The Hagadah Shel Pesach Containing the Ceremonies and Prayers, Which are used and read by all Families, in all Houses of the Israelites, the Two first Nights of Passover London: A. Alexander, 1770 The first edition of the Haggadah with an English translation, by "A. Alexander and Assistants" and printed for him, was published in London in 1770, and accompanied by an explanatory introduction and notes. Facing the title page is a frontispiece whose engraved Hebrew legend declares, "And they built for Pharaoh store-cities Pithom and Rameses." Depicted are (anachronistically medieval) towers being built, slaves laboring, and Moses slaying the Egyptian. This illustration is a copy of Abraham bar Jacob's copperplate engraving in the Amsterdam Haggadah (1695), which is itself a copy of a biblical engraving by Matthaeus Merian (ca. 1630). The first edition is exceedingly rare and is a highly desirable collectible within a field that is itself highly collectible, namely Passover haggadahs. Indeed two versions of this edition were issued: one for Ashkenazi Jews and the present Haggadah - according to Sephardic customs and usage. Lehmann in her Bibliography of English Hagadoth (no. 2) and Yaari (no. 167) record only the Ashkenazi issue, indeed the present edition is in neither the British Library nor the Bodleian Library. This edition was unknown to Ya'ari, and Yudlov (no. 258) states he only saw a copy of the title-page in a private collection. Additionally this Haggadah represents the only known appearance of Ladino in Hebrew letters in a London imprint. PROVENANCE Isaac Israel Bernal (d.1820)-- his signature on p. 13 and final Hebrew text page (p. 76) LITERATURE Yudlov 258; Vinograd London 53; Yerushalmi 74; Lehman 2; Unknown to Ya’ari