The Cover Page of the 1558 Cremona Book of the Zohar This page describes and translates the cover page of the Zohar printed in Cremona, Italy in 1558 by the Christian publisher Vincenzo Conti. See Cremona and Conti for more about the publisher. A higher resolution image of this page is available here. See here for an image and notes on the 1560 Cremona Zohar.

THE BOOK OF THE ZOHAR on the Torah, from the man of God, holy and most awesome, the Tana Rabbi Simon ben Yochai Z"L (of blessed memory), with many new features, including Sitrei Torah (Secrets of the Torah), Midrash HaNeelam ( The Hidden Midrash) and Tosefta (Addenda) on some of the chapters. (These are subsections of the Zohar.) We also added the following items not found in the other (edition of the Zohar, published in Mantua): the entire Raya Mehemna, including the portions on Genesis, the Bahir Commentary, the Midrash on Ruth, (known as) the Midrash Hazita, the treatise (beginning with the Aramaic words) Ta - Chazi (come and see), (the treatise known as) the Hechalot ( the Palaces), and Bible verse notes, (indicating the chapter and verse of the Biblical quotations.) Printed with great care in: CREMONA the city of the Great King , our Lord King Filippo, may his glory be exalted, Amen.

NOTES

It's hard to say for sure, but maybe the cover page text is being shaped to represent an antique menorah. This image shows a drawing, made by Maimonides himself, of a menorah from the Oxford manuscript of Maimonides’ Commentary to the Mishnah. Or, perhaps it is being shaped as a wine glass. The frame is magnificent but not particularly Jewish. The text uses little raised periods, the same way we might use commas. Our image seems to have belonged to the Mezzofanti Library at the Vatican. Find out more about this interesting man here. Cardinal Mezzofantia. See here for an image and notes on the 1560 Cremona Zohar.

Sefer Ha-Zohar – The Battle For Editio Princeps Jan Doktór & Magdalena Bendowska

Abstract
Sefer ha-Zohar appeared in print for the first time in Cremona in 1558, in the printing house of Christian printer Vincenzo Conti. It lacked the rabbinical approval or the introduction. The year of publication was not printed on title page, but it did appear at the end of the book, in the colophon preceding the Inquisition’s imprimatur: Friday rosh khodesh kislev of the year 5319 from the creation of the world, i.e., 21 November 1558. The Latin text of imprimatur was signed by censor Galeaz Guacius on 5 August 1558. Immediately after the publication of the “Christian” edition, as the Cremona book was referred to, it was decided to publish a “corrected” edition of Sefer ha-Zohar in the nearby Mantua, in the printing house of Tommasso Ruffinelli. The principal composition of the texts from the Cremona edition was retained, but with the omission of Midrash Ruth, Raya mehemna and some sections of Sefer ha-bahir, while Midrash neelam was moved to a different location in the book. A battle then began to determine which edition constituted editio princeps, i.e., contained the canonical text, binding for subsequent publishers. In Europe, the Cremona edition was considered the model one until the 18th century and it served as the basis for subsequent editions of the work: the 1623 Lublin edition and the 1684 Sulzbach edition. In 1715 and in 1728 the book was published twice in Amsterdam. On title page there was no mention of the Cremona, Lublin and Sulzbach editions. It was indicated that this was a repetition of the Mantua edition. This was evidence of the consensus of Jewish religious authorities, guaranteeing the editio princeps status to the Mantua edition. No-one has attempted to repeat the Cremona edition since then, it has been ignored or completely unknown. Some bibliographies do mention a Cremona edition, but only the second one, from the years 1559-60, presented as the second one after the Mantua edition. The Mantua edition retains the status of editio princeps, it is used to this day not only by religious Jews but also by historians.

Since March 3, 2015

Free Hit Counter