A Haggadah is the script for the seder ritual on the first nights of Passover. The word means “telling,” and the seder is a ritual for the telling of the Passover story—the Exodus from Egypt—in a particular rabbinic fashion. 

This Haggadah was written by the great Italian scribe, Abraham Farissol (ca. 1451- ca. 1525), in 1515. Farissol performed many responsibilities in the Jewish communities of northern Italy, but he was particularly sought after as a scribe. Farissol’s style is clear and elegant, following forms that are easier to read and write than older scribal writing. This style is clearly influenced by the new “humanistic script,” invented in the early 15th century and used by Christian scribes for the writing of Latin. 

This page, heavily stained with wine from its use at seders, is the formal beginning of the “Maggid” (“telling”) section of the seder. It emphasizes, in the elaborate framed structure at the top, the “This” (of “this is the bread of affliction”) that begins the formula inviting those in need to join you at the seder. 

At the bottom of the page, you can see the beginning of a scene, unfinished, later to be covered with a flap and more complete scene. Did the patron object to what the artist was drawing? We shall never know. But we do know that this scene was covered to include another, one resembling the “Last Supper.”