Abraham Abulafia: A Starter Kit

MOSHE IDEL

The ecstatic Kabbalah of Abraham Abulafia in Sicily and Its Transmission
during the Renaissance

1. - Abraham Abulafia (1240-c. 1292) is the founder of the ecstatic trend
of Kabbalah 1 . Born in Saragozza in Aragon he was educated by his father
Shmuel, in Tudela, until the latter's death in 1258.

In 1260 he left Catalunya for the Land of Israel, where he was looking
for the mythical river Sambatyon. In the middle of the sixties he studied Je-
wish philosophy, especially Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon's (Maimonides') Gui-
de of the Perplexed in Capua. At the end of the sixties he arrived to Barcelona
and in 1270 he started to study Kabbalah there and received a revelation.
In the middle of the seventies he was teaching his Kabbalah and his special
mystical, understanding of Maimonides' Guide, to some kabbalists in Casti-
le. Then, he left Spain and attempted to teach his special type of mysticism
in Greece, in Patros, Thebes and Euthrypo. In 1279 he returned to Italy and,
after a period of detention in Trani, he spent some months again in Capua,
where he taught his Kabbalah to four students. In 1280, he made an effort
to meet the Pope, Nicholaus III, who avoided such an encounter. When the
Pope was in a retreat in the castle of Soriano, near to Rome, Abulafia made
an attempt to meet him. However, when Abulafia arrived at the castle, the
Pope suddenly died due to an apoplexy. Abulafia was imprisoned for two weeks
by the Minorites, the little Franciscan brothers in Rome 2 . In 1282 he was
already in Sicily and I assume that he arrived there immediately after his re-
lease from prison in 1280.

1 On this important Jewish Kabbalist see G. SCHOLEM, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism,
New York 1967, pp. 119-155, and the studies referred to in footnotes 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 26, 36.

2 M. IDEL, Abraham Abulafia and the Pope. The Meaning and the Metamorphosis of an Abor-
tions Attempt in «Association of Jewish Studies Review», (1982-1983), 7-8, pp. 1-17 [Hebrew]

Even before his arrival to Sicily, Abulafia had already written several books
in which he described in some detail his peculiar type of Kabbalah, which
consists of a variety to techniques aimed at reaching an ecstatic experience 3 .
This experience was understood by him as 'prophecy'. His first writings reach
back to the early seventies, but it seems that at the end of this decade his
literary and propagandists activities have been dramatically intensified. During
the year 1280 alone he composed two of his most important books: a
commentary on The Guide named Sitrei Tomb, written while he was in Capua,
and an important and most influential mystical handbook, Sefer Hayyei ha-
'Olam ha-Ba, written in Rome. Between 1279 and 1283 he also wrote several
'prophetic* writings, some of them in Messina, which, unfortunately, were
lost 4 . Abulafia's own commentary on these works, written in Messina, has,
however, survived 5 . It is mainly from these commentaries on the prophetic
books, that we learn about Abulafia's prophetic claims, as well as of some
Messianic aspirations. These aspirations, which stem from a revelation he had
in Barcelona in 1270, prompted him to attempt to seek audience with the
Pope. It seems that even before the effort to discuss these matters with the
High See, in 1280, some Jews were afraid of the negative consequences of
such an audacious enterprise, so fraught with Messianic overtones.
Consequently, they distanced themselves from Abulafia and apparently 'some
Jews even persecuted him 6 .

An errant teacher of Maimonide's Guide of the Perplexed 1 , a mystic, a
prophet, a Messiah, a preacher of a new Kabbalah to both Jews and Christians,
a prolific writer — this is Abraham Abulafia at the time of this arrival to
Messina, apparently at the end of the year 1280. In Sicily he was destined
to spend more than a decade — in fact the whole rest of his life — and to
continue to act in the same ways he had done previously. It is in Sicily that
he will write more than two thirds of his extensive writings and it is there
that he had completed a rich literary career that will contribute substantially

5 For a description of these techniques see M. IDEL, The Mystical Experience in Abraham
Abulafia, Albany, Suny Press 1987.

