PASSOVER HAGGADAH WITH JUDEO-ITALIAN TRANSLATION, VENICE: GIOVANNI CALEONI FOR PIETRO, ALVISE, AND LORENZO BRAGADIN, 1629

A monument of Haggadah illustration that would serve as a model for numerous editions published into the modern era.

In 1609, a Passover Haggadah of singular beauty was published in Venice by Israel Zifroni, a veteran corrector and printer of Hebrew books in Sabbioneta, Basel, Freiburg im Breisgau, and Venice. The liturgical text was there flanked by magnificent architectonic borders and interspersed with elegant woodcut illustrations of the preparations for Passover, the stages of the Seder, the story of the exodus from Egypt (including the Ten Plagues), and the anticipated messianic redemption. This Haggadah appeared in three versions, with translations (printed within the columns on either side of the text) given in Judeo-Italian (for native Italian Jews), Yiddish (for Ashkenazim), and Ladino (for Sephardim). (Interestingly, even the Judeo-Italian version included the Yiddish translation of the song Addir hu, known as Almekhtiger Got.) Other than the language of the translation, the major difference between these editions can be found in the birkat ha-mazon (grace after meals), where each of the three communities steadfastly maintained its own rite.

The 1609 Haggadah proved to be exceedingly popular, and twenty years later, the present, enhanced edition appeared (also in three versions; this one is the Judeo-Italian). Perhaps the most important innovation was the inclusion of a commentary entitled Tseli esh (Roasted in Fire), an abridgment by Rabbi Leon Modena (1571-1648) of Don Isaac Abrabanel’s (1437-1508) Zevah pesah (Passover Sacrifice) exposition of the Haggadah (see lots 19, 206). In his introduction, Modena, who was also responsible for the Judeo-Italian translation itself, explained that a learned commentary was added, “for if [the Haggadah] already includes illustrations to entice the bodily eyes, how much more so that there should be an explanation to delight the spiritual eye.” To accommodate the extra text, the size of the paper and ornamental frames was enlarged and the number of folios increased by two. The commentary was placed within the architectural columns on the sides of the page, while the Judeo-Italian translation appeared either in the columns or directly below the Hebrew text. A further improvement in this edition was the redistribution of the illustrations more evenly throughout the volume, thus effecting a more pleasing overall presentation.

The 1629 Venice Haggadah was commissioned by Moses ben Gerson Parenzo, the last of the Parenzo Hebrew printers, and issued at the Caleoni press on behalf of the Bragadini family. The durability and success of Parenzo’s basic prototype are confirmed by this Haggadah’s subsequent reprinting by later publishers working in Pisa, Livorno, and Venice (see lot 46).

Literature

A.M. Habermann, “Ha-madpisim benei r. ya‘akov parenzo be-venetsi’ah,” Areshet 1 (1959): 61-90, at pp. 65, 88 (no. 32).

A.M. Habermann, “The Jewish Art of the Printed Book,” in Cecil Roth (ed.), Jewish Art: An Illustrated History, revis. Bezalel Narkiss (London: Vallentine, Mitchell, 1971), 163-174, at pp. 172-173.

Marvin J. Heller, The Seventeenth Century Hebrew Book: An Abridged Thesaurus, vol. 1 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2011), 234-235, 484-485.

Cecil Roth, “Ha-haggadah ha-metsuyyeret she-bi-defus,” Areshet 3 (1961): 7-30, at pp. 21-22.

Vinograd, Venice 1183

Avraham Yaari, Bibli’ogerafyah shel haggadot pesah me-reshit ha-defus ve-ad ha-yom (Jerusalem: Bamberger & Wahrman, 1960), 6 (no. 41).

Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Haggadah and History (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2005), plates 49-55.

Isaac Yudlov, Otsar ha-haggadot: bibli’ogerafyah shel haggadot pesah me-reshit ha-defus ha-ivri ad shenat [5]720 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1997), 8 (no. 55).