Medieval History
The Birds? Head Haggadah, a manuscript dating from around the year 1300, is considered one of the most interesting and mysterious pieces of Jewish art from the Middle Ages. In ?Birds Head Revisited: Identity, Politics and Polemics the Birds? Head Haggadah?, a special lecture held at the University of Toronto last month, Professor Marc Michael Epstein offered some new insights into this work, the earliest surviving illustrated version of the Haggadah text.
Readers of this particular Haggadah, which is a collection of prayers, illustrations, and stories recited on the Jewish holiday of Passover, will immediately notice that all of the illustrated Jewish figures are not depicted as people, but appear to have bird?s heads on the bodies of human beings. Epstein, Professor of Religion at Vassar College, explains that the figures are drawn to be Griffins, which were very popular figures in medieval Jewish literature.
Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net
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It should therefore come as no surprise that Chinese and Persian Jewish scholars, Fook-Kong Wong and Dalia Yasharpour, have just jointly published a well-annotated reproduction of the Passover Haggadah of that now defunct Jewish community of indigenous...
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- The Legend Of The Clay Birds
Shorthampton, Oxfordshire, originally uploaded by Vitrearum. This lovely fifteenth century wallpainting at Shorthampton in Oxfordshire, probably represents an episode that is recorded in the second cnetury apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas. In this...
Medieval History
Birds? Head Haggadah ? scholar gives new insights into Jewish medieval text
The Birds? Head Haggadah, a manuscript dating from around the year 1300, is considered one of the most interesting and mysterious pieces of Jewish art from the Middle Ages. In ?Birds Head Revisited: Identity, Politics and Polemics the Birds? Head Haggadah?, a special lecture held at the University of Toronto last month, Professor Marc Michael Epstein offered some new insights into this work, the earliest surviving illustrated version of the Haggadah text.
Readers of this particular Haggadah, which is a collection of prayers, illustrations, and stories recited on the Jewish holiday of Passover, will immediately notice that all of the illustrated Jewish figures are not depicted as people, but appear to have bird?s heads on the bodies of human beings. Epstein, Professor of Religion at Vassar College, explains that the figures are drawn to be Griffins, which were very popular figures in medieval Jewish literature.
Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net
- Medieval Painting Hints At Ties Between Blacks And Jews
The anonymous 16th-century painter who recorded a scene of everyday life at the king?s fountain (Chafariz d?El Rei) in Lisbon depicted an impressive range of people and animals. In addition to a swan, a seal, fish, horses, dogs and birds, the artist...
- Remembering China?s Forgotten Jewish Community At Passover
It should therefore come as no surprise that Chinese and Persian Jewish scholars, Fook-Kong Wong and Dalia Yasharpour, have just jointly published a well-annotated reproduction of the Passover Haggadah of that now defunct Jewish community of indigenous...
- First Performance In 400 Years For Medieval Passover Music
Jewish high school students in Toronto, Canada, will sing two pieces of medieval music from the Passover Seder at their ?Sounds of Spring? Musical Concert. This is probably the first time in almost four hundred years that the music has been performed....
- Medieval Siddur Battles Gender Inequality Via Jewish Prayer
A siddur from 1471 has revealed an early example of egalitarian Jewish prayer, presenting historical attempts to battle gender inequality. According to the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), the 600-year-old siddur replaces the traditional prayer recited...
- The Legend Of The Clay Birds
Shorthampton, Oxfordshire, originally uploaded by Vitrearum. This lovely fifteenth century wallpainting at Shorthampton in Oxfordshire, probably represents an episode that is recorded in the second cnetury apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas. In this...