Note 17 — II.
Reading edition
For those who should wish to prosecute the study of the metaphysical Book Jetzira, we must mention that this Treatise was first published in a Latin translation by Postellus, Paris, 1552. It was then published in the original with five commentaries, viz., the spurious one of Saadia Gaon, one by Moses Nachmanides, one by Eleazer Worms, one by Abraham b. David, and one by Moses Botarel. Mantua, 1565. Another Latin version is given in Jo. Pistorii artis cabalisticae scriptorum, 1587, Tom. l, p. 869 seq. which is ascribed to Reuchlin and Paul Ricci; and a third Latin translation, with notes and the Hebrew text, was published by Rittangel, Amsterdam, 1662. The Book is also published with a German translation and notes, by John Friedrich v. Meyer, Leipzig, 1830. As useful helps to the understanding of this difficult Book we may mention The Kusari of R. Jehudah Ha-Levi, with Cassel’s German version and learned annotations, Part iv. chap 25, p. 344. &c., Leipzig, 1853; Zunz, Die gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden (Berlin, 1832), p. 165, &c.; Graetz, Gnosticismus und Judenthum (Krotoshin, 1846), p. 102, &c.; Jellinek, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Kabbala, Part i (Leipzig, 1852). p. 3, &c. Comp. also Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebraea, vol i., p. 23, &c., vol. ii., p. 1196, vol. iii, p. 17, vol. iv. p. 753, &c.; Philosophie der Geschichte, vol. i, 2nd ed. (Münster, 1857), p. 63. &c.; Steinschneider, Jewish Literature (London, 1857), pp. 107, 302, &c.; and by the same author, Catalogus Libr. Hebr. in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, col. 552. ↑