Illuminated Haggadot from Medieval Spain

Emerging in Spain after 1250, Jewish narrative figurative painting became a central feature in a group of illuminated Passover Haggadot in the early decades of the fourteenth century. Illuminated Haggadot from Medieval Spain describes how the Sephardic Haggadot reflect different visualizations of scripture under various conditions and aimed at a variety of audiences. Though the specifics of the creation of these works remain a mystery, this book delves into the cultural struggles that existed during this period in history and shows how those conflicts influenced the work.

The culture surrounding the creators of the Sephardic Haggadot was saturated in conflict revolving around acculturation, polemics with Christianity, and struggles within Sephardic Jewry itself. Kogman-Appel presents the Sephardic Haggadot as visual manifestations of a minority struggling for cultural identity both in relation to the dominant culture and within its own realm.

Katrin Kogman-Appel is Lecturer in the Department of Arts at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva. Kogman-Appel's credentials include publishing Jewish Art Between Islam and Christianity: The Decoration of Hebrew Bibles in Spain (2001) as well as contributing to Imaging the Early Medieval Bible, edited by John Williams and published by Penn State Press in 1999.