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Azriel Petahiah (Bonaiuto) Ben Moshe ALATINO (at the turn of the seventeenth century): Vikkuah al-nitzhiyyut ha-Torah. The disputation took place in April 1617 in Ferrara between the author and a Jesuit priest named Alfonso Caracciolo.

Edition

The text of the disputation was edited in Livorno: G. Jaré (ed), Vikkuah al Nitzhiyyut ha-Torah: ba-ir Firarah...bi-shenat 377...ve-Nispah elav ha-Pereq 25 mi-Maamar 3 le-Sefer ha-Ikarim (Livorno, 1876). The text was reprinted in J. D. Eisenstein (ed), Ozar Vikkuhim (New York, 1929) 193-200 and in Qetaim mi-Sifrut ha-Pulmus (Jerusalem, 1969-70).

Manuscripts

The text of the disputation is extant in thirteen manuscripts:

1. Budapest, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Kaufmann Collection (BUD 299, seventeenth-century Italian type handwriting), 116-149

   The item is digitized.

2. Budapest, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Kaufmann Collection (BUD 311, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 238-246

   The item is digitized.

3. Budapest, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Kaufmann Collection (BUD 557, seventeenth-eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 225-257

   The item is digitized.

4. Jerusalem, Mosad ha-Rav Kook (JER KOOK 38, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-19v
5. London, British Library (LON BL 1066 = LON BL Add. 26948, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 18r-26r

   The item is digitized.

6. Mantova, Comunita Israelitica (MANT 67, seventeenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-18v

   The item is digitized.

7. Moscow, Russian State Library, Günzburg Collection (MOS RSL 279, seventeenth-century Italian type handwriting), 163r-173r
8. New York, Jewish Theological Seminary (NY JTS 2336, seventeenth-century Italian type handwriting), 139r-153r

   The item is digitized.

9. New York, Jewish Theological Seminary (NY JTS 2381, seventeenth-eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-8v, defective

   The item is digitized.

10. New York, Jewish Theological Seminary (NY JTS 2461, seventeenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-13r

    The item is digitized.

11. Oxford, Bodleian Library (OX 2587, seventeenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-17v
12. Oxford, Bodleian Library (OX 2785, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 5r-20r
13. Parma, Biblioteca Palatina (PARMA 2741, eighteenth-century, Italian /Rashi/ type handwriting), 1r-15v

    The item is digitized.

Secondary Literature

• G. B. de Rossi, Bibliotheca Judaica Antichristiana (Parma, 1800), 172.
• M.S. Ghirondi, Toledoth Gedole Yisrael u-Geone Italia (Trieste, 1853), 128, 289.
• M. Steinschneider, 'Hebraica', Hebräische Bibliographie 16 (1876), 49-50.
• M. Steinschneider, 'Die italienische Literatur der Juden', MGWJ 43 (1889/5), 317.
• H. Grätz, Geschichte der Juden von den ältesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart, 11 vols. (Leipzig, 1890-19083), 9: 43.
• M. Steinschneider, Die hebräischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters und die Juden als Dolmetscher. Ein Beitrag zur Literaturgeschichte des Mittelalters, meist nach handschriftlichen Quellen, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1893), 1:126. n. 128.
• J. Bergmann, 'Deux polémistes juifs italiens', REJ 40 (1900), 199-205.
• Jewish Encyclopedia Online Edition: Alatino
• A. Marx, 'The Polemical Manuscripts in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary in America', in Studies in Jewish Bibliography and Related Subjects in Memory of Abraham Solomon Freidus (1867-1923) (New York, 1929), 251, 255.
• J. Rosenthal, 'Anti-Christian Polemics from its Beginnings to the end of the Eighteenth Century', Areseth 2 (1960), 157. no. 106. (in Hebrew)
• C. Roth, Jews in the Renaissance (Philadelphia, 1959) 82-85.
• D. J. Lasker, Jewish Philosophical Polemics against Christianity in the Middle Ages (Jerusalem, 1977), 18.
• C. Roth, Encyclopaedia Judaica, 22 vols. (Jerusalem, 20072), 1:578.
• J. Maier, Geschichte der jüdischen Literatur (Freiburg, 1992), 517.
• S. Krauss, The Jewish-Christian Controversy: From the Earliest Time to 1789 (ed. W. Horbury; Tübingen, 1995), 178-180, 206-207, 245.
• B. Richler (ed), Hebrew Manuscripts in the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma (Jerusalem, 2001), 403.
• R. C. Melzi, 'Dialogue or dispute? Two Jewish Documents of the Early Seventeenth Century', Italia 82 (2005/3-4), 480-485.
• A. Salah, La République des lettres Rabbins, crivains et médecins juifs en Italie au XVIIIe siecle (Leiden, 2007), 27.

© Karoly Daniel Dobos: Jewish-Christian Polemics in Early Modern Italy

Research that enabled the preparation of this bibliography was sponsored by the Anniversary Fund of the National Bank of Austria (Jubiläumsfonds der Österreichischen Nationalbank, project number: 16099: "Jüdisch-christiliche Polemik: Akkulturation und Modernisierung")

Jubilaeumsfonds

The webpage was created by Karoly Daniel Dobos