Sepher Yetzirah (Book of Formation) - Westcott

I have also examined the following copies of the Sepher Yetzirah The Book of Formation in Hebrew:

1. A version by Saadiah, Abraham ben David, and three others; Mantua, 1562, quarto.
2. A version with the commentary of Rabbi Abraham ben Dior; Amsterdam, 1642, quarto.
3. A version with a preface by Moses ben Jacob Chagiz; Amsterdam, 1713, sixteen-mo.
4. A version; Constantinople, 1719, octavo.
5. A version; Zolkiew, 1745, quarto.
6. A version by Moses ben Jacob; Zozec, 1779, quarto.
7. A version; Grodno, 1806, quarto.
8. A version; Dyhernfurth, 1812, octavo.
9. A version; Salonica, 1831, octavo.
10. A manuscript copy dated 1719, held in the British Museum.

I add here the full titles of the three Latin versions; they are all to be found in the British Museum Library.

“The Book of Formation, or the Creation of the World, by the Patriarch Abraham. It was revealed to the Fathers who preceded the time of Abraham, but was explained by Abraham himself to Isaac, and preserved for posterity by the hands of the prophets. It was held by the 72 disciples of Moses to be in the second place of divine truth—that is, in the realm of reason, which is secondary to divine authority.” original: “Abrahami Patriarchæ Liber Jezirah sive Formationis Mundi...” Paris, 1552. Guillaume Postel.

“That is, the Book of Formation, which is attributed to the Patriarch Abraham, together with the commentary of Rabbi Abraham ben David on the 32 Paths of Wisdom, with which the Book of Formation begins. Translated and illustrated with notes by Johann Stephan Rittangel, Extraordinary Professor of Oriental Languages at the Electoral Academy of Königsberg.” original: “Id est Liber Jezirah, qui Abrahamo Patriarchæ adscribitur...” Amsterdam, 1642.

In the first volume of The Cabalistic Art: that is, a collection of writers on the hidden theology and philosophy original: “Artis Cabalisticæ hoc est reconditæ theologiæ et philosophiæ scriptorum” (Basel, 1587), is found: “The Cabalistic Book of Creation, in Hebrew Sepher Jezira; authored by Abraham. Handed down orally to successive sons. From then on, as the fortunes of Israel declined, lest it should be lost, it was committed to writing by the wise men of Jerusalem in secret and...”