ha-Zohar :ʻal ha-Torah / me-ish 'elohim kadosh ha-tana ... Shim'on ben Yoḥai...

All notes by Chaim Meiselman: notes This is the book of the Zohar printed in Sulzbach (Bavaria) in 1684 by Moses Bloch. It is known more superficially as the fourth printing of the Zohar, the princeps being Mantua 1557-8 by the House of Tommaso Ruffinelli, subsequently Cremona 1558 by Vicenzo Conti, Lublin 1623-4 by Kalonymous Jaffe, and thereafter the Bloch edition. Other literary elements of the Zohar canon were printed elsewhere during this time. Many elements novel to this specific volume have been accounted for by Boaz Huss, see Huss, B. (2018). The Text and Context of the 1684 Zohar Sulzbach Edition in Tradition, Heterodoxy and Religious Culture: Judaism and Christianity in the Early Modern Period, eds. C. Goodblat & H. Kreisel (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press, 2007), pp. 117-138. Included here are quotes from Moses Cordovero (Pardes Rimonim), Derekh Emet of Joseph Hamiz and Moses Zacuto, and alongside is the commentary of Yissakhar-Ber of Kremenets called Imrei Binah (published previously without any other text at Prague in 1611. Further printed elements include Petaḥ ’Enayyim by Eliezer b. Menaḥem-Mannes, likewise printed independently once before at Krakow 1674; Isaac de Lattes’ permission for the Zohar to be printed, originally printed with the Mantua edition; introduction by the printer; another introduction in Latin likely written by Christian Knorr von Rosenroth. - Being that these bibliographic novelties were introduced by an old permissory note by de Lattes, it is likely that the publishers used the Mantua edition at some point during the print. It has been previously noted that the time of this printing coincides with the release of the last element of the multi-volume Kabbala Denudata (i.e. Kabbalah Uncovered) by Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1636-1689), who is believed to have orchestrated the publishing and printing. For more on Von Rosenroth’s interest in Kabbalistic study, see Gershom Scholem, Bibliographia Kabbalistica etc., Leipzig: Druglin (1927), pp. 86–88. Dedicated to Christian Augustus, Count Palatine of Sulzbach (Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Bavaria; 1622-1708). Other bibliographic novelties introduced by this edition: First proper Zohar printed in Germany, first Hebrew book printed in Sulzbach, and first volume printed by Blokh, who was an important figure in the history of Ashkenazic Hebrew Print. The font used in this printing of the Zohar is a unique block with a similar look to an older scribal block-type. "Liber Sohar sive Collectanea de dictis & gestis R. Schimeon Filii Jochai, doctoris Tannæi, f. Mischnaici, & discipulorum Ejus, aliorumque coætanorum, qui ante & post excidium Hierosolymitanum in Palæstina floruerunt. : Secundum ordinem sectionum Pentateuchi in commentarii mystici & Cabbalistici formam digesta ... Opus quod Corpus Cabbalae dici posset: ..." University of Maryland’s copy missing title pages. references Steinschneider, M. Cat. Libr. Hebr. Bodl., no. 3480 Strauss, Berthold, Cat. of the B. Strauss Library, no. 1460-1462 Zedner, J., Cat. of the Hebrew Books in the British Library, p. 705