
A Valley of Vision
The Heavenly Journey of Abraham Ben Hananiah Yagel
David B. Ruderman(Editor)
University of Pennsylvania Press
Published on 29. March 1990
Book
Hardback
384 pages
978-0-8122-8168-2 (ISBN)
Description
Abraham ben Hananiah Yagel 1553-c.1624) composed his Hebrew work Gei Hizzayon (A Valley of Vision) in Italy at the end of the sixteenth century. This striking text, so different from the other writings of the prolific physician, natural philosopher, and kabbalist, is first an autobiographical account of the vicissitudes of the author's years as a Jewish loan -banker. It is also a description of a heavenly journey he is taken on by the soul of his recently deceased father, who visits his son while he is imprisoned in Mantua for debt. Finally, it is a series of theological and moral discussions based on the insights of Judaism, particularly the kabbalah as understood by Yagel and his Italian contemporaries.
A Valley of Vision is unique in Hebrew literature in its integration of traditional Jewish materials with contemporary literary and iconographic innovations. It is also a fascinating window into the social and cultural world of Italian Jewry at the end of the sixteenth century and its effect on the entire late Renaissance period.
David B. Ruderman's is the first translation of this important work into any Western language. The book will be of great interest to both the specialist and the general reader of Jewish and late Renaissance history, thought, and literature.
A Valley of Vision is unique in Hebrew literature in its integration of traditional Jewish materials with contemporary literary and iconographic innovations. It is also a fascinating window into the social and cultural world of Italian Jewry at the end of the sixteenth century and its effect on the entire late Renaissance period.
David B. Ruderman's is the first translation of this important work into any Western language. The book will be of great interest to both the specialist and the general reader of Jewish and late Renaissance history, thought, and literature.
More details
Series
Edition
Reprint 2016 edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Pennsylvania
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paper over boards
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
719 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8122-8168-2 (9780812281682)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
11/2016
1st Edition
University of Pennsylvania Press
€243.99
Available for download
Persons
David B. Ruderman is Joseph Meyerhoff Professor of Modern Jewish History at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his books are Jewish Enlightenment in an English Key and Jewish Discovery and Scientific Thought in Early Modern Europe.