Sefer Yetzirah. Mantua, Yakob ha-Kohen de Gazuolo, 1562

The earliest extant Hebrew text of systematic, speculative thought on cosmology and cosmogony (composed 1st c. CE according to Yehuda Liebes, see his Torath ha-Yetzirah shel Sefer Yetzirah, Tel Aviv 2001) was first printed in Mantua in 1562. But Sefer Yetzirah was already known to the Christian Kabbalists Pico and Reuchlin in a translation (1480) of R. Isaac. There are two versions of the Sefer Yetzirah; even the longest one not exceeding 1,600 words. God created the world by means of 32 secret paths of wisdom, made up of the ten Sefiroth and the 22 elemental letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The concept of the Sefiroth made its first appearance in this work.

Early ownership marks in Hebrew on the final page; some marginal annotations in Hebrew.