4 See a bibliographical description of these lost writings in M. IdEL, Abraham Abulafia 's
Works and Doctrines (Ph. D. Thesis, Hebrew university, Jerusalem, 1976) pp. 11-15. [Hebrew]

5 Ibidem.

6 See Sefer 'Otzar 'Eden Ganuz, Ms. Oxford 1580, fol. 164b as well as fragment from the
commentary on Sefer ba-'Edut, printed by Henrich Graetz, «Abraham Abulafia, der
Pseudomessias» Monatschrift fur Gescbichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums. vol. 36 [1887] p. 558.

7 On this issue see M. IDEL, Maimonides and Kabbalah, in Studies in Maimonides, ed. I.
TWERSKY, Cambridge 1990, pp. 58-62.

to both the Jewish and the Christian cultures. I shall avoid here discussion
of the content of Abulafia's ecstatic writings 8 . Instead I shall focus my
attention and two major topics: Abulafia's students in Messina and Palermo,
and the reverberations of Abulafia's writings during the Renaissance. I hope
that the first topic will be a modest contribution to a better understanding
of the literature and history of Jews in Sicily in the decade that Abulafia lived
there. I wish to emphasize here issues such as names, family relations and
different attitudes toward Abulafia, as these materialize from the evidence
that is extant in Abulafia's manuscripts, which have not been inspected by
historians. I must underscore the fact that Abulafia's Kabbalistic writings are
the most voluminous literary corpus ever written by a Jew in Sicily in general,
and, as we shall see below, the most influential one as well. This corpus contains
almost two thousand pages and it is, almost in its entirety, is still unedited,
and extant only in manuscript form.

Abulafia was already in Messina in 1282, as we learn form the fact that
he mentioned a number of his students who lived in this city in his commentary
on Sefer Ish 'Adam 9 , namely: Rabbi Natronay, Rabbi Abraham ben Shalom,
Rabbi Nathan ben Sa'adia Hadad, Rabbi Sa'adia ben Izhaq Sigilmasi and Rabbi
Jacob ben Abraham. As we shall see below, his students — with the sole
exception of the mysterioys Rabbi Natronay — came to him one after another,
apparently attracted by what they had heard from their acquaintances. Provided
that Abulafia's testimony that his students approached him one after the other
is correct, we may infer that in 1282 he had already been in Messina for a
substantial period of time. Between 1282 and 1284 it seems that two processes
took place: two more students from Messina joined his study group and, after
a while, the majority of hi students left him. This we learn from a very
important autobiographical passage which will be adduced and analyzed here
in some detail. In his Sefer 'Ozar 'Eden Ganuz, his most voluminous book,
composed in Messina in 1285, he declares that:

«Indeed, in this town that I am within now, called Senim 10 , which [actually is]
Messina, I have found six persons, and with me I brought the seventh, from whom
they [the six] have learned in my presence, for a very short while. Each of them has
received something from me, more or less, and all of them have left me, except the
one, who is the first and [he is also] the first reason for what each and every one

8 For a general portrait of this mystic see M. Idel, Abraham Abulafia, un kabbaliste
mystique ■, in «La vie spirituelle» (1988), 68, pp. 381-392.

9 Ms. Roma- Angelica 38, fol. 3a.

10 This is a play on the Hebrew consonants of Messina.

of his friends had learned from my mouth. His name is Rabbi Sa'adiah ben Rabbi Izhaq
Sigilmasi, blessed be his memory. He was followed by Rabbi Abraham ben Rabbi
Shalom, and was followed [in turn] by Rabbi Jacob, his son, and latter was followed
by Rabbi Izhaq his friend, and he was followed by the friend of this friend. . . and
the name of the seventh was Rabbi Natronay Tzarfati, blessed be his memory» u .

Therefore, one more person had been added to the earlier list but, at the
same time, one of the important figures in Abulafia's group, died: Rabbi
Natronay Tzarfati. However when Abulafia wrote the passage just cited, that
is, in 1286, the situation as described in it had changed drastically. Of the
seven disciples only one remained with the master: Rabbi Sa'adia Sigilmasi,
to whom the book is dedicated. Immediately after the aforecited passage,
Abulafia indicated that:

«At the beginning of the year 5046 12 , God has desired me, and He brought me
in His holy palace, at the very time when I have completed this book, which I have
composed here in Messina, for the dear, honorable, pleasant, intelligent and wise
student, who desires to know the essence of the perfect Torah, Rabbi Sa'adiah, whom
I mentioned above. Him I have seen as adhering to me in love; for him [I wrote
this book] in order that he will have it in his hands, as a memory of what he has
studied with me, for oblivion is common. Likewise, while it will be in his hands,
I know that it will be of benefit also to his friends, who were mentioned above, an
intellectual benefit to them as well as to others like them, by most of the things written
in it» .

