Beschreibung:

Zioni is a kabbalistic commentary on the Pentateuch by Menahem ben Meir Zioni (late fourteenth–early fifteenth century) a kabbalist and exegete who lived in Cologne. Menahem Zioni was one of the few kabbalists in fourteenth-century Germany, and his work demonstrates that he was heir to two different esoteric traditions: the Spanish kabbalah, including the Zohar, the Sefer ha-Bahir, and the exegetical works of Nahmanides; and the esoteric theology of the twelfth-thirteenth century movement of the Hasidei Ashkenaz.The whimsical illustrations in the margins appear to be contemporary with the text.
ProvenanceMordecai Kozer of Riva [di Trento] who borrowed the manuscript (fol. 1r) — Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 405)
Physical Description116 leaves on paper, 13 x 9 inches; 328 x 229 mm, written in several Ashkenazic semi-cursive scripts in brown ink, on paper watermarked with anchor in circle and large 6-star surmount (cf. Piccard Anker V:335-337 [1546-1552]), illustrations of animals in the margins of fols. 1r, 11r, 13r, 14v, 15r, 18r, early foliation in ink in Hebrew letters (beginning on fol. 2 and ending on fol. 115), modern foliation in pencil; minor worming in the margins, stains (fols. 1-16, 22-23), marignal dampstaining to fols. 97-116. Marbled paper over boards.
LiteratureHirschfeld (ms. no. 330); first edition of this text published in Cremona, 1559; Y. Peles, in Moriah, xi, 5-6 (1982), pp. 9-20; I. J. Yuval, Scholars in their Time (Jerusalem, 1988), pp. 282-311