Kabbalah · R' Nehunya ben HaKana (traditional attribution) · 13th c. · Spain · Codex · Sefer HaBahir · Pre-Zoharic Kabbalah · Foundational · Earliest Witness

ספר הבהיר — הדפוס המוקדם והשלם ביותר

Sefer HaBahir — earliest dated complete manuscript (Spain, 1298)

Spain, 1298 · Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich — Cod.hebr. 209

The earliest dated complete manuscript of Sefer HaBahir — "The Book of Illumination" — one of the two foundational pre-Zoharic kabbalistic texts. Composed/compiled in Provence around 1180 and traditionally attributed to the Tannaitic master R' Nehunya ben HaKana, the Bahir is the work that first introduced the doctrine of the Sefirot to medieval European Kabbalah. This Spanish copy, written on parchment in 1298 (104 leaves), is the textual foundation for Gershom Scholem's 1923 critical edition — the dissertation that launched the modern academic study of Kabbalah. Held at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich (Cod.hebr. 209). A downloadable PDF facsimile is also available.