Rabbi Sa'adiah is, then, the student to whom Abulafia dedicated his most
comprehensive work. The very positive description of this student has
something to do with the fact that he alone was not deterred by some events
that had caused his friends to leave Abulafia. Immediately after the passage
just quoted Abulafia writes:

«I know that unless those instance [related] to the phantasies which I have seen
in my first visions, which have, God be praised, already passed, those abovementioned
students would not separate from me. But those phantasies, which were the reasons
for their departure and distancing from me, are the very divine reasons which have
caused me to stand as I am and withstand the ordeals» 14

11 Ms. Oxford 1580, fol. 165b.

12 Namely sometimes in the fall of 1285.
!* Ms. Oxford 1580, fol. 166a.

14 Ibidem. Mire on his phantasies visions see M. IDEL, The Mystical Experience... cit., pp.
144-145.

Abulafia is rather sensitive to the desertion of his students. He stoically
accepts their temporary disengagement, but assumes that his devoted follower,
Rabbi Sa'adiah, will impart to them the content of the book he, Abulafia,
wrote. This patient attitude was nourished by his understanding that a certain
event may appear in a different light to a person who experiences it internally,
than it appears to others. I assume that Abulafia is referring to the consequences
of his revelations: while he was encouraged by them, the students were
apparently frightened. This calm attitude toward the departure of his students
apparently had a positive repercussion: three years later, in the introduction
to his commentary on the Bible, Abulafia mentions again Rabbi Abraham ben
Shalom and Rabbi Nathan ben Sa'adiah, together with Rabbi Sa'adiah
Sigilmasi, as being among those who accept his leadership 15 . Moreover, he
dedicated one of his most important books, Sefer 'Or ha-Sekhel, to Rabbi
Abraham and to Rabbi Nathan the Wise 16 .

In the same year, namely 1289, Abulafia dedicated another one of his
books, Sefer ha-Hesheq, to a certain Rabbi Jacob ben Abraham. It follows,
therefore, that Abulafia had been able to reestablish good relations with at
least three of his students. Moreover, in 1287, we learn of another student
who is not mentioned up to that point nor at any time afterwards. I am referring
to Rabbi Shlomo ben Moshe ha-Kohen from the Galilee. To him Abulafia
dedicated his book Shomer Mitwah 11 . We may, therefore, conclude that after
a certain crisis, apparently provoked by strange events connected to his ecstatic
experiences, Abulafia was able to attract again some of his former students.
It seems that all of them were living in Messina, and the fact that he dedicated
almost all of the books he wrote in Sicily to these students, indicated that
he spent most of the period between 1280-1291 in Messina.

Nonetheless, it seems that he also established some sort of relationship
with some of the Jewish inhabitants of Palermo. In 1289 he mentions the
names of Rabbi Ahituv ben Izhaq and Rabbi David his brother, Rabbi Shlomo
ben Rabbi David, and Rabbi Shlomo he-Hazan ben Rabbi Yakhin 18 . With
the exception of Rabbi Shlomo be-Hazan, all the people of Palermo are
described as being physicians: Rofe } . According to the same testimony, these

15 Ms. Moscow- Guensburg 133, foL la, printed in M. Idel, Abraham Abulafia 's Works...
cit., p. 20.

16 On the possible relationship between the name of this student of Abulafia and Lessing's
Nathan the Wise, I hope to elaborate elsewhere.

17 See below note 26.

18 Ms. Moscow-Guensburg 133, foL la, printed in M. IDEL, Abraham Abulafia's Works...
cit., p. 20.

people, like his students in Messina, are described as following his guidance.
Let me compare Abulafia's relationship to his Messina-based disciples to his
attitude toward the «physicians» of Palermo. The latter are mentioned for
the first time only very late during Abulafia's stay in Sicily, probably as late
as 1288. Consequently, it is only after approximately eight years of living in
Sicily that Abulafia speaks of himself in connection with someone living in
Palermo, while he repeatedly mentions students in Messina. Even in the year
he mentions the students in Palermo, he dedicates one book to two of his
Messina students. However, no book of Abulafia was ever dedicated, as far
as we know, to a disciple from Palermo. This situation seems rather strange,
since all those described as his Palermo students were part of the Jewish upper
class, while none of his Messina students was a physician or even described
as playing any role in the Jewish community. This imbalance in the politics
of book-dedication reflects, in my opinion, Abulafia's somewhat later acquain-
tance with the Palermo group. There may also, however, be another reason
for this reticence.

