Lot 39
  • 39

Ilan ha-Kadosh (The Sacred Tree) Kabbalistic Scroll on Parchment, Oran, Algeria: 17 July 1902

Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 USD
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Description

1 scroll (3½ x 76 in.; 90mm x 1.93 meters). Written in black ink on three membranes in Hebrew square and semi-cursive script, horizontally and vertically blind-ruled in hardpoint. Some cockling and a few minor tears at edges only along the first five lines and not affecting text; tape repair at left edge 13 cm from the end of the scroll. Housed in a brass cylinder capped at one end. 

Literature

Giulio Busi, "The Visual Kabbalah," Mantova e la qabbalah. Skira, Milan; 2001, pp. 65–74

Condition

1 scroll (3 1/2 x 76 in.; 90mm x 1.93 meters). Written in black ink on three membranes in Hebrew square and semi-cursive script, horizontally and vertically blind-ruled in hardpoint. Some cockling and a few minor tears at edges only along the first five lines and not affecting text; tape repair at left edge 13 cm from the end of the scroll. Housed in a brass cylinder capped at one end.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

As early as the thirteenth century, and especially from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, kabbalists fashioned pictorial representations of the structure of creation as it progressed from Ein-Sof (the limitless) downward. Such diagrams were generally called ilanot ("trees"), and the differences between them reflect divergences among the various kabbalistic doctrines and schemes of symbolism. For centuries, drawings of this kind were to be found only in manuscript scrolls such as the present copy.

This hierarchical diagram charts the order of azilut (emanation) according to Lurianic kabbalah, from zimzum (contraction) and Adam kadmon (primeval man) through beriah (creation), yezirah (formation) and assiyah (action). This intricate example of the genre devotes the larger portion of its great length to the three worlds of creation, formation and action which are diagrammatically depicted in the later sections of the scroll.