Rabbi Moshe Zacuto and the Kabbalistic Circle of Amsterdam1 | Amsterdam University Press Journals Online
2004
Volume 46 Number 1
  • ISSN: 1781-7838
  • E-ISSN: 1783-1792

Abstract

Abstract

Born in Amsterdam in the early seventeenth century, Moses Zacuto (Moshe Zacut) belongs among the most prolific Jewish figures of his time. He is best known for a wealth of creative work in a wide variety of fields: poetry and drama, halacha, as well as extensive Kabbalistic writings. Zacuto also had a special interest in magical manuscripts and the uses of divine names, which he collected into a lexicon known today as . Zacuto left Amsterdam while young and lived in Eastern Europe before moving to Italy. In this article, we demonstrate that Zacuto had already begun to construct this vast lexicographical project in Amsterdam, and that those beginnings are best understood against the background of the magical and Kabbalistic manuscripts available in early seventeenth-century Amsterdam.

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