Moses da Rieti

Moses da Rieti
Born1388 Edit this on Wikidata
Died1466 Edit this on Wikidata (aged 77–78)
15th century manuscript of Miqdash Me‘at Me‘on haShoalim from Italy in the Bodleian Library[1]

Moses da Rieti (Moshe ben Yitzḥak, Mosè di Gaio) (1388–1466) was an Italian-Jewish poet, philosopher, and physician from Rieti who composed works in Hebrew and Italian.[2]

Miqdash me‘at (Little Sanctuary), his major work, is a transitionally post-medieval and philosophical Hebrew poem explicitly inspired by the Divine Comedy in both plot and structure, and also includes an encyclopedia of sciences, a Jewish paradise fantasy and a post-biblical history of Jewish literature.[3] Miqdash me‘at makes explicit metaphor in its structure as an homage to the Temple of Jerusalem.[2] Rieti was influenced by Yehuda Romano.[3] Rieti's style is complex and he speaks on behalf of the Jewish people, with Neoplatonism and Aristotelianism especially in the tradition of Maimonides, and follows the terza rima of Dante Alighieri, the first Hebrew poet to do so. [4] Called a Hebrew Dante, he also authored a poetic dialogue between the Daughters of Zelophehad called Iggeret Ya‘ar ha-Levanon (Forest of Lebanon).[5] Rieti's work exhibits a deep familiarity with the Tannaim, Geonim, and Amoraim, including contemporary philosophy in Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew. It is said he later abandoned philosophy for kabbalah. Deborah Ascarelli and Lazaro da Viterbo translated his hymns into Italian.[6]

  1. ^ Neubauer 108, "MS. Canonici Or. 109 - Hebrew and Judaica Manuscripts". hebrew.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-09-28. 5. ff. 174r-185v.
  2. ^ a b Guetta, Alessandro (2003). "Moses da Rieti and His Miqdash meat". Prooftexts. 23 (1): 4–17. doi:10.2979/pft.2003.23.1.4. ISSN 0272-9601. JSTOR 10.2979/pft.2003.23.1.4.
  3. ^ a b Guetta, Alessandro (2019), "Moses of Rieti", in Sgarbi, Marco (ed.), Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–3, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_1113-1, ISBN 978-3-319-02848-4, retrieved 2024-09-05
  4. ^ Bregman, Devora (2003). "A Note on the Style and Prosody of Miqdash meat". Prooftexts. 23 (1): 18–24. doi:10.2979/pft.2003.23.1.18. ISSN 0272-9601. JSTOR 10.2979/pft.2003.23.1.18.
  5. ^ "MOSES BEN ISAAC (GAJO) OF RIETI - JewishEncyclopedia.com". www.jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  6. ^ Rhine, A. B. (1911). "The Secular Hebrew Poetry of Italy". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 1 (3): 341–402. doi:10.2307/1451119. ISSN 0021-6682. JSTOR 1451119.