7799Cabbala A body of Jewish mystical literature, the name of
which derives from the Hebrew kabbalah, with the literal
meaning “that which is received by tradition.” Originally
an esoteric doctrine, it spread throughout Europe with the
expulsion (1492) of the JEWSfrom Spain.
The Cabbala is based on a number of texts, the two
most important being the Sefer yetzirah (Book of crea-
tion; third–sixth centuries CE) and the Zohar (Splen-
dor; c. 1300) of Moses de Leon of Granada. Though ig-
nored by Marsilio FICINO, the Cabbala was introduced to
Renaissance Italy by PICO DELLA MIRANDOLAin his 72 Con-
clusiones cabalisticae (1486). Cabbalistic ideas were fur-
ther expounded by Johann REUCHLINin his De verbo
mirifico (1494) and the De arte cabalistica (1517), the
first full-length work on the subject by a non-Jew. There-
after the ideas became part of the general Neoplatonic in-
tellectual background of the more scholarly Renaissance
MAGUS.
At the heart of the system are the 10 sephiroth, the di-
vine attributes extending from kether to malkuth and re-
lating God to the universe. Each of these is linked with
one of the 10 spheres of the heavens and, in an ever-
widening system of correspondences, with all other as-
pects of nature. The divine names, suitably expressed in
the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, yielded power over
their appropriate sphere of influence. At its crudest the
Cabbala involved no more than the attempt to gain power
over angels and demons through possession of their
names, and was the camouflage adopted by the charlatan
to impose on the gullible. To the Neoplatonist, however, it
offered the means to apprehend a transcendent God and
to understand the harmonies which so clearly existed in
nature. As such, it ceased to exercise any serious influence
in Western thought after the rise of the mechanistic phi-
losophy in the 17th century.
See also: MAGIC
Further reading: Léo Bronstein, Kabbalah and Art
(Hanover, N.H.: Brandeis University Press, 1980; 2nd ed.
New Brunswick, N.J. and London: Transaction, 1997).Cabezón, Antonio de (1510–1566) Spanish composer
Cabezón was born in Castrillo de Matajudios, near Bur-
gos, and he was blind from a young age. He studied organ
music at Palencia with Garcia de Breza before becoming
(1526) organist and clavichordist to the empress Isabella
of Portugal, wife of Charles V. After her death (1539) he
worked for her children, mainly Prince Philip who later
became King PHILIP IIand who was Cabezón’s sole em-
ployer after 1548. At the royal court he met the composer
Thomás de Santa Maria and the vihuelist Luis de Narváez.
He traveled with the choir of the royal chapel to Italy, the
Netherlands, and Germany (1548–51) and to England and
the Netherlands (1554–56), where he influenced the Eng-
lish virginal composers as well as the organ music of the
Low Countries, including, later, the work of Jan Pietersz.
SWEELINCK.
Some of Cabezón’s extant music was published in
Luis Venegas de Henestrosa’s Libro de cifira nueva (Book of
new tablature; 1557), which includes works by other
composers. Far more of his compositions were published
posthumously by his son Hernando in Obras de nuisica-
para tecla, arpa y vihuela de Antonio de Cabezón (1578),
which includes instructions on keyboard playing.
Cabezón was one of the first composers to write instru-
mental music specifically for the keyboard, although his
compositions can also be played on the vihuela and the