Month: September 2024

This post is based on research undertaken during Dr Ilana Wartenberg’s stay at the OCHJS as an Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages Visiting Fellow in Trinity Term 2024.

***

Ms. Mich. Add. 39 from the Bodleian Library is a fascinating testimony to intellectual and linguistic aspects of Jewish life in seventeenth-century northern Italy. Its core is a Hebrew/Judeo-Italian glossary, featuring many philosophical and scientific terms. This glossary contains both sections from earlier glossaries and lexemes directly derived from various literary works. The codex also contains Hebrew astronomical and astrological lexemes translated into the vernacular, a Latin translation (in the Latin alphabet) of the books of the Hebrew Bible, as well as various philosophical and other terms  together with comments and memoranda added by the owner of the codex.^[1]

In the age of print, codex Ms. Mich. Add. 39 stands out as an eloquent, handwritten document bearing witness to the diffusion of knowledge and its lexicon into seventeenth-century northern Italy across a variety of domains: philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, astrology, Kabbalah, the Jewish calendar, Halakha, ethics, grammar, and medicine. That being said, it also contains everyday, non-technical, terms. The compiler of the glossary clearly invested much thought in selecting and putting together approximately 1,000 Hebrew terms whose vernacular translations he believed were necessary to learn. The rich choice of textual sources by earlier and contemporary authors from different geographical and cultural settings not only reflects contemporary intellectual interests but also sheds light on the content of Jewish scholarly libraries during the Italian Renaissance.

A small and lightweight paper codex, Ms. Mich. Add. 39 was clearly intended as a pocket book, a notebook that one could carry around easily. It is approximately 13cm long and 10cm wide, and contains 23 folios. Despite its modest size and several empty folios, the codex’s extremely small—at times almost micrographic—handwriting made it possible for some of the densely written folios in the Hebrew/Judeo-Italian glossary to contain close to 100 terms. They are written in Hebrew script almost entirely, with some vernacular or Latin words written in the Latin alphabet—a phenomenon well-accounted for in the seventeenth century, when Jews were gradually shifting from the Hebrew to the Latin alphabet. 

Two very similar handwritings, both in a typical central-northern cursive Italian script common in the seventeenth century, are discernible in the codex. One of them belongs to the anonymous compiler of the glossary while the second belongs to an early owner who was one of the most important manuscript and book collectors in seventeenth-century Italy, Abraham Joseph Solomon Graziano. Originally from Pesaro, Graziano eventually became a rabbi in Modena and was known for his lenient rulings. He often referred to himself in the colophons as איש גר (‘a foreigner’), which is an abbreviation of his first names and surname but also alludes to his feeling that he was a stranger in Modena.^[2] The copy was marked as censored (מזוקק), but the identity of the censor is unknown. Furthermore, no censorship erasures are visible; this phenomenon is probably due to the absence of heretical contents rather than the (not unusual) sloppy work of the censor. On Folio 1r, we find two colophons: one by the compiler in the bottom half and another by Graziano above it. 

Graziano’s colophon reads:

בהא”נו

זה הוא ספר שפותר המלות של הפלוסופיא וההגיון, היינו מלות הזרות שבחכמות הללו, והוא כמו ע”ד אור לוסטרו והפתרון הנ”ל הוא בלשון לעז ואיטאליאנו, והוא שלי זעירא וכישא דירקא אברהם יוסף שלמה ב”כמה”ר מרדכי גראציאנו זצו”ל, אשר קניתי אותו מכל יורשי הזקן כמה”ר גרשון פורמיזיני בכ”ר מנחם ז”ל ביום א’ ג’ סיון, שנת תי”ט לפ”ק, פ’ נשוא, היא שנת אלף תרנט לחשבונם, פה מודונא, ו”לוי”א [=ולברכה ולשלום יהיה אמן] ]…[ החכם השלם החסיד כמו”הר”ר שמואל אבוהב נר”ו

איש גר אנכי בארץ

‘With the help of God, Amen, we shall do, and we shall succeed.

