(Traditionally Attributed to. Publicized by R. Moses b. Shem Tov de Leon). Sepher ha-Zohar [“The Book of Splendor”]

Elegant Folio Cremona Edition of Zohar. The Zohar, the most classic of Jewish mystical texts, was printed amidst fierce controversy. Many rabbis feared the printing of such an esoteric work; its meaning might be distorted by Christians in support of their faith, and the majority of Jews themselves would be confused by the implications of the Zohar’s mystical teachings. The first two editions of the Zohar were printed by competing printers in the neighboring towns of Mantua (1558-60) and Cremona (1559-60), both consulting numerous manuscripts in an attempt to establish literary accuracy. The Mantua Zohar (see previous Lot) was printed in three volumes in Rashi script, while the Cremona Zohar was printed in one large volume in square script. Consequently, these editions became known as the Zohar Katan (“Small Zohar”) and Zohar Gadol (“Large Zohar”) respectively. The colophon of our edition is signed by the two correctors Chaim ben Samuel ibn Gatigno and “Vittorio Eliano, grandson of the foremost grammarian, Elijah [Bachur] Segal.” This second corrector was an apostate (see Lot 6). Because of Eliano’s involvement, the Cremona edition is sometimes referred to as the “Christian edition.” Despite Conti’s judicious advertising and patronage by men of influence, the textual superiority of the Mantua version gained success and Conti’s attempts to overreach his Mantua rivals were unsuccessful. Nevertheless, the Cremona format was favored by the Polish and German Kabbalists until the beginning of the eighteenth century. In a ground-breaking essay, “The Mystery of the Printing of the Zohar,” Meir Benyahu overturned the accepted notion that the Mantua edition preceded the Cremona edition of the Zohar. Benayahu is able to demonstrate most effectively that in fact the opposite is true. In this heated race between the two printing establishments, the Cremona edition was first to start though last to finish. The introductions of both editions contain transparent references to the competition. The late Prof. Isaiah Tisby noted in general that each of the two editions of the Zohar has material lacking in the other. He lamented the fact that no scientific comparison analysis has been done of the Mantua and Cremona editions. Though most subsequent editions adopted the format of the Mantua edition, Tishby notes two exceptions: Lublin 1623 and Sulzbach 1684 which both followed the Cremona format. In the editions based on the Mantua template, the portions of Zohar found in the Cremona edition but lacking in the Mantua edition are supplied at the end of each volume as “Hashmatoth” (Omissions) and “Tosaphoth” (Addenda). Regardless of the accuracy of the Mantuan text, there is at least one convenient feature whereby Cremona surpasses Mantua, namely the Biblical sources provided in the margins. The rarity of the Cremona edition may be due to the fact that at the time of the burning of the Talmud in Cremona in 1559, the militia sent to execute the order were not able to distinguish one Hebrew book from another, and may have inadvertently thrown into the pyre copies of the newly published Zohar as well. Benayahu attributes to the Inquisition’s pyre a certain anomaly in our copies of the Cremona Zohar. Whereas the vast majority of leaves have an ivy leaf design at the top, there are eight leaves where the ivy has been substituted with florets (I, ff. 5, 6; II, ff. 113, 118-122). Benayahu speculates that these leaves wre lost to the conflagration and had to be replaced. (The originals of these leaves - with ivy as opposed to florets - have been preserved in a single copy in the Schocken Collection in Jerusalem.) Furthermore - and this is far-fetched - these replacement leaves were supplied by the Mantuans! Benayahu, pp. 126-134. See M. Benayahu, Ha-Defuss ha-Ivri bi-Cremona (1971), pp. 121-137; I. Tishby, Mishnath ha-Zohar, Vol. I (1949), pp. 108-110