Barcelona Haggadah

Folio 29

The text continues, ‘Let all who are in want come and eat. Let all who are needy come and celebrate the Passover. This year here; next year in the land of Israel. This year here, we are slaves; next year in the land of Israel, free men. ‘verso, ‘Why is this night different from other nights?’ The page starts with an elaborate initial word panel, containing the first two words in a register occupying the upper third of the panel. The choices made by scribes in the positioning of words in effect determine the layout of pages in medieval manuscripts. Here the scribe left the illuminator considerable space for an illustration, but the artist chose to fill it with a foliate design, similar to that of the margin, depicting a wild hare. The foliate frame again contains examples of the acorn motif common throughout this part of the manuscript.
Leaf size is approximately 255 x 190mm (10 x 7.5in)