Sefer Raziel (The Book of Raziel)
Moses Mendez Coutinho
1701
Sefer Raziel (also known as The Book of Raziel the Angel) is a book of practical kabbalah that may have been composed in the thirteenth century, though scholars believe parts of it date from earlier. It includes an angelology, amulets, spells, and magical uses of the zodiac, gematria (the numerological system by which Hebrew letters are substituted by numbers), and the names of God that, it is claimed, were revealed to the biblical Adam by the angel Raziel. There are a number of different versions of the book in manuscript. This title page is from an edition printed in Amsterdam.
Credits
Courtesy GFC Trust / William L. Gross. Photo by Ardon bar Hama.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
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Creator Bio
Moses Mendez Coutinho
16th to Early 17th Century
Moses Mendez Coutinho was a member of a prominent Portuguese Jewish family in Amsterdam. In 1696 he bought the printing house of David de Castro Tartas, which he owned until 1711. Among the works he published was a Torah with the Targum Onkelos with Rashi’s commentary, in a print run of five thousand copies.
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