The Zohar among the Christians in the Renaissance

The article offers a survey of the first approaches by Christian authors to the Zohar, from the 14th century to the printings of Mantua and Cremona (1558-1560). The attitudes of Christian polemicists, Hebraists and Kabbalists toward the authentic Zohar and the many Zoharic forgeries in circulation were very divergent, but they ended up favouring the appearance in print of this large and prestigious book, in some cases to the point of suggesting a substitution of the Talmud, burnt at the stakes in 1553, with the Zohar, in the persuasion that the latter would shape a Judaism more likely to accept baptism. For several Christian Hebraists, though, the Zohar was not so fascinating as a tool for easing conversion but in itself, as an inspiring source for understanding their own tradition and faith. It is therefore far from surprising that so many Christians, in different roles, as printers, venture capitalists, censors and critics, converged in making the printing of the Zohar possible and in favouring its diffusion both for a Jewish and a Christian readership.