- Flavius Mithridates
Flavius Mithridates [Flavio Mitridate, Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada, Raimondo da Moncada, Raimondo Moncada, Raimundo Moncada, Raymond Moncada, Raimundus Mithridates Romanus, Flavius Wilhelmus Raimundus Mithridates, etc.] [According to the 1906 "
Jewish Encyclopedia " (article "Flavius (Raimundus) Mithridates") his Jewish name is not known; but many modern works give it as Samuel ben Nissim Abulfaraj.] was an Italian Jewish humanist scholar, who flourished at Rome in the second half of the fifteenth century. He is said to be fromSicily [http://www.mithridates.org/] , and was a Christian convert, known for preaching impressively if tendentiously. [ [http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/h-orient_to_rome/Orient_to_rome.html] : he is there called a ‘clever charlatan’.] He also had a knowledge of Arabic. [ [http://stolzius.ipsiad.com/dissertation/Chapter2.pdf This PDF] , p.83 places him at Rome 1477-1483, and as possibly the only scholar there with a working knowledge of Arabic. He worked on translating the "Qur'an " forFederico da Montefeltro , Duke ofUrbino , who died in 1482.]About 1486 he lived at
Fratta , nearFerrara , in the house ofGiovanni Pico della Mirandola , whom he instructed inAramaic . He is now best known as the translator for Pico della Mirandola [The "Jewish Encyclopedia" says forPope Sixtus IV ; thirty-eight fragments in Vatican MSS. Nos. 189-191.] of the "Biblioteca Cabbalistica", a large [ 3500 pages of manuscript. [http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~jewstud/mirandola.html] ] compilation ofcabbalistic literature. [E.g. [http://www.tms.edu/tmsj/tmsj8c.pdf this PDF] , p.49.] Modern scholarly reconsideration of this work have found it somewhat erratic and containing interpolations.He also translated into Latin
Maimonides ' epistle on resurrection,Levi ben Gershon 's commentary on the Song of Solomon, and Judah's "Ma'amar ha-Hawayah ha-Heḳḳeshiyyah," or "Sermo de Generatione Syllogismorum Simplicium et Compositorum in Omni Figura." [He seems not to have known that the last-named work was really written in Latin byAegidius Romanus , and that Judah was only the translator of it.] Flavius was the author of "De Tropis Hebraicis," an original work in Latin on Hebrew accents, which was praised bySebastian Münster andImbonatus .Some scholars have thought, but without sufficient reason, that Flavius is identical with the cabalist
Johanan Aleman ben Isaac [1435-1504, i.e. Yohanan Aliman, Yohanan Isaac ben Allemanno.] a contemporary and associate of Pico della Mirandola, who taught him from the late1480s .References
*
Dukas , Recherches, pp. 46, 69, 72;
*Joseph Perles , in R. E. J. xii. 249;
*idem, Beiträge, pp. 178-196;
*Brüll 's Jahrb. iii. 196;
*Siegmund Salfeld , "Das Hohelied", p. 117;
*Moritz Steinschneider , in Monatsschrift, 1898, p. 262;
*idem, Hebr. Uebers. p. 492;
*Hermann Vogelstein andPaul Rieger , "Geschichte der Juden in Rom", ii. 75.Notes
*Jewish Encyclopedia
Bibliography
* Giulio Busi, Simonetta M. Bondoni und Saverio Campanini (edd.), "The Great Parchment: Flavius Mithridates’ Latin Translation, the Hebrew Text, and an English Version", "The Kabbalistic Library of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola" - 1, Nino Aragno Editore, Torino 2004.
* Saverio Campanini (ed.), "The Book of Bahir. Flavius Mithridates' Latin Translation, the Hebrew Text, and an English Version", with a Foreword by G. Busi, "The Kabbalistic Library of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola" - 2, Nino Aragno Editore, Torino 2005.
* Saverio Campanini, "Talmud, Philosophy, Kabbalah: A Passage from Pico della Mirandola’s Apologia and its Source", in M. Perani (ed.), T"he Words of a Wise Man’s Mouth are Gracious". Festschrift for Günter Stemberger on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, W. De Gruyter Verlag, Berlin – New York 2005, pp. 429-447.
* Mauro Perani (ed.), "Gugliemo Raimondo Moncada alias Flavio Mitridate. Un ebreo converso siciliano". Atti del Convegno Internazionale Caltabellotta (Agrigento) 23-24 ottobre 2004, Officina di Studi Medievali, Palermo 2008.
* Michela Andreatta - Saverio Campanini, "Bibliographia Mithridatica", in Mauro Perani (ed.), "Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada alias Flavio Mitridate", Palermo 2008, pp. 241-257.
External links
* [http://www.pico-kabbalah.eu]
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