Autograph Folio (f.58) from Rabbi Hayyim Vital’s Sefer ha-Refu’ot, ha-Segullot, ve-ha-Kame‘ot (The Book of Remedies, Charms, and Amulets)

1 folio (7 1/2 x 5 3/4 in.; 190 x 145 mm). Ink on paper, two columns, 40 lines. 

Hayyim Vital, The Book of Manipulations: Remedies, Charms, Practical Kabbalah, Chemistry, 2nd ed. (Modi'in Illit, 2014) (in Hebrew); Meir Benayahu, "Medical Matters in an Unknown Manuscript by Rabbi Hayyim Vital," Korot 9,3-4 (1986): 3-17 (in Hebrew); Meir Benayahu, "Excerpts from the Book of Remedies and Charms by Rabbi Hayyim Vital," Korot 9,5-6 (1987): 91-112 (in Hebrew); Gerrit Bos, "Hayyim Vital's 'Practical Kabbalah and Alchemy': A 17th Century Book of Secrets," The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 4 (1994): 55-112; Yael Buchman and Zohar Amar, Practical Medicine of Rabbi Hayyim Vital (1543-1620): Healer in the Land of Israel and Vicinity (Ramat Gan, 2006) (in Hebrew).

Lots 147, 148, and 149 comprise individual leaves from the autograph manuscript of Sefer ha-Refu’ot, ha-Segullot, ve-ha-Kame’ot (The Book of Remedies, Charms, and Amulets), a major compendium of medicine, magic, alchemy, and practical Kabbalah by Hayyim Vital. The book is divided into four chapters: the # rst three chapters contain original material by Vital, while the last and largest chapter includes short treatises culled from various written and oral sources. It would appear from the evolving nature of the handwriting that Vital compiled and added to this work over the course of many years. Following Vital’s death, the volume came into the possession of his son Samuel, who edited it and appended a detailed table of contents

Chapter four of Sefer ha-Refu’ot, ha-Segullot, ve-ha-Kame‘ot, is a collection of magical material which Vital anthologized from various sources. It contains five parts, though only the first two are represented in this lot. Part 1 includes an excerpt from the end of Toledot Adam (The Genealogy of Man) by Moses Galina, first published in Constantinople in 1515; while part 2 describes practices Vital had learned from other sources whose reports of success, he deemed reliable. The present lot comprises folio 58 and contains paragraphs 8-45 of Vital's excerpt from Toledot Adam in part 1, as well as paragraphs 1-7 of part 2. The practices discussed here include methods of keeping someone from sleeping, growing seedless grapes, preventing lightning from striking, improving the smell of wine, softening iron and copper, whitening silver and pearls, exploding diamonds, removing various types of stains, and purifying tin.