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Early Modern Jewish Readers of Josephus

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Notes

  1. A. de’ Rossi, Light of the Eyes, New Haven, 2001, ch. 46, p. 596. See the Translator’s Introduction to Light of the Eyes, pp. xxvii–xxviii.

  2. In his translation of the Letter of Aristeas in de’ Rossi, Light of the Eyes (n. 1 above), pp. 42–3, he refers to the Castilian translation of the Antiquities printed by Martin Nucio in Antwerp in 1554.

  3. De’ Rossi, Light of the Eyes (n. 1 above), ch. 33, p. 421.

  4. Rufinus [spelled ‘Ruffinus’s in early printed editions] was a contemporary of Jerome. The translation was first published under Rufinus’s name in Augsburg, 1470, but the attribution to Rufinus was already being questioned in the seventeenth century. For a full description of the editions of Josephus, see H. Schreckenberg, Bibliographie zu Flavius Josephus, Leiden, 1968.

  5. Pietro Lauro’s Italian translation of the Antiquitates was published in Venice, 1544; Bartolomeo Presbitero’s of the Bellum was published in Florence, 1493.

  6. Sigismund Gelenius was born in Prague and died in 1555. He worked as a typesetter and corrector in Froben’s press in Basel and was highly regarded by Erasmus. His edited version of the translation attributed to Rufinus was printed in Basel in 1534 but his own translation based on manuscripts was first printed by Froben in Basel in 1548 and reprinted several times thereafter. On Gelenius see P. Petitmengin, ‘Gelenius (Sigismundus) (1497–1554)’, in Centuriæ latinæ II. Cent une figures humanistes de la Renaissance aux Lumières, ed. C. Nativel, II, Geneva, 2006, pp. 337–51.

  7. De’ Rossi, Light of the Eyes, ch. 57 (n. 1 above), pp. 677–8.

  8. See Translator’s Introduction to Light of the Eyes, (n. 1 above), pp. xxxvi–xxvii, and J. Weinberg, ‘Azariah de’ Rossi and Septuagint Traditions’, Italia, 5, 1985, pp. 7–35.

  9. De Rossi, Light of the Eyes (n. 1 above), p. 41.

  10. It should be noted that Josephus’s paraphrase is written in a Greek which differs considerably from that of the Aristean text. According to A. Pelletier, Flavius Josèphe, adapteur de la Lettre d’Aristée: une réaction atticisante contre la Koiné, Paris, 1962, Josephus’s adaptation demonstrates the different ideological context in which he was writing; a Jewish-Roman one of the first century CE as opposed to Aristeas’s Greco-Jewish audience of the 2nd-century BCE.

  11. Thus he follows Josephus (Ant. XII, 64) who gives the same measurements of the table as those given for the tabernacle in Ex. 25:23; 37:10–16.

  12. Pelletier, Flavius Josèphe (as n. 10 above).

  13. See J. Weinberg, ‘De’ Rossi and the Forgeries of Annius of Viterbo’, in Aspetti della storiografia ebraica, Atti delI V congresso internazionale dell’ ASIG (1983), 1987, pp. 23–47. For Annius and the columns, see W. Stephens, ‘The World of Berossos’, in Proceedings of the 4th International Colloquium on The Ancient Near East Between Classical and Ancient Oriental Traditions, ed. J. Haubold, G. B. Lanfranchi, R. Rollinger and J. Steele, Wiesbaden 2013, pp. 283–4.

  14. The author’s name is spelt in various ways: Zacut or Zacuto. I have followed the spelling as used in the editio princeps of Sefer Yuhasin. Zacuto articulates his reason for studying gentile history in a variety of ways including its usefulness for those engaging in polemics with the Christians. He distinguishes Torah from ‘their history books’, but at the same time facilitates the reading gentile books. See E. Gutwirth, ‘The Historian’s Origins and Genealogies: The Sefer Yuhasin’, Hispania Judaica Bulletin, 6, 2008, pp. 57–82.

  15. Sefer Yuhasin, sigs 3, 4r. Zacuto however does demonstrate a critical approach to rabbinic history – not unlike that of de’ Rossi. De’ Rossi, who discovered Zacuto’s work only after having produced the first draft of his work, was delighted with its contents. See de’ Rossi Light of the Eyes (n. 1, above), p. 2.

  16. On Esther the Kiera see S. A. Skilliter, ‘The Letters of the Venetian “Sultana” Nūr Bānū and her Kira to Venice’, in Studia Turcologica Memoriae alexii Bombaci Dicata, Naples, 1982, pp. 515–36.

  17. J. Hacker, ‘The Intellectual Activity of the Jews of the Ottoman Empire During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’, in Jewish Thought in the Seventeenth Century, ed. B. Cooperman, Cambridge, MA, 1987, 95–135.

