Munich, BSB, Cod.hebr. 449
About the Ilan
TextGrid URI of the Editiontextgrid:4b0zv
FamiliesZacuto-Ẓemaḥ (Lurianic) 🔎︎Search for Ilanot in this Family
Surfaces of the Ilan
Recto
About the Manuscript
Identifiers and Titles
IdentifierMunich (Germany), Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: Cod.hebr. 449
Primary Manuscript TitlesZacuto-Ẓemaḥ Arik and the Enrobings Ilan
Alternative Manuscript TitlesMunich, BSB, Cod.hebr. 449
NLI ID990001284990205171
Manuscript History
Origin
Date Information17th century
Physical Description
MaterialParchment 🛈Translucent or opaque material made from calf, sheep, or goat skin which has been limed, dehaired, scraped, and dried under tension to produce a thin, strong material for writing, bookbinding, or other uses. For finer quality calf parchment, use "vellum." The terms parchment and vellum sometimes have been and still are both confused and used interchangeably. 🔎︎Search for Ilanot with this Material
FormRotulus 🛈A roll of parchment or paper unrolled vertically for reading. 🔎︎Search for Ilanot with this Form
Dimensions Description70 × 32
Hand DescriptionAshkenazic
Content Description
SummaryThis seventeenth-century Ashkenazi rotulus is a seminal witness of the Zacuto-Ẓemaḥ (Z) type. It is of particular historical significance as it bears the closest resemblance to the foldout engravings in Christian Knorr von Rosenroth’s Kabbala Denudata, sharing distinctive graphical anomalies and textual variants reflected in Knorr’s Latin translations. The manuscript is executed in a unique style, featuring diagrammatic elements drawn in green ink that stands in contrast to the rest of the inscriptions, which were penned in a seventeenth-century Ashkenazi square script. The ilan consists of an elegant splicing of Moses Zacuto’s Arikh Anpin diagram (Z13) and Jacob Ẓemaḥ’s visualization of the Enrobings (Z14). A continuous vertical channel runs the entire length of the parchment, flowing from the intake funnel for the light of Ein Sof at the top of the ilan to the outtake funnel emerging from Yesod at the bottom.
Further Information
Research LiteratureJ. H. Chajes, The Kabbalistic Tree (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2022), 40–41.
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