(TRADITIONALLY ATTRIBUTED TO, actually, Moses de Leon). Sepher Hazohar [“The Book of Splendor”]

SHIMON B”R YOCHAI

Meir b. Ephraim of Padua and Jacob Hakohen of Gazolo

Mantua

1558-60

FIRST EDITION. Five parts in four volumes. Complete with four titles each within architectural arch. Scattered marginal notes in various Sephardic and Aschkenazic hand

Vinograd, Mantua 51,61 and 69; Wiener 3384; not in Adams

The most sacred and influential of all Kabbalistic works, the Zohar is the pre-eminent classic of world mystical literature, a quest for Divine unity and a search for insight into the mysteries of God’s Torah. “The Sepher Hazohar has amazed and overwhelmed readers ever since it emerged mysteriously in medieval Spain (Castile) toward the end of the thirteenth century.” Daniel C. Matt, Introduction, in his masterful translation: The Zohar, Pritzker Edition (2004). Many among Rabbinic and Kabbalistic circles 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. A textually inferior reprint by Vincenzo Conti of Cremona immediately followed this Mantua edition. See D. Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963) pp.325-27; Carmilly-Weinberger, pp.53-55