Gaffarel, Jacques. (Jacobo Gaffarello). Codicum Cabbalisticorum Manuscriptorum Quibus est usus Joannes Picus comes Mirandulanus…

(KABBALAH)

H. Blageart

Paris

1651

FIRST EDITION. French interspersed with some Hebrew.

Rare First Edition of the Collection Catalogue of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Kabbalistic Manuscripts, compiled by Jacques Gaffarel. One of the chief exponents of 17th-century Christian Kabbalism, French Catholic Jacques Gaffarel (1601-81) was a scholar of Oriental languages who defended the Kabbalah against attacks by Mersenne and others. Celebrated, among other things, as a patron of the arts, Cardinal Richelieu maintained an unrivaled library for which he appointed Gaffarel on a mission to acquire the Kabbalistic texts contained in the tremendous collection of the famed Renaissance philosopher Pico della Mirandola.