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Sefer Etz Hayyim (The Book of the Tree of Life) by Hayyim Vital, Scribe: Aryeh Leib ben Hayyim Jaffe, Dubrovno: 1779
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 USD
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Description
- paper
250 leaves (9 1/4 x 7 1/4 in.; 235 x 185 mm). Unfoliated manuscript on paper; written in brown ink on paper in an elegant and meticulous Ashkenazic scribal semi-cursive script, headings in square Ashkenazic script; blind-ruled in hardpoint; 2 columns with 36-44 lines. Decorated architectural title page; numerous decorative chapter openings and tailpieces with a variety of floral, faunal, figural and geometric motifs in brown ink; kabbalistic diagrams and charts; marginalia. Browned, due to ink bleeding; lightly stained. Cyrillic stamp on title page; marginal loss to title page and a small central tear sympathetically restored; owners’ notes on front and rear free and rear pastedown endpapers; wear to corners and edges, most noticeable in initial leaves; a few inkstains; f.25marginal loss, not affecting text; a few other marginal tears, not affecting text. Original eighteenth century blind-tooled calf; quite worn with losses.
Catalogue Note
a rare decorated kabbalistic masterwork
Etz Haim is the first part of Haim Vital’s authoritative summary of the kabbalistic teachings of his master, the preeminent kabbalist of 16th century Safed, Isaac Luria, also known as the Arizal. Because Luria himself wrote almost nothing during his lifetime, the corpus of Lurianic literature is highly complex. Much of what exists from the Safed circle is the product of Haim Vital, the Arizal's most prolific student; Etz Haim is Vital's magnum opus. The final redaction of Vital's writing was arranged by Meir Poppers (1624-1662) a disciple of Jacob Zemach, whose work Rani le-Ya’akov is extensively cited in the introduction to this volume. The first printed edition appeared in Korets in 1782, three years after the present manuscript was written. Typically, kabbalistic manuscripts are devoid of decoration and illustration. This manuscript however, is executed in an elegant and meticulous Ashkenazic semi-cursive script. It features decorated initial word panels for many of its 50 chapters as well as numerous ornamental tailpieces and other decorative elements.
Etz Haim is the first part of Haim Vital’s authoritative summary of the kabbalistic teachings of his master, the preeminent kabbalist of 16th century Safed, Isaac Luria, also known as the Arizal. Because Luria himself wrote almost nothing during his lifetime, the corpus of Lurianic literature is highly complex. Much of what exists from the Safed circle is the product of Haim Vital, the Arizal's most prolific student; Etz Haim is Vital's magnum opus. The final redaction of Vital's writing was arranged by Meir Poppers (1624-1662) a disciple of Jacob Zemach, whose work Rani le-Ya’akov is extensively cited in the introduction to this volume. The first printed edition appeared in Korets in 1782, three years after the present manuscript was written. Typically, kabbalistic manuscripts are devoid of decoration and illustration. This manuscript however, is executed in an elegant and meticulous Ashkenazic semi-cursive script. It features decorated initial word panels for many of its 50 chapters as well as numerous ornamental tailpieces and other decorative elements.