Visual Kabbalah in the Italian Renaissance

What is it about?

Italian Jewish kabbalists of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries were the most active producers of "ilanot" (trees) of Kabbalah. Ilanot were parchment sheets upon which large diagrams were inscribed--typically tree diagrams--that left plenty of room for inscriptions that introduced the basics of the cosmology. The most extraordinary, the so-called "Magnificent Parchment," leveraged the entire kabbalistic library of its time and place. The Magnificent Parchment, which may be viewed at www.ilanot.org, used one source in particular for its rich array of secondary diagrams -- a previously unknown work akin to the emblem books of its age: "the Booklet of Kabbalistic Forms." The latter work is the subject of this study and critical edition.

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Photo by Emma Gossett on Unsplash

Photo by Emma Gossett on Unsplash

Why is it important?

There is no other Jewish work quite like this one: a fascinating collection of unusual kabbalistic diagrams followed by texts that explain their signification. It is also important as the most prominent source for the diagrammatic repertoire of the maker of the Magnificent Parchment.

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