Copenhagen Haggadah

The Copenhagen Haggadah is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful Haggadah manuscripts of the 18th century. After printed Haggadot quickly spread with the inadvent of printing in the early modern period, wealthy Jewish patrons returned to traditionally produced, handwritten, and illuminated books — especially when it came to religious works. This trend reached its peak in the 18th century, with Moravia being the northern Alpine center for this kind of Jewish book art. This is also where Uri Pheibush (c. 1720–1795) was trained. He was responsible for the entire Copenhagen Haggadah, which he created in Altona-Hamburg in 1739 and decorated with a wonderful title page, 16 half-page and 52 smaller miniatures. As was typical at the time, he based his illumination on the copperplate engravings created by Abraham ben Jacob (c. 1669–1730) for the famous Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695 and 1712. Unlike his colleagues, however, he made considerable iconographic and structural changes, creating a truly unique Haggadah. This is also characterized by its numerous, imaginatively illuminated initial words, which appear colorfully throughout the manuscript.