Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS v
3. Preface ix
4. Introduction 1
5. 1. Kabbalah 19
6. 2. Abraham Abulafia and Ecstatic Kabbalah 30
7. 3. Abraham Abulafia’s Activity in Italy 40
8. 4. Ecstatic Kabbalah as an Experiential Lore 52
9. 5. Abraham Abulafia’s Hermeneutics 64
10. 6. Eschatological Themes and Divine Names in Abulafia’s Kabbalah 77
11. 7. Abraham Abulafia and R. Menahem ben Benjamin 89
12. 8. R. Menahem ben Benjamin Recanati 106
13. 9. Menahem Recanati as a Theosophical-Theurgical Kabbalist 117
14. 10. Menahem Recanati’s Hermeneutics 128
15. 11. Ecstatic Kabbalah from the Fourteenth through Mid-Fifteenth Centuries 139
16. 12. The Kabbalistic-Philosophical-Magical Exchanges in Italy 154
17. 13. Prisca Theologia 164
18. 14. R. Yohanan ben Yitzhaq Alemanno 177
19. 15. Jewish Mystical Thought in Lorenzo il Magnifico’s Florence 192
20. 16. Other Mystical and Magical Literatures in Renaissance Florence 202
21. 17. Spanish Kabbalists in Italy after the Expulsion 212
22. 18. Two Diverging Types of Kabbalah in Late-Fifteenth-Century Italy 219
23. 19. Jewish Kabbalah in Christian Garb 227
24. 20. Anthropoids from the Middle Ages to Renaissance Italy 236
25. 21. Astromagical Pneumatic Anthropoids from Medieval Spain to Renaissance Italy 269
26. 22. The Trajectory of Eastern Kabbalah and Its Reverberations in Italy 287
27. Concluding Remarks 293
28. Appendix 1. The Angel Named Righteous: From R. ’Amittai of Oria to Erfurt and Rome 315
29. Appendix 2. The Infant Experiment: On the Search for the First Language in Italy 324
30. Appendix 3. R. Yohanan Alemanno’s Study Program 340
31. Appendix 4. Magic Temples and Cities in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Mas‘udi, Ibn Zarza, Alemanno 344
32. Notes 349
33. Bibliography 467
34. Index of Manuscripts 477
35. Index of Titles 480
36. Index of Names 486