Abraham de Balmes ben Meir (born at

Lecce Lecce (; ) is a city in southern Italy and capital of the province of Lecce. It is on the Salentine Peninsula, at the heel of the Italian Peninsula, and is over two thousand years old. Because of its rich Baroque architecture, Lecce is n ...

, in the

kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples (; ; ), officially the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was established by the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302). Until ...

; died at

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, 1523) was an Italian Jewish physician and translator of the early 16th century. A short time before his death he was physician in ordinary to the cardinal Dominico Grimani at

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

. See Steinschneider, "Hebr. Bibl." xxi. 7 and 67; "Hebr. Uebers." p. 62; Perles, "Beiträge," pp. 193, 197, etc. Through his Latin translations of many Hebrew works on philosophy and astronomy he attained a great reputation in the Christian world. He dedicated to Cardinal Grimani two of these translations: (1) of an astronomical work in Arabic by Ibn al-Heitham (died 1038), which had been translated into Hebrew by Jacob ben Machir, in 1372, under the title "Liber de Mundo"; (2) of the "Farewell Letter" of the Arabic philosopher

Ibn Bajjah Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyà ibn aṣ-Ṣā’igh at-Tūjībī ibn Bājja (), known simply as Ibn Bajja () or his Latinized name Avempace (; – 1138), was an Arab polymath, whose writings include works regarding astronomy, physi ...

(Avempace), which he translated from the Hebrew under the title "Epistolæ Expeditionis" (MS. Vat. No. 3897. The dedication is published in "Revue des Études Juives," v. 145). In Padua Abraham delivered philosophical addresses to Christian audiences. He also compiled a book on Hebrew grammar, in which he attempted to treat philosophically the construction of the Hebrew language and to refute the opinions of the eminent grammarian

David Kimhi ''Cervera Bible'', David Kimhi's Grammar Treatise David Kimhi (, also Kimchi or Qimḥi) (1160–1235), also known by the Hebrew acronym as the RaDaK () (Rabbi David Kimhi), was a medieval rabbi, biblical commentator, philosopher, and grammarian ...

. In this work Abraham was the first to treat the syntax (which he called in Hebrew ''harkabah'') as a special part of the grammar. The book was published, with a Latin translation and a supplementary treatise on the Hebrew accents, under the title "Miḳneh Abram," by Maestro (Calo) Ḳalonymos ben David, a well-known translator. Grätz ("Gesch. der Juden," ix. 215) suggests, without evidence, that the printer Daniel Bomberg (who is supposed to have learned Hebrew from Balmes) translated this grammar. At his death, honors were paid to his memory by his Christian pupils.

References

* Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 667; *idem, Hebr. Uebers. §§ 206, 348, 581; *idem, Bibliographisches Handbuch, No. 164, Leipsic, 1859; *T. Willesz's dissertation, Budapest, 1895

Further Bibliography

Saverio Campanini, ', in «Annali di Ca’ Foscari» XXXVI, 3, Serie orientale 28 (1997), pp. 5–49.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balmes, Abraham De 16th-century Italian physicians 16th-century Jewish physicians 16th-century Italian Jews Hebrew–Latin translators Medieval Hebraists Grammarians of Hebrew Grammarians from Italy Year of birth unknown 1523 deaths People from Lecce