Abraham Portaleone
{{Short description|Italian-Jewish physician}}
Abraham Portaleone (died July 29, 1612) was an Italian-Jewish physician in Mantua. He was a pupil of Jacob Fano.
Life
File:Portaleone De auro dialogi tres.jpg
The Dukes Guglielmo and Vincenzo of Mantua, in whose service he was, granted him privileges in 1577 and 1587 respectively; and Pope Gregory XIV. 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{{cite web|url=http://web.uniud.it/isr/data/s/ase.htm |title=ISR - Annali di storia dell'esegesi |accessdate=2007-11-15 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080303215356/http://web.uniud.it/isr/data/s/ase.htm |archivedate=2008-03-03 }}:Included in the central theme of the description of Solomon's temple and the liturgical service are scientific and profane subjects. Related to the theatra mundi, the work originates in the meeting of Lullyian medieval mnemotechnical theories with Hermetic Cabbalistic thought. Solomon’s temple acquires a metaphysical meaning: the tempus sapientiae takes the place of the theatrum mundi. that related arts and sciences to the Temple;Matt Goldish, Judaism in the Theology of Sir Isaac Newton, p. 86. it included techniques of warfare.Raphael Patai, The Jewish Mind (1996), p. 171. It was printed in 1612.[http://www.authorama.com/chapters-on-jewish-literature-21.html Chapters On Jewish Literature - Chapter XXI. Historians and Chroniclers (by Israel Abrahams)] Abraham MelamedMedieval and Renaissance Political Philosophy, p. 433, in History of Jewish Philosophy, edited Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman. 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 {{ISBN|978 88 222 6273 8}}.
External links
- [http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=455&letter=P Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. "PORTALEONE"]
- [http://www.chez.com/jec2/archportaleo.htm Lecture by Alessandro Guetta]
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Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:People from the Duchy of Mantua
Category:16th-century Italian Jews
Category:Italian encyclopedists