A spot-the-difference puzzle for passover, or: help us identify the Jalfon Haggadah!

This is what we managed to find out so far: our ‘Tetouan’ Haggadah, the Jalfon family haggadah was most probably printed in the late 19th century, possibly in Livorno (Leghorn), a Jewish printing hub that produced many Haggadahs with various translations to communities throughout the world. The most similar Haggadahs we found were those produced there, and especially this copy from 1842/3, printed by Solomon Bilforti and Moses Israel Falagi: 

The illustrations of the Jalfon Haggadah, modelled as many other Haggadahs on the 1604 woodcuts of the Venice Haggadah  are still rather different than any other Haggadahs we found. Notice, for example, the pictures below:  in the first, the Tetouan haggadah, the house on the left has no tiled roof, as is the case in the Bilforti haggadah below it, and and other Livornese Haggadahs we have seen. There are other peculiar differences to be found.

Whether it is as a fun challenge to pass time in quarantine days, for an iconographical study, or for comparison with candidate sibling Haggadahs that might reveal the edition details of the Jalfon family haggadah, all its images are available in this folder

2 thoughts on “A spot-the-difference puzzle for passover, or: help us identify the Jalfon Haggadah!”

  1. Can you please post the frontispiece of the Jalfon Haggadah There is a lot of information on this first page. I have in my collections the 1603 and 1629 Venecian Haggadas as well as others where these images appear.I would love to see the frontispiece of your Haggadah
    Best regards

  2. Unfortunately, the frontispiece of my Haggadah is missing, but we have been able to identify it with the assistance of an expert in the National Library of Israel, by comparing the images in the different editions.
    The Jalfon Haggadah has been identified as being the one published in Livorno by Israel Costa in 1888.

    Best Regards

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