The "Shem ha-Meforash" in Agostino Giustiniani's "Precatio Pietatis Plena" (1513)

The article analyzes the text of a Latin prayer published in Agostino Giustiniani’s Precatio pietatis plena ad deum omnipotentem composita ex duobus et septuaginta nominibus, which appeared in print in Venice in 1513. It is an apparently innocent list of verses taken from the Psalms, but each of these verses contain a triplet of letters forming the Shem Ha-Meforash, a powerful divine Name, constructed from the three verses of Ex 14,19-21 each comprising 72 letters. By this name, it was said, the miracle of the Red Sea was performed. The history of this prayer, going back to manuscript and printed editions of Jewish prayer-books, is traced together with a sketch of its later diffusion, in several variants, among the Christians. An evaluation of how a Jewish prayer which could be suspected of magic superstition, could be praised as most pious and propagated among Christian readers by a Dominican friar is offered.