Hokhmat ha-Nefesh: Soul and Dream, from Eleazar of Worms to Renaissance Italy

Introduction

In Renaissance Rome, Jewish mystical doctrines dealing with the human soul and its ecstatic and prophetic functions circulated among Christian Hebraists, notably in the group of the Augustinian cardinal and kabbalist Egidio da Viterbo (1469–1532).^[1] Where did these ideas originate? Some can be traced back to the treatise Hokhmat ha-Nefesh (»Wisdom of the Soul«),^[2] the fifth book of the esoteric collection Sodei razayya (»Secreta secretorum«), attributed to the celebrated master of Haside Ashkenaz, Eleazar of Worms (1176–1238).^[3] The complete anthology, encompassing the treatises Sod Ma‘aseh Bere’shit (»Secret of the Work of Creation«), Sod ha-Merkavah (»Secret of the Chariot«), Sefer ha-Shem (»Secret of the Name«), Perush Sefer Yetsirah (»Commentary on the Book of Formation«) and Hokhmat ha-Nefesh, entered Egidio’s library as a manuscript (London, British Library, Ms. Add. 27199), copied in 1515 by scholar Elia Levita (1469–1549), who was Egidio’s Hebrew teacher at the time.^[4] To aid him in reading, some of Egidio’s collaborators—teachers and scribes from the local Jewish community—translated the text into vernacular Italian. This draft, still unpublished, is preserved into two manuscripts (Rome, Ms. Lat. 44, Biblioteca Angelica and London, British Library, Ms. Add. 16390, vol. B). It is in the latter that we find the version of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh.

In this essay, after introducing the tradition of Sodei Razayya and the contents of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh, I will explore two sections of the treatise entitled Pitron Halom (»Dream Interpretation«) and Hokhmat ha-Halom (»Wisdom of the Dream«), both addressing the soul’s functions during oneiric activity.^[5] In what follows, I will transcribe passages from these chapters, translate them into English, and compare them to their Italian vernacular translation. As it appears, these texts reveal different narratives, linking dreaming activity to the supernatural and supernal form of the soul. Accordingly, while dreaming, the soul communicates with angels and spirits, learning about future events as it makes its way to the heavenly world. Dreaming is thus portrayed as an essential religious practice aimed at enhancing dialogue with the invisible world. According to the Hasidic master, dreaming becomes a spiritual practice that provides access to primordial and paradisiacal knowledge. In the final part of Hokhmat ha-Halom, individuals who do not dream are viewed with apprehension, as their spirituality and morality lack interaction with the angelic world, missing the opportunity to gain divine favor.

How are Hokhmat ha-Halom and Pitron Halom related to earlier Jewish traditions on dream revelation,^[6] to the techniques like she’elot halom (»dream requests«)^[7] and pitron halomot (»dream interpretations«)?^[8] How might Hokhmat ha-Halom be understood as reflecting kabbalistic views in Renaissance Italy? Additionally, how did Egidio’s collaborators approach the copying and translation work, and what is the relationship between the Hebrew Vorlage and the vernacular translation of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh? This essay will provide some possible answers to these questions.

The Traditions of Sodei Razayya and of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh

The subdivision of Sodei Razayya into five books is not found in the tradition preceding Levita’s 1515 copy. In the earliest manuscripts, esoteric works of Haside Ashkenaz are either transmitted independently or gathered in heterogeneous recueils, often combined with kabbalistic works and commentaries on Sefer Yetsirah.^[9] It is likely that Levita himself organized the anthology as a homogeneous collection, creating a kind of Pentateuch of Ashkenazic mysticism for his patron. It ranged from the works on the Creation and the structure of the universe to the treatise on the human soul, a microcosm which mirrors and reflects the heavenly form.