This is a book which translates the words of philosophy and logic, i.e., the uncommon [lit. unknown, foreign] words in these sciences, and it is in the way [i.e. format] of ʼOr-Lustro,^[3] and the translation mentioned above is in la‘az, i.e., italiano, and it belongs to me, the young and the insignificant^[4] Abraham Joseph Solomon, the son of the honourable righteous teacher Rabbi Mordecai Graziano of blessed and pious memory, which I purchased from all the heirs of the elder, the honourable teacher Rabbi Gerson Formiggini,^[5] the son of the honourable Rabbi Menachem, in blessed memory, on Sunday, 3 Sivan, in the Jewish year [5]419, Torah portion Naso, which is the year 1659 according to their calendar [lit. calculation, and the equivalent Gregorian date is 25 May 1659], here, Modena, may it be in blessing and in peace, Amen […] the grand sage, the pious, our honourable teacher, Rabbi Samuel Aboab,^[6] may God protect and redeem himʼ.

I am a foreign man in this country

The compiler’s colophon reads:

עירוך וסדור <קטן והוא> פי’ מילות זרות הנמצאות כתובות בחכמת הפילוסופיא, מהפלוסופים <ובעלי ההגיון> האלקיים^[7] היינו בעל עקידת יצחק, עולת שבת, עולת תמיד, ס’ העקרים, נוה שלום, דברי שלמה, אור עמים וספרי’ אחרים, מפלוסופי עמנו, נפשם בטוב תלין, אשר פירושן וביאורן ופתרונן, הוא מלשון הקודש, ללשון לעז, היינו איטאליאנו, ולקטתי הפי’ והפתרון הנ”ל, מהרבה מקומות וחבורים, היינו מביאור מלות זרות הרבה, מס’ מורה הנבוכים, שחבר החכם הכולל כמוהר”ר                 זצ”ל, והחבור קטן מכמו”הר’ שמואל אבואב נר”ו מויניציאה, ומס’ פי אריה מכמוהר”ר יהודא אריה ממודונא, היינו התוספת מהביאור שהוספנו אחרי כותבי ביאור הרבה מלות אחרות, וכתבנו קו אחד אחריהן, הכלל הזה יהיה בידיך <קורא אהוב וחביב ונחמד> בעירוך וסדור קטן הלן, כדי שתדע מוצאו ומובאו של הפי’ […] מלות זרות מהפלוסופיא וההגיון הנ”ל – והפי’ הזה הוא כגון דִִיצְייוׄנַא”רְיוׄ בלעז.  

‘A small glossary and arrangement––it is an explanation of uncommon words which are found written in [books pertaining to] the science of philosophy, from the divine philosophers and the logicians, i.e., the author of ‘Aqedat Iṣḥaq [The Binding of Isaac],^[8] ‘Olat Shabbat [Sacrifice of the Sabbath],^[9] ‘Olat Tamid [Daily Burnt Offering],^[10] Sefer ha-‘Iqqarim [Book of Principles],^[11] Neve Shalom [Abode of Peace],^[12] Divrey Shlomo [The Sayings of Solomon],^[13] ʼOr ‘Amim [The Light of Peoples]^[14] and other books, by philosophers of our people, their soul shall abide in prosperity [cf. Ps. 25:13], whose explanation, elucidation, and translation are from the Holy Tongue into la‘az, i.e., Italian. And I have gathered the above-mentioned explanation and translation from many places and compositions, i.e., from the elucidation of many uncommon words from the book Guide for the Perplexed, which the grand sage, our honourable teacher, Rabbi [Maimonides],^[15] may the memory of the pious be blessed, composed, and a small composition by our honourable teacher, Rabbi Samuel Aboab from Venice,^[16] may God protect and redeem him, and from the book Pi ʼAryeh [The Mouth of a Lion] by our honourable teacher, Rabbi Aryeh [Leon] of Modena,^[17] i.e., the addition to the explanation we have added after the composers of the explanation of many other words, and we wrote a hyphen [lit. one line] after them. This rule [or: order] will be given to you [lit. in your hands], beloved, lovely and pleasant reader, in this edition and small arrangement mentioned above so you will know the origin and the aim [cf. Ezek. 43:11] of the explanation of the uncommon words from [the fields of] philosophy and logic––and it is as a dictionary, dizionario [in Hebrew letters] in la‘azʼ.

