The book of punctuation

The Book of Punctuation was written by Yosef Gikatilla (1248 - c. 1325) in his early philosophical-kabbalistic period. The exact date of origin of this short treatise, however, cannot be established with certainty. The text focuses first of all on Hebrew vowels, which are fundamental elements in Gikatilla's theory of creation. The author integrates the vowels in a complex system, assigning a specific task to each of them with respect to the cosmos and to creation, according to their respective grammatical functions. The book, which is inspired both by medieval cosmology and by the philosophy of Maimonides, reveals a unique concept of linguistic mysticism. This trilingual volume offers for the first time the critical edition of the Hebrew text of the work together with the Latin version made in 1486 by the convert Flavius Mithridates for the Humanist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and an English translation.