User:GordonGlottal/sandbox

GordonGlottal/sandbox

Rabbi Moses da Rieti
Miqdash Me‘at (1851)
Native name	משה בר' יצחק מריאיטי Mosè di Gaio da Rieti
Born	1388
Died	1466
Notable works	Miqdash Me‘at Iggeret Ya‘ar haLevanon
Signature

Moses da Rieti (1388–1466) was a prolific Italian-Jewish poet, philosopher, and physician from Rieti who composed works in Hebrew and Judeo-Italian.

Miqdash Me‘at (Little Sanctuary), his major work, is a transitionally post-medieval and philosophical Hebrew poem explicitly inspired by the Divine Comedy in both plot and structure, and also includes an encyclopedia of sciences, a Jewish paradise fantasy and a post-biblical history of Jewish literature. Miqdash Me‘at makes explicit metaphor in its structure as an homage to the Temple of Jerusalem. Rieti was influenced by Yehuda Romano. Rieti's style is complex and he speaks on behalf of the Jewish people, with Neoplatonism and Aristotelianism especially in the tradition of Maimonides, and follows the terza rima of Dante Alighieri, the first Hebrew poet to do so. Called a Hebrew Dante, Rieti's work exhibits a deep familiarity with the Tannaim, Geonim, and Amoraim, including contemporary philosophy in Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew.

He also authored a poetic dialogue between the Daughters of Zelophehad called Iggeret Ya‘ar ha-Levanon (Forest of Lebanon). Deborah Ascarelli translated his Me‘on haSho‘alim into Italian.

Biography

Rieti family tree by Vogelstein and Rieger (1896)

Moses was born in Rieti in 1388 to a certain Rabbi Isaac (Gaio), probably a banker. At the time, Rieti was home to a community of around 200 Jews. He left Rieti to study medicine but returned in 1422 to practice medicine and banking there, also maintaining philosophical interests. He had at least three sons: Isaac (Gaio), the firstborn, Leone, and Bonaiuto, and all three followed him into the trade. He was rabbi in Rome from 1431 and filled various community roles around the Papal States throughout his life, also maintaining a yeshiva in Narni. He died in Rome in 1466.

His great grandson, Elijah ben Raphael ben Isaac ben Moses, copied manuscripts of his work (BL Add. 27012, NLI Fr. 81.3) and another manuscript on his instructions (Milan J 105 Sup.), praising him as "the greatest of doctors" and including a tribute in verse which calls him "the third Moses". Prominent 16th-17th century members of the Rieti family were possibly his descendants as well.

Miqdash Me‘at

Begun in 1415 according to its text. Apparently unfinished. Sometimes cited by its two surviving sections Ulam and Heikhal, by its subsection Me‘on haSho‘alim (Tempio), or by the name Shalshelet haQabbalah. In rhyming decasyllabic tercets.

Manuscripts and editions

15th century Italian manuscript of Me‘on haSho‘alim in the Bodleian Library

There are more than 60 manuscripts of Miqdash Me‘at, and 17 complete. A holograph manuscript which once belonged to Mordecai Ghirondi is now Cambridge Add. 1193, containing many revisions by the author. A different manuscript (BL Add. 27012) was copied by Moses' great-grandson from a holograph, according to its colophon.

Joseph Almanzi prepared a critical edition (MS BL Add. 27001) in 1836-1838 based on these, MS Prague 229 (then "Reggio), MS Trinity College, Cambridge F 12.40 (then "Luzzatto"), and another copy, including some commentary. Jacob Goldenthal printed a text edited from 3 manuscripts (MSS Trin. Cam. F 12.40 (now "Mintz"), Vienna 102, Vienna 108) in Vienna, 1851. The first two subsections of the poem were reprinted from Goldenthal with English translation by Raymond P. Sheindlin in 2003. Selections from the Heikhal beginning פלא עצום and היום פנה were reprinted from Goldenthal with English translation by T. Carmi in the Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse (1981).

A modern critical edition was in progress as of 2003, and Orly Nissan had prepared a table of variant readings based on all known manuscripts. Silvia Negri was writing a dissertation on Miqdash Me‘at as of 2022. In March 2021, the Agence nationale de la recherche awarded Alessandro Guetta, Elizabeth Hollender, and Silvia Negri €240,624 for a 36-month project to produce an "English prose-translation and a critical edition with extensive notes and an in-depth research of the cultural context and reception."

