Judah Messer Leon
Judah ben Jehiel, (Hebrew: יהודה בן יחיאל, c. 1420 to 1425 – c. 1498), more usually called Judah Messer Leon (Hebrew: יהודה מסר לאון), was an Italian rabbi, teacher, physician, and philosopher. Through his works, assimilating and embodying the intellectual approach of the best Italian universities of the time, yet setting it inside the intellectual culture of Jewish tradition, he is seen as a quintessential example of a hakham kolel ("comprehensive scholar"), a scholar who excelled in both secular and rabbinic studies, the Hebrew equivalent of a Renaissance man. This was the ideal he tried to instil in his students. One of his students was Yohanan Alemanno.
Life
Judah is thought to have been born in around 1420 at Montecchio Maggiore, now in the Italian province of Vicenza. The son of a doctor, he was ordained as a rabbi and received a diploma in medicine while in his early 20s. According to tradition the honorific title Messer (a title of knighthood) was bestowed on him by the Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, during the emperor's first visit to Italy in 1452, perhaps for work for him as a physician. The name "Leon" is the usual equivalent of "Judah", through the traditional identification of the lion of Judah.
Messer Leon settled as a rabbi at Ancona at about this time, and established a yeshiva, or academy, where he combined the traditional study of the Jewish texts with lectures on the non-Jewish program of the medieval secular curriculum. This academy was to follow him wherever he stayed around Italy over the next four decades. He was also licensed to practice medicine, and his successful activities in this field brought him much acclaim. Between 1456 and 1472 he lived in Padua and Bologna, where he may have studied further at the famous Universities. He is said to have been awarded the title Doctor in Padua in 1469. After a short stay in Venice, where his son David was born, in 1473 he became rabbi in Mantua. There he fell into a conflict with his colleague Joseph Colon Trabotto, in consequence of which both were expelled from the city in 1475.
In 1480 he settled in Naples, then under the accommodating rule of Ferdinand I. He remained there, with his academy, for virtually the whole of the rest of his life, until he and his son David were forced to flee in 1495, the year after the death of King Ferdinand, to escape the violent pogroms that ensued following the capture of the city by the French under Charles VIII. An ordination document issued by David in September 1499 refers to his father as by then already dead. Rabinowitz conjectures that Messer Leon had been with David, and died at Monastir (present-day Bitola in the Republic of Macedonia) in that year. However, Tirosh-Rothschild (p. 253, n. 104) believes he was still in Naples, and died there in 1497.
Works
Messer Leon wrote extensively, including commentaries on the Organon, the Nicomachean Ethics, and the Physics of Aristotle, and their analysis by Averroes, in which he followed the Scholastic style and methods, composing for his students "summaries (sefeqot) on the Scholastic quaestiones (i.e. points of apparent textual contradiction) debated by the Italian academic community",[1] drawing closely on the style and substance of expositions then current at Padua.
These commentaries were written primarily for his close followers. More generally circulated were three textbooks addressing the three foundation subjects of a Renaissance secular education, the trivium ("three ways") of grammar, logic and rhetoric, seen as the essential prerequisite disciplines necessary for higher studies in the humanities, philosophy, and medicine. These subjects he covered with a Hebrew grammar under the title Libnat ha-Sappir (The Pavement of Sapphire) in 1454, a textbook on logic entitled Miklal Yofi (Perfection of Beauty) in 1455, and, most celebrated, a textbook of rhetoric called Nofet Zufim (The Honeycomb's Flow), which was printed by Abraham Conat of Mantua in 1475-6, the only work by a living author printed in Hebrew in the fifteenth century.
Like non-Jewish contemporary texts, the Nofet Zufim drew heavily on the classical theoretical writings of Cicero and Quintilian. But unlike its contemporaries, it took as its exemplars for such theories not the foremost orators of Greek and Roman antiquity, but Moses and the leading figures of the Hebrew Bible. In the opinion of Deutsch,[2] the object of the work was both apologetic and propagandic. The author desired to demonstrate to the non-Jewish world that the Jews were not devoid of the literary sense, and he wished to prove to his co-religionists that Judaism is not hostile to secular studies, which contribute to a better appreciation of Jewish literature. Although in later centuries the book was largely forgotten, and was not reprinted until the nineteenth century, in the intellectual circle of its own time it was highly appreciated. Azariah dei Rossi quoted Leon as a witness to the value of secular studies,[3] and Joseph Solomon Delmedigo recommended the book to the Karaite Zeraḥ bar Natan of Trakai.[4] In recent times interest has been renewed, with a new scholarly edition with translation and commentary published in 1983.
