ILAN (KABBALISTIC DIVINITY MAP), [SCRIBE: NATHAN NOTE HAMMERSCHLAG], [NIKOLSBURG: LATE 17TH CENTURY]

Rotulus of 11 membranes (approx. 13 ft. x 18 3/8 in.; approx. 4 m x 468 mm) made of paper glued together and backed on linen; written in elegant, late seventeenth-century Ashkenazic square (incipits and emphasized texts) and semi-cursive (text body) scripts in dark brown ink. Highly anthropomorphic representations of Adam kadmon, Arikh anpin, and Ze‘eir anpin, including crowns, mustaches, and labels denoting the various parts of the divine being; rubrication of divine names at head and of a number of other words; occasional red highlights; elaborate charts and diagrams at foot; decorative devices used intermittently throughout. Slight scattered staining; dampstaining along outer margins; tears at outer edges; ink chipping in places; paper worn and text somewhat abraded at head; damage with small losses at foot. 

An exceptionally early example of a unique genre of kabbalistic literature. Beginning in the thirteenth century, kabbalists used relatively simple diagrams resembling Porphyrian trees to map the interconnected pathways between the various facets of the Godhead known as the Ten Sefirot (lit., numerals). With the advent of Lurianic Kabbalah and its far more complex theosophy in the sixteenth century, these ilanot (lit., trees) took on highly ramified forms that sought to visualize the stages of divine emanation from Ein sof (The Infinite) downward. Inscribed on long vertical scrolls known as rotuli, ilanot were often accompanied by texts and charts that supplemented or explained the graphic illustrations.

The present lot, which features highly anthropomorphic representations of the Lurianic partsufim (divine physiognomies) Adam kadmon (Primordial Man), Arikh anpin (The Long-Suffering God), and Ze‘eir anpin (The Impatient God) – complete with crowns and mustaches – was composed/copied by Nathan Note ben Moses Naphtali Hirsch Hammerschlag (1624-ca. 1694), a resident of Nikolsburg who served as scribe of the Polish Council of Four Lands and as a cantor. Several signed manuscript treatises and ilanot of his survive, dated between 1684 (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Mich. 88) and 1694 (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Mich. 139). Its unusually early provenance and fine execution make this ilan a historically significant exemplar of a special genre of kabbalistic literature.

Sotheby’s is grateful to Dr. J.H. Chajes for his assistance in identifying the scribe of this manuscript.

Literature

J.H. Chajes, “Kabbalah and the Diagrammatic Phase of the Scientific Revolution,” in Richard I. Cohen, Natalie B. Dohrmann, Adam Shear, and Elchanan Reiner (eds.), Jewish Culture in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of David B. Ruderman (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press; Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014), 109-123.

The Haifa University Ilanot Project (http://ilanot.haifa.ac.il/site/)