Ending

MSS Cambridge Add. 1193 and BL Add. 17012 (inter alia) end abruptly with the words בא סנחריב, although a continuation ומחריב עירי (ממזרח שמש עד מבואו מהולל שם ה' אמן) is found in later hands in MS Kaufman A 532 f. 93r and MS Trinity College, Cambridge F 12.40 f. 109r, the latter being apparently the same mentioned by Goldenthal as owned by Meir Mintz of Lviv ben Alexander Ziskind Mintz of Brody (1813-1866). Other MSS (e.g. Bod. Canonici Or. 97 f. 53r) end without even בא סנחריב. Goldenthal, Luzzatto, and Isaac Samuel Reggio believed that ומחריב עירי was not original, and Almanzi also does not include it, but Steinschneider disagreed. In MS Paris 993 f. 39v a different ending: בא סנחריב ונטל ספירי.

Me‘on haSho‘alim and Translations

The subsection Me‘on HaShoalim, which is the second part of the Heikhal according to Goldenthal's edition, but opens many MSS, was apparently adopted liturgically by Italian Jews. According to Goldenthal, it was broken up into 7 daily recitations (MS Trin. Cam. F 12.40 preserves the division), while Guetta claims that it was designed for, and recited on, Yom Kippur, pointing to יום תרועה and יום נורא and יום ענוי לב and יום כפור in the text, as well as Viterbo's description תפלה נוראה / מזמור לתודה / ודוי ליום נורא / המלבן עונות ישראל. The commentary (v.i.) explains each as either describing the author's personal struggle or the eschaton. MS Guenzburg 669 f. 127r introduces Me‘on HaShoalim and Ascarelli's translation as a "confessional prayer". A prose penitential prayer beginning אשאלך ולא אשאל זולתך מעון השואלים תכלית חפץ המבקשים is first known from MS Vat. Ross. 499 (f. 336r-337v) , which was copied in 1446, and a similar text was printed in the 1617 Seder Ashmoret haBoqer f. 162r as a prayer for Sukkot. It "bears strong Dantean allusions and may also be linked with the mendicant trend to use Dante in sermons on penitence".

Me‘on HaShoalim uses anaphora, nine stanzas beginning with the word נפשי "my soul". There are at least 18 MSS of Me‘on HaShoalim by itself. The text differs widely across versions, and Goldenthal gives a list of variants.

The popularity of the work prompted "poetic competition" with "considerable aesthetic results". It was printed with Italian translation three times, all in hendecasyllabic tercets:

• Venice, c. 1585 with translation into Italian by Lazzaro da Viterbo (Elijah Maṣliaḥ), dedicated to "Donna, daughter of the great prince Solomon Corcos (קורקו"ש), long may he live." A certain Solomon ben David Corcos is known to have led the Roman community in the 16th century and is often conflated with Donna's father, but he died before 1558. She may be Deborah Ascarelli.
• Venice, c. 1602 with translation into Italian by Ascarelli (dedication by David della Rocca dated 20 October, 1601).
• Venice, 1609, with a translation into Judeo-Italian by(?) Samuel de Castelnuovo which strongly resembles Viterbo's.

Two further, anonymous translations into Italian are extant in manuscript, including:

• MS Bod. Quo. 197 ff. 19r-24r. Guetta dates this effort to roughly the same period as the printed versions (1585-1609) and calls it "among the more stylistically sophisticated of this group of translations, and clearly leans to a paraphrastic rendering of the Hebrew poem."
• Another found in several MSS, the earliest of which has a 1554 censor's mark: Bod. Mich. 11 (ff. 13r-32r), Casanatense 2728 (ff. 35r-42v), Milan X 157 (ff. 56v-77r) [Judeo-Italian], JTS 10062 (ff. 32v-49r) [Judeo-Italian], Trin. Cam. F 12 41 (ff. 1r-24r). Many variants are found between these five, and a sixth, MS Laurenziana Plut. II.29 (ff. 7r-13v), "can be considered as a systematic rewriting of the previous ones, as it follows them but is written in a more elegant Italian and with a total respect of the metric" according to Guetta. Steinschneider, by contrast, describes MS Plut. II.29 as similar to Castelnuovo's.

