Amsterdam Haggadah with the Rare Map of the Holy Land, Amsterdam: Solomon Proops, 1712

Yudlov 120; Yaari 73; Yerushalmi, plates 66-69.

Second edition of the enormously influential Amsterdam haggadah

The famed Amsterdam Haggadah is a milestone in the history of Hebrew printing and illustration, introducing a whole new iconographic approach to haggadah illustration. Of all the early printed illustrated Passover haggadot, the Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695 had the greatest impact on subsequent editions. The artist Abraham ben Jacob, a convert to Judaism, borrowed most of the illustrations from Mathaeus Merian, a Christian artist whose illustrations for both bibles and history books were widely known throughout Europe. It was from among these engravings that the models for the illustrations in the Amsterdam Haggadah were chosen.  Their subsequent popularity was such that they were copied and recopied in numerous editions of haggadot printed in Europe and later in the United States, well into the 20th century. The illustrations of the 1712 Amsterdam Haggadah were identical with those of 1695, however the frontispiece was changed and two new illustrations were added: a page with 13 vignettes depicting the sequence of the Passover Seder, and a page with the images of the Ten Plagues. These were borrowed from the Venice Haggadah of 1609.

Among Abraham ben Jacob's innovations were the image of the Temple in Jerusalem as well as a map of Canaan depicting the route of the Exodus and the boundaries of the Land of Israel.