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. 

The marvelous table scene on this page—appearing just above the Hebrew word asking that God “POUR out Thy wrath against the nations who do not know you”—provides a window into Jewish life in Catalunya at the time this Haggadah was made. Men, women, and children, all dressed in typical contemporary dress, sit together at the seder ritual. From this depiction, we also learn something about contemporary eating “technologies” (bowls are primary, plates mostly for serving, knives essential but no other eating utensils).