First 3 verses of Me‘on haSho‘alim, parallel text
Hebrew Original	Literal English	Viterbo's translation (1585)	Ascarelli's translation (1601)	MS Bod. 4.197
מעון השואלים תכלית חפץ כל מבקש חיים ורחמים ומעיין ברכתך רב טוב יפץ‎	O Refuge of Questioners, quest's end for all who seek kindness and mercy. Your well of blessings scatters much good.	Tempio d'ogni Orator fin'e desio Dichipietà ricerca, e gratie tante, Semens Fonte di vita benedetto, e pio.	O Tempio di chi chiede un fin perfetto, Di chi ricerca fol gratia, & amore, E dà vita il tuo fonte benedetto.	Al tempio ove chi cerca un fin perfetto Ove chi vuol pietade, alto signore Vita dal fonte suo tragg' e diletto
באתי היום מך ומעי הומים יודע בי כי דלף לגיחון מוצא מימי אל נחל קדומים‎	Today I came poor and trembling, I know I'm a trickle to the Gihon. An ancient river runs from God's sea.	Vengo boggi humil col cor, dentro tremante, Sò che'l mio riuo, e breue stilla al Gange, Al gran fiume di quei che furo anante?	Pouer hor furgo, e con tremante core, Che quale stilla al Gange fia stimato A l'antico il mio stil tant'è minore.	Vengo hoggi humil con palpitante cuore Ben' ch'el mio dir qual goccia sia stimato D'acqua appo il Gange e fium' altro maggiore
מתנפל על פנים שח על גחון בכניעות חיל ושבירות הלב אולי תכפר אל אולי תחון‎	I fall on my face, flat on my belly, with little strength and a broken heart, Can you forgive me, God? Have mercy?	Con viso chino, il corpo steso piange, Senza vigor, e'l cor dirotto in tutto, Forse perdoni Iddio, si strugge ange?	Con faccia china, e col corpo prostrato Có debol forza, e cuor di doglia îuolto, Forse dal mio Signor fia perdonato.	Col viso chino, e sul terren prostrato Debil' e stanco, e pur col' cuor dirotto Veng'à chieder perdon, del mio peccato

Commentaries

• There was a commentary to Me‘on haSho‘alim or perhaps to the whole of Miqdash Me‘at in Turin MS A.V. 27 by "Judah miNizza the Frenchman of House Trabot", which apparently perished in a 1904 fire.
• A different(?) anonymous commentary is known from many manuscripts, explaining the biographical references in the Heikhal section, and Goldenthal printed it in his 1851 edition. Some comments are attributed to Moses himself, with an honorific for the dead. This commentary serves as an important source for Gedaliah ibn Yahya's Shalshelet haQabbalah. Almanzi speculates that the author is Mordecai ben Abraham Finzi. In MS Wrocław F 46908 (17) there are very limited biographical notes inside the text but this commentary is transcribed separately at the back in a later hand. MS Cambridge Add. 1193 contains a sparser version, from the author himself. MS Trin. Cam. F 12.40 contains this commentary and also further notes in later hand and an introduction to the biographical section quoted from Moses.
• MSS BL 27001 (the 16th-century base), BL 27121, Parma 2099, and Guenzburg 213 [fragmentary] include an lengthy exegetical commentary on the rest of the poem.

Iggeret Ya‘ar haLevanon

A dialogue in rhymed prose, apparently unfinished. Mahlah and Noa speak mournfully about diaspora and the world's fallen state. In a continuation accepted by Almanzi, Tirzah and Milcah continue the discussion.

According to George Margoulioth, "the copyist [of BL Add. 27012], who was the author's great-grandson, clearly regarded the אגרת יער הלבנון as part of the מקדש מעט." Elijah opens his manuscript ספר מקדש מעט כולו: האולם וההיכל ואגרת יער הלבנון and leaves one blank page between both the Ulam and the Heikhal, and the Heikhal and the Iggeret. However, there is no direct evidence that Rieti considered them parts of the same work and no recent scholarship takes up Margoulioth's theory.

