General

Title

Florence (Italy), Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana: Plut.44.18

Manuscript name

Grand Venetian Parchment

Summary

Created in 1533, this imposing, squarish ilan is a unique collaboration between Elijah Menaḥem Ḥalfan and Abraham Ṣarfati, who acted as its designers, editors, and anthologists. Constructed from six parchment sheets sewn together like a patchwork quilt, the ilan functions as a map that achieves an unprecedented realization of its cartographic potential. It incorporates a Small Parchment core into a 15,000-word anthology featuring texts from Gikatilla and the Circle of the Special Cherub. A defining innovation is the use of the verso to represent the Sitra Aḥra (the evil "Other Side"), carefully aligned with the lower, diminutive sefirotic tree on the recto. The parchment includes precise locative editorial glosses and a disclaimer by Ḥalfan cautioning against corporeality. The verso also features personal testimonies by the creators that flank the demonic tree its related texts.

Support material

parchment

Main language

Rabbinic Hebrew

Hand description

Italian

Identifier

Plut.44.18

NLI identifier

990001482890205171

Repository

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana

Country

Italy

Settlement

Florence

Colophon

"והיתה השלמתו יום ב' כב ימים לחדש אדר ראשון שנת חמשת אלפים מאתים ותשעים ושלש ... פה ויניציאה ... נאם ... אליה מנחם תלמיד חלפן יזיי"א בן ... כמהר"ר אבא מרי חלפן זלה"ה".

Research literature

Antonio Maria Biscioni, ed., Bibliothecae Ebraicae Graecae Florentinae sive Bibliothecae Mediceo-Laurentianae, vol. 2 (Florentiae, 1757). Giulio Busi and Silvana Greco, eds., Il Rinascimento parla ebraico (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019), exhibition catalogue (Ferrara, 2019). J. H. Chajes, The Kabbalistic Tree (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2022), 51–59. Yosef Kaplan, ed., The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5, The Early Modern Era, 1500–1750 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017). Fabrizio Lelli, “L’albero sefirotico di Eliyyà Menaḥem ben Abba Mari Halfan (Ms. Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 44.18),” Rinascimento 48 (2008): 271–290. Fabrizio Lelli, “Ricezione e interpretazione della Cabbalà nel pensiero di Eliyyà Menaḥem Halfan,” Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa 47, no. 3 (2011): 547–572. Aldo Rossi, Da Dante a Leonardo: Un percorso di originali, Biblioteche e archivi 4 (Florence: Edizioni del Galluzzo; SISMEL, 1999). Isaiah Sonne, “I dati biografici contenuti negli scritti di Shelomoh Molkho riesaminati alla luce di un nuovo documento,” Annuario di studi storici 1 (1934): 183–204.

Creation time

Date

1533