In addition to the authors and texts cited in the colophons, many other authors and texts are mentioned throughout the glossary including: the famous trilingual encyclopaedic dictionary (in Hebrew, Latin, and Italian) Ṣemaḥ David (The Plant of David)—composed by the linguist, philosopher, and physician David de Pomis (ca. 1524 – ca. 1594)—which is primarily a biblical and rabbinic dictionary of impressive scope widely known among Jewish scholars as well as Christian Hebraists; a scientific-philosophical glossary (Ms. 479 in the Montefiore Library) compiled by Kabbalists Aharon Berachia of Modena (1549–1639) and his contemporary Samuel Shaʿar Aryeh (or Portaleone); numerous works related to Maimonides—apart from The Guide for the Perplexed itself, there are explicit references to Samuel Ibn Tibbon’s explanation of uncommon words usually included at the end of the Guide, as well as Maimonides’s Mishne Torah, Shmoneh Prakim (Eight Chapters) and Hilkhot Yesodey ha-Torah (The Laws which are the Foundations of the Torah); Sefer ha-Gdarim (The Book of Definitions, also known as Mikhlol Yofi, i.e., Perfection of Beauty) by the philosopher Menaḥem ben Abraham Bonafoux of Perpignan, which is a dictionary of philosophical, ethical, and medical terms, many of which are derived from the Guide; Dialoghi di Amore by Leone Ebreo (Medico), Judah Abravanel (ca. 1465–ca. 1525), a philosophical treatise on love which enjoyed a widespread reception in the Christian world; Fiore di virtù, an extremely popular, anonymous fourteenth-century book, translated into several languages and intended for the moral education of youth; as well as references to Ovid and Aristotle. Furthermore, Graziano added philosophical terms translated into the vernacular from a dictionary by the preacher Isaac Alatrino (or Alatrini) ben Abraham of Cingoli.^[18]

The three memoranda in Ms. Mich. Add. 39 emphasize the importance of the study of Hebrew and vernacular scientific, philosophical, and lexicographical sources for preachers (דרשנים, active in synagogues or in Jewish accademie) for the sake of increasing their intellectual Italian vocabulary, embellishing their sermons, impressing their more-or-less educated listeners, and thus enhancing their authority. The mentioned sources are Calepino,^[19] Mattioli,^[20] Nofet Ṣufim (The Book of the Honeycomb’s Flow),^[21] Divrey Shlomo (which, according to Graziano’s acquaintances, was cited from by Judah Aryeh [Leon] of Modena during his sermons in Venice), ‘Aqedat Iṣḥaq, Sefer ha-‘Iqqarim, Judah ha-Levi’s Sefer ha-Kuzari, and Maimonides’s Guide for the Perplexed.

It is important to remember that for Jews in Italy, the vernacular—Italian—was their native tongue used on a day-to-day basis. However, as we know all too well from our own mother tongue(s), being a native speaker of a language does not entail knowledge of its highly specialized terminology, which needs to be studied separately and often over a prolonged period. Unlike other Judeo-Italian sources, e.g., Siddurim (prayer books), which were written entirely in Judeo-Italian in order to help the readers understand the Hebrew sources, such philosophical glossaries tell a different story. My research of Ms. Mich. Add. 39 shows that the translation of philosophical terms into Judeo-Italian did not serve as a linguistic bridge to the Hebrew terms, but instead was intended to teach readers to express known Hebrew terms in the vernacular, help them integrate intellectually into the surrounding society and access its literature, and, as reflected from the memoranda, also help preachers embellish their language. The multiple references to Hebrew sources, such as Maimonides’s Guide among many others, together with the Hebrew colophons suggest that the immediate users of the glossary were well-versed in Hebrew philosophical literature. 

A future publication of the entire lexicon of this codex will be of great scholarly value, since it will reveal numerous scientific-philosophical vernacular terms and ideas taught among Jewish circles in seventeenth-century northern Italy. Given that most Hebrew and vernacular terms have been vocalized, the lexicon also possesses valuable phonological information, providing rare insight into contemporary pronunciation of these words, at least in theory.^[22] The Judeo-Italian elements of the lexicon also reflect emulations of written Italian just before the Hebrew script was replaced by the Latin script, for example the doubling the consonants and rendering l’ as ל’.

