- 158
Derekh Etz Hayyim (The Path of the Tree of Life), Hayyim Vital, Scribe: Shalom ben David, Leipnik: [5]431 (1670)
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 USD
Log in to view results
bidding is closed
Description
- Ink on paper
233 leaves (12 x 7 5/8 in.; 301 x 192 mm). 35-40 lines to a page, catchwords, Ashkenazic script.
Provenance
Shalo[m] Kranakh (f. 1r); Moses Frankel (fol. 1r); Ufficio del Rigistro Bovo in Ancona? (f. 1r); Simon Lewis, London (f. 221r).
Literature
Yosef Avivi, “The Etz Hayyim, Peri Etz Hayyim, and Nof Etz Hayyim of Rabbi Hayyim Vital,” Sefunot 5,1 (1993): 84-91 (in Hebrew).
Catalogue Note
earliest dated copy of rabbi hayyim vital’s derekh etz hayyim
Derekh Etz Hayyim was the first of three volumes edited by Meir Poppers, based on Lurianic works compiled by Benjamin ha-Levi, and Elisha Guastalla as well as by Poppers’ teacher, Jacob Zemah. In 1650, Poppers combined Vital’s Otserot Hayyim, Kehillat Ya‘akov, and Adam Yashar into one work and interspersed them with passages from the writings of Vital's students. The present manuscript is dated, Friday, 16 Marheshvan [5]431 (=October 31, 1670) (f. 221r). The next-earliest known copy of Derekh Etz Hayyim was written eight years later (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Opp. 105).