Sepher Tziyoni [Kabbalistic homilies to the Pentateuch, with poems]

MENACHEM TZIYONI BEN MEIR OF SPEYER

Vicenzo Conti

Cremona

1560

Second edition. Title and chapter headings with woodblock historiated initials. The final two leaves contain two lengthy poems that do not appear in later editions. Weiss republished them in his Tsefunei Tziyoni (pp. 92-4) emphasizing "the astonishing wonders hidden therein."

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

The Author writes that by a mystic combination of letters, the Ineffable Name of God can be written. However the printer states he determined not to print such, due to their intense sanctity, instead leaving the intended space blank for the reader to inscribe the symbols if he so chooses (see f.43). Upon issue in 1559, the entire first edition of the Tziyoni was seized and destroyed by the Dominican Friars of Cremona zealously seeking to enforce Pope Paul IV’s Index of that year (see Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963) pp. 310-15). Concerning the typographical variants between the first and second editions, see M. Benayahu, Ha’dephus Ha’ivri Be’Cremona (1971) pp. 79-83. For information on the author, his descendents and his kabbalistic method, see Sh. Weiss, Tsefunei Tziyoni (1985) introduction; and B. Huss, Demonology and Magic in the Writings of R. Menahem Ziyyoni, in: Kabbalah, Vol. X (2004) pp. 55-72