Manuscripts

Call #	ff.	Title	Note	Used by Guetta
Cambridge Add. 1193	33r-38v	–	Holograph. Ff. 39v-40r contain a nine-stanza verse poem beginning מי האמין, not in Rieti's hand, which Almanzi judges a later imitation and Reif calls "apparently Rieti's work". Steinschneider too accepted it as Rieti's work.	No
BL Add. 27012	81v-87v	Iggeret	Copied from a holograph by Rieti's great-grandson. After 3 blank pages a continuation in prose beginning הנה מצאנו, which Almanzi accepts.	Yes
Bod. Mich. 11	192r-199v	?	?	Yes
Bod. Can. Or. 97	55v-59r	Iggeret		Yes
Wrocław F 46908 (17)	10v-17v	Melitzat		No
Vienna 108	70v-76r	–		Yes
Parma 2653	55v-59r	Iggeret	Followed immediately by הנה מצאנו (f. 59r), but with all content attributed directly to הרב הריאיטי ז"ל instead of Milcah and Tirzah.	Yes
Guenzburg 736	106r-108v	–	F. 108 is heavily damaged but the text was never complete. The last words visible are בלילה ואפלה.	Yes
Guenzburg 1238	18r-18v	–	Cuts off at מלא עלבון.	No
(Ex-)Montefiore 484	11r-18v	–	Contains the entire text and, after a blank page, the continuation הנה מצאנו. Before the blank page a later hand adds something about Vienna 108 in brackets.	No
(Ex-)Montefiore 488	62v-64r	Iggeret		No

Trin. Cam. F 12 40 claims to contain the Iggeret on its flyleaf, but not extant.

Editions

• Joseph Almanzi (MS BL Add. 27001 ff. 5r-7v) in 1836, based mostly on the holographs. Includes both מי האמין and הנה מצאנו, although he does not consider מי האמין Rieti's work.
• Alessandro Guetta (REJ 164 (2005), "Ya'ar Ha-Levanon, ou la quête de la connaissance perdue") based on the marked manuscripts, which according to him presented only slight differences, and Almanzi's edition. Also includes translation into French. Includes neither מי האמין nor הנה מצאנו.

Urah Urah Qol She‘oni

The incipit in MS Naples F 12, but other MSS only Urah Qol She‘oni. A uniquely personal ḳinah (elegy) for his wife, who died at the age of seventy after fifty-two years of married life. Rhymed prose composed c. 1460, making it the oldest known example of of a personal Hebrew elegy.

His wife's name

The main text of the composition is 8 parts ending אזכיר את שמך כאיש נקשה / צפורה אשת משה I mention your name with difficulty / Tzipporah, wife of Moses, which gave rise to the assumption that his wife's name was Tzipporah. In MS Naples this is followed by an inscription "I, Moses son of the honored Isaac, your husband, the one that mourns you, have written these 8 passages in tears" but the same hand continues with a a 4-line poem beginning קולי אחותי צלה ברמתי, and a version of the continuation in rhymed prose is incorporated into MS Bod. Can. Or. 97 after a spacer. Both modern editions assume it is original and that her name was Cilla (also transliterated Zilla, Sella), the reference to "Tzipporah" being allegorical. Steinschneider gives "Sara", apparently following Almanzi's interpretation of the first stanza of מי האמין (which, however, Almanzi does not attribute to Rieti). See also Vogelstein and Rieger, vol. II p. 74.

Manuscripts

According to Guetta, MS Naples is the most complete and accurate manuscript, preserving the 8-part division which Rieti describes in his postscript. Three other manuscripts contain both Urah Urah Qol She‘oni and letters of Solomon of Poggibonsi, who apparently maintained an affection for this poem. A fifth manuscript (Guenzburg 1208) contains only the very beginning of the poem.

