Sepher Tziyoni [Kabbalistic homilies to the Pentateuch]

TZIYONI, MENACHEM OF SPEYER

Vicenzo Conti

Cremona

1560

Second edition. Title and chapter headings with woodblock historiated initials. On title, previous owners’ inscriptions. Scattered Hebrew marginalia

Vinograd, Cremona 31; Benayahu, Cremona 27 and pp. 80-3 (illustrated); not in Adams

Upon issue, the entire first edition of one thousand copies of the Tziyoni issued in 1559 was seized and destroyed by the Dominican Friars of Cremona, zealously seeking to enforce Pope Paul IV’s Index of that year. Despite Pope Paul IV’s Bull “In Coena Dominis,” a bare handful of copies survived. See D. Amram, the Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963), pp. 310-315. Concerning the typographical variants between the first and second editions, see M. Benayahu, Ha-Dephus ha-Ivri bi-Cremona (1971), pp.79-83 (illustrated). The book concludes with 2 leaves of religious poetry by the Author. See I. Davidson, Thesaurus of Medieval Hebrew Poetry, Vol. IV (1970), p. 435. R. Menachem Tziyoni (late 14th-early 15th century), a resident of Cologne, was one of the few German kabbalists of his day. Unfortunately, virtually nothing is known of his life, career, or teachers. See Sh. Weiss, Tsefunei Tziyoni (1985); EJ, Vol. XI, cols. 1313-4