The following statements help to define the attitude of thinkers of the late Middle Ages

and Renaissance towards Kabbalah:

“The most authentic interpretation of the Law (vera illius legis interpretatio) which was
disclosed to Moses in Divide Revelation is called “Kabbalah” (dicta est Cabala), what for Jews
means “reception” (receptio)” (Pico dela Mirandola, «Conclusiones»)

“Kabbalah is an ability to derive all Devine and human secrets from the Law of Moses in an
allegoric sense” (Ricius, «Introductoria theoremata cabalae», 1540)

“A literal meaning (of Scripture) submits to the conditions of time and space. Allegorical
and kabbalistic - remains for centuries, without limitations of time and space”. Ditto

"Kabbalah grants the upper principal an unspeakable name; from this name it derives, in a
form of emanation of the second degree, four principals, and each of them again branches into
twelve, and they, in turn, into 72, etc… up to endless subsequent divisions, as there is an endless
amount of species and sub-species… And, finally, it follows that all Divinity can be reduced to
one Original Source, as all the light that is shining forever and by itself and the reflections that are
refracted in the multitude of mirrors and the same amount of individual objects can be reduced to
one formal ideal principal - the Source of all these reflections". (Giordano Bruno Le opere
italiane, II, pg. 533”)

For philosophers and scientists of Modern Age, Kabbalah represented not only an
ancient and universal theology, but also a universal science with universal language:

“The entire physics, including all if its individual sciences: astronomy, astrology,
pyromantics, chiromantics, hydromantics, chaomantics, geomantics, alchemy… - all of them are
matrixes of the noble science of Kabbalistics” (Paracelsus, Essays, Part 1, XIV)

“Study Kabbalah (artem cabbalisticam); it will explain you everything! (Paracelsus

“Paragranum”)

“The Creation, or language - is an adequate subject of the science of Kabbalah… That is

why it’s becoming clear that its wisdom governs the rest of the sciences to a special way” (Lull,
Raymundi Lullii Opera)

“Sciences, such as theology, philosophy, and mathematics take their principals and roots
from it [Kabbalah]. That’s why all of these sciences submit to this wisdom; and their principals
and rules submit to its principals and rules; and for this reason their argumentation is insufficient
without it.” Ditto

“In general, there are two sciences:… one of them is called combinatorics (ars combinandi)
and it represents the extent of progress in science … The other speaks about the powers of the
Supreme Things above the Moon that are part of nature’s magic (magia naturalis). Both of them
are called “Kabbalah” by Jews. (Pico dela Mirandola, "Conclusiones")

“Kabbalistic approach to the Bible - this is hermeneutics that matches the self-dependency,
magical originality, universality, inclusiveness, and immensity of its content in an amazing way.
(J. W. Goethe “ Theory of Colors”, 1805-1810)
 “Adam was the first man who knew Kabbalah well. He knew all designations of things and
that’s why gave animals suitable names that themselves pointed to their nature”. (Kurt Sprengel,
"Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Arzneikunde", 1792-1803)

Leibniz:.

“An ancient proverb says that God created everything by weight, measure, and number…
that is why number represents a certain fundamental metaphysical figure, and arithmetic - certain
statistics of the Universe, and both of them can help to investigate the powers of things. Already
at the time of Pythagoras, human beings were convinced that numbers hide the deepest secrets.
Pythagoras, according to the reliable sources, brought this and many other beliefs to Greece from
the East. Because human beings did not have the right key to the Secret, the passion for
knowledge, ultimately, was reduced to all sorts of trivia and superstitions that brought forward
some sort of “vulgar Kabbalah”, that has little in common with the true Kabbalah, as well as
various fantasies under a false name of magic, and this is what fills the books. But at the same
time, human beings are still inclined to believe that we are yet to make wonderful discoveries,
using numbers, letters, and a new language that one calls adamistic, while Jacob Boehme –
natural."1.

"The masters of knowledge (following the Dutch example, those who study mathematics
can be called so) have mastered the discovery of the art of signs, with algebra being just part of it:
today, it can help to comprehend things that were hidden from the ancients, although this art
involves just usage of right signs. Using Kabbalah, the ancients accomplished many substantial
things, looked for secrets in the words, and used to actually discover them in a well-built
language that, as such, is suited not only for the mastering of knowledge, but also for all sciences,
arts, and deeds. It follows that it's possible to look for Kabbalah, or, mastering of signs, not only
in Hebrew words, but in any language, although not in its literal interpretation, but in clear reason
and application of words"2.

"My teacher Pythagoras, the father of philosophy, did not take his teaching from Greeks,
but, most likely, from Jews. For this reason, he has to be called a Kabbalist… And he was the first
who translated the word "Kabbalah" unknown to his contemporaries, to the Greek word
"philosophy". (Johann Reuchlin "De arte cabbalistica")

“Kabbalah does not leave us, making us lead our lives in the dust, but elevates our mind to
the peak of perception”. (Johann Reuchlin "De arte cabbalistica")

“The true esthetics is Kabbalah” (Schlegel, 1802)

