Abraham Isaac Castello (1726 – August 1, 1789) was a rabbi, preacher, and poet. At the age of thirteen he arrived, poor and destitute, in

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 (pronou ...

, where, although he had previously intended to become a mechanic, his agreeable voice induced him to prepare himself to become a cantor. After the death of Adam Bondi, cantor of the Jewish congregation in Livorno, whose daughter he had married, he became his successor. He then, with indefatigable diligence, devoted himself to the study of the Hebrew and Spanish languages, and to rabbinical science. He was soon advanced to the position of rabbi and preacher, in which capacity he so greatly distinguished himself that even Christian scholars delighted to discuss with him religious and philosophical topics. Castello is probably the Jewish scholar with whom

Lessing Lessing is a German surname of Slavic origin, originally ''Lesnik'' meaning "woodman". Lessing may refer to: A German family of writers, artists, musicians and politicians who can be traced back to a Michil Lessigk mentioned in 1518 as being a lin ...

conversed during his scientific tour in the company of Duke

Leopold of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Maximilian Julius Leopold of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and nominal Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg (12 October 1752, Wolfenbüttel - 27 April 1785, Frankfurt (Oder)) was a Prussian major general and one of the ...

, and, on hearing whom, the duke is said to have exclaimed in astonishment, "Here we have one even greater than

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositi ...

—of far purer metaphysics." His son, Joseph Castello, was a physician in Italy. Castello was the author of the following writings, all published at Livorno: *''Qol Millin'', an allegorical drama in celebration of the wedding of Aaron Ergas and Deborah da Costa (1765) *"Oracion Doctrinal" (1753) *"A Memorial Sermon on the Death of Francis I. of Germany" (1765), written in Spanish, and translated by Castello's son Joseph Castello into Italian Besides these there were several occasional poems in Hebrew published by Sal. Michell in ''Composizioni Poetiche'' (1788), and by A.B. Piperno in the collection ''Qol 'Ugab'' (1846).

Bibliography

* Berliner, Abraham, in ''Israelitische Monatsschrift'', supplement of ''Jüdischen Presse'', 1898, pp. 21, 22 *Piperno, A.B., ''Qol 'Ugab'', at end *Nepi-Ghirondi, ''Toledot Gedole Yisrael'', No. 51 * Luzzato, S.D., ''Epistolario Italiano-Francese'', 1890, p. 734 *''Roest, Catalog der Hebraica und Judaica aus der L. Rosenthal'schen Bibliothek'', p. 256 {{DEFAULTSORT:Castello, Abraham Isaac 1726 births 1789 deaths 18th-century Italian rabbis Rabbis from Ancona 18th-century Italian poets Italian male poets Hebrew-language poets 18th-century Italian male writers Occasional poets