Passover Haggadah with illustrations. Augsburg: Chaim son of David Shachor, 1534.

Passover Haggadah, with woodcut illustrations, one of the earliest illustrated Haggadot to be printed. The Haggadah originally comprises four large illustrations, and nine small illustrations (effectively four different small illustrations, repeated). The present copy lacks the title page and five other leaves in the middle. All four large illustrations and six of the small illustrations are present, three of the small illustrations are lacking (two illustrations on the Four Sons leaf, and another illustration after the Gaal Yisrael blessing).

The first large illustration features several people sitting around a table, and the second similar illustration features a family sitting around a table. The next two illustrations, printed on the leaf with Kiddush and Havdalah, feature a hunter with his dogs chasing hares (in the first illustration, the dogs chase the hares into a net, and the second shows the hares having escaped the net, watching the dogs from the other side; this has been taken by some as an allegory for the Jewish people's escape from their persecutors). The motif of the hare hunted by a dog appears in several illustrated Haggadah manuscripts, and also in the Prague 1527 Haggadah, and its origin appears to be in the mnemonic Yaknehaz for the order of blessings for a combined Kiddush and Havdalah, which phonetically resembles the German Jagen-hase ("hare hunting").

Colophon on last leaf: "Order of Pesach completed, today, Sunday, 3rd Shevat, Chaim son of David [=1534] the typesetter".

Between second and third leaves of fifth gathering, three handwritten leaves bound (in neat Italian semi-cursive script, ca. date of printing), with end of the piyyut Pesach Mitzrayim Asirai Yatzu Chofshim and the piyyut MiBeit Aven Shevet Medanai.

Incomplete copy. [18] leaves. Originally: i-vi4 ([24] leaves). Lacking [6] leaves: i1 (title page), ii1, and gathering iv (4 leaves). With [3] handwritten leaves between second and third leaves of gathering v. 17.5 cm. Fair condition. Stains, including dampstains and dark stains. Tears and open tears, affecting text on several leaves, repaired with paper. Open tears from ink erosion, affecting text, on handwritten leaves. New binding.

R. Chaim Shachor was a distinguished printer in the early Hebrew press in Europe outside of Italy, and one of the first printers in Prague. He founded the first Hebrew press in Germany (Augsburg), and later founded the first Hebrew press in Lublin. He was active in Prague ca. 1515-1526 (he is claimed to have been involved in the woodcut designs for the Prague 1527 Haggadah, although the evidence is inconclusive). Next he settled in Oels, Silesia (present-day Oleśnica, Poland), where he printed several books. In 1534 he moved to Augsburg, where he established his press. In his press in Augsburg, only about 10 Hebrew titles were printed. Later (in 1543), he and his family moved to Ichenhausen, where he also printed several books; he then printed several books in Heddernheim. Ca. 1547 he reached Lublin, where he established the first Hebrew press in the city (see: A.M. Habermann, HaMadpis Chaim Shachor, Beno Yitzchak VeChatano Yosef ben R. Yakar, Kiryat Sefer XXXI, p. 491).

The present edition is particularly rare, and there are only two other known extant copies: a complete copy on parchment in the British Library, and another paper copy in the JTS Library in New York. To the best of our knowledge, this Haggadah has never before been put up for auction.

Otzar HaHaggadot 11.

C. Roth, HaHaggadah HaMetzuyeret ShebiDefus, Areshet III, 1961, pp. 12-13.

Mosche N. Rosenfeld, Der jüdische Buchdruck in Augsburg in der ersten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts, London, 1985, no. 42, pp. 34-35.

Yosef Haim Yerushalmi, Haggadah and History, A Panorama in Facsimile of Five Centuries of the Printed Haggadah from the Collections of Harvard University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Philadelphia, 1975, pp. 35-37; plates 14-17.

Passover Haggadah, "with a beautiful commentary and fine illustrations of the signs and wonders G-d did for our ancestors", with commentary of R. Yitzchak Abarbanel and a map of Eretz Israel. Amsterdam: Asher Anshel son of Eliezer Chazan and Yissachar Ber son of Avraham Eliezer, 1695. Two title pages, the first one illustrated with copper engravings.

This Haggadah, illustrated by the artist Avraham HaGer (a German priest from Rhineland who converted to Judaism in Amsterdam), was the first Haggadah to be illustrated with copper engravings, and one of the first Hebrew books to be illustrated with this printing method, which, as the second title page asserts, is infinitely superior to previously used woodcuts. This edition served as a prototype for many subsequent Haggadot, either by inclusion of the map or by imitation of its illustrations (for more information on this Haggadah, see article by Cecil Roth, HaHaggadah HaMetzuyeret ShebiDefus, Areshet, III, 1961, pp. 22-25).

[1], 26 leaves + [1] folded map. 29.5 cm.Fair-good condition. Stains, including large stains to several leaves. Tears and open tears to margins of many leaves, repaired with paper filling (margins of all leaves repaired with paper filling). Folding marks, tears and open tears to map (open tears mainly to margins), affecting illustrations, repaired with paper filling. New leather binding.

Variant. The first title page was printed in two forms. The bottom half of the title page is the same in both, depicting Moses and Aaron. The upper part of the title pages differs. The more common version has six miniature circles with various Biblical scenes. The present variant has a large illustration of Moses kneeling next to the Burning Bush (a title page of this type later appeared in the Amsterdam 1712 edition). Besides this, there are minor differences in the text on the title page.

Otzar HaHaggadot 93.

CB, no. 2702.

Passover Haggadah, with Maaseh Hashem commentary by R. Eliezer Ashkenazi. Fürth: Chaim son of Tzvi Hirsch, 1754.

At beginning of Haggadah, approbation by R. Yaakov Yehoshua, author of Pnei Yehoshua (approbation partly torn and lacking). Instruction in Yiddish (Tzenah URenah font). Yiddish translation to piyyutim at end of Haggadah.

Copy of the kabbalist R. Natan Adler, teacher of the Chatam Sofer. On title page, ownership inscription (possibly in his handwriting): "R. Natan Adler".

R. Natan HaKohen Adler (1742-1800), born in Frankfurt to R. Yaakov Shimon Adler. An outstanding Torah scholar and eminent kabbalist, he headed the yeshiva he established in his home in Frankfurt, and was the prime teacher of R. Moshe Sofer, the Chatam Sofer – who mentions him extensively in his books in halachic and kabbalistic matters, referring to him as "my prime teacher, the renowned and pious Torah scholar, the great eagle" (a play on the name Adler, German for eagle), and other honorific titles. He suffered much persecution from his townsmen, who even forbade him from holding prayer services in his Beit Midrash conforming with his singular kabbalistic customs. In 1782, R. Natan Adler left Frankfurt for Boskowitz, Moravia (today Boskovice, Czech Republic). His disciple R. Moshe Sofer (the Chatam Sofer) remained with him, accompanying him to Boskowitz where he continued studying under him. R. Natan Adler served as rabbi for only two years in Boskowitz, the only time he held a rabbinic position. He returned ca. 1785 to his home and Beit Midrash in Frankfurt.

[1], 23 leaves. Approx. 31 cm. Fair-good condition. Stains. Wear. Tears and open tears, including open tears to title page, affecting illustrated title page and text on verso, repaired with paper. Worming to first leaves, affecting text. New binding.

Otzar HaHaggadot 213.