«Acqua di vita» ed esegesi biblica nella versione latina del Sefer Sha‘are Orah

The thesis concentrates on the interpretation of the Kabbalah which the Jewish convert Paolo Ricci (ca. 1480-1541) provided in his writings, mainly focusing on two texts: the In cabalistarum seu allegorizantium eruditionem Isagoge and the Latin translation of the Sefer Sha‘are Orah (Book of the Gates of Light) by Yosef Giqaṭilla (1248-ca. 1325). After a general introduction and a presentation of the status quaestionis, the first part of the thesis is devoted to the cultural milieu of the Sefer Sha‘are Orah, to his author and sources. The second part pays particular attention to the intellectual biography of Paolo Ricci and to his contacts with humanists of his period. The work, then, focuses on the possible influence, among other sources, played by Ricci’s Latin version of the Sefer Sha‘are Orah on the development of the reformation of magic by Agrippa from Nettesheim. The chapter on Ricci’s theorization of the Kabbalah aims to explore some aspects of his hermeneutics and, while focusing on the relationship between the Isagoge and the Latin translation of the Sefer Sha‘are Orah, it also seeks to give a possible explanation for Ricci’s choice of translating Giqaṭilla’s treatise. The analysis is then related to the Isagoge, which Ricci conceived as an introductory work to the Sefer Sha‘are Orah. The last question concerns the history of the reception of Ricci’s thought as well as the fame of the Latin version of Sefer Sha‘are Orah between the 16th and the 17th centuries.