PISTORIUS. Artes cabalisticae. Tomus I. Bâle, Sébastianum He - Lot 159

PISTORIUS. Artes cabalisticae. Tomus I. Bâle, Sébastianum Henricpetri, s.d [April 1587]. In-folio, red morocco, triple gilt fillet, ornate spine, interior roulette, gilt edges (18th-century binding). First edition of this important collection of all the great Kabbalistic texts of the Ancients. It was intended to include further volumes, but only the first appeared. It contains, above all, the three books of De arte cabalistica by Jean Reuchlin (pp. 609-730) and the Liber de verbo mirifico by the same author. (Caillet, n°8702: "Collection complète des Cabalistes"; Guaïta, n°1980.) "This very popular tome of Latin translations, Writers of the Cabalistic Arts, was surely, if there was one, the Norton Reader of Cabala of the Renaissance. [...] there is probably no more important or influential publication on Cabala in the Renaissance, especially from a Christian point of view, than his book" (Beitchman, Alchemy of the World, p. 134). A very fine copy in a quality binding made for a great 18th-century connoisseur. Mottling on a few leaves, including the title, which shows a trace of folding, freckling inherent to the quality of the paper.