Descendants
Following on from his father, Messer Leon's son also became a noted rabbi, physician and author, and defender of the value of the secular disciplines of the Renaissance to Jewish philosophy culture and study. David became best known for his Ein ha-Kore (Eye of the Reader), a sympathetic commentary on Maimonides' The Guide for the Perplexed; and posthumously for his Tehillah le-Dawid (Glory to David), an encyclopedic summary of Jewish philosophy, edited by his grandson Aaron ben Judah (Constantinople, 1577).
References
- Judah Messer Leon, The Book of the Honeycomb's Flow, Sepher Nopheth Suphim. Edited and Translated by Isaac Rabinowitz. Cornell: University Press, 1983 ISBN 0-8014-0870-9
- Judah Messer Leon, Nofet Zufim, On Hebrew Rhetoric, facsimile edition of the 1475 printing, with an introduction (in Hebrew) by Robert Bonfil. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1981.
- Hava Tirosh-Rothschild, Between Worlds: The Life and Thought of Rabbi David ben Judah Messer Leon, pp. 25–33. State University of New York Press, 1991. ISBN 0-7914-0447-1
- Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman (eds.), History of Jewish Philosophy, pp. 514–515. London: Routledge, 1997. ISBN 0-415-08064-9
- Colette Sirat, A History of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages, pp. 403–4. Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-521-39727-8
- Mauro Zonta, Hebrew Scholasticism in the Fifteenth Century: A History And Source Book, ch. 4, Springer, 2006. ISBN 1-4020-3715-5.
- Isaac Husik, Judah Messer Leon's Commentary on the "Vetus Logica", Leiden: Bril, 1906
- Rabbi David ben Judah Messer Leon Archived 2007-01-06 at the Wayback Machine (Judah Messer Leon's son). Notes of the Norbert Normand Lecture for 5756.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gotthard Deutsch (1901–1906). "Messer, Leon (Judah ben Jehiel Rofe)". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.Its bibliography:
- Cat. Bodl. cols. 1331–1332;
- Nepi-Ghirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael, p. 200;
- Gerson Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iii.333–334;
- De Rossi, Dizionario, ii.7;
- Leopold Dukes, Ehrensäulen, pp. 55 et seq., Vienna, 1837;
- Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. viii.243–244.
- v
- t
- e
- Maimonides
- Judah Halevi
- Abraham ibn Ezra
- Yom Tov Asevilli (Ritva)
- Joseph ibn Migash (Ri Migash)
- Meir Abulafia (Ramah)
- Bahya ibn Paquda
- Bahya ben Asher
- David Abudirham
- Joseph Albo
- Isaac ben Moses Arama (Akeidat Yitzchak)
- Rabbenu Yerucham
- Shem Tov ben Abraham ibn Gaon (Migdal Oz)
- Meir ben Solomon Abi-Sahula
- Isaac ibn Ghiyyat
- Maimon ben Joseph
- Isaac Aboab I
- Abraham ibn Daud
- Moses ibn Ezra
- Jonah ibn Janah
- Abraham Saba
- Nachmanides
- Menachem Meiri
- Nissim of Gerona (Ran)
- Shlomo ibn Aderet (Rashba)
- Yonah Gerondi (Rabbeinu Yonah)
- Zerachiah ha-Levi of Girona (Baal HaMaor)
- Hasdai Crescas
- Aharon HaLevi (Ra'ah)
- Isaac ben Sheshet (Rivash)
- Simeon ben Zemah Duran (Tashbatz)
