Sefer Ginat Egoz (A Book of the Walnut Grove) [WITH A RARE APPROBATION OF THE "SHELAH HA-KODESH"]
Hanau: Eliezer bar Hayim and Eliyahu ben Seligman Ulma, 1614. First edition. Three parts, small folio. Collation: [aleph-yud tet]4 [chi]2 (= 78 leaves); numerous errors in foliation, but text continuous and complete. Title in red and black, within woodcut historiated borders. Letterpress ornaments. Hebrew text in two columns. Modern two-tone leatherette. Trimmed tightly at top edge, with intermittent partial loss to headline and foliation number. Text moderately embrowned throughout (a few leaves more heavily so). Intermittent fine worm tracing in the inner text columns, resulting in some (mostly minor) loss in about one-half of the leaves. Fairly good copy.
Editio princeps. The first printed edition of this detailed compendium of kabbalistic exegetical techniques involving numerology and word-play, and first extant work by Joseph ben Avraham Gikatilla, a “Spanish kabbalist whose works exerted a profound and permanent influence on kabbalism" (EJ). Born in Medinaceli, Castile, Gikatilla lived for many years in Segovia. "Between 1272 and 1274 he studied under Abraham Abulafia, who praises him as his most successful pupil… His first extant work, Ginnat Egoz (1615), written in 1274, is an introduction to the mystic symbolism of the alphabet, vowel points, and the Divine Names. The title derives from the initial letters of the of the kabbalistic elements gematria (“numerology”), notarikon (“acrostics”), temurah (“permutation”). In common with his mentor, Gikatilla also links this mystic lore with the system practiced by Maimonides. This work makes no suggestion of the theosophical doctrine of Sefirot or “spheres” later adopted by Gikatilla." With respect to Christian students of the Kabbalah, Blau notes: "[t]he works of Gikatilia, Recanati’s Bible commentary, and the Book of Formation practically sum up the knowledge of the [Christian] interpreters." Gikatilla's influence is clearly evidenced in the researches of the Roman Catholic cardinal and humanist litterateur, Egidio da Viterbo (1469-1532) A gifted student of Hebrew and Aramaic, Viterbo was a noted devotée of Christian Kabbalah; among the surviving translations he commissioned or did himself is a version of the present work (Brach).
Approbations: Isaiah ben Abraham Horwitz of Frankfurt, known as the "Shelah ha-Kadosh," whose approbations were given to very few books; Jacob ben Asher Aaron of Friedburg; Moses ben Menachem Bacharach of Frankfurt.
Annotations: Old Hebrew entries at the title (one of which has been inked out). Item #52334
J. L. Blau, The Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the Renaissance, p.19; G.-P. Brach, "Viterbo, Egidio da," in: Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism, ed. W. J. Hanegraaff (Brill, 2006), p.1162; Roest (Rosenthaliana) 1:563, with detailed note on the correct date of 1614; Steinschneider 5923.2 (p. 1463): "opus rarum" (a rare work); Vinograd (Hanau) 15; Zedner, p. 329.
Title (Hebrew): ספר גנת אגז
Imprint (Hebrew): האנווא : הובא לבית הדפוס ... על ידי ... אליעזר בר חיים, אליהו בכהר"ר זעליקמן יצ"ו אולמא
[Hanva: Huva le-vet ha-defus 'al yede ha-po'alim ha-meshutfim Ele'ezer bar Hayim ve-haverav Eliyahu ben Zelikman Ulmo].
Price: $3,750.00