Written at the height of the Italian Counter Reformation, Tofteh 'Arukh (Hell Arrayed) by the Mantuan rabbi and scholar Moses Zacuto (c. 1610-97), is a 925-verse poem in Hebrew graphically depicting the hereafter of sinners according to the teachings of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. Initially circulated within Zacuto's own devotional confraternity in Mantua, the poem was eventually printed in 1715 and was instantly transformed into an early modern 'cult book': explicated an annotated, later supplemented by a 'paradisiacal' sequel by a fellow poet, it went through several reprints and was even the object of public readings verging on theatrical performances. This translation, complete with introduction and notes, makes Tofteh 'Arukh accessible for the first time to English readers. It also opens a windown on the composite cultural backdrop that shaped the composition and immediate reception of a towering work of pre-modern Jewish literature and one of the greatest examples of baroque poetry in Hebrew.

*Finalist, Jordan Schnitzer Book Award (Jewish Literature & Linguistics)

Please see 'Notes' below for any suggested/official citation information added by the author(s) of this work. Otherwise, you can cite the HSS Commons instance of this publication as follows:

• Andreatta, M., (2025), "Hell Arrayed (Tofteh ‘arukh): A Seventeenth-Century Hebrew Poem on the Punishment of the Wicked in the Afterlife", HSSCommons: (DOI: )

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1. early modern
2. Hebrew
3. Italy
4. jewish studies
5. poetry

A hard-copy version of this book can be purchased through the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies.

Open-access publication has been made possible by a generous grant from the University of Rochester Humanities Center.