Pigs in the Second Nuremberg Haggadah
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Pigs in the Second Nuremberg Haggadah
The Second Nuremberg Haggadah
The Second Nuremberg Haggadahis a liturgical manuscript for Passover. It was produced mid-fifteenth-century Ashkenaz. From the mid-nineteenth century until 1957, it was housed in the City Library of Nuremberg. In 1957, it became part of the Schocken Collection until 2004, when it was bought by David Sofer of London. Its decoration is compound. There are ritual depictions as well as biblical narratives enriched with midrashic material.
Depictions of pigs
Folio 7r
There are two pigs in the manuscript, both of them constitute part of a building. On folio 7r, at the beginning of the text, Mah Nishtanah? (What makes this night different from all other nights? This is a rhetorical question raised by a child. It is an introductory question to the retelling of the Exodus story. The folio is decorated with two scenes. The one in the outer margin is depicted a man within an imaginary tower which is placed onto the back of a roar. The figure is pouring out the second cup of wine (during Seder eve each participants should drink four cups of wine). The inscription above the figure says, "After the bread of affliction, the second cup is poured out." The other scene in the lower margin of the folio depicts a child is asking his father about the custom of Seder.
Folio 27r
In the outer margin of folio 27r, a similar imaginary building is depicted. A man inside is lifting up the third cup of wine. The top of the building is decorated with a giant flower and a roar leaning against its stem.
There are lots of animals depicted throughout the manuscript. They are placed in the lower margin, or constitute parts of architectural structures--just as the above mentioned pigs. Their function is merely decorative1 Most of these animal motifs derive from playing cards which were popular in Upper- and Middle-Rhein regions during the fifteenth century. However, pigs do not appear on these playing cards, and according to Joseph Gutmann, they might have a deeper meaning.
Bibliography
Kogman-Appel, Katrin. Die zweite Nürnberger und die Jehuda Haggada : jüdische Illustratoren zwischen Tradition und Fortschritt. Frankfurt am Main : P. Lang, 1999.
K. Kogman-Appel. "The Iconography of the Biblical Cycle of the Second Nuremberg and the Yahuda Haggadot: Tradition and Innovation", in The Old Testament as Inspiration in Culture: International Academic Symposium – Prague, September 1995, edited by Jan Heller, Shemaryahu Talmon, Hana Hlaváčková and Martin Prudký, Prague, 2001.
K. Kogman-Appel. "The Second Nuremberg Haggadah and the Yahuda Haggadah: Were they Made by the Same Artist?", in: Proceedings of the Eleventh World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem 1993, Division D, vol. II, Jerusalem 1994, 25-32.
External links
http://jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/mss-pr/mss_d_0076/
Notes
1Katrin Kogman-Appel, Die zweite Nürnberger und die Jehuda Haggada : jüdische Illustratoren zwischen Tradition und Fortschritt(Frankfurt am Main : P. Lang, 1999), 156.
contributor: Zsofia Buda mphbuz01@phd.ceu.hu Central European University
