Abraham di Sant’Angelo

Abraham di Sant’Angelo, also known as R. Abraham ben Meshullam of Modena, was among the correctors of the Mantua edition of the Zohar. The first two editions of the Zohar, published at almost the same time—in 1558–60 in Mantua and in 1559–60 in Cremona—aroused a great controversy. The words written in support of the printing shed light on the arguments in favor and against the printing of this work, making this colophon of particular interest. Di Sant’Angelo’s main source of income was teaching; he lived with various wealthy families. He was a prolific copyist, mainly of kabbalistic manuscripts for his own use. In addition, an igron (a collection of model letters) has survived in manuscript. From his colophons and letters, we know that di Sant’Angelo lived in many Italian cities, including Sienna, Bologna, Pesaro, Fano, Mantua, and Asti. Together with other Jews, he was arrested in Bologna in 1566 at the order of Pope Pius V. He was interrogated under torture but released in October 1567.