David B. Ruderman

Preachers of the Italian ghetto

Contributors: Robert Bonfil Elliott Horowitz Moshe Idel David B. Ruderman Marc Saperstein Joanna Weinberg

Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio's Appearance in Italy as Seen through the Eyes of an Italian Jew

THE literary evidence describing the revelation of the strange Christian prophet Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio in the communities of Italy and France at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century has been treated with considerable interest by a number of scholars. W. B. McDaniel was the first to publish the existing evidence on this unusual figure, together with the text of a hermetic plague tract attributed to him with an English translation. These sources portray a divinely inspired prophet, together with his wife, five children, and his disciples, making his way as a mendicant through Italy and France. Mercurio sees as his task the reprobation of all the sins of the Catholic Church and Christian peoples. He is empowered with the magical gift of the Supreme Being to prepare an antidote against the horrendous plague.1 He not only gains the loyalty of the uneducated masses who marvel at his wondrous abilities but is surrounded by a select retinue of outstanding scholars who are equally impressed by his talents and are unquestionably convinced of the authenticity of his prophecy. The latter include Carlo Sosenna, a lecturer at the University of Ferrara and author of a scholastic commentary to one of Mercurios

Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe.

This book is a sally into the scientific dimension of Jewish intellectual history in the early modern world, dealing with many key personalities and topics in a novel way. Included are thumbnail sketches of stoicism, iatrochemistry and pantheism, in addition to reviews of the major issues in the Jewish historiography of the period. It offers comprehensive treatment of the impact of the scientific revolution on Jewish culture in early modern Europe and should be of value not only to students of Jewish intellectual history of this period, but also more generally to anyone interested in European cultural history or the history of medicine.

Review of Ilana Zinguer, L'Hébreu au Temps de la Renaissance

Ilana Zinguer, who teaches French literature at the University of Haifa, has assembled an interesting selection of essays on various aspects of Hebraic studies in the Renaissance in this volume. Of the eleven contributors, most are French or specialize in French literature in the Renaissance while several are European scholars of Hebrew or Semitic studies. Despite the editors proximity to the centers of Jewish scholarship in Israel, however, the volume displays minimal awareness of and contact with that scholarship or scholarship stemming from North America. The result, as Ilana Zinguer readily acknowledges in her introduction, is less than a systematic treatment of the study of Hebrew in the Renaissance, neither on the part of Christians nor especially on the part of Jews. While is is certainly possible to focus on the the Christian study of Hebrew alone, the reader might wonder whether such a partial picture accurately portrays the complex motivations of Catholics and Protestants in studying Hebrew and their equally complex interactions and collaborations with a living Jewish community deeply engaged in the study and production of Hebrew books. Disciplines Cultural History | European History | History | History of Religion | Jewish Studies Comments At the time of this publication, Dr. Ruderman was affiliated with Yale University, but he is now a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. This review is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/history_papers/42

Review of Judah Messer Leon and Issac Rabinowitz, The Book of the Honeycomb's Flow (Sepher Nopheth Suphim)