Call #	ff.	Note
Naples F 12	85r	The most complete and accurate (Guetta)
Bod. Can. Or. 97	59v-60v	With letters by Solomon of Poggibonsi
Bod. Mich. 391	207v-208r	With letters by Solomon of Poggibonsi
Florence Plut. 88.19	44r-44v	With letters by Solomon of Poggibonsi
Guenzburg 1208	142v	First lines only, missing after יצאוני ואינם

Editions

• Printed by Ariel Toaff in Gli ebrei a Perugia (1975) pp. 273-275.
• Edited by Alessandro Guetta, "לב לבבי הנאהב' : הקינה של משה בן יצחק מריאטי על פטירת אשתו'" in Teuda vol. XIX (2002) pp. 309-327. Based on Naples F 12, with a very partial list of variants from the other manuscripts (except Guenzburg 1208).

Other Works

Poetic

• Letter in rhymed prose, in which Rieti reflects on his youth as a poet and his transition to philosophy. Included in the many MSS of Elia da Genazzano's Iggeret Ḥamudot and printed with that work ed. A. W. Greenup in London, 1912, and again ed. Fabrizio Lelli with a translation into Italian in Florence, 2002. See also Fabrizio Lelli, "The Origins of the Jewish Autobiography Genre: Yohanan Alemmano (1434 to after 1504) and Abraham Yagel (1553-1623)," EAJS Newsletter 12 (2002): 4-8.
• An elegy beginning Mi he‘emin leshmu‘ati. Cambridge Add. MS 1193 ff. 39v-40r contain this nine-stanza verse poem, not in Rieti's hand and on different paper, which Almanzi judges a later imitation and Reif calls "apparently Rieti's work". Steinschneider too considered the elegy genuine, apparently understanding it as a second poem about Rieti's wife (compare Urah Urah Qol She‘oni above).
• (A poem beginning Begodel erekh hahigayon (MS Bod. Mich. 746, f. 114r) is ascribed to משה מריאטו, but this may be Moses ben Joab of Rieti, an unrelated successor. See Jacob Buchsenbaum, אגרות בית ריאטי (1988), "Introduction".)

Medical

• Commentary on Hippocrates' Aphorisms, in several manuscripts. Some comments in Frankfurt MS Oct. 103 perhaps by Rieti's own hand.
• Commentary to Avicenna's Canon, taken mostly from Joshua Lorki (MS Casanatense 2834 ff. 64r-186v). The copyist writes "Commentary of Joseph Lorki" and a second hand contributes "But this is not so. It is the commentary of the rabbi Rieti, who took most of it from Lorki".
• Diverse cures. One apparently unique MS of cures, of which only 2 folios remain (NLI Fr. 81.3), was described by Alexander Marx in Jewish Luminaries in Medical History (1946) p. 130-131, and published by Joshua Leibowitz and Solomon Marcus in Kiryat Sefer vol. XLII, pp. 246-251. It was copied by a certain Elijah, probably the author's great-grandson (cf. MSS BL Add. 27012 and Milan J 105 Sup.). Another set of cures is found MS Florence Magl. II.XI.27 f. 107r-119r (the last folio in a different hand), and others are scattered in collections.
• (Comments to Ali ibn Ridwan's commentary on Galen, under the name התלמיד "the Student", were tentatively ascribed to Rieti by Steinschneider. But this is impossible, as the manuscript was copied in 1384.)

Philosophical

• Notes to Averroes' commentary on the Isagoge of Porphyry are quoted in the margins of MSS Parma 2762 (ff. 1r, 4v) and 3026 (ff. 11r-11v), including a mention of Levi ben Gershon's commentaries on Averroes. Rieti also compiled a breviary of Averroes's works for his sons, including original comments (holograph MS Conv. Soppr. 12, completed in 1456-7), and discusses them in the 4th part of the Ulam.
• Notes to Moses Narboni's commentary on Ghazali's Maḳaṣid al-Falasifah are found in the margins of MSS Munich 110, Munich 121, Berlin Qu. 521, and Parma 2451.
• Aphorisms (MS Bod. Mich. 291, ff. 168r-195v).
• Fragment at the head of MS Bod. Opp. 597, introduced מצאתי זה בכתב ארחי כתב יד כ"ר משה דריאיטי.
• Comments under משה or המחבר in MS HUC 722.
• An extensive "popularizing" work in Judaeo-Italian, apparently incomplete. The first part discusses the natural philosophy of Aristotle; the second is a treatise upon God; the third, of which only a fragment has been preserved, covers Jewish history from the beginning to the time of the author. Published as Filosofia Naturale e Fatti de Deo by Irene Hijmans-Tromp. Brill, 1989.

