Haggadah Zevah Pesah, Don Isaac ben Judah Abrabanel, Bistrowitz: Kalonymus ben Mordecai Jaffe, 1592

8vo (7 5/8 x 5½ in.; 194 x 140 mm). pp. 1-60[4]; collation: 1-16^{4=64 leaves, woodcut architectural title border; upper portion of title text mended with loss of only a few letters on verso, dampstains in upper outer portion and in lower margin of some leaves, last three quires browned, quire 2 misbound. Nineteenth-century maroon quarter calf and decorated paper boards; recased, endpapers renewed, backstrip rubbed.}

Vinograd, Bistrowitz 1; Yaari, Haggadot 25; Yudlov 33; Mehlman 369; Yerushalmi, plate 33

8vo (7 5/8 x 5 ½ in.; 194 x 140 mm). pp.1-60[4]; collation: 1-164=64 leaves, woodcut architectural title border; upper portion of title text mended with loss of only a few letters on verso, dampstains in upper outer portion and in lower margin of some leaves, last three quires browned, quire 2 misbound. Nineteenth-century maroon quarter calf and decorated paper boards; recased, endpapers renewed, backstrip rubbed.
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the only Hebrew book ever printed in Bistrowitz

The first haggadah printed in Eastern Europe, this 1592 Bistrowitz edition reprises the ever-popular commentary of Don Isaac ben Judah Abrabanel. The chronogram on the title page gives a clue to the events that precipitated the publication of the book in this otherwise unlikely location for Hebrew printing. After giving the title and author, the title page further states "We began the work today, Tuesday, 10 Elul, in the year, 'And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stopped.'" Within this verse, taken from Numbers 17:13, the numerical total of the engrossed letters adds up to 352, indicating that the entire correct date was equivalent to 18 August 1592.  The printer however, selected that particular verse in an allusion to the outbreak of Bubonic plague in the nearby city of Lublin. The, printer, Kalonymus ben Mordecai Jaffe, together with his family, and his staff, had all fled from the plague-ravaged city to the village of Bistrowitz, on the city's outskirts. There they printed only a single work, the present haggadah. According to the colophon, the haggadah was completed, on Tuesday, Rosh Hodesh Heshvan [5]352 (=7 October 1593) by which time the worst of the plague had moved on. After completing the haggadah, Jaffe and his press returned to Lublin where he resumed the printing of Hebrew titles until his death in 1603.