Beschreibung:

AN UNRECORDED ILLUSTRATED MINIATURE PASSOVER HAGGADAH with 50 illustrations, partly with Yiddish translations and instructions. [Vienna], manufactured for Juetl, wife of Meir Poesing (Mayer Hirschel), by the excellent penman Meshullam Zimmel ben Moses of Polna (Bohemia), 1721. CONTENTS Fol. 1r: Titlepage: "Order of Service for the festival of Passover, with nice drawings, with all the signs and miracles that happened to our Fathers in Egypt and near the [Red] Sea etc. And it was made for the important, humble, and pious woman, the highly esteemed Juetlte, wife of the venerable and esteemed Meir Poesing, may he live, and with the letters of Amsterdam". Fol. 1v: Blank Fol. 2r: Searching for the chamets Fols. 2v-4r: Simanim Fols. 4v-5v: Blessings Fols. 5v-32v: Text Haggadah Fol. 33r: Addir Hu Fols. 33v-34r: Almekhtiger Got (Yiddish translation of Addir Hu) Fols. 34r-37r: Echad mi yode'a, with Yiddish translation Fols. 37v-40r: Chad Gadya, with Yiddish translation Fol. 40r: Colophon: "Engraved on the plates by the calligrapher and scribe Meshullam, called Zimmel, son of the venerable Moses of Polna, May he live long and happily, Amen, in the year 1721" (date in chronogram) Fol. 40v: blank CODICOLOGY 40 leaves, no foliation. Thin yellowish vellum, some grains visible, slightly thumbed, some minor stains slightly affecting some text, generally in very good state. Brown ink. Measurements: fol.: 87 x 56 mm., text: 70 x 41 mm., text written within a frame executed in the text ink (6r: 72 x 43 mm.), usually 18 lines per full page. Collation: 1-5 4, 6 2 + 2 between 1 and 2, 7 2 + 1 before 1 and 1 after 2, 8 2 + 2 between 1 and 2, 9-10s4, no catchwords or running titles. Horizontal and vertical ruling by hard point, on rectos and usually also on versos, possibly applied on unfolded sheets. Square, semi-cursive and Yiddish "Amsterdam letters". Space filling is achieved by dilatation and by the use of anticipated first letters, if necessary with an open space before the anticipated letter; protrusion is prevented by compression of the last letters, by abbreviation and, once, by writing the last letter of the word in smaller size. The tetragram occurs both as a double yod and as various other graphemes, all variations on the double yod with additional curved pen strokes; alef-lamed ligatures appear as well. Hebrew texts with full vocalization, usually omitting those signs that have no influence on the Ashkenazic pronunciation. BINDING Contemporary Viennese vellum covers elaborately stamped in silver (now oxidized), consisting of one floral center piece, four floral corner stamps and border stamps, gilt edges, two original plain brass clasps; four original blank paper flyleaves and red decorated endpapers with copper varnish acanthus leaf decoration at both ends. Size of the binding: 92 x 61 mm. DECORATION The manuscript contains no less than 50 illustrations, including the titlepage, all executed in brown ink. Many of the illustrations are based on the copper engravings in the printed Amsterdam Haggadot of 1695 and 1712, which were in turn based on Matthaeus Merian's Biblical illustrations (see: R. Wischnitzer-Bernstein, "Von der Holbeinbibel zur Amsterdamer Haggadah", From Dura to Rembrandt. Studies in the history of art (Milwaukee etc. 1990) p. 29-54, 189-190). There are, however, some important new variations on existing themes and a number of original illustration cycles, discussed in more detail below. The refined execution of the images is a successful imitation of the copper-engraving technique which, in the course of the eighteenth century, had become ever more popular in deluxe printed Hebrew books (the first Haggadah to be printed with copper engravings was the 1695 Amsterdam Haggadah). The scribe even goes so far as to state in his colophon that the images were actually "engraved on the plates". Meshullam Zimmel exhibits great artistic merit in the diversity of his characters' facial expressions, an important element for co