תולדות החיבור 'כתר שם טוב' לר' שם טוב אבן גאון: פרק בהתקבלות קבלת רמב"ן במאות השלוש עשרה והארבע עשרה

Rabbi Shem Tov Ibn Gaon lived in Soria (North Castile) in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. His work ‘Keter Shem Tov’ was the first commentary on the ‘Secrets of Nahmanides’ (who died circa 1270), i.e., to the corpus of Nachmanides’ Kabbalistic commentaries on the Torah. Although Nahmanides forbade written transmission of his secrets, not only did Ibn Gaon publish the commentary in writing in ‘Keter Shem Tov’, but this composition was one of the most important vehicles for disseminating NahmanidesKabbalah in the following generations. This paper presents a comprehensive examination of manuscripts of ‘Keter Shem Tov’ and other related documents and shows why this genre appeared. It also examines the changes that took place in its form, developments in the way sit was copied and transmitted, and the historical context in which all this must be understood.The history of the early stages of this work is of great importance beyond biographicaland bibliographical issues, making a significant contribution to our understanding of the reception of Nahmanides’ Kabbalah in the decades after his death.