Bidspirit auction | Passover Haggadah – Illuminated Parchment

Passover Haggadah – Illuminated Parchment Manuscript, Attributed to Scribe-Artist Jakob son of Michael May Segal of Innsbruck – Germany, Perhaps Frankfurt, 1729 - Passover Haggadah. Illuminated parchment manuscript. Attributed to the scribe-artist Jakob son of Michael May Segal of Innsbruck. [Germany, perhaps Frankfurt am Main], 1729. Ink and paint on parchment. The Haggadah text is written in black ink, in square script, mostly vocalized; Yiddish texts are written in Ashkenazic semi-cursive script (Vaybertaytsh); the instructions and captions of illustrations are written in Sephardic semi-cursive (Rashi) script. Most pages are bordered by red rectangular frames; in some cases, the headers or illustrations extend beyond the frame. The manuscript contains the Passover Haggadah with instructions in Hebrew and Yiddish. At the end of the Haggadah, on leaf [28a], appears the blessing for Sefirat HaOmer, followed by the piyyut Almechtiger Got (a Yiddish variation on Adir Hu), followed by Echad Mi Yodea in Hebrew and Yiddish (most written in two columns), followed by Chad Gadya in Hebrew and Yiddish, alternating verse by verse. At the top of the title page appears the name of the owner of the manuscript: ”This Haggadah belongs to Itzek son of Zeliman Öttingen, 1729”. The Identity of the Manuscript's Illuminator and his Place of Origin This manuscript does not contain a colophon or any explicit identification of the scribe or his place of origin. In 1985, a facsimile of the manuscript was published by Nahar publishing (Israel) along with a foreword by Chaya Benjamin attributing the manuscript to the scribe-artist Jakob son of Michael May Segal of Innsbruck, based on the similarity between it and another Haggadah he produced in Frankfurt, 1731, with a detailed colophon. The other manuscript, which was still in a private collection in the United States in 1985, was purchased in 1986 by the Jewish Museum of Frankfurt, and is now known as the ”Frankfurt Haggadah”. When the Jewish Museum of Frankfurt opened in 1988, a facsimile of the manuscript was published along with a companion volume (see below), in which the present manuscript is briefly mentioned, although the degree of relation between the two manuscripts remains to be clarified. Apart from its artistic style, the only indication of this manuscript's place of origin is the owner's name mentioned on the title page – Itzek son of Zeliman Öttingen. In various descriptions published over the years, it has been described as a manuscript from Ettingen (Öttingen), Bavaria, based on its mention on the title page, and it has occasionally been called the Öttingen Haggadah. However, the identification of the city of origin as Öttingen appears to be an error, as Öttingen should be read as the surname of the manuscript's owner, not the location of production. Several families by this name lived in 18th-century Frankfurt, and if the identification of the scribe-artist given above is correct, the Öttingen Haggadah may well have been produced in Frankfurt. Decorations The decorations featured in this Haggadah include a fully-illustrated title page, seven pages with miniature illustrations, fifteen large illustrations covering about a third of the page (most depicting events related in the Haggadah), and twenty-nine more initial panels decorated in various styles. The subjects and sizes are detailed below: Page 1a: The spies carry a bunch of grapes. One-third of page. 2a: A full-page architectonic gate illustration, with a pair of angels holding a cartouche at the top, containing the figures of Moses and Aaron in the center, and a depiction of the Binding of Isaac between two pillar bases decorated with lion heads. 3a-4a: The twelve parts of the Seder, miniatures, approx. 3.5X6.5 cm. 4b: The initial panel is enclosed in a flowery rectangular frame, with a female figure to the right and a male figure to the left holding a goblet and leaning on a pillow. 5a: The initial panel is decorated with flowers. 6a: A pair of large lions hold a medallion with the initial word, topped by a large, decorated crown, with a female figure and leaf decorations below. Half of page. 6b: The initial word is drawn as colorful ribbons, next to a Jewish figure. 7a: An illustration depicting the sages having the Seder in Bnei Brak and recounting the Exodus the entire night. One-third of page. 7b: Two figures of a man and a woman – sitting beside the table and reciting the Haggadah, appear to the left and right of the initial panel; further on in the page is an illustration of the four sons, covering one-third of the page. 8b: An illustration of ”Originally our fathers were idol worshipers”, depicting idolatry and Abraham in the Land of Canaan. One-third of page. 9a: A captioned illustration depicting Abraham and the angels. One-third of page. 9b: A captioned illustration depicting Jacob's family traveling to Egypt. One-third of page.