The title Sodei Razayya appears in the first lines of the introduction to the section called Sod Ma‘aseh Bere’shit. Notably, a second title, now barely visible, can be found on the upper margin of the first recto of Levita’s copy; it reads »Razi’el ha-Gadol Bar ’Esh« (רזיאל הגדול בר אש). This partly echoes the title of the principal work within the renowned later anthology, Sefer Razi’el ha-Mal’akh (»The Book of the Angel Razi’el«, printed in Amsterdam in 1701).^[10] It is conceivable that Levita himself (or someone within the Egidian circle) assigned this title to refer to the mystical collection of Haside Ashkenaz. This designation was effectively passed down onto subsequent traditions, marking the inclusion of Sodei Razayya within the tradition of Sefer Razi’el.

Based on Levita’s copy, Jewish interpreters prepared translations of Sodei Razayya into vernacular Italian for Egidio, a sort of a reader of Hebrew texts.^[11] Extant drafts of these translations are scattered across different manuscripts. Excerpts, labelled Raziel or Ex Raziele and covering almost the entire translation of Sodei Razayya, are housed in Rome (Biblioteca Angelica, Ms. Lat. 44) and London (British Library, London, Ms. Add. 16390, vol. B).^[12] The latter includes vernacular versions of Sefer ha-Shem, Perush Sefer Yetsirah, and Hokhmat ha-Nefesh.^[13] The margins of both manuscripts contain several notes in Latin penned by Egidio’s hand, showing his keen interest in Sodei Razayya/Raziel.

Following Levita’s copy, other manuscripts adopted the same textual arrangement. For instance, Sodei Razayya copied in 1555 by the scribe Moshe Gad (München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Ms. hebr. 81) for the Christian Hebraist Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter (1506–1557), who viewed Egidio’s library as a model of his own Hebrew collection, is a direct copy of Levita’s manuscript. In this manuscript, the label Razi’el ha-Gadol Bar ’Esh is clearly visible on the upper margin of the first recto. Another sixteenth-century manuscript, now housed in Bibliotheca Laurenziana in Florence, Ms. Plut.I.61, includes a similar compilation created by at least three scribes. The label Razi’el ha-Gadol is visible there in the upper margin of the first recto, while the text matches Levita’s anthology, including his personal comments, except for the absence of the text of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh.^[14]

Regarding the medieval tradition of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh, its oldest witness is found in the kabbalistic compilation copied in Rome in 1286 by the scribe Menahem ben Benyamin (Parma, Biblioteca Palatina, Ms. Parmensis 2784). This compilation encompasses twenty-one titles, with only two sections from Sodei Razayya: Hokhmat ha-Nefesh (fols. 44r–75r) and Hilkhot ha-Nevu’ah (»Laws of Prophecy«, fols. 75r–79v), which is a passage from Sod ha-Merkavah. Generally, it may be concluded that the treatise is part of heterogeneous kabbalistic and magical collections, such as British Library, Ms. Add. 15299 or Bibliothèque nationale de France, Mss. hébreu 823 and 850, copied between thirteenth and sixteenth century, each differing from the others.^[15] In a few cases, the treatise on the soul is included in collections of Talmudic, halakhic, and astrological works from an Ashkenazic context, such as Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. hébreu 1408; in one case, it is found in a dedicated manuscript.^[16] Only in the anthology prepared by Levita, and later reproduced by Moshe Gad, Hokhmat ha-Nefesh features as the fifth and last treatise of an organized compilation, as if serving to seal the Ashkenazi esoteric corpus.^[17]

The Contents and Features of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh

In the manuscript collections mentioned above, Hokhmat ha-Nefesh is always recognizable by its incipit corresponding to the first verse of Ps 103:

בָּרְכִי נַפְשִׁי, אֶת-יְהוָה; וְכָל-קְרָבַי, אֶת-שֵׁם קָדְשׁוֹ

(»Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name«).

The treatise opens with the soul expressing blessings and love for its Creator. According to the text, the soul has five names, though only four are listed in the manuscript: nefesh, neshamah, ruah, and hay.^[18] These names depend on the soul’s role and connection to the heavenly realm and the body, consistent with the medieval belief in a layered structure of the soul.^[19] In various passages, Hokhmat ha-Nefesh explores the soul’s supernatural formation and knowledge, where nefesh and neshamah are depicted as intermediaries, linking the angelic world, the universe, and the material body, whether a person is alive or in the afterlife.