Toward the end of his life, apparently in the last three years, Abulafia
was involved in a bitter controversy with the greatest authority on Jewish
religious law of Aragonese Jewry, Rabbi Shlomo ben Abraham ibn Adret of
Barcelona. This neglected controvery was apparently precipitated by a fierce
assault on Abulafia's messianic and prophetic claims, mounted by ibn Adret
in an epistle he sent to a number of people in Palermo 19 . Though there are
good reasons to assume that ibn Adret had later written to Messina as well 20 ,
it seems that his decision to open his attack on Abulafia with a letter to Palermo,
may be an indication of Abulafia's weaker influence in that city. In any case,
it seems that the existence of such an influence is incontrovertable. This may
be learned both from Abulafia's own testimony, and from that of ibn Adret
who indicates that Abulafia had a very dangerous impact on several
communities in Sicily 21 . This impact is to be sought on two different levels:
Abulafia was a propagandist of his peculiar type of ecstatic Kabbalah, but
also of his claim of being a prophet and Messiah. It seems that it was the
latter claim that provoked ibn Adret 's fiercy response. If further documents

19 Ve-zot li-Yihudah, printed by A. JELLINEK, Auswahl Kabbalistiscber Mystik, Erstes Heft
(Leipzig 1853) p. 19.

20 In his Respomum, I, 548, printed now in Teshuvot ha-Rashba, ed. H.Z. DlMITROWSKY,
Jerusalem 1990, I, p. 101. He mentions his writings and those of the holy communities in
Siciliy. The use of the plural shows that it was not only to Palermo that ibn Adret wrote in
this context.

21 Ibidem.

will reveal more substantial evidence for Abulafia's influence as Messiah, this
might provide a better framework for the other messianic documents which
originated in Sicily.

Before embarking on the second topic of our discussion, let me emphasize
a particular trait of Abulafia's group of disciples in Messina, which in fact,
is characteristic of the Jewish culture in Sicily in general. Abulafia, who was
himself an Aragonese Jew, apparently brought with him a French disciple —
Rabbi Natronay. In Messina, his most devoted follower was Rabbi Sa'adiah
Sigilmasi, a North- African Jew. For a while Abulafia also had a student from
the Galillee 22 , while Rabbi Abraham ben Shalom was originally from Comti,
a small island not far away from Sicily. This collection of individuals testifies
to the variety of Abulafia's group; a veritable international school on Jewish
mysticism, and perhaps the first one. Abulafia's presence in Sicily transformed
the island into more than just the outstanding place for studying ecstatic
Kabbalah. Abulafia sent at least two of his Kabbalistic writings from Sicily
to Spain; one letter to ibn Adret's colleague in Barcelona, Rabbi Yehudah
Salmon 23 , and Sefer ba-'Ot 24 ; an epistle to a certain Rabbi Abraham who was
living off the island, apparently in Comti, the island Abulafia spent some time
there 25 , and one of his books, Sefer Shomer Mitzvah, was dedicated to Rabbi
Shlomo ha-Kohen, who took it with him when he left the island 26 . Sicily,
thus became a center for the dissemination of a certain, rather unique type
of Kabbalah.

2. - The fact that Abulafia dedicated most of his books to Sicilian Jews
may account for the preservation of many of these books — some, like Sefer
'Or ba-Sekbel, in quite many manuscripts. Whether Abulafia was able to
establish a school which continued the study of his particular kind of Kabbalah,
is a question which cannot be conclusively answered. What is more important
is that some of his writings were available at the end of the 15th century,
and were interesting enough to attract the attention of several authors who
were instrumental in the emergence of Christian Kabbalah. It seems that the
role of Sicily in the transmission of Abulafia's Kabbalah may be greater than

22 See note 26 below.

23 See Auswabl Kabba listischer Mystik ... cit . , pp . 13-28.

24 Sefer ha-Ot, printed by A. JELLINEK, in Jubelschrift zum 70. Geburtstag des Prof. H.
Graetz, Breslau 1887, p. 85.

25 Sheva' Netivot Ka-Torah, printed by A. JELLINEK, Philosophie und Kabbala, Erstes Heft,
[Leipzig 1854], pp. 1-24.

26 See M. IDEL, Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah , Albany, Suny Press, 1988, pp. 91-92.

that of a mere repository of Kabbalistic manuscripts. A convert to Christia-
nity, Paulus de Heredia, who came from Spain to Sicily, quotes Abulafia
explicitly, a fact that cannot be explained by his knowledge of Kabbalah in
Spain 27 .

