Over the next three years, the project will address the problem of how to present the redaction processes of kabbalistic manuscripts in a clear and understandable way: The development of the textual traditions concerning the treatise Keter Shem Tov (The Crown of the Good Name), attributed to Abraham ben Axelrod of Cologne (middle of the 13th century), came along with the rise of kabbalah in Southern France and Catalonia. Textual units, which set up the different trends in this treatise like speculations about the Hebrew alphabet or sefirotic symbolism, can be found in two separate and distinct works, in particular the so-called Divrei Menaḥem (“Words of Menaḥem”) and the introduction to Ezra of Gerona’s commentary on Song of Songs. In order to display the redactional processes of kabbalistic manuscripts in a clear and understandable way, it is necessary to create an innovative and more complex form of edition: a digital multi-layer synopsis. In addition, this project will examine the ongoing tradition of the esoteric meaning of the Hebrew letters as discussed in Keter Shem Tov. In doing so, a newly to be developed search-tool for kabbalistic paraphrases will be applied to such works which show an affinity to ideas of the school of Abraham Abulafia (1240–ca.1292).
DFG funds project on Keter Shem Tov until 2025