The focus here is on nefesh, the vital breath animating living beings. Its physiological aspects and its connection to bodily movements are explained using a rich medical vocabulary. The language incorporates expressions from astrology and philosophical texts, reflecting how the soul’s activities mirror changes and developments in the universe. For instance, the ascension of the soul from its primary residence—the heart—to the head and brain is described in relation with the moon phases. These phases cause alterations and increases in bodily liquids, leading to instability, melancholia, and madness. Consequently, the body is viewed a microcosm that reflects even seasonal turnovers.^[20] The set of correspondences involves not only the universe but also each human soul, which has its counterpart in the angelic realm. This connection, in turn, links the counterparts of all beings. Such a network of correspondences between the human and celestial dimensions is particularly evident in the dreamlike state, as it will be shown in the next paragraph, where the human soul receives otherworldly visions.^[21]

Furthermore, the treatise discusses topics related to divine judgment, afterlife visions of demons and spirits, and the fate of the souls of wise men devoted to the study of Torah. In some passages, it describes how the faces of Jewish scholars engaged in Torah study shine with divine glory, resembling angelic faces. They are illuminated by this splendor, and their souls are attracted like magnets to the heavens. They ascend on high until reaching the Throne of Glory, where the human soul becomes like one of the four beasts carrying the merkavah.^[22]

One of the central themes of the treatise concerns the difference between tselem (»image«) and demut (»figure«), as well as the resemblance between the human and the divine. In some crucial sections, the treatise identifies the human soul, the shadow, and the divine name (the Tetragrammaton). This topic is addressed by referencing an old Jewish legend, which states that the shadow vanishes just before a person’s death:

A man who will die has no shadow, as it is written: the Tetragrammaton is upon them then they will live. This is why it is written יִשְׂמְחוּ הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְתָגֵל הָאָרֶץ [Ps 96:11, in which the first letters form the acronym of Tetragrammaton] and the last letters of the verse are TsLMW. When the divine name is on their head, then TsLMW exists, as it is written וַיהוָה סָר מֵעָלֶיךָ and it is also written סָר צִלָּם מֵעֲלֵיהֶם וַיהוָה אִתָּנוּ. This is clear in the night of Hosha‘na Rabbah, when the future of water is decided upon.^[23]

In this passage, the essence of the soul is associated with the Tetragrammaton: just as the Name gives life to the universe, the soul animates the body. Throughout its existence, the soul causes the body casts its shadow, which serves as its spiritual reflection, connecting it to the higher world. Without the Name or soul, the body would remain just an empty shell, a statue, a golem. This theme, significant in the architecture and physiology of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh, appears also elsewhere in Sodei Razayya, and notably in Hilkhot ha-Nevu’ah (from Sod ha-Merkavah), where it is stated that:

Just as the name [of God] is [found] on the angel, so also the tefillin [are found] on the hand and likewise on the head; »and with the shadow of my hands I have covered you« [Is 51:16]. He safeguards the righteous, so that the prophet sees, so that he may know who was upon me, and who safeguards me by means of the shadow of his name. This is just as it is now, on the night of Hosha‘na Rabbah, whoever has a shadow will live, but whoever has no shadow and his head is small, without a neck, he will die within the same year. Since He then decides in relation to the amount of the water [of that year].^[24]

The shadow signifies the presence of the divine Name within a popular divinatory belief observed on the night of Hosha‘na Rabbah, which marks the end of the New Year festivals in the month of Tishri. This night is considered the day of divine judgment, determining the fate in the upcoming year. This crucial topic connects the second book of the anthology, Sod ha-Merkavah, to the fifth book, Hokhmat ha-Nefesh. Levita also suggests this connection in its colophon, describing Sodei Razayya as a unique and integrated corpus:

I wrote this book for a wise man among the Gentiles, a righteous and upright man, priest of the order of St. Augustine, and his name is Egidio. General of all the priests of this Order in all the Christian countries. May God grant him the study and understanding of this book and the rest of his sapphire books that he has purchased and commissioned, in which he invested great money and intends to invest more until he will possess all of our books. I completed this holy book today on Wednesday, Hosha‘na’ Rabbah 276, on which I saw my head in the shadow of the moon, Blessed be God, as I am assured not to die this year. The words are of the scribe Eliyahu bar Asher ha-Levi Ashkenazi. The grammarian.^[25]

Visions and Divinatory Practices Performed by the Soul: Dreaming in Hokhmat ha-Nefesh

Both in the third book, Sefer ha-Shem, and in Hokhmat ha-Nefesh there are references to dreams and oneiric practices. Sefer ha-Shem is an esoteric commentary on the Tetragrammaton and other divine names. It aims at attaining supernatural knowledge and power by mastering the divine name, using special techniques of pronunciation and permutation of the Hebrew letters.^[26] These techniques include instructions on using the mystical name of seventy-two letters,^[27] which is considered a tool for accessing the secrets of dreams. The Hebrew letters are combined with each other, either separately or together with the vowels, and finally permuted to induce a state of drowsiness conducive to the visitation of an angel, to whom questions about to the future and the afterlife can be addressed.^[28]

In Hokhmat ha-Nefesh, traditional oneiromantic techniques, such as she’elat halom^[29] and pitron halomot,^[30] are reworked within a discourse focused on the multiple functions of the soul, a transcendental entity mediating between the visible and the invisible. The second part of the treatise introduces a detailed section on pitron halom with insights on the »thin, deep, and light« substance of the soul, which permeates, sustains, and guides the body due to its resemblance to the divine.^[31] The divinatory technique relies on the analogy between the soul and the divine sphere, establishing a link between two distant entities, the dream image and its imminent fulfillment, both prefigured in a metaphysical symbolic pattern. The image impressed in the dream anticipates an event about to occur in the dreamer’s life. While the first part addresses spiritual and metaphysical questions, the subseqeunt dream catalogue reflects the essential and yet enigmatic style, typical of the popular genre of dream exegesis:^[32]

The soul is thinner and deeper and lighter than the body and stronger and harder, because it supports the body and increases its desire. Therefore, our ancestors swore by the life of YYY, who made us this soul that is similar to it and reflects the secret soul by the vibration of a limb or the scratch of a limb, and in its dreams, it dreams with it. As we find in midrash Eikhah Rabbati [ch. 1]: [I saw in a dream] »that one of my eyes was devouring the other«, and on this, it is reported about two brothers who fell sick in bed, as it is remembered: if his eye is sore, his brother will get sick; if there are two sore eyes, two brothers will get sick; if a tooth hurts, a neighbor will get sick; if a tooth falls out, a son or a relative will die; if one sees a king, there will be a mourning, the ministering angel of mourning will comfort him; if he sees a groom, or a domestic celebration, it is a joy; if one sees a child whose teeth hurt, it means misfortune for the father or mother; if blood comes out, the father will have a great pain; if they strike his teeth, the affliction will be greater. If one sees someone sharing meat, it means there will be a dispute; if one sees fire in a furnace or unleavened bread, or if there is no fire in an oven, it means bad things. If there is snow in the summer, it means there will be a fire; if one sees himself flowering, he will go far away; if one sees a vineyard, his wife is pregnant; if one sees grapes, a child will be born; and if the vine is stained, she will miscarry; and if one sees someone barefoot, it is a bad sign; if one sees someone coming from far away, the following will happen: if he runs, it is a bad sign; on Yom Kippur, it is a sign of death, as it is written, »He who is full of compassion« [Ps 78:38]; or afflictions are coming to allow him to expiate; if one sees a sword, something fearful will happen; if one dreams about the destruction of the Temple, someone will come to tell him of the destruction of a synagogue; if one sees this written, the house of a righteous person will be destroyed; if the door of the house falls down, it announces the miscarriage of his wife; if one sees that he is carrying a bird or a fish in his womb, it means that his wife will give birth to a son; if he or she is an unmarried person (woman or man), he/she will soon get married; if it is someone who is already married, then he/she will have children; if flowers bloom from one’s chest, a fast is necessary; and if during the fast, they carry a bird in their womb and take care of it, or if they take care of a hen (if female) or a rooster (if male), they will perform an act of tsedakah for a poor person; if one sees someone climbing a mountain, there will be a sorrow and one must seriously worry about it; if one sees a group of people eating delicacies, it means that everyone will have reasons to cry; if everyone eats except one, everyone will have except one; someone who prays means there will be no reason to pray, if he continues to do it, he will be granted.

