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, produced in ca. 1300 in the Catalan region of Spain by an unknown scribe and artist, is an exceptional sample of a decorated Haggadah manuscript in the local tradition; it may be compared with the famous Sarajevo Haggadah, with which it shares a liturgical and artistic tradition. Its fine decorations and illustrations are a testament to the wealth of its patron and his concern for beautifying the tradition. Notably, the manuscript is unfinished (for unknown reasons), allowing us to view the process by which such manuscripts were created. 

This is one of the Haggadah’s unfinished pages. You can see the places where the gesso (chalk-like base) has already been applied, telling us where the gold leaf was meant to be. You can also see the artist’s method exposed: first outline the images, then apply the color.