I reviewed several ancient manuscripts and found The Golden Haggadah to be one of the most beautiful. It is obvious the artists were very dedicated to their work. They went to painstaking lengths to make sure every image and every word is perfectly written and placed.
I found it interesting in the way they used contrast in this Hebrew text. The first word on each page is beautifully decorated. The word is usually on a colored background and is written in gold or silver. Because this can be found on each page, this is a good example of repetition as well. Another example of repetition can be seen in the in the first several pages of the book where a a series of pictures are painted in the same fashion on each page. These pictures are also perfectly aligned in a grid format. It looks much like the first graphic novel; pictures in sequence telling a story. On page 21-22 one can see a repeated word from the thanksgiving prayer perfectly aligned to form a column on each side of the prayer. These words are placed in close proximity to the prayer. The authors/artists enhanced the aesthetic feel and the importance of the text using contrasted and repeated words perfectly aligned in close proximity to beautiful images reflecting the text.