This initial list of »dream solutions« is followed by a series of dream figures tied to specific days of the month. Eleazar of Worms, a respected halakhic authority, community spiritual guide, and sage, considered the technique of pitron halom to be a straightforward and effective method for interpreting dreams. He utilized references deeply embedded in the collective imagination, such as unleavened bread, Yom Kippur, or the destruction of the Temple, to predict natural and daily events, affecting either a few individuals or the entire community.

The prophetic qualities of the soul and their connections with the world of angels are detailed in the section titled Hokhmat ha-Halom, at the beginning of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh. In this section, Eleazar of Worms gathers and expands upon earlier Jewish traditions on dreams, which were prevalent in the Bible, Talmudic texts, midrashim, and she’elot halom.^[33] Dreams were envisioned as an integral part of the middle world wherein angels and spirits can appear, and where revelations of future events or spiritual knowledge are anticipated:^[34]

The content of the heart is the content of the spirit, because dreams originate from thoughts, »that came [into your mind] upon your bed« [Dan 2:29]. An idea corresponds to the thoughts of the heart, as it is written »in the thought of his heart« [Koh 2:22] and it is written »and the thoughts of your heart you shall know« [Dan 2:30]. And dreams come [occur] by means of an angel in charge of dreams and, since not all thoughts are true, in the same way not all dreams are true. And how does the angel know all the thoughts of the heart? And it is written »for the Lord is a God of knowledge« [1Sam 2:3], and it is written »is not [God] the one who weighs the hearts?« [Prov. 24:12] and no one else knows the matter of dreams like him: the fact that sometimes you will talk with the dead, and certainly you won’t talk with the living in a dream; and the angel in charge of the dreams shows him wonderful things in one moment, for example Reuven [in the story of Joseph and its brothers, Gen 37–46] and also »nuts and apples«. And do not be surprised [if you see in dreams] demons changing their shape. And so is for an angel in charge of dreams, because every substance without a body, being a spirit, can change his appearance. And it is written, »at the time of sending them He made his angels, like spirits«, and it is written »stormy wind fulfilling his word« [Ps 148:8]. Thus, the angel in charge of dreams can transform himself into everything and can speak in all human languages: a person sometimes can speak with a goy but no one can speak a language he does not know; thus, the Lord through his thoughts informs the people of his strength, because whatever somebody has said during the day, or has thought, all is revealed before his Creator. And it is written: »for God is in Heaven, and you upon earth; therefore, let your words be few.« [Koh 5:1] Know that the spirit wanders in the world, as it is written »Into your hand I commit my spirit« [Ps 31:6], so the angel follows him as a nurse follows an infant, and it is written »For He will give His angels charge over you, to keep you« [Ps 91:11], and is written, »The angel of the Lord encamped round etc.« [Ps 34:8] And when the spirit enters the bones or an orifice of someone, in a dream, it seems to him that he is in a certain place, and sometimes the dead talk to the living persons and their spirits clash, as it is said, »Abba said, my father appeared to me in a dream.« And the same thing happens with living people when they hurt each other.