Published as early as 1475-76, Judah Messer Leons Hebrew rhetorical handbook, The Book of the Honeycombs Flow, is clearly one of the most notable examples of the interaction between the Italian Renaissance and Jewish culture. Messer Leon, an accomplished physician, Aristotelian scholar, and rabbinic luminary, lived in a number of cities in north-central Italy during the second half of the fifteenth century. Having already composed Hebrew educational treatises on grammar and logic, he now introduced to his students the third part of the medieval trivium, the study of rhetoric, and placed it squarely at the center of his novel curriculum of Jewish studies. Disciplines European History | History | History of Religion | Intellectual History | Jewish Studies | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion | Rhetoric Comments At the time of this publication, Dr. Ruderman was affiliated with Yale University, but he is now a faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania. This review is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/history_papers/54 This content downloaded from 165.123.108.78 on Thu, 24 Aug 2017 19:04:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 148 The Sixteenth Century Journal interaction between the Italian Renaissance and Jewish culture. Messer Leon, an accomplished physician, Aristotelian scholar, and rabbinic luminary, lived in a number of cities in north-central Italy during the second half of the fifteenth century. Having already composed Hebrew educational treatises on grammar and logic, he now introduced to his Jewish students the third part of the medieval trivium, the study of rhetoric, and placed it squarely at the center of his novel curriculum of Jewish studies. Messer Leons rediscovery of rhetoric undoubtedly mirrored a similar emphasis of the new studia humanitatis of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Like the Italian humanists, Messer Leon was conversant with all of the major classical texts available in his day; and like them, he boldly projected through his compendium the ideal of a good and righteous man, gifted in the oratorical art, combining his knowledge, noble character and communicative skills to produce a new and effective leadership for his community. But Messer Leon did more than incorporate the Ciceronian ideal of wisdom and eloquence into Judaism. He also tried to portray his new educational image as an intrinsic part of Jewish tradition in the first place. The ideal of the civic orator, so he claimed, was synonomous with the traditional hero of the zaddik (the righteous man) and the hakham kolel (the homo universalis), an image which encapsulated, no doubt, that which Messer Leon conceived of himself. Just as he Judaized the civic orator, he similarly treated the entire field of rhetoric. For Messer Leon, the model of classical oratory initially was conceived not in Greece or Rome but in Israel itself. The entire Hebrew Bible, especially its prophetic orations, was the font and exemplar for the rhetorical art, so he claimed. It followed that Jews should appreciate and master a discipline that had been theirs in the first place. Messer Leons idea that rhetoric had first been perfected by the Hebrews offered his contemporaries a satisfying reassurance regarding the intrinsic worth of their own cultural legacy. By thus translating newly published rhetorical works into Hebrew, by illustrating them with Biblical examples, by offering a daring hypothesis of Jewish cultural superiority and by disseminating his work in the new form of print, Messer Leon left a noticeable mark on later Jewish writers and educators; he also bequeathed one of the earliest works of modern literary criticism of the Hebrew Bible. Besides the editio princeps, The Honeycombs Flow previously has been printed only once, by Adolf Jellinek in Vienna in 1863. Isaac Rabinowitzs new critical edition is far superior to that of Jellinek; Rabinowitz carefully compared the earliest extant manuscript of the work copied in 1474 with the first edition and with the principal Hebrew and Latin sources available to the author. His translation is highly readable, accurate, and even useful to the advanced Hebrew reader in comprehending Messer Leons occasionally difficult prose. The editors introduction is an important contribution in its own right-a most thorough and masterful treatment of Messer Leons life, literary sources, and intellectual contribution. [It is regrettable only that Robert Bonfils equally illuminating introduction to Messer Leons work, written as a forward to the new reprint of the first edition (Jerusalem, 1981), appeared too late to be considered in Rabinowitzs otherwise comprehensive study]. The bilingual edition published by Cornell University Press is attractively printed and elegantly produced. In every respect, this diligent effort to publish and translate this important Hebrew text is truly a labor of love. Both Hebraists and non-Hebraists alike are indebted to Professor Rabinowitz and his publisher for producing a splendid edition of this monument of Jewish and Italian Renaissance culture. David B. Ruderman Yale University This content downloaded from 165.123.108.78 on Thu, 24 Aug 2017 19:04:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

Review of Johann Reuchlin, On the Art of the Kabbalah

The idea of transplanting into English De arte cabalistica of Johannes Reuchlin is, no doubt, an exciting one. Reuchlins work, originally published in 1517, was one of the first Latin books on the Jewish kabbalah written by a Christian. Since the writing of De verbo mirifico some twenty years earlier, Reuchlin had made considerable progress in mastering kabbalistic sources and utlized his expanded knowledge to produce an informed and sympathetic elucidation of his subject. Disciplines History | History of Religion | Jewish Studies | Medieval History | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Comments At the time of this publication, Dr. Ruderman was affiliated with Yale University, but he is now a faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania. This review is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/history_papers/28 432 RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY not complete his analysis of the monistic trend in this volume, but he does allude to it on several occasions. What is missing in Pagels volume and what is needed to complete his analysis is a discussion of the difference between mans and Gods relationship to Nature and how that difference guides van Helmonts science. But what we have in this volume is a rich weave indeed-one that proves that even at the end of his illustrious career Pagel remained the master of motif in the history of Renaissance science and medicine. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, CHICAGO Thomas H.Jobe Johann Reuchlin. On the Art oft/ie Kabbalali. Tr. Martin and Sarah Goodman. Intro. G. Lloyd Jones. Janus series, Io.) New York: Abaris Books, I983. 378 pp.

Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe

20. The idea of translating into English De arte cabalistica ofJohannes Reuchlin is, no doubt, an exciting one. Reuchlins work, originally published in 1517, was one of the first Latin books on theJewish kabbalah written by a Christian. Since the writing of De verbo mirifico some twenty years earlier, Reuchlin had made considerable progress in mastering kabbalistic sources and utilized his expanded knowledge to produce an informed and sympathetic elucidation of his sub-