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The Haggadah commemorates the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and their divine mission. This book is used in the ceremony on the first evening of the Jewish feast of Passover. Its texts include stories from the Old Testament, legends, fables, aphorisms, psalms, sermons, and exegeses, and derive essentially from oral traditions current at the time of the second temple, before 70 B.C. Only later were they expanded and recorded in writing in portable private devotional books. In the 13th and 14th centuries noble Jewish patrons at the European royal courts were keen to have the Haggadah illuminated in the book painting style of the time.
The Golden Haggadah, written in Hebrew, is the earliest Spanish example to include a complete cycle of illustrations to the biblical books of Genesis and Exodus. The 14 pages of miniatures are all composed in the same way: there are four bordered scenes on each page that have to be followed from right to left, just as when reading Hebrew. The miniatures were executed by two anonymous northern Spanish illuminators.
The four fields on folio 11r illustrate episodes from the slavery of the people of Israel in Egypt that are recounted in the Old Testament book of Exodus.
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