(TRADITIONALLY attributed TO). 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 three volumes. Complete with four titles each within architectural arch. Contains many marginal annotations in various Sephardic and Aschkenazic hands, dense in places. Many of the notations display evidence that access was available to earlier manuscripts, hence, to variant readings. These marginalia warrant scholarly attention. (See esp. Vol. I ff. 121-22). Finely bound in uniform antique polished royal calf, gilt extra

Vinograd, Mantua 51, 61 and 69; Wiener 3384

A COMPLETE SET OF THIS SUPREMELY SEMINAL TEXT. THIS SET IN UNCOMMONLY FINE CONDITION AND BEAUTIFULLY BOUND. 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). Concomitant with the production of this first edition, there were many among Rabbinic and Kabbalistic circles who 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 could become confused by the implications of the Zohar’s mystical teachings. See D. Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963) pp. 325-27; Carmilly-Weinberger, pp. 53-55