Following a belief stemming from the so-called »Book of Dreams« in the Talmudic treatise Berakhot (55b),^[35] dreams are distinguished based on the time they occur during the night. Dreams at the beginning of the night, when the soul is still engaged in bodily activities like digestion are considered false, while those occurring in the middle of the night can be partially truthful. Finally, dreams at dawn are deemed as the most reliable. As described in midrash Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer (quoted in the treatise by Eleazar), in the early morning, the soul is most free and detached from the ballast of the body,^[36] allowing it to wander around freely, in ecstatic peregrinations, perceiving visions from the afterlife, the heavenly world, and the realm of the dead:^[37]

When a person is full at the beginning of the night, most of their dreams are false; in the middle of the night, most are true; in the morning, they are all true. This depends on whether they are interpreted according to one’s own halakhah or within the dream, or whether a person was called by a heavenly voice [bat kol], as it is said, »and behold, a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven« [Dan 4:10], and so on, as an angel said through an old man at his bedside, »the angels do not sleep«, and there is no dream that is not partly false, since it is written »what has the straw to do with the wheat?« [Jer 23:28] A dream is a good sign for a patient whose soul rises to draw life, [in case it is] a dream that strengthens the body, as Hezekiah said, »you have given me life, and health« [Is 38,16]. And someone who does not dream for seven days is considered a wicked person because they are thought to harbor abominations in their heart. If they have evil thoughts in dreams and thoughts, it is to make them understand that they are not loved, we can compare this to a king in flesh and blood who wants to reveal a secret to his servants and sees his enemies among them and says, »Expel those who are hateful to me, and I will reveal a secret to you.« Thus, the person who does not dream has no one to watch over him from Heaven and to show them everything. Why seven nights? It relates to the seven days of Genesis, to show that [God] watches over everything that has been created.

Here, each sentence is sealed with a biblical quotation from Psalms, Kohelet, Daniel, or the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. The content highlights what is most significant for the Ashkenazi writer: defining the dream dimension as a realm for potential encounters with the supernatural, where angels and humans, as well as the living and the dead, could connect, albeit at specific times (notably, the dawn) when the soul is most detached from its bodily needs.

Compared to the tradition of she’elat halom—a technique intended to provoke the descent of angelic beings for divinatory purposes—the mediating role of the angels is amplified in Hokhmat ha-Halom. In this tradition, angels actively and spontaneously care for the souls, particularly those of wise individuals. The angels change form and language to be understood by selected individuals, chosen based on their moral qualities. These chosen people receive the privilege of dreams, divine benevolence, and the revelation of secrets. Thus, the absence of dreams is understood as a sign from heaven, indicating the detachment and estrangement of wicked persons, deemed unworthy of celestial protection. The most faithful dreamers are therefore the sages who view dreaming activity as a visionary journey and an ecstatic experience, similar to those found in Hekhalot and Merkavah literature.^[38] Thus, the oneiric activity can be regarded as a means to foster the soul’s ascent to the celestial world, a spiritual event granting access to primordial and otherworldly knowledge.^[39]

The Afterlife of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh: Reading and Translating the Text in Renaissance Rome

Egidio, a Neoplatonic philosopher and Christian Kabbalist, was deeply interested in the secrets hidden in the Ashkenazi esoteric corpus of texts. He explored the spiritual description of the universe vivified by the divine name and reflecting the divine image in the human soul. However, what is unusual in the copy of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh provided by Levita is that, unlike other books of Sodei Razayya, only the margins of this treatise lack notes, comments, or Latin translations by Egidio’s hand. Additionally, a Latin version of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh signed by Egidio is either missing or not preserved, while the other four books of the anthology exist in abbreviated or fragmentary Latin translations prepared and signed by him.^[40] Nevertheless, a close examination of the manuscript copied by Levita shows Egidio’s dedication to studying Hokhmat ha-Nefesh. Here and there, numerical references are noticeable in the margins of the codex, penned in Egidio’s handwriting. This reflects his usual practice of numbering parts of the codices in his possession. In doing so, Egidio created a network of correspondences between words and contents recorded in his private notebooks, where he noted terms and translations stemming from his Hebrew readings.^[41] Moreover, the numbering matches common terms, topics, and parallel units in the items of Egidio’s collection. In our case, sections of the Hebrew text of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh appear linked to their translation in vernacular Italian, found in London, British Library, Ms. Add. 16390 B, fol. 82r.

