(Saks da Castellazzo). (Editor). Heichal Hashem [collected essays by early Kabbalists]

ASCHKENAZI, YECHIEL

Daniel Zanetti

Venice

(1594)

FIRST EDITION. Title within woodcut decorative cartouche

Vinograd, Venice 793; St. Cat. Bodl. 5654 (libri rari)

A compilation of various Kabbalistic works, including a treatise on reincarnation according to the views of R. Shimon b. Yochai and Pythagoras. The 16th-century Kabbalistic author, was a member of the Castellazzo family, who were of German origin and settled in Castellazzo Bormida, near Alessandria in northern Italy. He resided in Austria, Salonika and Safed, before settling in Jerusalem in 1565. (EJ V, col. 237) Steinschneider, followed by Jellinek and Weiner (no. 3099) ascribe the first essay, Sepher Ha-Shem, to Moses de Leon since a poem with the acrostic "Moshe" appears on p. 34b. Gershom Scholem however, in one of his early articles (Kiryat Sepher vol. I (1924) pp. 45-52) asserts that it is a later work. Also contains one of the earliest printed version of the hymn Bar -Yochai (p.44b)