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JUDAICA POSTEL (GUILLAUME) Abrahami patriarchae liber Jezirah, sive formationis mundi . . . Vertebat ex hebræis et commentariis illustrabat, Paris, for the Author, 1552
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JUDAICA
Footnotes
THE FIRST PRINTING IN ANY LANGUAGE OF THE SEFER YEZIRAH ("BOOK OF CREATION"), one of the most important books of the Jewish Kabbalah, which may be said to have "had a greater influence on the development of the Jewish mind than almost any other book after the completion of the Talmud" (Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906). Postel (1510-1581) "was among the most knowledgeable Christian Kabbalists of the Renaissance and his knowledge of Hebrew surpassed that of most of his contemporaries..." (Yvonne Petry, Gender, Kabbalah, and the Reformation: The Mystical Theology of Guillaume Postel, 2004, p.71). His translation and commentary of the Sefer Yezirah appeared ten years before the first publication of the text in Hebrew, issued in Mantua in 1562.
Provenance: "Nutt (from Franchi) 1882: 10/6", inscription inside upper cover.





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