The conservation of the Sarajevo Haggadah

Abstract

In 2001, the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo (UNMiBH), and the UNESCO Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina decided to undertake the conservation of the Sarajevo Haggadah, an important fourteenthcentury illuminated parchment manuscript (Figs. i ,2). A mission was organized in April 2001 with the aim of examining the manuscript and writing a proposal for its conservation. The working group consisted of chief librarian Jean-Marie Arnoult, art historian Bezalel Narkiss, and conservator Andrea Pataki. As a first step, the manuscript was examined and its physical state described. In view of the history of the document and its symbolic value in the current political and religious context, our proposal for the manuscript focussed on preserving it and carrying out stabilizing repairs which would not alter its