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. 

On this page you can see the illustration of the first of the “Four Sons,” the wise one. He holds a book on his lap and his hand is raised in an instructive position. He wears a clerical robe and his head is covered, all appropriate for a religious scholar in 14th-century Catalunya. Notably, his dress is in no way identifiably Jewish, as Jews dressed like their neighbors and were portrayed as such.