Manuscript items with high value of betweenness centrality also tend to match to a large extent with those that have the highest value of degree centrality. On the graph, degree centrality stands for the overall number of links of a given node to other nodes. In the network of manuscripts constructed here, a high value of degree centrality stands for a multiple-text manuscript that can share multiple textual units with other manuscripts. Normally a larger codex, or at least the most abundant compilation, possesses a higher degree in the network—this is not obvious from the graph itself, but indeed after closer investigation, this proves to be the case. In our network, the ms items with the highest degree overlap in contents with each other most often. 

 

To further test the method and our initial results, it is helpful to reduce the network to those manuscript items that share more than one textual unit. In this way, the network is stripped of any fragmentary codices (that may skew the results) and of single-text manuscripts. The analysis may now zoom in on textual compilations and patterns of transmission of texts in clusters. After reduction of the network to 365 nodes connected via 11868 edges, the graph displays three strongly interconnected clusters much easier to interpret visually. We can still distinguish three major groupings: one related to 16th-century manuscripts with predominance of kabbalistic commentative literature (represented by MS Bayerische SBB 112), one gathering Lurianic texts of Italian provenance (Kanefe yonah and 'Asarah ma'amarot in particular), and one connected to the later 17th and 18th-century literature of meditative prayers, especially editions of the popular work Peri ets hayim. The first one typically appears in clusters with similar types of literature, that is, short commentative pieces, while the second and third are transmitted in more heterogeneously compiled manuscript items. The three major groupings are interconnected via manuscript items that in their majority represent the genre of anthologies of short excerpts, likutim, and so-called secrets. 

A smaller but still well-connected group of manuscripts comprises the genre of prayerbooks, combined with the Lurianic literature of meditative instructions, as well as Lurianic theoretical texts that appear in smaller compilations – (often two-)text manuscripts– with magical recipe books. The only major cluster that is affected by the network’s reduction is the one of Ets hayim, a large text that for many practical reasons was transmitted in single-text codices, even if often in fragments. On the whole then, the clustering does not display much variation to the previously obtained results – at least at the presented level of granularity, even in the network reduced by all single-text manuscripts and potentially any fragmentary codices. This may indicate that single-text manuscripts and especially the fragmentary items can be distributed among existing major clusters. Click here to explore further; you can reduce the visualisation chronologically at the bottom of the page and switch between social network and geographical visualisation on top of the page. To reset your settings, click on "Start over" button.

More detailed insights may be gained from structuring the network in such a way that the nodes represent textual units, related by edges that represent manuscript items. Here, we only show texts that contain at least two relationships. From a general look at the network, visualised again as clusters employing spring-embedded layout, we discern two major clusters: one that represents the kabbalistic literature of commentaries (mainly pre-Lurianic commentaries on ten sefirot and so-called kabbalistic “secrets”), and the other that represents the Lurianic texts, with a predominance of the genres of prayer manuals and prayerbooks. 

If we divide the network by periods, we notice that the former genre dominates between 1400 to 1599, and the latter genre is predominant from the mid-17th to 18th century. The first half of the 17th century therefore represents a transitional period between the two dominant genres and types of kabbalah. From this, we can already gather that the predominance of multiple-text manuscripts faded away in the second half of the 17th century, giving way to more items that contain single textual units. This tells us that patterns of shared textual transmission, which may be discerned in this kind of model analysis, pertains more to the earlier manuscript items within the dataset. 

It seems worthwhile to notice those textual units that repeatedly appear together with textual units from both dominant clusters of nodes. These represent texts that are connected by physical items despite the genetic or thematic divisions, as they appear to modern scholarship. These include, interestingly, texts from the early medieval school of Jewish mystics from Franco-German territories, which commonly appear together with early Lurianic texts in Ashkenazi codices. Further research may reveal the interconnectedness of these types of texts. Another interesting border-case is Sefer Raziel, a magical compilation that often appears together with commentaries on ten sefirot as well as other kabbalistic texts, including those on the efficacy of prayers. 

Analysing the network of kabbalistic manuscripts and texts affords new insights into the dominant and persisting assumptions with regard to the state of Jewish esoteric affairs in East and Central Europe in early modernity; at the same time, it also confirms some of them. For instance, the spread of Lurianic kabbalah in the 17th-century Ashkenaz has already been acknowledged, even if its growing levels of popularity were tested mostly with regard to the spread of print. Our analysis of manuscript networks points, however, to the major material and textual genres through which Lurianic texts were transmitted, beyond and before they gained traction in print. It indicates a potential significance of prayerbooks and related kabbalistic prayer ritual manuals for the spread of Lurianic practices—interestingly, also those contained in the same physical codices with magical textual units, as well as those that record recipes reflective of various types of practical knowledge.