Confronting Kabbalah: Studies in the Christian Hebraist Library of Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter
Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter (1506–1557), humanist and privy councillor to popes and kings, has remained an enigmatic figure among Christian Hebraists whose views were little understood. This study leverages Widmanstetter's remarkable collection consisting of hundreds of Jewish manuscripts and printed books, most of which survive to this day. Explore in the first half the story of Jewish book production and collecting in sixteenth-century Europe through Widmanstetter's book acquisitions, librarianship, and correspondence. Delve into his unique perspective on Jewish literature and Kabbalah as the latter half of the study contextualizes the marginal notes in his library with his published works.
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Confronting Kabbalah: Studies in the Christian Hebraist Library of Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter
Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter (1506–1557), humanist and privy councillor to popes and kings, has remained an enigmatic figure among Christian Hebraists whose views were little understood. This study leverages Widmanstetter's remarkable collection consisting of hundreds of Jewish manuscripts and printed books, most of which survive to this day. Explore in the first half the story of Jewish book production and collecting in sixteenth-century Europe through Widmanstetter's book acquisitions, librarianship, and correspondence. Delve into his unique perspective on Jewish literature and Kabbalah as the latter half of the study contextualizes the marginal notes in his library with his published works.
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Confronting Kabbalah: Studies in the Christian Hebraist Library of Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter

Confronting Kabbalah: Studies in the Christian Hebraist Library of Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter

by Maximilian de Moliïre
Confronting Kabbalah: Studies in the Christian Hebraist Library of Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter

Confronting Kabbalah: Studies in the Christian Hebraist Library of Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter

by Maximilian de Moliïre

Overview

Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter (1506–1557), humanist and privy councillor to popes and kings, has remained an enigmatic figure among Christian Hebraists whose views were little understood. This study leverages Widmanstetter's remarkable collection consisting of hundreds of Jewish manuscripts and printed books, most of which survive to this day. Explore in the first half the story of Jewish book production and collecting in sixteenth-century Europe through Widmanstetter's book acquisitions, librarianship, and correspondence. Delve into his unique perspective on Jewish literature and Kabbalah as the latter half of the study contextualizes the marginal notes in his library with his published works.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9789004689510
Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 02/22/2024
Series: Supplements to the Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy , #36
Pages: 680
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Maximilian de Molière is an assistant researcher at the Universities of Halle and Munich who specializes in the history of the Jewish book, Kabbalah, and Digital Humanities. He obtained his Dr. phil. in Jewish History and Jewish Studies at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (University Munich).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
List of Figures
List of Tables
Abbreviations and Transliteration

1 Introduction
 1 Widmanstetter’s Life and Library
 2 Kabbalah and Its Christian Interpreters
 3 Jewish Books in Christian Hands
 4 The Book as a Material Object

2 Christian Hebraist Book Collecting in the Era of Expulsions of Jews
 1 Chronology of Acquisition
 2 Traces of Late Medieval Jewish Libraries
 3 Books Acquired from Private Libraries
 4 Booksellers and Book Agents
 5 The Habsburg Ambassadors in Constantinople
 6 Conclusion

3 Coveted Kabbalah: Widmanstetter’s Collaboration with Jewish and Convert Scribes
 1 The Availability of Kabbalistic Books
 2 Editing a New Recension of the Zohar: Francesco Parnas (1536–1537)
 3 Compiling Kabbalistic Anthologies: Paulus Aemilius (1537–1538)
 4 Receiving the Manuscript of an Expert Scribe: Hayyim Gatigno (1553)
 5 Losing Control: Moses Gad ben Tobiah (1555)
 6 Conclusion

4 Barrels of Books: The Care of a Christian Hebraist Library
 1 Protecting and Presenting: The Materiality of Christian Hebraist Books
 2 Writing the History of Jewish Books: Title Inscriptions
 3 Sorting Jewish Books into Christian Libraries
 4 Conclusion

5 Exceeding Piety: Widmanstetter’s Hebraitas
 1 Writing and Translating Hebrew
 2 Reading the Talmud
 3 Wider Perspectives on Hebrew Texts
 4 Conclusion

6 “Muhammad’s Jewish Heresies”: Reading the Quran through Kabbalistic Books
 1 Studying Arabic in Early Modern Europe
 2 Widmanstetter’s Polemic on the Quran
 3 Muhammad’s Alleged Jewish Sources
 4 Conclusion

7 Revisiting Kabbalah: The Sefirotic Tree in the Syriac New Testament
 1 The Christian Elements of the Plate
 2 The Printing of the Syriac New Testament
 3 Guillaume Postel and Or Nerot ha-Menorah
 4 Widmanstetter and the Ten Sefirot
 5 Conclusion

Conclusion
 1 The Afterlife of the Library
 2 Confronting Kabbalah

Appendix A: Widmanstetter’s Correspondence
Appendix B: The Books of Bomberg’s 1543 Catalog in Widmanstetter’s Library
Appendix C: Widmanstetter’s Itinerary from 1539 to 1557
Appendix D: Catalog of Widmanstetter’s Hebraist Library
Bibliography
Index of Authors
Index of Titles
Index of Places
Index of Bindings
Index of Previous Owners
Index of Scribes
General Index
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