![]() Alfonso Sabio's nephew, Juan Manuel,6 testified as to the concerns of his famous uncle: "Ostrosi fizo traslador toda le ley de los judios et aun el su Talmud et otra scientia que han los judious muy escondida, a que llaman Cabala." "Furthermore he ordered translated the whole law of the Jews, and even their Talmud, and other knowledge which is called qabbalah and which the Jews keep closely secret. However, airead y in the last third of the thirteenth century, such an awareness was apparently existent. What lacks in ali these examples is the explicit awareness that, when dealing with divine names or with combinatory techniques, the Christian author operates in a speculative realm that, at least from the point of view of the primary sources, is a characteristically esoteric type of Jewish lore. Thus, the occurrence of a certain combinatory technique of interpretation of the first word of the Bible by separating its letters, as practiced by Alexander of Neckham,4 or of the peculiar combination of letters by means of concentric circles, apparently under the influence of Jewish sources, as evident in the work of Ramon Null,5 may fit this second approach. Introduction to the Bison Book Edition tion would be not when a Christian has adopted sorne forms of Jewish esoteric traditions, but when a Christian thinker has adopted a Kabbalistic type of thinking. 3 However, it is possible to approach the question from another angle: it is not so much the passage of sorne traditions from one type of religion to another that is the defining moment of the emergence of a certain new phenomenon, but the absorption, especially the creative one, of the techniques that are characteristic of one type of )ore, by a religious thinker belonging to another religion. 2 At the end of this century, Arnauld of Vilanova had completed a whole treatise dealing with the divine name. However, if we accept other ways of defining Kabbalah, found already in the eleventh century, as an esoteric tradition conceming the divine names, the situation may be much more complex.1 lndeed, sorne passages dealing with divine names recur in Christian texts early in the thirteenth century, as the discussions of Joachim de Fiore demonstrate. Jf we accept the ten divine powers, the ten sefirot, as a vital component of Kabbalah, it will be difficult to find Christian discussions of this topic before the end of the thirteenth century. Precisely when a certain phenomenon is conceived as existent depends on the minimum that is required to define this phenomenon thus the modem scholarly tendency today to describe the Jewish Kabbalah as emerging, on the historical plane, in the last decades of the twelfth century in Languedoc pushes the identification of the Christian parallels or similar phenomena to the thirteenth century. The historical beginning of the Christian Kabbalah is a matter of debate, as it is in regard to the beginnings of the Jewish Kabbalah. However, to describe an author writing at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries as an early founder of Christian Kabbalah-that needs both elaboration and clarification. The Beginningsofthe ChristianKabbalah? Johannes Reuchlin is one of the major exponents of the Christian Kabbalah he may even be conceived, as we shall attempt to show it below, as one of the earliest founders of this type of Christian theology. ![]() Lntroduction to the Bison Book Edition by Moshe ldel l '6-dc20 93-13872 CIP Reprinted by arrangement with Abaris Books, Jnc. "Bison book edition." Includes bibliographical references. On the art of the Kabbalah= De arte cabalistica I Johann Reuchlin translated by Martin and Sarah Goodrnan introduction by G. Introduction to the Bison Book Edition copyright© University of Nebraska Press Ali rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of Americaįirst Bison Book printing: 1993 Most recent printing indicated by the last digit below: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congrcss Cataloging-in-Publication Data Reuchlin, Johann, 1455-1522. ![]() UNIYERSTTY OF NEBRASKA PRESS LINCOLN AND LONDONĬopyright© 1983 by Abaris Books, Inc. LLOYD JONES Jntroduction to the Bison Book Edition by Moshe Idel ~ ~ ![]() TRANSLATION BY MARTIN ANO SARAH GOODMAN INTRODUCTION BY G. On the Art of the Kabbalah De Arte Cabalistica. ![]()
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