"This past week, I was fortunate to acquire a particularly handsome example of a work that, while not always widely appreciated outside #bibliophilic circles, deserves to be counted among the most ambitious productions of #nineteenthcentury #Hebrew #printing – the #Trieste #Haggadah of 1863.

Students of #Jewish #art will recognize immediately the significance of this edition. Indeed, the noted art #historian #BezalelRoth went so far as to assert that only one nineteenth-century Haggadah could truly be called groundbreaking in both conception and execution: the #TriesteHaggadah.

Issued under the title #LHaggadaillustrata, the volume presents the Hebrew text alongside a refined #Italian #translation by #Rabbi #AvrahamChaiMorpurgo. The translation is not merely serviceable; it reflects a careful engagement with earlier #machzorim and #Haggadot across several #European traditions, resulting in a text that is both accurate and stylistically polished."

https://jewishpress.com/the-trieste-haggadah-of-1863/

The Trieste Haggadah of 1863

Even the title page announces that this is no ordinary production. Figures such as Moses, Aaron, David, and Solomon are framed within an ornate Gothic design – a bold stylistic departure that signal

The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com
The Prague Haggadah's pictures influenced other haggadot. Here is the Venice Haggadah from 1609. Forced labor and beatings in the first picture, whereas in the second we have babies being thrown in the Nile while parents cry out, and a couple that refrained from relations, which is a story found in the Talmud, Sotah 12a, involving Moshe's parents and Miriam. #haggadot #Mazeldon
Next up is a painting of the Romaniote Haggadah, manuscript of 1583. The Romaniote Jews are Jews from Romania, that made their way to Greece - in this case apparently the island of Crete. This is a depiction of Jews being enslaved and making bricks. I love the colors in this one! #haggadot #Mazeldon
Also note the depiction of the soldier on the left hand side, whose face is not human, really. This picture has not been "absorbed" by later haggadot. This one, of Egyptians throwing babies in the Nile, did appear at least in concept in other #haggadot. #mazeldon
This year I was taken with the depictions of Egyptians in #haggadot. First up, the one that began it all, the Prague Haggadah, printed in 1526 by brothers Gershom and Grunim Katz. Its woodcuts are beautiful. This one is so shocking that an owner wrote "woe to the wicked", twice, on its margins - and it was what piqued my interest. We see a royal figure bathing in Jewish babies blood, while babies complain. #mazeldon