Derech Emunah [“The Way of Faith”- Kabbalah]

IBN GABBAI, MEIR.

Lorenzo Pasquato

Padua

1563

First edition (Constantinople, 1560 edition never completed). Wide-margined copy.

Vinograd, Padua1.

Writen as a Socratic dialogue, Meir ibn Gabbai’s Derech Emunah offers an explanation of the doctrine of the Sephiroth, which he defines as the essence of Divinity. A Kabbalist of the generation of Spanish exiles, the details of Meir ibn Gabbai’s life are uncertain, although it is known he was born in 1480 and died some time after 1539. For a brief biographical overview of the author see A. Yaari, Kiryath Sepher IX (1933), pp. 388-93. Despite the ancient presence of the University - one of the great institutions of learning in Europe - only two Hebrew books were printed in Padua throughout the 16th-century. See Amram, pp. 338-41 and 387-88.