Haggadah shel Pesah im Ziyyurim Na'im . . . (Passover Haggadah with pleasant illustrations . . . ), Decorated Manuscript on Parchment. Scribe: Haim Leib Beinhacker [20th century]

72 leaves (3 5/8 x 2 2/8 in.; 92 x 57 mm) including 3 blanks. Written in black ink and colored gouache on parchment in a modern square Ashkenazic script with decorated title- page, eighty-seven miniatures, and five decorated initial words; red ink borders throughout. fols. 1, 18-19, 64-65, lightly cockled. Maroon silk doublures; Mounted in a nineteenth century heavily embossed Italian silver binding, bearing the Fiorentini family crest, front and rear; silver clasp and catch.

an homage to the 18th-century tradition of hebrew manuscript illumination

In the early 18th century, long after the art of the handmade illuminated book had declined in the broader Jewish society, some influential Court Jews and other members of the new class of Jewish bourgeoisie in German-speaking lands began to commission luxurious individual Hebrew manuscripts. Based upon the number of extant copies, the illustrated Haggadah was the most popular book produced by a cadre of talented scribe/artists whose ranks included: Joseph Leipnik, Aaron Wolf Helringen, Nathan ben Shimshon of Meseritz, and Meshullam Zimmel of Polna. Some of the most beautiful works emanating from this period, known as the “Renaissance of Hebrew manuscript production,” were the minuscule volumes created by these gifted artisans. These palm-sized treasures, often heavily laden with numerous illustrations and lavishly bound in precious materials, served specific liturgical functions, as prayerbooks or haggadot, and the like. They also provided their owners with portable symbols of wealth; a way to tangibly display their affluence while remaining safely within the confines of the Jewish milieu. Following this 18^th century burst of artistic creativity however, the art of the handmade and illuminated Haggadah once again went into a state of precipitous decline.

The title page of this incredibly charming miniature haggadah clearly states the scribe’s intention to emulate these masterpieces:

Haggadah for Passover, with pleasing illustrations, gathered from a variety of ancient haggadot, which I have caressed and cherished, I the insignificant, Haim Leib Bienhacker in honor of the Prince, the Excellent, our Teacher, Rabbi Yekutiel Fishof.

Whereas the eighteenth century scribe/artists had used as their model, primarily the imagery of the printed haggadah of Amsterdam and the copperplate engravings of Jacob ben Abraham, Haim Leib Bienhacker elected to use as his model the artistic program that had first appeared in print nearly two centuries earlier.

In 1609, a Haggadah of singular beauty was published in Venice by Israel ben David Zifroni, a veteran printer and copy editor of Hebrew books in Italy and Switzerland. Dozens of woodcut illustrations of the Passover ritual often executed as miniature vignettes provided a striking visual imagery. The haggadah, printed in three versions (Judeo-German [Yiddish], Judeo-Italian, and Judeo-Spanish [Ladino]),  proved exceedingly popular  and the durability of the basic design is confirmed by its subsequent reprinting in 1629, 1663, 1695, 1716 and 1740. With the close of the era of Venetian Hebrew printing at the end of the 18th century, the iconography was transferred wholesale to the Livornese haggadah of 1837, and in turn reprised in numerous subsequent haggadot

The images used here by Bienhacker are primarily drawn from this well-loved series of Italian haggadot that have helped to illustrate the Passover Haggadah and spark the imaginations of Jews around the world for more than 400 years. To further beautify and adorn this miniature volume, it has been placed in an exquisite silver binding produced in Rome in the 19th century. The heavily embossed binding bears the coat of arms of the renowned Fiorentini family. This family of Tuscan origin has been in Rome since the 16th century and included poets (Salamone), and several generations of Italian warriors who distinguished themselves in military service, beginning in 1867 under Garibaldi (Albert), and continuing in WW I (Albert), and in the resistance to the Nazis in WW II (Mario).

The present manuscript, meticulously lettered and painstakingly illustrated, housed in a majestic and luxurious binding in conscious imitation of the traditions of the 18th century Court Jews, exemplifies a dedication and devotion to both faith and art, which stakes out this volume’s unique place along the continuum of haggadah production that has spanned millennia.