Abraham Portaleone (died July 29, 1612) was an Italian-Jewish physician in

Mantua Mantua ( ; ; Lombard language, Lombard and ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region of Lombardy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, eponymous province. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the "Italian Capital of Culture". In 2 ...

. He was a pupil of Jacob Fano.

Life

The Dukes Guglielmo and Vincenzo of Mantua, in whose service he was, granted him privileges in 1577 and 1587 respectively; and

Pope Gregory XIV Pope Gregory XIV (; ; 11 February 1535 – 16 October 1591), born Niccolò Sfondrato or Sfondrati, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 5 December 1590 to his death, in October 1591. Early career Niccolò S ...

. gave him a dispensation which enabled him to attend Christians.

Works

At the request of Duke Guglielmo he wrote two medical treatises in Latin, which he dedicated to his patron, under the titles ''Consilia Medica'' and ''Dialogi Tres de Auro'' respectively; the latter treatise was published in 1584. His ''Shilte ha-Gibborim'' (or ''Shiltei'', meaning ''shields of the heroes'' – other works share this title) was an encyclopedic work that related arts and sciences to the Temple; it included techniques of warfare. It was printed in 1612. Abraham Melamed considers he was clearly influenced by Machiavelli. B. Barry Levy ''Planets, Potions, and Parchments: Scientifica Hebraica from the Dead Sea'' (1990), p. 57. notes it as the first Hebrew book to adopt European punctuation, but also considers it typical of Renaissance thought in its integration of science and religion.

Family

He was great-grandson of Guglielmo Portaleone (son of David, son of Lazzaro, son of Guglielmo).

Notes

Bibliography

*Gianfranco Miletto, ''La Biblioteca di Avraham ben David Portaleone secondo l'inventario della sua eredità'', Firenze, Olschki, 2013 .

External links

''Jewish Encyclopedia'', ''s.v.'' "PORTALEONE"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portaleone, Abraham Year of birth unknown 1612 deaths People from the Duchy of Mantua 16th-century Italian Jews Italian encyclopedists 17th-century Italian physicians 17th-century Jewish physicians