The Washington Haggadah (Limited Deluxe Edition by Project Judaica, 1991, from the Library of Mark E. Talisman, Vice Chair of the Holocaust Museum Council)

First Limited Edition, First Printing. One of only 550 copies, this being number 92. Profusely illustrated with beautiful images in tempera and gold on parchment, the Washington Haggadah offers particularly strong testimony to the vitality of visual arts in Jewish life. Its margins display numerous depictions of medieval Jews preparing for and participating in the seder: removing leavened bread from the house and burning it, roasting the lamb, and drinking wine. One of the most beautiful illuminated manuscripts on history. 

Very rare, as these deluxe copies are in private collector's hands; this being the only copy on the market for quite some time. Fine in brown leather, title in gilt, and housed in a fine, original slipcase, titles in gilt. As new. The Haggadah: Octavo, originally unpaginated, 38 pp.; The Commentary: Octavo. 211 pp. An absolutely stunning set. 

The Washington Haggadah is dated January 29, 1478, and bears he signature of it's creator, renowned scribe and specialist illuminator of haggadot, Joel ben Simeon. This edition is an exquisite facsimile of the 1478 Haggadah. Born in Cologne around 1420, Joel ben Simeon worked in both Germany and northern Italy. Today, only ten Hebrew manuscripts bearing his signature survive.  Certain details of the text of the Washington Haggadah—including an early, specific reference to horseradish as the bitter herb to be used at the meal—distinguish this book as one created while Joel ben Simeon was working in Germany.

One of the most important illuminated Hebrew manuscripts ever preserved in an American public collection, the Hagaddah currently resides in the Library of Congress, where it was gifted to the Library in 1916 by Ephraim Deinhard as part of the Third Deinard Collection. Originally referred to as Hebraic Manuscript #1, the Haggadah has ever since been referred to as the "Washington Haggadah" in honor of the city. 

The Haggadah is used at the Passover seder, the ritual meal commemorating the exodus of the ancient Israelites from Egypt. Although the essential components of the text were established in the second century A.D., the Haggadah was first made into an independent, illustrated book in the Middle Ages.

This deluxe edition was published in 1991 with the support of the Project Judaica Foundation, this deluxe, Limited Edition Hagaddah comes with a companion volume, the Commentary, which includes an introduction by Myron M. Weinstein, and essays on its art by Bezalel Narkiss, a codicological description by Malachi Beit-Arié, the Ashkenazic and Italian Haggadot by Mordecai Glatzer and the perspective of the conservator, D.A. Hamburg.

In an essay included in the book, Katrin Kogman-Appel, associate professor of the Arts at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, shows how Joel ben Simeon, more than just a copyist, was an agent of cultural exchange. As he traveled among Jewish communities, he brought elements of Ashkenazi haggadah illustration to Italy and returned with stylistic devices acquired during his journeys. In addition to traditional Passover images, realistic illustrations of day-to-day life provide a rare window into the world of late-15th-century Europe.