Rare Passover Haggadah at USM’s Osher Map Library
The Haggadah—the word literally means "narration"—recounts the Biblical Exodus, the flight of the Jews from bondage in Egypt and their eventual arrival in the Promised Land. It also serves as a guide to the rituals, songs, and prayers during the Seder dinner celebrating Passover.
While the Haggadah is one of the most common religious texts in Jewish households, the copy recently acquired by USM's Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education is anything but common.
"Scarce," reads the catalog description of the 221-year-old Amsterdam Haggadah, considered the first book in Hebrew to contain engraved copperplate illustrations. The New York City rare book dealer who brokered the sale of the text also notes in the catalog description that the 1781 Amsterdam Haggadah is "A superb copy in a luxurious contemporaneous binding, evidently once the property of a distinguished owner."
"Wine stains on several leaves" give evidence of its use during Seder meals during its long life, but the paper is "crisp and fresh and [the] folding map [is] in exceptional condition." That "folding map" is the second map of the Holy Land printed in Hebrew and the first to appear in a Jewish publication.
The lavishly illustrated Amsterdam Haggadah achieved great popularity among Jewish communities of Europe and the United States and has been widely copied, explains Dr. Harold L. Osher of Portland. Osher and his wife, Peggy L. Osher, are the benefactors of USM's Osher Map Library.
That popularity was due in large part to illustrations by artist Abraham ben Jacob that were refined and detailed thanks to the use of copperplate engravings rather than traditional woodcuts. Amsterdam was known as a center of high quality, innovative publishing with a tolerant environment that placed no restrictions on the Jewish ownership of printing presses.
Ben Jacobs' map traces the route of the Exodus and notes the locations of 41 encampments of the Israelites. It also is illustrated with scenes depicting the King Solomon’s fleet, Jonah and the Whale, and beehives and cows to symbolize the milk and honey of the fertile Promised Land. In addition, the Amsterdam Haggadah's copperplate engravings depict Passover rituals and Biblical episodes, among them Moses' parting of the Red Sea.
"It's a wonderful addition to the collections," said Harold Osher, "and at the Map Library it can be shared with many people, students, scholars and the general public alike. As part of the Passover holiday, it will serve as an annual reminder that our precious personal freedoms should not be taken for granted.”
The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education features 60,000 maps, as separate sheets or bound in books and atlases. The collections include the first modern printed map, a 1475 hand-colored map of the Holy Land; a 1494 copy of a letter by Christopher Columbus; a 1614 map of New England by Captain John Smith; and a manuscript land survey by George Washington. Located on the first floor of USM's Glickman Family Library, Portland, it is one of not more than a dozen historical cartographic collections in the country that are accessible to the public, according to Ronald E. Grim, head of the Reference and Bibliography Section at the Library of Congress in Washington.
The cartographic collections were formed from the major gifts of Harold L. and Peggy L. Osher, and from the late Lawrence M.C. and Eleanor Houston Smith. Other gifts from several individual donors, notably Professor Peter H. Enggass and Tony Naden, have augmented the collections.
>more news releases
|
