GAFFAREL, JACQUES: - Curiositez inouyes, sur la sculpture talismanique des Persans. Horoscope des Patriarches, et lecture des estoilles. No place 1637.

. Small 8vo. Pp. (xvi), 315. With two folding celestial plates with Hebrew characters (the first plate torn with no loss and the second with tears repaired at the back with some loss). Contemporary limp vellum, worn and stained. A few leaves with small marginal hole. Some staining to the text. A scientific treatise on ancient talismanic magic and Jewish astrology (Kabbalah). Gaffarel (1601-81), French theologian and librarian to Cardinal Richelieu. Around 1623, Gaffarel travelled to Italy where he acquired a.o. the Kabbalah manuscripts of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. This work consists of four parts, the first part defends "the Oriental men" from Christian charges of superstition, the second is about the use of talismans or amulets by the Persians, the third part focuses on ancient Hebrew astrology and the last part deals with reading messages in the stars. Gaffarel then describes the "heavenly writing" or arrangement of stars into Hebrew characters, illustrated on the two plates. First published in 1629, reprinted many times and translated into English in 1650. This work was criticised and condemned by the Faculty of Theology in Paris but defended by Gassendi and studied by Descartes. Brunet ii, 1433. Caillet ii, 4293. Thorndike vii, pp. 304-306.

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