The Monk's Haggadah

Reviews / Votes

"This book wonderfully proves the value of collaborative research. The introduction describes how this collaboration came about and is by itself a little masterpiece. Like a detective story, it chronicles how the researchers gradually came to recognize that the Haggadah and its Latin-and very Christian-preface constitute one of the most remarkable testimonies in both image and word of the complex character of Jewish-Christian relations in the fifteenth century. Yet the manuscript, even after the collaborators' fascinating findings, remains enigmatic and indeed mysterious. This is simply an extraordinary book about an extraordinary artifact."

-William Jordan, Princeton University "Jewish-Christian relations in the Middle Ages represent a challenging and often painful subject that defies easy categorization in terms of what too often is called, in anodyne, even evasive, terms, the 'Judeo-Christian' tradition. This brilliant collaboration between three experts in their respective fields uncovers an exceptional, yet also exemplary, case of a hybrid haggadah that, although written by a Jewish scribe, was adapted in a variety of ways for use by Christian monks both during and after its production. A testimony to interdisciplinary research, the book uncovers an astonishing episode in the long history of Christian Hebraism. University professors, Christian humanists, Bavarian monks, and anonymous artists are the cast of characters that make of this study a fascinating piece of detective work and a reminder of the complexity of any effort to capture historical truth. Especially admirable is the editors' willingness to consider multiple solutions to the conundrum the Tegernsee Haggadah presents. The reader is invited to think along with the editors. In the process, a world of Jewish-Christian interaction more complex than commonly imagined is revealed with precision and eloquence."

-Jeffrey Hamburger, Harvard University "The Tegernsee Haggadah in Munich is a truly unique book. This edition reproduces an unusual illuminated manuscript. It also includes both a detailed description of the book and a meticulous reconstruction of its production, its history, and its eventual function as-amazingly enough-a study book for monks in order to familiarize themselves with Jewish rituals. Containing a Latin treatise, it was supposed to teach the monks to read the Haggadah within the framework of contemporary blood libels. David Stern, Sarit Shalev-Eyni, and Christoph Markschies leave no stone unturned in unraveling the story of an extraordinary artifact, and the somewhat unusual role a book could play in the Jewish-Christian coexistence of late medieval Europe."

-Katrin Kogman-Appel, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev "The Monk's Haggadah is at once a beautiful facsimile edition of a remarkable Haggadah manuscript and also a collaborative edition, translation, and analysis of text, image, and material object. . . . This is the first full-length study of the manuscript, and David Stern's introduction describes the collaboration that brought the volume into being. It makes for a great story, and Stern tells it as the intellectual adventure it clearly was. Fourteen years in the making, The Monk's Haggadah represents quite an achievement and demonstrates the power of multidisciplinary collaborative work."

-Deeana Klepper H-Net "In his moving and surprisingly gripping introduction to The Monk's Haggadah, Harvard scholar David Stern describes the journey that he and his talented co-editors, Christoph Markschies and Sarit Shalev-Eyni, took in uncovering the mysteries of the manuscript and creating this handsome critical version. . . . Together with transcriptions and translations of the Prologue, text, and marginalia, the new book contains marvelous essays that make it a comprehensive account of the 500-year life of this mysterious manuscript."

-Philip Getz Jewish Review of Books "A timely and necessary reminder of the value of humanistic scholarship conducted in the spirit of both exacting inquiry and good faith."

-Adam S. Cohen Common Knowledge "This remarkable publication comprises a 15th-century illuminated Haggadah, its unique Latin preface, translations, accounts of its discovery and study, and explanations of the unusual text. The codex, with its elegant calligraphy, underwent significant modifications."

-R. A. Boisclair Choice "Offers a superb example of what can happen when scholars who specialize in different but parallel histories of the book combine their efforts to uncover how competing cultures worked together and against each other to create books. . . . This volume is an impressive model for inclusive manuscript studies than can help us understand more clearly the complex relationships between separate but adjoining historical communities of the book."

-Eric J. Johnson Sixteenth Century Journal