Messianic Messages: Paratexts, Secondary Elites, and the Coronation of Sabbatai Tsevi

The study of Sabbatianism—the messianic movement centered around Sabbatai Tsevi (1626–76), which persisted in various guises for centuries—has been a driving force in Jewish Studies over the last century. Using previously unpublished sources, including printed paratexts long hiding in plain sight, this paper offers a new narrative for the emergence of Sabbatian belief and sheds light on Jewish messianism, the intricacies of Hebrew printing, and the nature of personal lived religion. The paper ties together Kabbalah, printing, bibliography, art history, and reception history, presenting a story that begins with an engraving of Sabbatai as a man riding a lion, winds through the meaning of printed dating mechanisms, and ends with an exploration of Italian kabbalists and their activities. At the core of it all we find one man, Venturin ben David, a printer and member of Jewish secondary elites, who responded to news of the messiah’s arrival so enthusiastically that he maintained his belief in Sabbatai long after the latter’s stunning conversion to Islam in 1666. The books utilized herein, with the earliest visual and printed references to Sabbatai Tsevi, demonstrate autobiographical reaction in real time and thereby appear as vivid manifestations of hope.