The Sefer Raziel ha-Malakh, the book of the angel Raziel

According to a Jewish legend, when Adam was driven out of the garden of Eden, the angel Raziel, whose name means «secret of God», gave him a book containing the mysteries of heaven and earth. The book is said to have passed to Enoch, to Noah, who learned from it how to build the ark, and finally to Solomon. On this tradition rests the title of one of the most singular works of Jewish literature: the Sefer Raziel ha-Malakh, the Book of the Angel Raziel.

An anthology of different ages

The text bearing this name is not a unified work. It is a compilation gathering material of very different origins and dates: speculation on creation, treatises on angelology, divine names, notions of astrology and cosmology, and passages linked to the mysticism of the heavenly palaces. Some sections take up late antique texts, including parts related to the Sefer ha-Razim; others belong to the Middle Ages.

A substantial part of the material is connected with the circles of the Ḥasidei Ashkenaz, the pietists of Germany active in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and in particular with writings attributed to Eleazar of Worms. In those circles there was intense reflection on the names of God, on angels and on the hidden meaning of letters. The Sefer Raziel gathers its echo together with older fragments.

The Amsterdam printing

For centuries the texts that flowed into the Sefer Raziel circulated in manuscripts of varying content. The form that prevailed is that of the first printed edition, published in Amsterdam in 1701. The edition fixed the text, with its illustrations of seals and diagrams, and ensured its spread throughout the Jewish world of central and eastern Europe.

Alongside the book a popular belief developed: keeping the Sefer Raziel at home was said to protect the dwelling from fire and other misfortunes. This tradition, recorded in various communities, turned the volume into an object to be kept as well as read. Many copies were printed precisely in response to this demand, and the book took on a function similar to that of a household amulet.

The Latin Liber Raziel

The Latin Liber Raziel must be distinguished from the Hebrew text. It was produced in the thirteenth century at the court of Alfonso X of Castile, the learned king who promoted many translations from Arabic and Hebrew. It is a different compilation, divided into several books devoted to stones, herbs, animals, stars and angelic names. It circulated in the milieu of learned European magic and was cited in several medieval treatises.

The similarity of the titles has often caused confusion, but the two works have separate histories. The Liber Raziel bears witness to the Christian reworking of Jewish and Arabic material in medieval Spain, while the Sefer Raziel ha-Malakh represents the accumulation, over the centuries, of traditions internal to Judaism. Both show how strong the idea of a book revealed by angels was in the Middle Ages.

The story of the Sefer Raziel is thus that of a legendary title which drew various texts around itself until it became a concrete book printed in 1701. For the historian it is a mine of traditions on creation, angels and divine names; for the communities that kept it, it was a sign of protection and of continuity with the wisdom of the patriarchs.