  18. Sefer Yuhasin, sig. 43, 1r.

  19. I am grateful to Julian Weiss, who supplied me with information about Palencia’s translation, and to Javier Castaño for discussion of the Hebrew and Spanish texts. Shullam took so many liberties with the texts that it is impossible to establish which translation he used.

  20. Ps. Rufinus’s translation reads: ‘Nec una gens ubi septimanae in qua vacamus consuetudo minime discurrit atque ieunia et candelabrorum incendia sed et ciborum apud nos solemnia plurima apud multos iugiter observare conantur.’

  21. Sefer Yuhasin, sig. 45, 1v.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Although Josephus often speaks of ‘noble death’, it is not easy to pinpoint his true attitude towards martyrdom. See J. W. van Henten, ‘Noble Death in Josephus: Just Rhetoric’, in Making History: Josephus and Historical Method, ed. Z. Rogers, Leiden, 2006, pp. 195–218.

  24. The Latin version (Venice 1480) reads: ‘Hieronymus ad Magnum oratorem urbis Romae: Josephus antiquitatem approbans iudaici populi duos libros scripsit contra Appionem alexandrinum grammaticum et tanta saecularium profert testimonia ut mihi miraculum subeat quomodo vir hebreus ab infantia sacris litteris eruditus cunctam graecorum bibliothecam evolverit.’ But some of the early Latin editions (e.g., Venice, 1499) unlike the Castilian rendering, contain this passage without the attribution to Jerome. It is likely that it was one of these editions that Shullam read, and that he simply assumed that it was Rufinus, the translator, who had appended the additional note.

  25. Contra Apionem II.1–2: ‘I demonstrated the antiquity of our race, corroborating my statements by the writings of Phoenicians, Chaldeans and Egyptians, besides citing as witnesses numerous Greek historians… I shall now proceed to refute the rest of the authors who have attacked us.’

  26. At fol. 66r, the anonymous reader also refers to Gelenius’s translations of Josephus which he states are more correct than those of Rufinus. The wording of this statement is fairly close to that of de’ Rossi cited above.

  27. Translation of the text (ASVat. DN, filza 26, f. 477) published in Venice: A Documentary History 1450–1630, ed. D. Chambers and B. Pullan with J. Fletcher, Oxford, 1991, pp. 340–41. On de' Pomi as natural philosopher, see A. Berns, The Bible and Natural Philosophy in Renaissance Italy, Cambridge, 2015, pp. 109–52.

  28. Ibid. (ASVat. DN, filza 28, f. 282, 341).

  29. See J. Weinberg, ‘Poetry and Patronage: Azariah de’ Rossi’s Elegies for Margaret of Savoy’, Jewish History 21, 2007, pp. 97–114.

  30. L’ecclesiaste di Salomone nuovamente dal testo hebreo tradotto e secondo il vero senso nel volgar idioma dichiarato… Venice, 1571.

  31. There is scarcely any trace of rabbinic Judaism in this tract. Striking is his articulation of the letters of the tetragrammaton in part two of the Discorso (pp. 32–3): ‘però disse Homero Giove (cioè Ieovà che significa nell’hebraica voce il nome d’Iddio)…’

  32. Enarratio brevis de senum affectibus praecavendis atque curandis… Venice, 1588. On this work see L. Münster, ‘L’ennaratio brevis de senum affectibus (‘Bref commentaire aux maladies des viellards’) de David d Pomis, le plus grand médecin israélite en italie au XVIe siècle’ in Mélanges d’histoire de la médicine hébraïque, réunis par G. Freudenthal et Samuel Kottek, Leiden, 2003, pp. 161–81. In the work, de’ Pomi gives a Latin translation of the letter supposedly written by Diocles of Carystus to king Antigonus, entitled A Letter on Preserving Health which is inserted by Paul of Aegina at the end of the first book of his own medical compendium, and which, if genuine, was probably addressed to Antigonus II Gonatas king of Macedon, who died in 239 BCE, at the age of eighty, after a reign of 44 years. It resembles in its subject matter several other similar letters ascribed to Hippocrates, and treats of the diet suitable for the different seasons of the year.

  33. He claims that this preface on the Venetian republic is an abbreviated version of a longer tract on the subject which he had written. Such a work does not appear to be extant.

  34. De medico Hebraeo enarratio apologica, Venice, 1588.

  35. B. Ravid, ‘Moneylending in the Seventeenth Century. Jewish Vernacular Apologetica’, in Jewish Thought in the Seventeenth Century, ed. I. Twersky and B. Septimus, Cambridge, MA, 1987, pp. 281–2.

  36. The work begins with a plea on behalf of the Jewish physician who like all physicians must abide by the Hippocratic Oath. The Jew, or human being as worshipper of the divine, cannot by definition perform any iniquitous act.

