1. Isaac E. Barzilay, Between Reason and Faith. Anti-Rationalism in Italian Jewish Thought, 1250–1650 (The Hague, Paris, 1967), pp. 210–217. [BACK]

2. Giuseppe Sermoneta, “Aspetti del pensiero moderno nell’ebraismo italiano tra Rinascimento e età barocca” (Rome, 1986), pp. 17–35. Cf. Robert Bonfil, “Change in the Cultural Patterns of a Jewish Society in Crisis: Italian Jewry at the Close of the Sixteenth Century,” Jewish History 3 (1988): 11–30. [BACK]

3. As far as I know, this particular aspect of preaching has not so far received much scholarly attention. See Robert Bonfil, Rabbis and Jewish Communities in Renaissance Italy (Oxford, 1990), pp. 298–316. For Jewish preaching in general, see, of course, Marc Saperstein, Jewish Preaching, 1200–1800: An Anthology (New Haven, London, 1989), where the pertinent literature is exhaustively listed. See also Saperstein’s introductory essay in this volume. [BACK]

4. Ms. Budapest-Kaufmann A 455. I was given the opportunity to use the microfilm in possession of the Institute of Microfilms of Hebrew Manuscripts in Jerusalem. Israel ben Abraham Ha-Kohen is listed in the files of the Institute of Microfilms as having copied Ms. Rab 1508 of The Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, and H 178 A/1 of the Alliance Israelite Universelle, Paris. [BACK]

5. For instance: Volontaria follia, piacevol male, stanco riposo, utilità nocente, desperato sperar, morir vitale, temerario timor, riso dolente; un vetro duro, un adamente frale, un’arsura gelata, un gelo ardente, di discordie concordi, abisso eterno, paradiso infernal, celeste inferno (G. B. Marino, Adone, 6, 174). See also David B. Ruderman, A Valley of Vision: The Heavenly Journey of Abraham ben Hananiah Yagel (Philadelphia, 1990), p. 71, n. 1. [BACK]

6. Especially worthy of mention here is the one delivered for the parashah of Mikkeẓ and Hanukka (on the theme of Judith and Holophernes): pp. 128–134. On the very interesting figure of David Del Bene, very little has so far been written. See David Kaufmann, “The Dispute about the Sermons of David Del Bene of Mantua,” Jewish Quarterly Review o.s. 8 (1896): 513–524. See also the essay by Moshe Idel in this volume. [BACK]

7. One for the parashah of Vayehi, which falls frequently near Hanukka (pp. 153–163); one for the parashah of Mishpatim, which falls frequently near Purim (pp. 237–244); five for different days of Passover (pp. 340–341; 352–353; 361–369; 384–385; 395); one for Shabbat ha-Gadol, the Saturday preceding Passover (p. 437); and the remainder for different Saturdays falling in the period immediately preceding or following Passover: two for the parashah of Shemini (pp. 397–401; 411–420); one for the parashah of Taẓria-Meẓora (pp. 411–420); one for Kedoshim (pp. 411–420); one for Emor (pp. 411–420); and one for Behar-Beḥukkotai (pp. 411–420). [BACK]

8. To my mind, there is no doubt that sermons were actually delivered in the vernacular, interspersed with Judeo-vernacular idioms. A sample of such a text, written down by a preacher who lived in the same cultural context as Del Bene, although a little earlier, may be seen in Robert Bonfil, “Aḥat mi-derashotav shel R. Mordecai Dato,” Italia 1 (1976): i–xxxii. But cf. with Saperstein’s discussion, Jewish Preaching, 1200–1800, pp. 39–44, and see the essays of Saperstein and Idel in this volume. [BACK]

9. Yessodato be-harerei Kodesh, Introduction, p. 13: “The reader should not accuse me of inventing verbs and nouns in several places which are not found in the Hebrew language, since the density of the subject and the language’s limitation obliged me to do it.” [BACK]

10. I have briefly discussed this model in my Rabbis and Jewish Communities in Renaissance Italy, loc. cit. Joanna Weinberg has recently argued that Del Bene’s age may have witnessed some departure from the medieval model and that evidence of this is apparently to be detected in Leone Modena’s preaching practice. See her essay in the present volume. Such a development would in principle certainly not be impossible. Having outlined Elijah de Veali’s eighteenth-century traditional model of Italian Jewish preaching, I remain skeptical. For de Veali’s model, see Robert Bonfil, “Shteim-Esrei Iggeroth Me-et R. Eliyahu b. Shlomo Raphael Ha-Levi De Veali” (Twelve Letters by R. Elijah b. Solomon Raphael Ha-Levi De Veali), Sinai 71 (1972): 163–190. [BACK]

11. Kissot le-Veit David, 2, 9. [BACK]

12. For what follows, I am indebted to Dr. Ariel Rathaus, who is preparing a thorough study of Del Bene’s literary theory. [BACK]

13. See, for instance, Wilbur Samuel Howell, “Baroque Rhetoric: A Concept At Odds With Its Setting,” Philosophy and Rhetoric 15 (1982): 1–23. [BACK]

14. Yessodato be-harerei Kodesh, pp. 153–163. [BACK]

15. Kissot le-Veit David, 2, 9. See Robert Bonfil, “Halakhah, Kabbalah and Society; Some Insights Into Rabbi Menahem Azariah da Fano’s Inner World,” Jewish Thought in the Seventeenth Century, ed. Isadore Twersky and Bernard Septimus (Cambridge, Mass., 1987), p. 61; idem, “Change in the Cultural Patterns” (supra n. 2), p. 19. [BACK]

