Sha’arei Orah [exposition of Kabbalistic symbolism]

GIKATILLA, JOSEPH

Jacob ben Naphtali Cohen of Gazolo

Mantua

1561

Second edition (issued in the same year as the first edition, printed in Riva di Trento). Title within wreathed architectural arch. Wide-margined copy. Several Hebrew signatures of former prominent Northern Italian Jewish owners: Aaron Jacob Segre of Torino, Jechiel Foa, Samson Pugliese, Joseph Levi, Joseph Segre. Marginalium on f.60r.

Vinograd, Mantua 84; Adams G-610

Sha'arei Orah, a work roughly contemporaneous with the publication of the Zohar, was written by the Spanish kabbalist Joseph Gikatilla toward the end of the 13th-century. It has served countless generations of aspiring students as a systematic primer of Kabbalah, working its way through the Sefiroth in ascending order, with Malchuth (Kingdom) as the primary, and Kether (Crown) as the final Sefirah. Two of the former owners of the book are known to us by way of their prominent sons: Nathaniel ben Aaron Jacob Segre (d. 1691) authored a collection of responsa Ezer Ya'akov, still in manuscript. See EJ, Vol. XIV, col. 1112. Nathaniel ben Jechiel Foa was an Amsterdam printer of Hebrew books between the years 1702-15. See EJ, Vol. VI, col. 1371.