  37. K. Stow, Catholic Thought and Papal Jewry Policy 1555–1593, pp. 66, 220–24. Stow demonstrates that by arguing that de Susannis believed that Jews should be treated as equal citizens with Christians de’ Pomi effectively reversed de Susannis’s main point. For although De Susannis did assert the right of the Jew to equity, he was actually asserting that the Jews should live as second-class citizens.

  38. Ibid., p. 42.

  39. Enarratio (n. 33 above), pp. 77–121.

  40. Ibid., p. 77: ‘Quod Medicus hebraeus, Apologicae enarrationis Auctor, Christianum Principem (Maximum Pontificem, praesertim) ut ipse erga hebraeos (ex professo Medicos praecipue) se misericorditer gerat suppliciter perorat. Et quod a non paucis principibus, Amplissimisque Regibus, multa decreta in hebraeorum favorem propter compertam in eis fidelitatem constituta reperiantur.’

  41. Ibid., p. 121: ‘Qua de re, si Persae Graeci et Romani qui tunc temporis pagani extiterant et per consequens idolatriae inservientes (multis non obstantibus certaminibus bellique ardoribus inter nostros proavos et illos confectis) bonitate tamen (ut late in toto terrarum orbe patet) aut beneficientia erga iudaeos usi tam magna fuerunt, nonne a fortiori rationi consonum est ut uberrimi liberalitatis fructus christianorum qui religione praediti sunt ac iudaeis necessitudinis affinitatisque vinculo coniuncti, paganorum praeteritam munificentiam sint in futurum (Dei gratia interveniente) longe superaturi?.’

  42. See de’ Pomi’s introduction (n. 33 above), pp. 82–3, which ends: ‘Et alios pene innumerabiles qui hebraeis iam inflixerunt, turpissime vitam perdiderunt. Propterea haud mirum si Maiores seculi Principes pactum hebraeis inire operam navaverint ob religiosam fidelitatem in eis repertam. Quorum Principum aliqua perpetrata Decreta videre licet, quae haec sunt.’ Then follow the relevant passages.

  43. Sebastian Münster, Veteris instrumenti tomus secundus prophetarum oracula…, Basel, 1535, fol. 556v: ‘… etiam si inter se dissideant, quibusdam id dictum aestimantibus de tertio templo adhuc futuro, aliis autem intelligentibus de secundo templo quod illud propterea in maiori gloria fuerit, quod decem annis diutius steterit quam primum. Sed de hac re expostulabimus cum eis Hebraico sermone….’

  44. See B. A. Montanus Hispalensis, Commentaria in duodecim prophetas, Antwerp, 1572, pp. 753–4: Verba ipsa, novissimum et primum de pluribus, quam duabus, dicuntur rebus, tertiae domus a nobis definitae significationem manifeste indicant. Namque nec Hebraicus sermo vocem aharon neque Latinus novissimum ad duo unquam refert… Templum hoc sanctum quod describebat domum inquam tertiam Deus indicavit quod si ad ipsam Ierosolymam terrestram urbem referre velis perinde est. namque salutis publicae procuratio illo in loco facta fuit et prima etiam huius tertii templi fundamenta per spiritum sanctum Christi eodem loco iacta sunt.'

  45. De’ Rossi, Light of the Eyes, ch. 51 (n. 1 above), pp. 621–42.

  46. Ibid., ch. 52 (n. 1 above), pp. 650–51.

  47. Acts 5:36.

  48. Ant. XX.169–72.

  49. De’ Rossi, Light of the Eyes (n. 1 above), p. 180. The statement ‘Proselytes are as intolerable for Israel as a running sore’ is attributed to the fourth century Amora R. Helbo Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 47b, Qiddushin, 70b and Niddah 13b. As B. Bamberger notes (Proselytism in the Talmudic Age, New York, 1968, pp. 163–4) both Rashi and the Tosafists give seven different explanations of the saying. They include the contrary explanations that either proselytes who are meticulous in their performance of the commandments make Israel’s negligence all the more conspicuous, or that proselytes lower Israel’s standards.

  50. See A. Grafton and J. Weinberg, ‘I have always loved the Holy Tongue’: Isaac Casaubon, the Jews, and a Forgotten Chapter in Renaissance Scholarship, Cambridge, MA, pp. 189–90, and A. Grafton, ‘Church History in Early Modern Europe: Tradition and Innovation’, in Sacred History: Uses of the Christian Past in the Renaissance World, ed. K. Van Liere, S. Ditchfield and H. Louthan, Oxford 2012, pp. 23–4.

  51. C. Baronio, Annales ecclesiastici, Rome 1593, p. 4. On Baronio’s occasional rather unfavourable assessment of Josephus, see J. Machielsen’s contribution in this volume.

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    Joanna Weinberg

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Weinberg, J. Early Modern Jewish Readers of Josephus. Int class trad 23, 275–289 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-016-0409-3

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