Ilan (Kabbalistic Divinity Map), [Ashkenaz: 18th century]

Ilan (Kabbalistic Divinity Map), [Ashkenaz: 18th century]

Beginning in the fourteenth century, kabbalists used relatively simple diagrams resembling Porphyrian trees to map the pathways between the various facets of the Godhead known as the ten sefirot (lit., spheres). With the advent of Lurianic Kabbalah and its far more complex theosophy in the sixteenth century, these ilanot (lit., trees) took on highly ramified forms that sought to visualize the stages of divine emanation from Ein sof (The Infinite) downward. Inscribed on long vertical scrolls known as rotuli, ilanot were often accompanied by texts and charts that supplemented or explained the graphic illustrations.

The present lot, which features skillfully executed diagrams of the interrelationship of the sefirot and partsufim (divine personae), is accompanied by an extract taken from Ta‘alumot hokhmah (Hanau, 1629), a kabbalistic treatise by the peripatetic polymath Rabbi Joseph Solomon Rofe (del Medico/Delmedigo) of Candia (1591-1655). In that book (ff. 53b-55a), Delmedigo reviewed the “enrobing” process of the World of Tikkun based on the Lurianic teachings of the sixteenth-century Rabbi Israel Sarug. While the present ilan is not directly related to Delmedigo’s exposition, the visual and textual presentations of these complex topics serve a pedagogic function for the student of Jewish mysticism and a devotional function for the kabbalistically-inclined worshipper.

Sotheby’s is grateful to J.H. Chajes for providing information that aided in the cataloging of this manuscript.

Physical Description

Rotulus of 1 membrane (22 1/4 x 9 3/4 in.; 565 x 247 mm) made of parchment; written in elegant, eighteenth-century Ashkenazic square (incipits, sefirot, and emphasized texts) and semi-cursive (text body) scripts in dark brown ink. Highly ramified diagrams of the sefirot; occasional flourishes on letters. Stained tape marks along edges; some text smudged, especially at head and foot; minor creasing; small hole toward head; eight small perforations in lefthand column at center, with slight loss of text; remnants of eliminated library stamp toward foot; some rust stains on reverse.

Literature

J.H. Chajes, The Kabbalistic Tree (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2022), 205-206, 315-318.

The Haifa University Ilanot Project (http://ilanot.haifa.ac.il/site/)

https://www.nli.org.il/he/discover/manuscripts/hebrew-manuscripts/itempage?docId=PNX_MANUSCRIPTS997008751288305171&vid=MANUSCRIPTS&scope=PNX_MANUSCRIPTS&SearchTxt=997008751288305171