More importantly, the translator of Abulafia' s most important book into
Latin was a Sicilian Jew, Nissim Abu Faraj, who converted to Christianity
and took the name Guiglemo Raymund Moncada, alias Flavius Mithridates.
It was Mithridates who, more than any other person, contributed to ensuring
an encounter between Christian intellectuals of the Renaissance — chief among
them Giovanni Pico della Mirandola — and the Kabbalah. After his conversion,
Mithridates translated a long series of Kabbalistic treatises from Hebrew into
Latin, and sold them to the young count of Mirandola, It was from these
translations, which were, as prof. Hayyim Wirszubski conclusively
demonstrated, sometimes biased by Christian and magical additions to the
hebrew original, that Pico learned almost everything he knew about Kabbalah.
Two points seem pertinent for our present discussion: the great amount of
Abulafian material in the general economy of Mithridates' translations, and,
the high quality of those Latin translation. From the quantitative point of
view, the ecstatic Kabbalah is very well represented: three of Abulafia's books
were translated as well as two of his commentaries on The Guide of the
Perplexed, which were written in Spain and in Rome, and an important epistle
addressed to Rabbi Yehudah Salmon and sent from Messina to Barcelona 28 .
The first commentary on The Guide } entitled Sefer ha-Ge y ulah or Liber
Redemptionis, has survived almost solely in its Latin translation, as prof.
Wirszubski has shown 29 . This fact, along with other corroborating
evidence 30 , indicates that during the Renaissance people interested in

27 F. SECRET, UEnsis Vault de Paulus de Heredia in «Sefarad», (1966), 26, pp. 79-102,
254-271, especially p. 100.

28 See above note 19.

29 C. WIRSZUBSKI, Pico della Mirandola 's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism, Cambridge,
Harward University Press, 1988. List of sources, p. 286. On this important figure see also
C. WIRSZUBSKI, Flavius Mithridates. Sermo de Pasione Domini, Jerusalem, The Israel Academy
of Sciences and Humanities, 1963; S. SlMONSOHN, Some Well-known Jewish Converts During
the Renaissance, in «Revue des etudes juives», CXLVIII (1989), pp. 20-26. Mithridates, born
as a Jew in Grigenti, was, after his conversion but before his arrival to Northern Italy and
his Latin translation, and inhabitant of Messina.

3° I have found fragments from Abulafian texts, otherwise unknown, in the Giusti-
niani's Polyglota on the Psalms, printed in Genova, 1516, and I hope to analyse them else
where.

Kabbalah had at their disposal ecstatic material that is not available today.
Mithridates also translated material written by Abulafia's followers such as
the anonymous Sefer hd-Tzeruf or Liber Combinationis 31 . These four treatises
testify to the very profound impact Abulafia's Ktbbalah had in Italy in general.
In other words, of the hundreds of Kabbalistic books written by Jewish
medieval mystics, Abulafia's writings play a very dominant role in the corpus
translated by Mithridates. We may even affirm that the ecstatic Kabbalah,
almost totally ignored in Spain, was dominant in Italy. This predilection for
ecstatic Kabbalah, reflected in Mithridates' s translation, is also visible among
two of his Jewish contemporaries in Italy: Rabbi Yohanan Alemanno, one of
Pico della Mirandola's teachers in Jewish matters 32 , and in a work of Rabbi
Asher Lemlein of northern Italy. 33 . It seems, that at least from a quantitative
point of view, the ecstatic Kabbalah which is presented in Abulafia's writings,
remained very significant long after Abulafia's death in the writings of many
Jewish and Christian authors in the Peninsule.