To give one lexical example, consider the Judeo-Italian evolution of the medieval Hebrew term for geometry, תשבורת(tishboret), as reflected in the glossary, a term which was coined in the twelfth century by Abraham bar Ḥayya via a calque from the Arabic تكسير (taksir). Both etymological roots originally denote ‘break’. The Hebrew term is usually pronounced tishboret but is vocalized as tashboret in Ms. Mich. Add. 39, reflecting its immediate source, Pi ʼAryeh. This is one of the terms Rabbi Aryeh Judah Leon Modena had silently ‘borrowed’ from a sixteenth-century glossary preserved in Ms. Or. Fol. 1618 at the State Library in Berlin in which we find the translations: פרטי די גיאומטריאה, דיספארטירי (‘divide’, ‘part related to [lit. of] geometry’). Modena did not include the translation ‘divide’, and one reads only parte di geometria in the printed edition of Pi ʼAryeh, but with the addition per l’algebra, which also found its way into Ms. Mich. Add. 39.^[23] If this is indeed Modena’s addition, then perhaps he deserves at least partial forgiveness for his inclusion of the term (along with many others) from the earlier glossary, because his updated vernacular translation mirrors the contemporary mathematical trend. The sixteenth century was a time in which algebra was flourishing in Italy owing to the efforts of mathematicians such as Tartaglia, Cardano, and Ferrari, and geometry played a vital role in the history of algebra (and vice versa), as is beautifully reflected in this translation.^[24]

Finally, I shall briefly mention that there is an abundance of scientific-philosophical Hebrew/Judeo-Italian glossaries produced in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It seems to me that this profusion is directly related to the conspicuous absence of entire scientific-philosophical treatises in Judeo-Italian, which is not accidental given that many educated Italian Jews were able to read original vernacular (and Latin) sources. Therefore, the need for this type of glossaries seems to have been solely for the study of specialized vernacular vocabulary through the Hebrew.  

---

^[1] For previous mentions of Ms. Mich. Add. 39, see Giuseppe, Sermoneta, Un glossario filosofico ebraico-italiano del XIII secolo (Rome: Edizioni dell’Ateneo, Roma, 1969), Alessandro, Guetta, An Ancient Psalm, a Modern Song: Italian Translations of Hebrew Literature in the Early Modern Period, (Boston: Brill, 2022), 116, and idem, ‘Traduzioni e lessici filosofici manoscritti nell’Italia ebraica, tra fine Cinquecento e inizio Seicento’, in Philosophical Translations in Late Antiquity and in the Middle Ages. In Memory of Mauro Zonta, eds. Irene Kajon, Luisa Valente, and Francesca Gorgoni (Rome: Aracana Edizioni (Genzano di Roma), 2022), 203, 207. An article of mine which presents the codex in great detail is due to appear in a book deriving from the Oxford Seminar in Advanced Jewish Studies on Books in Judeo Languages: Popular Reading and Scholarship. 

^[2] For details on Graziano’s life, oeuvre and collection, see S. Jona, ‘Abraham Joseph Salomon Graziani, poète hébreu du ΧVIIe siècle,’ Revue des études juives vol. 4–7 (1882): 113–126; Yael Okun (Mayer), The Library of the manuscripts of Abraham Joseph Graziano (ca. 1620 –1685)(Jerusalem: The Hebrew University, 1991) [M.A. thesis, in Hebrew].

^[3] ʼOr-Lustro (אור לוסטרו) by David ben Abraham Modena, a dictionary for young pupils, was published at the end of the sixteenth century. It was named after its first entry (אור, Heb. light) and its adjacent vernacular translation (לוסטרו, Ital. light), and it is also referred to as Dabber Tov (Speak Well). It is comprised of approximately 400 words, divided into semantic categories such as foods, body parts, animals, astrological signs, etc. Versions of this dictionary were also published in Judeo-Spanish and Judeo-Portuguese. 

^[4] Lit., ‘a bundle of vegetables’, cf. BT Bava Batra, 146b.

^[5] For further details on the purchase, see Okun (Mayer), The Library of the manuscripts of Abraham Joseph Graziano, 112. Formiggini is a prominent Jewish Italian family surname. Graziano wrote a wedding poem on the occasion of the marriage of another member of the Formiggini family, Joseph Eliezer, the son of Elijah Formiggini, to Clara, the daughter of Michael Ṣemaḥ from Verona, which was signed on 6 Kislev 5435 (4/5 December, 1674). This is part of the collection of the National Library of Israel: ARC. 4* 1537 1 12: https://www.nli.org.il/he/manuscripts/NNL_ARCHIVE_AL990034440710205171/NLI. See also Jona, ‘Abraham Joseph Salomon Graziani’, 119.

^[6] Samuel Aboab (1610–1694) was born in Hamburg to a family of Portuguese Marranos who returned to Judaism. He became one of the greatest rabbinic authorities in seventeenth-century Italy. Besides his rabbinic education in Venice, Aboab was also learned in the sciences and mastered several languages. 

^[7] A Hebrew rendition of the Renaissance term filosofo divino.

