HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Yohanan Alemanno (born in Constantinople or in Mantua, c. 1435 – died after 1504) was an Italian Jewish rabbi, noted Kabbalist, humanist philosopher, and exegete, and teacher of the
Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
to Italian humanists including
Pico della Mirandola Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (24 February 1463 – 17 November 1494) was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, ...
. He taught that the
Kabbalah Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "receiver"). The defin ...
was divine magic. He was a pupil of Judah Messer Leon, but departed from the Aristotelian sympathies of his teacher in the direction of
neoplatonic Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some id ...
thought.


Works

His works include ''Hay ha-Olamim'', ''Sefer sha`ar ha-heshek'' and a ''Cheshek Shlomo''. He cites Judah ben Nissim Ibn Malkah.Sirat p. 262. Alemanno's writings show versatility. In his chief work, "Ḥesheḳ Shelomoh" (The Delight of Solomon), he evinces philosophic acumen as well as a wide acquaintance with both the Arabic and the Greek philosophers. The introduction to this work is a discourse on the artistic and intellectual attainments of the human race, all of which are combined in
King Solomon King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ti ...
, whom the author places above
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, wikt:Πλάτων, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greeks, Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thou ...
and his fellows (compare "Sha'ar ha-ḤesheḲ," pp. 3–7). Excerpts from the introduction were published, with additions by Jacob Baruch ben Moses Ḥayyim, at
Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (prono ...
in 1790. In the introduction to this work, Alemanno lists all the known writings of King Solomon; however, Senior Sachs researched and uncovered that twenty-one philosophical works on the list were written by
Solomon ibn Gabirol Solomon ibn Gabirol or Solomon ben Judah ( he, ר׳ שְׁלֹמֹה בֶּן יְהוּדָה אִבְּן גָּבִּירוֹל, Shlomo Ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol, ; ar, أبو أيوب سليمان بن يحيى بن جبيرول, ’Abū ’Ayy ...
, whose signature, "Solomon of Malaqa" was mis-interpreted. Alemanno also wrote: *"'Ene ha-'Edah" (The Eyes of the Congregation), a cabalistic commentary on the
Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...
(compare
Gedaliah ibn Yaḥya Gedaliah ibn Yahya ben Joseph (Hebrew: גדליה אבן יחיא בן יוסף; – 1587) was a 16th-century Italian Talmudist and Biblical chronologist chiefly known for his Biblical Chronology "Shalshelet HaḲabbalah". Biography Born in I ...
's "Shalshelet ha-ḳ;ab-balah," ed. Warsaw, 1889, p. 86) *"Ḥayye Olam" (Eternal Life), a treatise on immortality *"LiḲḲutim Collectanea," a volume of about two hundred pages, containing stray thoughts, aphorisms, noteworthy quotations from rare authors, and exegetical remarks.


References

*''Ḥay ha-ʻolamim = L'immortale'' by Yoḥanan Aliman (1995) Fabrizio Lelli


Jewish Encyclopedia references

* *Reggio, '' Bikkure ha-'Ittim,'' ix.13; *idem, ''Kerem Ḥemed,'' ii.44; *
Moritz Steinschneider Moritz Steinschneider (30 March 1816, Prostějov, Moravia, Austrian Empire – 24 January 1907, Berlin) was a Moravian bibliographer and Orientalist. He received his early instruction in Hebrew from his father, Jacob Steinschneider ( 1782; ...
, ''Cat. Bodl.'' col. 1397; *Wolf, ''Bibl. Hebr.'' i.470; *
Heinrich Grätz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (now Książ Wielkop ...
, ''Gesch. d. Juden,'' 2nd ed., viii.242, note.


External links


Source
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allemanno, Johanan 15th-century philosophers 1430s births Rabbis from Istanbul 16th-century deaths 15th-century Italian Jews Jewish philosophers Neoplatonism Kabbalists