Schedule

Tuesday, May 20

University of Notre Dame Rome, Walsh Hall

8:45 a.m. Registration

9 a.m. Introduction

Welcome

Silvia Dall’Olio (University of Notre Dame Rome)

Program Overview

Jeremy Phillip Brown (University of Notre Dame)

9:45 a.m. Session 1: Between Hekhalot and Kabbalah

Chair: Stephen Metzger (Manuscript Department, Vatican Library)

Angels, Thrones, and the Separation of Powers in a Unique Commentary on Massekhet Hekhalot

Gerold Necker (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)

Hekhalot Rabbati in Vatican Manuscripts and the Transmission History of Hekhalot Literature in Italy

Avishai Bar-Asher (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

11:15 a.m. Coffee/Tea

11:30 a.m. Session 2: From Sefarad and Ashkenaz to Italy

Chair: Silvia Dall’Olio (University of Notre Dame Rome)

The Making of Kabbalistic Manuscripts in Italy: The Earliest Scribal Workshops (13th-14th C.)

Emma Abate (Università di Bologna)

Commentators of the Water: A Unique Case of Ashkenazi Esotericism

Na'ama Ben-Shachar (Bar-Ilan University)

1 p.m. Lunch

2 p.m. Session 3: Between Printing and Persecution

Chair: Avishai Bar-Asher (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Editing and Printing Cordoverean Kabbalah in Italy: Menaḥem Azariah da Fano’s Or Neʿerav

Eugene Matanky (Tel Aviv University)

The Siṭra Aḥra of Kabbalah: Christian Kabbalah and the Roman Inquisition

Elke Morlok (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)

4:15 p.m. Coffee/Tea

4:30 p.m. Research Seminar

Introduction: Jeremy Phillip Brown (University of Notre Dame)

Esoteric Exegesis in Isaac Ibn Laṭif, based on his writings in MS Vatican, ebr. 335

James Robinson (University of Chicago)

7:30 p.m. Dinner (offsite)

Wednesday, May 21

University of Notre Dame Rome, Walsh Hall

9 a.m. Session 4: Kabbalah and Translation

Chair: Gerold Necker (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)

Some Reflections on the Glosa de Schepher Yecira, a Sicilian Translation of the Commentary on the Sefer Yeṣirah by Yosef ben Shalom Ashkenazi

Flavia Buzzetta (École Normale Supérieure)

Mithridates’s Latin Translation of an Anonymous Sefer Yeṣirah Commentary in Vat.ebr.191: An Hitherto Unknown
Work of Theosophical Prophetology

Bruce McCuskey (University of Notre Dame)

Project Overview: The Pet Child of the Papacy—History of the Zohar in Western Christianity, c. 1300–1800

Níels Eggerz (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)

10:30 a.m. Coffee/Tea

10:45 a.m. Session 5: Formative Texts I: The Writings of Joseph Gikatilla, Baḥya ben Asher, and Maʿarekhet ha-Elohut

Chair: Saverio Campanini (Università di Bologna)

Three Feasts of Sabbath: MS Vatican, ebr. 214 and the Textual History of a Faded Kabbalistic Tradition

Idan Pinto (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

In the Margins of Maʿarekhet ha-Elohut: The School of Reuven Tzarfati and the Earliest Italian Reception

Levana Chajes (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

12:30 p.m. Lunch

1:30 p.m. Session 6: Formative Texts II: Sefer ha-Peliʾah

Chair: James Robinson (University of Chicago)

Magic and Prophecy in the Vatican Manuscripts of Sefer ha-Peliʾah

Margherita Mantovani (Università di Bologna)

Egidio da Viterbo and the Latin Translations of Sefer ha-Peliʾah

Margherita Pepoli (Sapienza Università di Roma)

3 p.m. Coffee/Tea

3:15 p.m. Session 7: Formative Texts III: The Zohar

Chair: Elke Morlok (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)

Soul of the Soul: On the Assimilation and Migration of an Uncommon Soul Structure into the Zoharic Corpus — from Manuscript to Print

Rachel Rosenbaum-Lederman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

The Idra Compositions: On the Authorship of a Zoharic Genre