The Great Italian Sabbatean Corpora: Motivation, Editing and Canonization

In a letter written in 1674/5 to the Sabbatian prophet Nathan of Gaza, R. Avraham Rovigo described his efforts to collect the teachings of the prophet from emissaries passing through his town of Modena. Rovigo seemed to have been driven by the urge to collect messianic knowledge throughout his life, as evidenced by his invitations to host various people who could enrich his understanding and knowledge about Sabbatai Sevi and his messianicship. R. Benjamin HaCohen Vitali arrived in Reggio in the year 1682. The two were friends since their days as students of R. Moses Zacuto. Much like Rovigo, Vitali wanted to learn the secrets of the messiah, and many passengers visiting Modena stopped by Reggio too. Along with short manuscripts authored during the early stages of the northern Italian circle, both Vitali and Rovigo produced a few collections each consisting of a few hundred pages.

The purpose of this lecture is to evaluate this phenomenon: What are the contents of these corpora and how were they acquired? How are they different from parallel writings preserved as independent manuscripts? Are there noticeable trends in editing or are they random collections? Finally, I would like to consider the motivation for writing these corpora: is it to canonize Sabbatian teachings, or are these efforts to document Sabbatian theology in its final phase in Italy?