Hard times in Bosnia

Posted on by crankyprofessor

The National Museum of Bosnia in Sarajevo, home to the Sarajevo Haggadah, is set to close.

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The Sarajevo Haggadah is an important 14th Century manuscript of the Seder service produced in Spain (testimony to the Sefardic tradition), brought to Italy sometime in the Renaissance. It was sold to the National Museum in the 1890s – so though it is an important object documenting Jewish history, it doesn’t have much to do with Bosnia. I hadn’t read the provenance until just now – I, silly early medievalist, had always imagined it got to Bosnia (an example of the Spain-to-Islamic-Ottoman-Empire) in the wake of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain rather than an example of the Spain-to-just-as-Christian-Italy population movement. I’ve never read enough to know what the relative sizes of emigration to the Ottoman Empire versus other Christian territories.
This entry was posted in Art, Europe, Islam, Middle Ages, Museums by crankyprofessor. Bookmark the permalink.

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