1
«Vetus verbum est, Deum omnia pondere, mensura, numero fecisse. [...] Itaque numerus quasi figura metaphysica est, et
Arithmetica est quadam Statica Universi, qua rerum potentiae explorantur. Jam inde a Pythagora persuasi fuerunt homines,
maxima in numeris mysteria latere. Et Pythagoram credibile est, ut alia multa, ita hanc quoque opinionem ex Oriente attulisse
in Graeciam. Sed cum vera arcani clavis ignoraretur, lapsi sunt curiosiores in futilia et superstitiosa, unde nata est Cabbala
quaedam vulgaris, a vera longe remota, et ineptiae multiplices cujusdam falsi nominis Magiae, quibus pleni sunt libri. Interea
insita mansit hominibus facilitas credendi mirificia inveniri posse numeris, characteribus et lingua quadam nova, quam aliqui
Adamicam, Jacobus Bohemus die Natur-Sprache vocat». Leibniz, Die philosophischen Schriften, VII, стр. 184.
2
Ditto, pg. 521
 Bibliography

Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont, Adumbratio kabbalae christianae, Frankfurt a. M. 1684

Joseph Blau (The Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the Renaissance, London 1944)
François Secret (Les Kabbalistes Chrétiens de la Renaissance, Paris 1964)
Pico della Mirandola, Oratio de hominis dignitate
Scholem, Zur Geschichte der Anfänge der christlichen Kabbala
Moshe Idel, The Magical and Neoplatonic Interpretation of the Kabbalah in the Renaissance
Reuchlin, De arte cabalistica
Jacques Gaffarels Abdita divinae Cabalae mysteria (1625)
Pico della Mirandola, Conclusiones
Frances Yates, Aufklärung im Zeichen des Rosenkreuzes, Stuttgart 1975
Joseph Blau, The Christian Interpretation of the Cabala
Johannes Pistorius, Ars Cabalistica
Paulus Ricius, De coelesti agricultura
Giordano Bruno, Opera latine
Petrus Galatinus, De arcanis catholicae veritatis
Jacques Gaffarel, Profonds mystères de la Cabale Divine
F. M. van Helmont, Adumbratio Kabbalae christianae, Milano 1975
Jacob Hoogstraten, Destructio cabalae seu cabalistice perfidie ab J. Reuchlin capnione in
lucem edite, Köln 1519
Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola’s Encounter with Jewish Mysticism
Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, Kabbala denudate
Archangelus de Burgonovo, Cabalistarum selectoria obscurioraque dogmata a Iohanne
Pico, Venedig 1569
Grözinger, Reuchlin und die Kabbala
Andreas Kilcher, Ars memorativa und Ars cabalistica
Guillaume Postel, Abrahami patriarchae liber Jezirah, Paris 1552
Werner L. Grundersheimer, Erasmus, Humanism, and the Christian Cabala, in: Journal of
the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 26 (1963)
Heinrich Khunrath, Amphitheatrum Sapientiae aeternae solivs verae christiano-
kabalisticum, Hamburg 1595
Jacob Alting, Dissertatio de Kabbala scripturaria
Erycius Puteanus, De anagrammatismo, quae cabalae pars est, diatriba, Brüssel 1642
Johannes Valentinus, De triplici Ebraeorum cabbala: gematrija, notarjekon et themura
dissertatio, Wittenberg 1699
Cabalae scriptores, in: Caspar Schott, Technica curiosa sive mirabilia artis libris XII
comprehensa, Würzburg 1664
Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus
Will-Erich Peuckert, Gabalia. Ein Versuch zur Geschichte der magia naturalis im 16. bis
18. Jahrhundert, Berlin 1967
Schott, Technica curiosa
Bernhard Walde, Christliche Hebraisten Deutschlands am Ausgang des Mittelalters,
Münster 1916
W. Keith Percival, The Reception of Hebrew in the Sixteenth-Century Europe: The Impact
of the Cabbala, in: Historiographica Linguistica XI (1984),
Kilcher, Hebräische Sprachmetaphysik und lateinische Kabbalistik
William J. Bouswma, Postel and the Significance of Renaissance Cabbalism, in: Journal of
the History of Ideas 15 (1954)
 Francesco Giorgi, De harmonia mundi, Venedig 1525
Kilcher, Lexikographische Konstruktion der Kabbala
Agrippa von Nettesheim, De occulta philosophia, Köln 1533
Coudert, A Cambridge Platonist’s Kabbalist Nightmare
Coudert, A Cambridge Platonist’s Kabbalist Nightmare
Georg von Welling, Opus mago-cabbalisticum
Richard van Dülmen, Die Utopie einer christlichen Gesellschaft. Johann Valentin Andreae,
Stuttgart 1978
Johann Valentin Andreae, Christianopolis
Moshe Idel: Der Begriff der Überlieferung in der Kabbala des 13. Jahrhunderts, in:
Wissensbilder
Kilcher: Die Sprachtheorie der Kabbala als ästhetisches Paradigma. Die Konstruktion
einer ästhetischen Kabbala seit der Frühen Neuzeit, Stuttgart 1998
Moshe Idel: Kabbalah. New Perspectives, New Haven 1988
Kilcher: Hebräische Sprachmetaphysik und lateinische Kabbalistik. Knorr und das
metaphysische Problem der Übersetzung in der christlichen Kabbala, in: Morgen-Glantz.
Zeitschrift der Knorr von Rosenroth-Gesellschaft 8 (1998)
Johannes Reuchlin: On the Art of Kabbalah, Text and Translation by Sarah Goodman,
Lincoln 1993
François Secret : Le Zôhar chez les Kabbalistes Chrétiens de la Renaissance, Paris 1964
Kilcher: Kabbalistische Buchmetaphysik. Knorrs Bibliothek und die Bedeutung des Sohar.
in: Christliche Kabbala. Johannes Reuchlins Wirkung, hg. Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann,
Sigmaringen 2003.