(KABBALAH).

AUCTION 63 | Thursday, November 13th, 2014 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Graphic and Ceremonial Art

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Lot 163

(KABBALAH).

Sepher Yetzirah [“The Book of Creation.”] (Attributed to Abraham the Patriarch). Translated into Latin with notes by Johannes Stephanus Rittangelius. With commentary on the Thirty Two Paths of Wisdom (Nethivoth Chochmah) by Rabbi Abraham ben David (RABa’D) of Posquieres (i.e. R. Joseph ben Shalom Aschkenazi). pp. (8), 208. Tape repair on one leaf. Later morocco, central gilt cartouche, a.e.g. 4to. Vinograd, Amsterdam 58; Scholem, Bibliographia Kabbalistica 943.

Amsterdam: Johannes Janssonius 1642

Est: $600 - $900

PRICE REALIZED $700

A Latin translation of the Sepher Yetzirah by the Christian mystic Wilhelm Postel was printed in Paris in 1552, a full decade before the first Hebrew edition (Mantua, 1562). Scholem presents this translation by Rittangel as the second Latin edition. See Scholem, Kabbalah pp. 29-30; Scholem, Bibliographia Kabbalistica 918. According to Fuks (196), this work is the first example of rabbinic cursive type used in Amsterdam printing.