Rabbi Judah Moscato and the Jewish Intellectual World of Mantua in the 16th-17th Centuries

Giuseppe Veltri, is Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Halle-Wittenberg and Director of the Zunz Centre (Halle). He has published widely in the subjects of hermeneutics and philosophy including Gegenwart der Tradition (2002), Cultural Intermediaries (2004 with D. Ruderman); Libraries, Translation and 'Canonic texts' (2006); The Jewish Body (2008, with M. Diemling); Renaissance Philosophy in Jewish Garb (2009); Judah Moscato’s Sermons (2011).

Gianfranco Miletto is university private lecturer (“Privatdozent”) at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. He has published on Biblical Philology and on the Jewish culture in Italy at the time of the Renaissance and Counter-Reformation: L’ Antico Testamento Ebraico nella tradizione babilonese (1992); Die Heldenschilde des Abraham ben David Portaleone, 2 vols. (2003); Glauben und Wissen im Zeitalter der Reformation (2004); Judah Moscato’s Sermons (2011).

All those interested in intellectual history, the history of Jewish philosophy, and homiletics as well as philologists, theologians, and specialists of Hebraic and Italian culture.

"Brill's new scholarly edition and translation of Moscato's sermons is a major contribution to Jewish Renaissance studies. [...] The editors identify the many references to both Jewish and Classical literature, and give brief but clear explanations when needed. The translation is also clear, and seems to accruately reflect the Hebrew text."

Jim Rosenbloom, in Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews, November/December 2012

Editor’s Preface
Part I: Judah Moscato. His Life and His Work
Judah Moscato: Biographical Data and Writings
Gianfranco Miletto
Principles of Jewish Skeptical Thought. The Case of Judah Moscato and Simone Luzzatto
Giuseppe Veltri
Moscato as Eulogist
Marc Saperstein
On Kabbalah in R. Judah Moscato’s Qol Yehudah
Moshe Idel
Amitica and Hermeticism. Paratext as Key to Judah Moscato’s Nefuṣot Yehudah
Bernard Dov Cooperman
Judah Moscato, Abraham Portaleone, and Biblical Incense in Late Renaissance Mantua
Andrew Berns
Judah Moscato’s Sources and Hebrew Printing in the Sixteenth Century: A Preliminary Survey
Adam Shear
Part II: The Jewish intellectual World of Mantua in 16th-17th century
The Gonzaga Archives of Mantua and Their Rearrangements Over the Centuries, along with and Overview of Archival Materials on Mantuan Jewry
Daniela Ferrari
The Levi Dynasty: Three Generations of Jewish Musicians in Sixteenth-Century Mantua
Don Harrán
Spatial Stories: Mantua and the Painted Jew
Dana Katz
Saladin the Crusader, the Christian Haman and the Off-key Priest: Some Reflections on Christians and Christianity in Yiddish Literary Texts from the Italian Renaissance
Claudia Rosenzweig
Some Unknown 16th-Century Documents about Abraham Yagel and a Possible Link to the Controversy about the “Holy Diana” in the Mantuan Synagogue
Daniel Jütte
On Abraham’s Neck. The Editio Princeps of the Sefer Yeṣirah (Mantua 1562) and Its Context
Saverio Campanini
The Italian Translation of the Psalms by Judah Sommo
Alessandro Guetta
Savants and Scholars in Jewish Mantua: a Reassessment
Shlomo Simonsohn