^[8] By the Sephardic rabbi, head of rabbinic academies and philosopher, Isaac ben Moses ‘Arama (ca. 1420–1494), who wrote philosophical sermons on the weekly portions which served as a model for many preachers in subsequent generations. 

^[9] Weekly Sabbath sermons written by Joel Ibn Shu‘eib, a Sephardic rabbi, a biblical commentator and an important preacher from the fifteenth century whose extant works reveal both an extensive rabbinic knowledge as well as a broad cultural and scientific education.

^[10] An exegetical work by the Sephardic preacher, rabbi and philosopher, Moses ben Jacob Albelda (1500–1583), active in Arta (Greece) and Valona (Albania).

^[11] Completed in 1425 by the Sephardic philosopher and rabbi, Joseph Albo, who discusses the fundamental principles of Judaism and Jewish philosophy. This work is one of the most important philosophical-theological books written between the 1391 persecutions and the 1492 expulsion.

^[12] A series of homilies on aggadic passages from tractate Berakhot intertwined with philosophical interpretations. It was composed by Abraham ben Isaac Shalom, a rabbi and philosopher from Catalunya, who died in 1492. He was also a translator from Latin into Hebrew and a defender of Maimonidean philosophy.

^[13] A book of sermons by Solomon ben Isaac ha-Levi (1532–1600), who was a rabbi and preacher in Salonika in the sixteenth century and well-versed in Greek and Arabic grammar, as well as in philosophy and the Kabbalah. 

^[14] A treatise on religious philosophy by ‘Ovadyah Sforno, the famous Italian rabbi, physician, philosopher, and biblical exegete (ca. 1475–1550).  

^[15] It is unclear why Maimonides’s name is omitted despite the fact that a space was left for it—perhaps there was an intention to add his name in colour.

^[16] According to my lexical research, the ‘short treatise’ seems to be Aboab’s work on ethical conduct, entitled Sefer ha-Zikhronot (Book of Memoranda).

^[17] Pi ʼAryeh was compiled by the famous and rather complex figure of Rabbi Aryeh Judah Leon Modena (1571–1648), the rabbi of Venice, a preacher, a vehement attacker of Kabbalah, and a gambler in his free time. In his dictionary, Modena also included an earlier sixteenth-century lexicon, found in Ms. 1618 at the State Library in Berlin, without any accreditation to its author.

^[18] Active in Modena, in 1621, he was allowed by the duke to teach Hebrew to Christians. It is important to note that authors of Hebrew/Judeo-Italian philosophical glossaries were prominent scholars who possessed the technical knowledge, linguistic sensitivity, and intellectual skills to effectively transfer notions from the Arabic-Hebrew philosophical world into the Latin-Christian realm.  

^[19] The reference is to the dictionary by Ambrogio Calepino (1435–1511), the famous Italian lexicographer, who composed a Latin dictionary in 1502 with translations into various languages. 

^[20] Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1500–1577) was an Italian physician and naturalist who translated Dioscorides’s Materia Medica from Latin into the vernacular (and was the first person to describe cat allergy!). The reference here is probably to the medical lexicon within Mattioli’s work. 

^[21] A highly praised book by Rabbi Messer Leon on rhetoric, discussing the possibility of Hebrew becoming a rhetorical language and aiming to sharpen the persuasive power of the speaker. Messer Leon, the fifteenth-century physician and philosopher, established a yeshiva academy in Ancona, where he combined the traditional study of Jewish texts with lectures adhering to the medieval secular curriculum.

^[22] Albeit with some inconsistencies, as in the case of תשבורת.

^[23]תַשְבּוֹרֶת, פַּארְטֵי דּי גִיִאיאוׄמֶיטְרִיאָה, פֵּיר לֵ’אלְגֶיבְּרָא  (fol. 14v), and on fol.14r, where we find another vernacular translation––a more basic one––in two forms of transliteration: תשבורת, יִיִאוׄמֶיטְרִיאָה <גִיִיִאיאוׄמֶיטְרִיאָה> . Note that in this case תשבורת is not vocalized, as was probably the case in the (unidentified) source used by the compiler.

^[24] In Salerno’s glossary we find the term תשבורת but its translation is ריטוליקא, a corruption of ריגוליקו or ריגוליקא, i.e., [the science of] measurement [lit., the ruler]; see Sermoneta, Glossario filosofico, 351. The terms rigolica and rigolico reflect the medieval vernacular perception of geometry.