Thanks for your patience during our recent outage at scalar.usc.edu. While Scalar content is loading normally now, saving is still slow, and Scalar's 'additional metadata' features have been disabled, which may interfere with features like timelines and maps that depend on metadata. This also means that saving a page or media item will remove its additional metadata. If this occurs, you can use the 'All versions' link at the bottom of the page to restore the earlier version. We are continuing to troubleshoot, and will provide further updates as needed. Note that this only affects Scalar projects at scalar.usc.edu, and not those hosted elsewhere.
A Nostalgic Filter: A University of Pittsburgh ExhibitionMain MenuFrontispieceGolden BooksFront GalleryMaking CopiesFront GalleryGender & ExperienceHallwayPoetry & SongRotundaSacred TimeBack GalleryMobility & TravelSide GalleryResourcesAcknowledgements
Darmstadt, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt, Cod. Or. 8
Unlike the other examples shown in this exhibition, this Haggadah manuscript does not depict narrative imagery from Exodus and preparations for the Passover Seder. Instead its most lavish pages show remarkable scenes of women and men passing open books back and forth, reading together in great towers that are not unlike Pitt’s own Cathedral of Learning.
This emphasis on the communal sharing of knowledge may relate to the use of the book during the Seder, when it was read aloud in the home; perhaps the inclusion of a lady in a vivid blue dress alongside the Four Questions reflects the active role played by women in this annual ritual. The representation of women and men together becomes even more daring in the book’s final page, which shows members of both genders swimming together harmoniously in an exuberant depiction of the Fountain of Youth. Despite the lasting enigmas of its illustrations, or perhaps because of them, the book was used for many years in a wealthy Jewish household, as its many visible spots and stains make clear.
Numbered 48 of 350, Pitt’s facsimile was published in Leipzig, Germany in the 1920s and reflects a deep enthusiasm for Jewish art among scholarly and religious communities that would be brutally suppressed only a decade later. Preserved in its original gold-tooled binding and slipcase, the facsimile offers a poignant witness of this modern context as well as the time of the Haggadah’s medieval owners.
1media/32_DarmH_1_thumb.jpg2020-10-20T15:58:08-07:00Women and Men studying together1Facsimile of the Darmstadt Haggadah, fol. 48vmedia/32_DarmH_1.jpgplain2020-10-20T15:58:08-07:00
1media/34_DarmH_3_thumb.jpg2020-10-20T16:09:23-07:00Fountain of Youth1Facsimile of the Darmstadt Haggadah, fol. 58rmedia/34_DarmH_3.jpgplain2020-10-20T16:09:23-07:00