Biblical

• Super-commentary on Rashi (MS AIU 174), containing exegetical remarks on both Rashi and the Biblical text, some from a philosophical perspective. Two comments were published by Israel Levi, "Quelques Manuscrits du Minhat Yehouda de Juda b. Eliezer" in REJ vol. L (1905) p. 52, and another appears in Tosafot haShalem ed. Jacob Gellis vol. V p. 165.
• Comment on the Solomonic books, explaining them as philosophical works and the ultimate source of Aristotle's thought (Parma 2653 f. 59v, Cambridge Add. 1182 f. 65v). A similar idea appears in the Khazari and other medievals.'
• Other scattered comments

Miscellaneous

• Polemic against John of Capistrano or Giannozzo Manetti (MS Bod. Mich. 291, ff. 168r-195v). Philippe Bobichon was preparing an edition as of 2002 and 2015.
• Letter concerning various astronomical and philosophical subjects, composed in 1459 (MS Munich 315 f. 83v-84v)
• Literary-biographical comments, some found in MS Cambridge Add. 1193 and others quoted by various MSS of commentary to the Heikhal section of his Miqdash Me‘at.
• He is possibly the author of an endorsement which is attributed to "Moses ben Isaac" of the totally obscure Sefer haMa‘alot by Moses ben Judah of Perugia (MS Casanatense 3114 f. 31r).
• (Solomon of Poggibonsi wrote several letters "on behalf of Moses of Rieti" or "on behalf of Moses ben Isaac of Rieti", including 3 published by Shlomo Simonsohn in Qovetz Al-Yad vol. XV:2 p. 405, 409-410 and another described by Neubauer in haṢofeh lehaMaggid (15 July, 1868) p. 221. These letters describe an influential banker and bibliophile, and poems by our Moses are found together with Solomon's letters in four different manuscripts. Nonetheless it is unlikely that Solomon (who married in 1489) ever met Moses (who died before 1466), so a different person of the same name may be meant. Solomon is mentioned in the poetry of Moses ben Joab of Rieti, who was not related to our Moses.)
• (Moshe Hallamish cites a comment from Rieti quoting Menahem Azariah da Fano about the ushpizin, but this is impossible, the result of a critical typographic error in his source. Da Fano (רמ"ע) was not born until a century after Rieti's death.)
• (Menachem Mendel Krengel suggests that Rieti was quoted by Hayyim ben Jacob Ovadia de Bosal (d. 1560) in an MS cited by Chaim Benveniste, saying that one who accidentally says the weekday Amidah on Shabbat must repeat the prayer. But this is impossible, as Benveniste describes "the book Miqdash Me‘at by a student of Yom Tov of Seville," and Yom Tov died in 1320.)

Further reading

• Rieti, Moses ben Isaac da (1989). Mosè da Rieti, Filosofia naturale ; e, Fatti de Dio: testo ineditodel secolo XV (in Italian). Brill Archive. ISBN 978-90-04-09087-3.
• Rieti, Moses ben Isaac da (1851). מקדש מעט: ... [שיר דידקתי כתבנית השיר של דנטי] (in Hebrew). דפוס אלמנת י"פ זולינגער.
• "Rieti, Moses ben Isaac da, 1388-1460? ריאיטי, משה - Hebrew and Judaica Manuscripts". hebrew.bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-09-28.

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

• Zunz, in Geiger's Jüd. Zeit. ii. 321-322;
• Luzzatto, in Dukes' Ehrensäulen, p. 50;
• Carmoly, in Jost's Annalen, i. 55, 63;
• idem, in Orient, Lit. ii. 234;
• Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1984;
• idem, Hebr. Uebers. pp. 28, 76, 462, 660;
• Berliner, Gesch. der Juden in Rom, ii. 121;
• Güdemann, Gesch. ii. 127;
• Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch. der Juden in Rom, ii. 68 et seq.

Apparatus

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "MOSES BEN ISAAC (GAJO) OF RIETI". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.