As for the main features of this translation, the incipit of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh (corresponding to Ps 103:1) is, for instance, left in Hebrew:

ברכי נפשי את ה' וכל קרבי את

שם קדשו

In the margin, this first section is entitled benedizione/ dell’anima (»benediction of the soul«). The main text is written by a different Italian hand: the simultaneous presence of multiple hands at work in the manuscript is significant, as it suggests that the translation was likely the result of a collaborative effort by Jewish interpreters in Egidio’s service.^[42] The first lines, as in the Hebrew text, state the uniqueness of the human soul due to its resemblance to the divine figure:

La anima obligato a laudare et benedice / se a dio criatore soa pero che ella / si similia a lui pero che e spiriata do lui / e non a dato spirito de hanimo se non / alo omo pero che dice a fare sapere / alo homo la forza soa et hanoto o glorio dello ronto soo […]^[43]

As in the Vorlage, la hanima a cinque nome (»the soul has five names«), but only four of them are mentioned, just like in the Hebrew manuscript owned by Egidio: nefesh, neshamah, ruah, hay^[44] // hanima, spirito, hanimo, vivo.^[45] Despite this adherence to the Hebrew text, the Italian vernacular version is not a literal translation, but a paraphrase with explanations. It is characterized by conciseness and a systematic abbreviation of the Hebrew text.

In the passage dedicated to Hokhmat ha-Halom (la sapientia dello sonno), the abridged translation takes the reader directly to the side of the dreamer, in whose fantasy the encounter with the angelic figure occurs. The essential aspects of the Hebrew text remain, even though most of the biblical and Talmudic citations and references are removed:^[46]

La sapientia dello sonno dice li fantasia sopra

Lo letto too tutti li sonne per via de uno angielo

Che è de sopro e per li mor che tuti li fantesi non

Son tuti iguali pero tutti li sonne non son tuti

Vere et como sai lo angelo tuti le fantesie le

Dice Dio sape li fantasia. Lo angelo parlo

con elle omo in tuti langue et non parlo lengua

che non sa parlare lo homo a fare sapere de bono

la forza soa che non posse pensare lo homo cosa

nulio de di Dio li mostra de nocte amostrare

che Dio sai tuti li fantasie dello homo

ello angelo va dereto dello hanima como la

balia dereto la criatura et dice che lo hangelo

comano a guardare a te in tuti li viai tui

sta scrito Dio è in cello e tu si sopra la terra pero

sereno li parole toi poco, Dio sai tuti li fanta

sie però dimostra alo homo in elle sonne.

Uno homo che non ce sone in e sette di e rasa

E certo huno homo cativo et a sotte mali in ello 

E demostra che Dio non fa la providentia sopra esso

Como uno re che a un nimico quanu vole parlare

li cosi segreti non vole che costa in prisentia lo

inimico so così Dio non vole fare sapere alo

omo cativo li segreti soi et perché sette notte

in verso sette nocte della Criatione

The dreamer is a wise person who sustains their dialogue with the angelic and divine world through an oneiric experience. An angelic dream-correspondent regularly communicates with the human soul, using words pronounced in their own language to ensure understanding. The angel cares for the human soul just like a nursemaid takes care of a newborn baby: como la balia dereto la criatura. Then follows a description of the personality of those whose nights are dreamless for more than seven nights. The absence of dreams, meaning the lack of interaction with the angelic world, is considered an interruption of divine benevolence.

