Domsa Károlyné, Fekete Gézáné, Kovács Mária (szerk.): Gondolatok a könyvtárban / Thoughts in the Library (A MTAK közleményei 30. Budapest, 1992)
KÖNYVTÁR ÉS HAGYOMÁNY – LIBRARY AND TRADITION
G. Sed-Rajna of the Ulm mahzor. To this first stage of the decoration belong the large initial words in burnished gold characters on painted panels with fine brush gold scroll decoration (fol. 5r, 47r fig. 7), similar to those of the Ulm mahzor, as well as two text illustrations: a hand holding up a half-matsah (fol. 23v), and another holding a bunch of maror (fol. 24v). The first artist, who may have been the scribe himself, did not finish the decoration. Three initial words were left uncompleted (fols 25v, 27v, 28r). The decoration was resumed by a second craftsman who added small painted panels including protagonistes performing the ritual gestures of the seder: filling and lifting the cup of wine (fols 5v, 25v) or illustrating the parable of the four sons (fols 9v, lOr, lOv), and at the end of the text, the traditional topic of the arrival of the Messiah riding an ass (fol. 33r). This second craftsman has also added new elements to the frontispiece of the Haggadah, which has been started by the first artist (fol. 5r. fig. 7). These new elements are a portico with animals and hybrides playing on top of it and men and women reading the Haggadah, placed on both sides of the portico, within arcaded recesses. These additions are very similar in style and character to the paintings of the well known Haggadah Codex Or. 8 of the Hessische Landesbibliothek of Darmstadt. The manuscript was copied by Israel bar Meir of Heidelberg, situated in the same area as Ulm, around 1420-1430 according to the latest studies. The script of the Darmstadt Haggadah shows close affinities to that of the Ulm mahzor and so does the decoration. The burnished gold initial words on painted grounds decorated by fine scrolls (e.g. fol. 51v) are similar to those found in both parts of Abraham's manuscript; the playing animals and the figures reading the Haggadah in arcaded niches of the Darmstadt codex (fol. 25v, 6r, 5r) have strong affinities with the paintings added to the frontispiece of the Haggadah of the John Rylands Library. L. Mayer and Paul Pieper 1 0 have identified the models of the Darmstadt Haggadah in a set of playing cards which have been created around 1427-1431 in Stuttgart. 1 1 The popular character of the illustrations added to the J. Rylands Library's ashkenazi Haggadah and their close affinity to the paintings of the codex of Darmstadt may indicate that the decoration of both manuscripts derive from the same source. This suggestion is all the more likely that both belong to the same geographical area and the same period where and when these playing-cards have been created and became popular. Although on a more modest scale, Abraham the scribe and the painter who completed the decoration of the Haggadah have both executed a work reflecting the same fashion as the codex of Darmstadt, a trend of popular art which first has spread outside the Jewish realm by the means of playing-cards. 94 Thoughts in the library "