- Vidal of Tolosa (Maggid Mishneh)
- Joseph ibn Habib (Nimmukei Yosef)
- Azriel of Gerona
- Moshe Chalava
- Judah ben Yakar
- Judah ben Barzillai
- Hachmei Provence
- Abraham ben David (Raavad)
- Gersonides (Ralbag)
- David Kimhi (Radak)
- Abba Mari
- Isaac ben Abba Mari (HaIttur)
- Abraham ben Nathan (HaManhig)
- David ben Levi of Narbonne (HaMichtam)
- Moses ben Joseph (Rambi)
- Abraham ben Isaac of Narbonne (Raavad II, HaEshkol)
- Levi ben Abraham ben Hayyim
- Moshe ha-Darshan
- Meshullam ben Jacob
- Asher ben Meshullam
- Abraham of Montpellier
- Joseph Caspi
- Isaac the Blind
- Samuel ibn Tibbon
- Isaac of Narbonne
- Aaron ben Jacob ha-Kohen
- Jonathan of Lunel
- Rabbi Abin ha-Gadol
- Rashi
- List of Tosafists
- Rabbeinu Tam
- Rashbam
- Solomon ben Meir
- Samson ben Joseph of Falaise
- Yom Tov of Falaise
- Eliezer ben Samuel (Yereim)
- Isaac ben Samuel (Ri HaZaken)
- Moses ben Jacob of Coucy (Semag)
- Judah ben Nathan (Rivan)
- Bechor Shor
- Abraham ben Joseph of Orleans
- Elijah of Paris
- Judah ben Yom Tov
- Haim ben Hananel HaCohen
- Yechiel of Paris
- Rivam
- Peretz ben Elijah
- Eliezer of Toul
- Chaim Paltiel
- Jacob of Orléans
- Samson of Chinon
- Jacob of Chinon
- Eliezer of Touques
- Isaac ben Abraham of Dampierre
- Elhanan ben Isaac of Dampierre
- Baruch ben Isaac
- Samson ben Abraham of Sens
- Isaac ben Eliezer Halevi
- Meir ben Samuel
- Moses of Évreux
- Samuel of Évreux
- Samuel ben Solomon of Falaise
- Judah ben Isaac Messer Leon
- Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils
- Menahem ben Helbo
- Simeon Kara
- Shemaiah of Soissons
- Elijah ben Menahem HaZaken
- Ephraim ben Samson
- Meshullam ben Kalonymus
- Gershom ben Judah (Rabbeinu Gershom)
- Simeon bar Isaac of Mainz
- Asher ben Jehiel (Rosh)
- Jacob ben Asher (Baal HaTurim)
- Mordechai ben Hillel (Mordechai)
- Meir of Rothenburg (Maharam MeRotenberg)
- Yaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin (Maharil)
- Eliezer ben Nathan (Ra'aven)
- Eliezer ben Joel HaLevi (Raavyah)
- Eleazar of Worms (Rokeach)
- Meir HaKohen (Hagahot Maimuniot)
- Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg (Yehudah haHasid)
- Yaakov ben Yakar
- Isaac ben Mordecai of Regensburg
- Ephraim ben Isaac of Regensburg
- Samson ben Eliezer
- Eliezer ben Isaac ha-Gadol
- Judah ben Kalonymus
- Yehuda HaKohen ben Meir
- Meir ben Baruch Halevi
- Israel Bruna
- Israel of Bamberg
- Ephraim of Bonn
- Judah ben Asher
- Joel ben Isaac ha-Levi
- Jacob ben Judah Landau
- Samuel ben Natronai
- Alexander Suslin
- Jacob Weil
- Isaac ben Asher ha-Levi
- Simha of Speyer
- Isaac Asir HaTikvah
- Israel Isserlein (Terumat HaDeshen)
- Isaac of Vienna (Or Zarua)
- Avigdor Cohen of Vienna
- Isaac Tyrnau
- Nathan ben Jehiel (the Aruch)
- Isaiah di Trani (Rid)
- Isaiah di Trani the Younger (Riaz)
- Obadiah of Bertinoro
- Menahem Recanati
- Zedekiah Anaw (Shibbolei HaLeket)
- Benjamin Anaw
- Judah Anav
- Moses ben Meir of Ferrara
- Eliezer ben Samuel of Verona
- Hillel ben Samuel
- Joseph Colon Trabotto
- Isaac ben Melchizedek
- Judah Messer Leon