Ben Hacane Liber qui dicitur Pelia. Egidio da Viterbo's Kabbalistic Excerpts

The article surveys the complex history of Egidio da Viterbo's aquisition, translation, repeated reading and extraction of the Kabbalistic book bearing the title "Sefer ha-Peli'ah" (The Book of Wonder), which harbours a quite definite messianic agenda. On the basis of the study of all the relevant manuscripts, both in Hebrew and Latin, the interest of a Christian Kabbalist for a Jewish esoteric book is presented in detail on the background of Cardinal Egidio's political and eccelsiological ideas. The venomous anti-Christian passages, far from excaping Egidio's attention, are carefully commented and isolated: their aggressiveness does not counterweight, in Egidio's eyes, the vital importance he attributed to this text in uncovering the imminent end of the world and the instauration of a universal monarchy under Charles V, preparing the second coming of the Messiah.