The language of the translation can be broadly described as a vernacular dialect of central Italy, characterized by colloquialisms, hapax legomena, and various inconsistencies in grammatical agreements.^[47] We can assume that this idiom was used by members of the Italian Jewish community who were more accustomed to writing in Hebrew than in Italian. Transcriptions of the Hebrew words are found in the headings and incipits of the text, or in some terms that were considered too idiosyncratic; sometimes, they are just transliterated into Latin characters. The expression and style are close to the spoken language, without literary ambition. Thus, the text does not look like a literary product: it was possibly not meant as an autonomous work of translation, but as a functional device intended to teach and interpret the Hebrew contents for Egidio. The phrasing seems related to an almost extemporaneous use. Likely, the text served as a framework for the exegesis and the explanation of the Hebrew manuscript. As it appears, Jewish teachers helped their client in the difficult reading of the mystical Ashkenazic doctrines, and the Judeo-Italian abridgment served as a brouillon for the interpreters. Consequently, we can posit that the actual translation of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh would be carried out in full only in the context of teachings that took place orally and in dialogic form in the presence of Egidio.^[48]

Conclusions

In the context of reading and studying the manuscript of Sodei Razayya copied for Egidio by Elia Levita, Hokhmat ha-Nefesh was translated into vernacular Italian; however, unlike the other four treatises found in the same anthology, the Hebrew text was not translated into Latin by Egidio. What is odd is that a Latin translation of this work is not extant even among the Latin versions of treatises related to the soul by Eleazar of Worms translated for Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) by the convert, Flavius Mithridates (15^th century) between 1486 and 1487.^[49] And yet, the entire rich corpus of Mithridates’ translations is referred to as De Anima (On the Soul). This anthology once included fifteen titles; however, in Vatican manuscript ebr. 189, the first three books (Liber Primus, Liber Secundus and Liber Tertius De Anima) have disappeared. The extant translations in the manuscript encompass different Libri de Anima, starting from the »fourth book« and up to the »fifteenth book«. Moreover, none of them corresponds to the text of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh. According to the Vatican archives, in 1516 Ms. Vat. ebr. 189 was borrowed by Egidio da Viterbo himself, who commissioned a copy of this manuscript. Its translation is now extant in Rome, Ms. Ang. Lat. 1253 held in Biblioteca Angelica. This text, also entitled De Anima, lacks the first three books, just like Mithridates’ manuscript.^[50] Today, we can only imagine that the first sections, now missing, once included the Latin translation of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh. As far as we know, the only sixteenth-century translation of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh is the abridged version preserved in London, British Library, Ms. Add. 16390 B, based on Levita’s Hebrew copy of Sodei Razayya.^[51]

Later in the sixteenth century, Hokhmat ha-Nefesh was copied in Hebrew manuscripts as an independent work and continued to circulate in the Hebrew tradition, no longer included in the corpus of Razi’el.^[52] We do not have enough information to determine the reasons for such a change in the textual tradition. What we can assume is that the reflections of Haside Ashkenaz on the soul certainly caught the attention of Christian Hebraists of the Renaissance, in primis Pico della Mirandola and later Egidio da Viterbo. The reasons for the absence or removal of the Latin translation of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh from the Ashkenazi anthology remain unknown, although various explanations can be hypothesized. On the one hand, the treatise on the soul has continued to be transmitted separately from the other textual units of Sodei Razayya in the Jewish manuscript tradition, gaining popularity in early modern times. Hokhmat ha-Nefesh, with its deep examination of the soul, its components, and its relationship to the body, dreams, death, and eternal life, became a sort of spiritual vademecum for readers in Jewish communities. On the other hand, this same work refers, albeit with less complex language than the other treatises of Sodei Razayya, to the divine nature of the soul, the spiritual superiority of the Jewish soul, and a fundamentally pantheistic conception of the universe, populated by divine and angelic entities. Probably for these reasons—and because of its exoteric and accessible text—it was not translated into Latin: it required greater caution and circumspection in the world of the Christian humanists. Was Hokhmat ha-Nefesh expunged from the Latin tradition for its blasphemous contents, which did not align with the new context of surveillance over Jewish books established in the latter half of the sixteenth century? We do not yet know how things unfolded. However, we do know that Hokhmat ha-Nefesh circulated in several Hebrew compilations, different from the Renaissance anthology, until it was published in Hebrew in 1876 in Lemberg and again in 1913 in Safed. Both editions are based upon a Vorlage that is more extensive than Levita’s copy.