« Un héritage de Salomon ? Techniques de convocation des démons à toute heure de la nuit : analyse et édition du manuscrit Paris, BNF héb. 765, fol. 10r-12r »
J.P. BOUDET, J.-C. COULON, P. FAURE, J. VERONESE (eds.), Le roi Salomon au Moyen Âge. Savoirs et représentations, Brepols, Turnhout, pp. 107-136, 2022
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Books by Emma Abate
Articles by Emma Abate
empowerment of the «magician», which have so far been considered unrelated.
The article’s purpose is to uncover their shared formal elements and
cultural background, as well as eventual links between them. After a short introduction
on the emergence and setting of a multilayered magical tradition
in Judaism between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, it delves into
the characteristics and comparison of rites, which developed in parallel. On
the one hand, it focuses on the malbush ritual, which involves the fabrication
of a dress for the «clothing» of the practitioner with the divine name in order
to compel and submit the cosmic powers ruling over time, elements and creatures.The instruction is transmitted in different, pre-cabbalistic medieval sources: Torat ha-malbush, Sefer ha-yashar, Sefer ha-malbush (etc.). On the other hand, some evidence of the first golem ritual and an instruction entitled Seder pe‘ulat ha-yeṣirah («Order of the act of formation»), which are based on the use of Sefer Yeṣirah and the Tetragrammaton for giving life to creatures, are analyzed. I will shed light on some aspects of the cultural universe behind these practices, both of which rely on the power of the name of God and on a bodily image of the divine Cosmos.
in Jewish tradition since antiquity. Once redacted, they are rolled
up or folded, inserted in cases and worn on the body. Scribal devices and
magical techniques are used in their production, and their contact with the
body seems to be an integral part of their effectiveness. They are intended
to protect against demons, to prevent and treat disease, and to ensure bodily functions and wellness (love, reproduction, birth, etc.).
This contribution focuses on the link between scroll amulets and the body
by providing an exemplary analysis of three modern scroll amulets MSS Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, héb. 1415/39, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, héb. 1415/40 and Paris, MAHJ, Inv. 2002.01.0208).
is a dietary prescription which is meant to improve the quality of blood and semen in order to enhance conception. The second one contains a magical prayer to be pronounced by the kabbalist on the night established to perform the hibbur (sexual union), in order to attract special moral and spiritual virtues on his future offspring. Both texts are found in the oldest manuscripts of Iggeret ha-Qodeš and the aim of the essay is to describe this branch of the tradition. The correspondences between the appendices and the ritual and theurgical instructions – in the fourth and fifth chapters of Iggeret ha-Qodeš – are also taken into account.
angelological works bearing the title of Razi’el (“the angel of the Heavenly secrets”). On the one hand, it focuses on the transmission of different collections called Razi’el between the early Middle Ages and Modern Times. On the other hand, the purpose of the essay is to shed light on a particular branch of this tradition, which spread in the Renaissance Rome in the context of the cabbalistic milieu of the Christian Hebraist Giles of Viterbo (1469-1532). Notably, the second part of the research deals with the origins of the Hebrew Razi’el ha-Gadol and with the Latin and Italian translations of Razi’el from Giles of Viterbo’s Library; they are related to the mystical work by El‘azar of Worms (1176-1238), Sode Rezayya, according to the Hebrew copy achieved by Elijah Levita (1469-1549) in 1515.
This article deals with the notion of “magic” in the middle Ages and in the Renaissance. It takes into account the biblical lexicon Sefer ha-Shorashim by the Jewish exegete David Qimḥi (1160-1235) and its Latin translation by the Christian cabbalist Giles of Viterbo (1469-1532). The entries related to magic are compared with lemmas found in an inedited glossary compiled by Giles himself and in the Hebrew lexicon Tishbi by the sage Elia Levita (1469-1549). I explore this material in the light of some passages concerning the "wise man-expert of secrets" from Raziel, popular book of astral magic at the time, which Giles owned in different copies. The purpose is to observe some features of the transmission of Jewish contents on magic to the Christians Hebraists and their contribution to the definition of the magus at the Renaissance.