[Cosmogony and Thaumaturgy]. (Attributed to Abraham the Patriach).

AUCTION 55 | Thursday, June 21st, 2012 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts Autograph Letters, Graphic & Ceremonial Art

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Lot 213

SEPHER YETZIRAH.

[Cosmogony and Thaumaturgy]. (Attributed to Abraham the Patriach).

<<FIRST EDITION.>> Prepared by Guillaume Postel with his mystical comments. ff. (60). Edges of few leaves frayed not affecting text, browned. Later vellum. 16mo. Adams S-946; Steinschneider, Cat. Bod. no. 3573; Scholem, Bibliographia Kabbalistica no. 918.

Paris: G. Postel in Scholis Italorum 1552

Est: $8,000 - $10,000

PRICE REALIZED $8,000

<<HIGHLY SCARCE FIRST EDITION - IN ANY LANGUAGE - OF THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL WORK OF JEWISH MYSTICAL TEXTS.>> This Latin edition of the Sepher Yetzirah - translated from a Hebrew manuscripts by the French Orientalist Guillaume Postel - preceded the first Hebrew printed edition by a full ten years. The Sepher Yetzirah is the most esoteric of all Kabbalistic texts and certainly the most influential. The central subject of the Sepher Yetzirah is a compact discourse on cosmology and cosmogony (a speculative form of the Creation act). Systematic in its speculative thought, the work is outstanding for its profoundly mystical character.