Arbor Cabalistica (Kabbalistic Tree), after Mordecai Crescas (Phillipes d'Aquin), Manuscript on Paper [France: ca. 1625]

Daniel Stolzenberg, "Four Trees, Some Amulets, and the Seventy-two Names of God: Kircher Reveals the Kabbalah" in Paula Findlen, ed. Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man who Knew Everything. New York: Routledge, 2004. pp.149-169: François Secret,  Les Kabbalistes Chrétiens. Nouvelle édition mise à jour et augmentée. Milan: Archè, 1985; Philippe d'Aquin, Interpretation de l'arbre de la cabale enrichy de sa figure tireìe des plus anciens autheurs hebrieux , Paris: De l'Imprimerie de Iean Laguehay, 1625. 

Fundamental to the understanding of kabbalah is the overarching vision of the divine realm as constituted of a series of ten divine elements called sefirot, originally a term for mystical numbers. By trying to understand the interaction of the sefirot as well as the impact of the interface between human beings and the divine realm, kabbalists sought to grasp the deeper meanings of the esoteric teachings of the kabbalah. To further these efforts, charts and diagrams were created by kabbalistic masters as an aid to transmitting this secret and often enigmatic wisdom to their students. The charts that displayed the sefirot and the interconnected pathways between them were called ilanot (trees) in Hebrew.

The ilan seen here was designed by Philippe d'Aquin, Professor of Hebrew, Aramaic and Rabbinic biblical exegesis at the University of Paris.  D'Aquin, formerly known as Mordechai Crescas, converted to Christianity in 1611. In 1625 he published a printed copy of the ilan as part of a French book entitled Interpretation de l'arbre de la cabale. It is clear that while still a Jew, Crescas had studied the esoteric kabbalistic lore required to create this elaborate sefirotic chart.

D'Aquin's ilan, entitled Arbor Cabalistica is dominated by a diagram of the ten sefirot surrounded by four "trees," one in each corner, Each of the trees bears numerous plaques; those on the palm and the flowering grape vine containing angelic and divine names while the labels on the olive and apple trees refer to the planets and the constellations, respectively.  Amid the sefirot are depictions of the Luhot ha-Berit (Tablets of the Law) as well as a variety of implements described in the Book of Exodus for use in the Tabernacle. Framed biblical verses are written in Hebrew with citations in Latin. The only non-kabbalistic element in this ilan is a dove, which in Christian iconography, symbolizes the Holy Spirit.

D'Aquin's ilan served as a future model for Jewish kabbalists. In 1675, Benjamin Senior Godines illustrated the famous manuscript of Abraham Cohen de Herrera's Sha'ar ha-Shamayim, with an exact copy of d'Aquin's ilan, lacking only the Latin text and the symbolic dove (Etz Haim / Montezinos Library, Amsterdam: HS.EH 48 A 16).  A note penned in the margin points out d'Aquin's apostasy, warning readers that there may be differences between his understanding and "the distinctions of our Divine Kabbalists."   Copies of d'Aquin's 1625 volume from which Godines modeled his Ilan Sefirot are extremely scarce; the contemporary account of theologian Marin Mersenne (d.1648) reports that the printed illustration of the ilan was removed from all copies of the book by order of Jacques Gaffarel, a Christian kabbalist and librarian to Cardinal Richelieu.  At least one copy of the printed Arbor Cabalistica eluded Gaffarel; formerly in the possession of Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (d.1637), it is currently held among Peiresc's manuscripts at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (MS Latin 9340, f.7). The present manuscript, an exact copy of the 1625 printed ilan, may have been the copy used by Godines in Sha'ar ha-Shamayim.