Haggadah shel Pesah (Liber Ritum Paschalium) Joannes Stephanus Rittangel, Koenigsberg: 1644

78 leaves (7 1/2 x 6 in.; 190 x 155 mm). Printer's device on title page; text illustration f. 43r; decorative tailpieces  ff. 4v, 78v; historiated Latin and Hebrew initial letters in introduction, ff. 2r-5. Slight browning; title page slightly chipped at margin. Latin inscription on title; ex libris, front pastedown endpaper. Gilt tooled contemporary vellum.

Vinograd, Koenigsberg, 1; Yaari 45; Yudlov 59; Yerushalmi, plate 56-7.

the first haggadah with musical notation
the first translation of the Passover haggadah into German

Joannes Stephanus Rittangel (1606-1652) was a Christian Hebraist with an excellent command of Hebrew and Jewish sources. This led to speculation in many quarters that Rittangel was born a Jew and nearly all the early discussions of Rittangel mention his possible Jewish background. Although Rittangel spent his younger years in intensive study of the Hebrew language and of Jewish literature, most modern scholars doubt that he was either born into or ever converted to the Jewish faith. Rittangel was elected Professor Extraordinary of Semitic languages at the University of Koenigsberg in 1640. Rittangel was a prolific writer. According to his own testimony, he wrote hundreds of letters to Jews all over the world.  In addition to the present Haggadah, his compositions include the Latin translation of Sefer Yezirah (1642), a German translation of the Hebrew prayerbook, with a lengthy introduction to Jewish liturgy, including passages in Greek, Arabic, and Syriac (1652).

The text of the haggadah as well as Rittangel's introduction is provided in Hebrew, German and Latin. At the conclusion of the Passover haggadah, Rittangel has also provided the text of the ritual known as Pidyon ha-Ben (Redemption of the Firstborn) in the same three languages.

By recording the seventeenth century musical notation to traditional Passover hymns such as Adir Hu and Ki Lo Na'eh, Rittangel's haggadah has proven to be an invaluable resource for the study of the development and evolution of Jewish music.