Warsaw (Poland), Library of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute: Ms. 155
Manuscript History
Origin
Date Range1300 - 1500
Physical Description
Materialpaper
Formcodex
Hand Description
Hand Description (English)Italian
Further Information
Research LiteratureJ. H. Chajes, The Kabbalistic Tree (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2022), 371–372. Arthur Zacharias Schwarz, Die hebraeischen Handschriften in Oesterreich (Leipzig: Verlag von Karl W. Hiersemann, 1931), no. 242.
Notes (English)The Small Parchment preserved in Warsaw, Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute MS 155 (now lost) is a fifteenth-century Italian witness to a classical kabbalistic ilan type that circulated widely in manuscript culture. Early examples of this type were typically executed on a single parchment sheet. The Warsaw witness reflects the integration of such a sheet into a codex. The ilan follows a copy of Maʿarekhet ha-Elohut (Order of the Divine) accompanied by the Perush Zulati (Commentary by Another), indicating that the diagram was intended to be consulted in conjunction with systematic theological study. The composition presents the ten sefirot in an arboreal configuration. Each medallion contains lists of sefirotic names and associations. The connecting channels (netivim) are inscribed with short textual units relating to directional flow within the structure. Flanking the tree are representations of the Menorah and the Table of the Showbread, positioned according to their Temple orientations. These elements embed the sefirotic structure within a symbolic sacred geography and underscore the diagram’s ordered, hieratic character.
Warsaw (Poland), Library of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute: Ms. 155
Manuscript History
Origin
Date Range1300 - 1500
Physical Description
Materialpaper
Formcodex
Hand Description
Hand Description (English)Italian
Further Information
Research LiteratureJ. H. Chajes, The Kabbalistic Tree (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2022), 371–372. Arthur Zacharias Schwarz, Die hebraeischen Handschriften in Oesterreich (Leipzig: Verlag von Karl W. Hiersemann, 1931), no. 242.
Notes (English)The Small Parchment preserved in Warsaw, Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute MS 155 (now lost) is a fifteenth-century Italian witness to a classical kabbalistic ilan type that circulated widely in manuscript culture. Early examples of this type were typically executed on a single parchment sheet. The Warsaw witness reflects the integration of such a sheet into a codex. The ilan follows a copy of Maʿarekhet ha-Elohut (Order of the Divine) accompanied by the Perush Zulati (Commentary by Another), indicating that the diagram was intended to be consulted in conjunction with systematic theological study. The composition presents the ten sefirot in an arboreal configuration. Each medallion contains lists of sefirotic names and associations. The connecting channels (netivim) are inscribed with short textual units relating to directional flow within the structure. Flanking the tree are representations of the Menorah and the Table of the Showbread, positioned according to their Temple orientations. These elements embed the sefirotic structure within a symbolic sacred geography and underscore the diagram’s ordered, hieratic character.