Compilation of Kabbalistic Treatises, Manuscript on Paper [Italy: late 16th Century]

115 leaves (2 blank) 10 x 7 inches; 250 x 180 mm, written in Italian semi-cursive script in brown ink, catchwords, original foliation in ink in Hebrew letters, modern foliation in pencil; initial leaf soiled, light dampstaining on fols. 1-25, few small marginal tears, repaired. Library buckram.

Samuel ben Joseph (owner's note, fol. 1r) — Josef Felsen (flyleaf) — Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 14); Montefiore Library-stamp on pastedown.

Hartwig Hirschfeld, Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts of the Montefiore Library, London: 1904 (ms. no. 348); M. Benayahu described the manuscript in Jubilee Volume in Honor of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, (Jerusalem and New York, 1984), vol. 2, pp. 822-824 (in Hebrew).

Contents:
Fols. 1r-55v: Extracts on kabbalah, mostly on the mystical intentions (kavvanot) of prayers and azilut. Includes treatises by Abraham Galante (fol. 1r), Moses Cordovero (fols. 1v and 5r), Menahem Azariah Fano (fol. 13v), Moses Meir Bak (fol. 25r), Israel Sarug (fol. 26r and 55r-v).
Fol. 56r-v: Part of a dissertation on the date of the Redemption, calculated to be 5335 [1574/5]. Probably copied from Mordecai Dato's Migdal David. Published from this manuscript by M. Benayahu, in Jubilee Volume in Honor of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (Jerusalem and New York, 1984), vol. 2, pp. 854-855 (in Hebrew).
Fols.57r-58v: Seder ha-Azilut be-Kizzur Muflag by Samson Bak of Jerusalem. See G. Scholem, Catalogus Codicum Cabbalisticorum Hebraicorum ... in Bibliotheca Hierosolymitana (Jerusalem, 1930), p. 67 (in Hebrew), idem, in Zion, v (1940), p. 155 and Y. Avivi, in Alei Sefer, xi (1984), p. 104.
Fols. 59r-86r: Mystical intentions (kavvanot) of daily prayers by Joseph ibn Tabul and others. On fols. 68r-86r the kavvanot are accoding to Lurianic kabbalah, possibly compiled by a pupil of Israel Sarug. See Y. Avivi, in Sefer Zikkaron le-ha-Rav Yizhak Nissim, vol. 4, (Jerusalem, 1985) pp. 75-108 (in Hebrew). Avivi printed the text from British Library, Ms. Or. 10627 with variant readings from the present manuscript on pp. 79-108.
Fols. 86r-87v: Kabbalistic responsum by Isaac Luria to Samauel Podilla. Published in Torat Natan (Warsaw, 1894), p. 47. Cf. G. Scholem in Kiryat Sefer, xix (1943), p. 188, and Y. Avivi, in Alei Sefer, xi (1984), p. 106.
Fols. 88r-114r: Isaac Luria's commentary on Sifra de-Zeni'uta from the Zohar. Edited in Sha'ar Maamrei Rashby (pericope Terumah).

Research by the scholar M. Benayahu has suggested that this manuscript was copied for the famed kabbalist Menahem Azariah da Fano (1548-1620) and that some of the glosses in the margins are in the hand of Fano himself. The scion of a wealthy family and a prolific author, Fano was a recognized authority on rabbinic law and the foremost exponent in the West of the kabbalistic system of Moses Cordovero. Under the influence of Israel Sarug, who had spread the knowledge of the mystical system of Isaac Luria during his stay in Italy, Menahem Azariah became an admirer of Luria's, though without departing from the system of Moses Cordovero.