But it is the qualitative aspect of the acquaintance of these thinkers with
Abulafia's thought that is most significant. Any superficial inspection of his
writings demonstrates that they are written in a very difficult jargon, replete
with obscure allusions and numerical equivalences, that is gematria. There
can be no doubt that these writings are among the most difficult in Jewish
thought in general, and in Kabbalistic literature in particular. An analysis of
the way Mithridates translated these writings, done by Wirszubski, shows
that the translator had an excellent understanding of this very complicated
type of Kabbalah. We may, therefore, assume, that Mithridates did not pick
up the relatively great amount of ecstatic writings, somewhere in Italy, solely
for the purpose of translation; he was well versed in this kind of mystical
literature, which constituted a very significant part of his Kabbalistic education.
Indeed, it is quite possible that Mithridates was acquainted with Abulafia's
writings not only as part of his attempt to sell Kabbalah to the Florentine
intellectuals, but also as part of his earlier studies in Sicily while he was still
a Jew. In any case, in one of his glossa he indicates that Abulafia performed
miracles in Palermo 34 . Since this view cannot be traced to any written source

31 C. WlRSZUBSKI, Pico della Mirandola's... cit., pp. 233-234.

32 See M. IdELj The Study Program of Rabbi Yohanan Alemanno in «Tarbitz», (1979) 48,
p. 310 [Hebrew].

33 See E. KUPFER, The Visions of the Rabbi Asher ben Rav Meir also Called Lemlin
Reutlingen, in «Qovetz 'Al Yad», (1976) 8, p. 412 [Hebrew].

34 This I learned from an oral communication of Wirszubski, which mentioned to me the
existence of a randnote in a Latin manuscript.

available, and it does not fit with Abulafia's contemptuous attitude toward
magic, I assume that this remark is part of an oral tradition.

Another question that should be addressed is why those ecstatic writings,
which were composed in the 13 th century, were relevant for the 15 th century
Christian intellectuals like Pico della Mirandola. The answer is a complex one,
since it involves the processes of intellectual opening which occurred in
Christian circles. Nonetheless, one of the main reasons for the profound interest
in Abulafia's particular type of Kabbalah, has to do with the fact that this
mystical literature is replete with hermeneutical discussions on the one hand
and philosophical terminology on the other. Abulafia's mystical interpretation
of the masterpiece of medieval Jewish philosophy, Maimonides* Guide of the
Perplexed, is quite in the vein of the mystical-philosophical synthesis
characteristic of the Florentine Renaissance. No less important are Abulafia's
strong exegetical proclivities, and his tendency to expose, time and again,
hermeneutical devices that are crucial in his Kabbalah: gematria, temurah and
noteriqon. Pico della Mirandola and his later followers were, to a great extent,
concerned with appropriating Jewish Kabbalistic exgesis in order to apply it
to the Holy Scriptures. Their goals were to extract, by the most sacrosanct
Jewish exegetical devices, Christian tenets from Jewish texts. Thus, Abulafia's
very flexible hermeneutical approach was welcomed by Pico and other Christian
Kabbalists. This flexibility was indeed already utilized by some of Abulafia's
contemporaries, as he himself testifies 35 .

In the 16th century, an interest in Abulafia's thought is evident in the
translations undertaken for Egidio da Viterbo, who studied an Italian
translation of Abulafia's important book Hayyei ha- 1 'O lam ha-Ba^ 6 , as well as
in Francesco Giorgio' s De harmonia mundi. Abulafia's influence on Italian
culture is evident even centuries after Christian Kabbalists ceased studying
his writings. I am referring to the last major contribution of Abulafia to be
found in a book of an Italian author — Umberto Eco's Foucau It's pendulum.
In this novel, Abulafia is not only mentioned explicitly, but his hermeneutical
theory is well represented throughout the entire novel 37 .

35 See M. IuEL, Language, Torah and Hermeneutics in Abraham Abulafia^ Albany, Suny
Press, 1989, ch. III.

36 See M. IDEL, Egidio da Viterbo and the Writings of Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, il (1981)
1-2, pp. 48-50 [Hebrew].

37 See now U. ECO, Forma locutionis, in Filosofia '91, a cura di G. VATTIMO, Bari, Laterza,
1992, pp. 176-183, where he proposes to see in Abraham Abulafia's view o£ language a possible
source of Dante's.

These are only a few of the striking examples of the impact made by
Abulafia's writings since the Renaissance. Much more can be done in order
to illuminate what I consider to be the most exciting contribution made by
a Jew, living for a considerable period of time in Sicily, to both the Jewish
and the general culture.