16. This point was suggested to me by Professor Walter Cahn of Yale University, whom I thank here very much. [BACK]

17. See, for example, Louis Reau, Iconographie de l’Art Chrétien (Paris, 1955), vol. 1, pp. 98–99; Lexikon der Christlichen Ikonographie, ed. von Engelbert Kirschbaum (Rome, Freiburg, Basel, Vienna, 1972), vol. 1, s.v. Schlange, colls. 75–82, and Tugunden, colls. 364–380, and esp. 378. [BACK]

18. This point was strongly made by Sermoneta, art. cit. See also Bonfil, “Change in Cultural Patterns,” pp. 20–21. [BACK]

19. Bonfil, “Change in Cultural Patterns,” loc. cit. [BACK]

20. I am indebted for this paragraph to Dr. Ariel Rathaus’s findings, which he was kind enough to share with me before their publication. [BACK]

21. Barzilay, Between Reason and Faith, p. 211. [BACK]

22. Kissot le-Veit David, 1, 3. Quoted by Barzilay, p. 21. [BACK]

23. Sermon for the section of Mishpatim, Yessodato be-harerei Kodesh, pp. 237–244. [BACK]

24. Yessodato be-harerei Kodesh, p. 240. [BACK]

25. Kissot le-Veit David, 1, 4 [BACK]

26. On the main cultural trends of the period, see Paul Renucci, La cultura, in Storia d’Italia 2** (Turin, 1974), vol. 6: Il Seicento—Dalla selva barocca alla scuola del classicismo, pp. 1360–1445; Alberto Asor Rosa, La cultura della controriforma (Bari, 1979). For an example of the formulation of most of the ideas here mentioned, one may read Sforza Pallavicino’s typical characterization of Plato vs. Aristotle:

“Platone in filosofare fu sempre vago di proposizioni meravigliose, e però lontane dalla credenza popolare. Pertanto fu anche in maggior venerazione del popolo, il quale tanto reputa i letterati superiori a sè nell’intendere, quanto li vede a sè differenti nel credere, e più riverisce per sapienti coloro da cui egli è più strapazzato per ignorante. Anche i poeti, come quelli che hanno per livrea de’ loro componimenti il mirabile intessuto col verisimile, si fornirono al fondaco non d’Aristotele, ma di Platone, unico nello spacciar maraviglie non derise, ma venerate, e però credute. Aristotele s’inviò per contrario sentiero. Tanto fu alieno dal tracciar lo stupore del volgo, che si elesse per maestro il volgo medesimo, e su’ primi e più rozzi ed universali concetti della maraviglia appoggio le colonne della sua filosofia: la quale, quanto per tal modo fu più sincera, tanto riuscì finalmente più fortunatadella platonica. E videsi tra lor quella differenza che suol essere tra le poesie e l’istorie: quelle, come audaci in mentire, così più meravigliose e però più gustose; queste, come riverenti del vero, così più autorevoli e però più pregiate e più fruttuose. Tal giudizio ha dato di questi due gran maestri il testimonio non errante del tempo.”

28. Carlo Ginzburg, “High and Low; The Theme of Forbidden Knowledge in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Past and Present 73 (1976): 29–41, and particularly p. 33 and n. 22. See David B. Ruderman, Kabbalah, Magic, and Science: The Cultural Universe of a Sixteenth-Century Jewish Physician (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1988), pp. 103, 205, n. 5. [BACK]

29. “Attendere la libertà dell’animo humano inviluppato da lacci, con quali l’ardito e troppo pretendente sapere lo tiene legato & stretto.” [BACK]

30. Note here also that “uneasy balance” between authoritative warning against improper use of reason and the necessity of freedom of thought, perfectly coherent with the attitudes toward the theme of forbidden knowledge, already quoted above, n. 28. [BACK]

31. Kissot le-Veit David, 1, 4 (f. 11 [=16]a); 1, 8 (f. 19 [=23]b). [BACK]

32. Kissot le-Veit David, 1, 9 (f. 13b). As Prof. Joanna Weinberg very pertinently noted, there was a medieval tradition (for instance, in the Secretum Secretorum) which considered Aristotle to be a magician. It stands to reason that such a tradition was known to Del Bene as well as to part of his audience. It is therefore possible that we have here one more example of Del Bene’s assigning new meanings to well-known medieval concepts. [BACK]

33. For instance, Kissot le-Veit David, loc. cit. [BACK]

34. For a similar conclusion on the separation of naturalistic learning from Aristotelian metaphysics, and its subsequent linkage with traditional Jewish, even kabbalistic thought, in this period, see David B. Ruderman, “The Language of Science as the Language of Faith: An Aspect of Italian Jewish Thought in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” Anniversary Volume in Honor of Shlomo Simonsohn, forthcoming. See also the essay of David Ruderman in this volume. [BACK]

35. Yessodato be-harerei Kodesh, p. 160. [BACK]

36. Yessodato be-harerei Kodesh, loc. cit. [BACK]

37. See Giuseppe Sermoneta, “Prophecy in the Writings of R. Yehuda Romano,” Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature, vol. 2., ed. Isadore Twersky (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), pp. 361–362. [BACK]

38. Kissot le-Veit David, f. 11 [=16]a. [BACK]

39. Kissot le-Veit David, f. 17a. [BACK]

40. This theme is dealt with in Kissot le-Veit David, 1, 8. [BACK]

41. See Bonfil, “Change in the Cultural Patterns,” pp. 13–14. [BACK]

42. See above, n. 12 [BACK]

43. Kissot le-Veit David, 1, 8; Sermoneta, “Aspetti del pensiero moderno nell’ebraismo italiano”; Bonfil, “Change in the Cultural Patterns.” [BACK]