The emergence of the Spanish illuminated haggadah manuscript.

In late thirteenth-century Spain, the Hebrew Passover haggadah appeared for the first time as an independent and decorated book. The purpose of this investigation is to develop an explanation for its emergence through the recovery of an original reading of the manuscripts and their decoration, insofar as this is possible. By shedding light on the function and meaning of this new type of book for its medieval readers, this project inserts the manuscripts (and their reading) within the historical narrative of Jewish grandeur and decline in fourteenth-century Christian Spain.The illuminated haggadah tradition demonstrates how Spanish Jews effectively expressed a cultural identity based on shifting relations of both resemblance to and difference from the majority Christian culture. In particular, the decoration reveals ways in which Jews continued to identify with the majority culture while finding creative ways to express their dissent or to subvert dominant ideologies. Each of the three most prominent aspects of the haggadah's artistic program illuminates this process of identity-formation by lending support to and actually expanding upon the ideological message already implicit in the text.First, the corpus of text illustrations is viewed in light of the rabbinic emphasis on teaching and learning. The rabbis sought to associate Jewish education with the survival of the Jews in terms of the power of tradition to act as a bulwark against hostile forces. The various types of illustration all draw upon the importance of tradition in asserting an unequivocal Jewish strength in the face of a more uncertain reality. Next, the striking image of the unleavened bread in each manuscript is viewed within the context of a contemporary visual discourse of power. When activated by the reading of the haggadah, this illustration effectively neutralized the threat to Jews posed by a number of Christian power-signs. Finally, the biblical miniature cycles included within ten of the manuscripts are understood in terms of the court Jews' stake in biblical narrative and national-religious historiography. They therefore bring narrative traditions and strategies to bear on the production of meaning and the construction of identity.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Northwestern University, 2000.School code: 0163