hamburg pastor Johann Christoph Wolf and from there it came to the state library.

literature

  • Shlomo Bistritzky : Codex Hebraicus 155 ( PDF )
  • Historisches Museum der Pfalz Speyer (Hrsg.): Europe's Jews in the Middle Ages. (Catalog). 2004, pp. 170-171.
  • Yael Zirlin: The Problems of Identifying the Origin of a Manuscript: Hamburg, Cod. Hebr. 155 , in: Proceedings of the Eleventh World Congress of Jewish Studies: Jerusalem, June 22-29, 1993, D, Vol. 2, p 33-37.