Pardes Rimmonim, (Orchard of Pomegranates) Moses Cordovero. Cracow and Nowy Dwór: Isaac ben Aaron Prostitz, 1591

209 leaves (11 3/8 x 7 1/2 in.; 290 x 190 mm). Mispaginated in press. Title set within architectural frame; initial words within decorative woodcut borders; numerous illustrations and diagrams. Title soiled; first two and final leaves remargined; owners' inscriptions on title page, biting; first and final quires strengthened at gutter; cropped affecting a single line of text on f. 183 and a few letters of scattered marginalia; f. 184 folded in to preserve important marginal notes. Lightly stained in first quire and final leaf. Hinges cracked. Modern blind-tooled morocco. Worn.

Moses ben Isaac Horowitz--sold to David Melamed of Nikolsburg-18th-cent. bill of sale inscribed within title page.

Vinograd, Cracow 151; Steinschneider 6452, 8; Scholem 3963.

The present lot represents a comprehensive and systematic exposition of kabbalistic principles by Moses ben Jacob Cordovero (Ramak, 1522-1570), considered the greatest theoretician of Jewish mysticism. Pardes Rimmonim is a synthesis between the major threads of Spanish Kabbalah, based on the Zohar, and earlier elements of ecstatic Kabbalah, integrated for the first time in the work of a major Spanish kabbalist. Pardes Rimmonim draws heavily on the Zoharic literature, particularly the Tikkunei Zohar and Ra'aya Meheimna. It is divided into 32 she'arim (portals) and further divided into 270 chapters, with numerous charts and diagrams. Among the subjects treated are the mystical significance of the Hebrew alphabet, as well as divine names and Sefirotic emanations.

The title explains that though the work was begun in Cracow, it was completed in Nowy Dwór on October 28, 1591. The change in location was due to a serious outbreak of plague in Cracow, forcing the printer, Isaac Prostitz and his family to flee to Nowy Dwór along with the press and all its typographical equipment. Pardes Rimmonim was completed in that location, the only Hebrew book printed in Nowy Dwor. After several months, when the plague had subsided, Prostitz, along with the other refugees was able to return to Cracow. The title page is followed by two introductions, one in prose and the other in verse, by the editor, Isaac ben Meshullam of Poznah, and then a preface by the author, Cordovero, with the text beginning only on the fifth leaf.

An earlier Salonika edition, printed by David ben Abraham Azubib, is reported in a number of bibliographic sources, but is no longer extant. It was unknown to the Cracow printers, for Isaac ben Meshullam indicates that this is the first printing of Pardes Rimmonim. Additionally, mention is sometimes made of an earlier Venice printing but that edition was in all likelihood, never actually produced. In the absence of any known copies of the Salonika or Venice editions, the present lot is a rare copy of the earliest extant edition of this important kabbalistic treatise.