Shabbethai Donnolo
Encyclopedia
Shabbethai Donnolo (Hebrew: שבתי דונולו) was an Italian
physician, and writer on medicine and astrology born at Oria
. When twelve years of age he was made prisoner by the Arabs under the leadership of the Fatimite Abu Ahmad Ja'far ibn 'Ubaid, but was ransomed by his relatives at Otranto
, while the rest of his family was carried to Palermo
and North Africa
. He turned to medicine and astrology for a livelihood, studying the sciences of "the Greeks, Arabs, Babylonians, and Indians." As no Jews at that time busied themselves with these subjects, he traveled in Italy
in search of learned non-Jews. His special teacher was an Arab from Baghdad
. According to the biography of Nilus, abbot of Rossano
, he practiced medicine for some time in that city. Later he would become the Byzantine
court physcian. The alleged gravestone of Donnolo, found by Firkovich in the Crimea
, is evidently spurious.
Donnolo is the earliest Jewish writer on medicine
, and one of the few Jewish scholars of South Italy
at this early time. What remains of his medical work, Sefer ha-Yaḳar (Precious Book), was published by Moritz Steinschneider
in 1867, from MS. 37, Plut. 88, in the Medicean Library
at Florence
, and contains an "antidotarium," or book of practical directions for preparing medicinal roots. Donnolo's medical science is based upon Greco-Latin sources; only one Arabic
plant-name occurs. He cites Asaph ben Berekhyah.
In addition, he wrote a commentary to the Sefer Yeẓirah
, dealing almost wholly with astrology
, and called Ḥakhmoni (in one manuscript, Taḥkemoni; see II Sam.
xxiii.8; I Chron. xi.11). At the end of the preface is a table giving the position of the heavenly bodies in Elul
946. The treatise published by Adolf Neubauer
(Rev. Et. Juives, xxii.214) is part of a religio-astrological commentary on Gen. i.26 (written in 982), which probably formed a sort of introduction to the Ḥakhmoni, in which the idea that man is a microcosm is worked out. Parts of this introduction are found word for word in the anonymous Orḥot Ẓaddiḳim (or Sefer Middot) and the Shebeṭ Musar of Elijah Kohen. It was published separately by Jellinek
(Der Mensch als Ebenbild Gottes, Leipzig, 1845).
The style of Donnolo is worthy of note; many Hebrew forms and words are here found for the first time. He uses the acrostic freely, giving his own name not only in the poetic mosaic of passages from the Book of Proverbs
in the Bodleian fragment, but also in the rimed prose introduction to the Ḥakemani. He is also the first to cite the Midrash Tehillim
. In the Pseudo-Saadia
commentary to Yeẓirah there are many citations from Donnolo, notably from a lost commentary of his on the Baraita of Samuel
. Abraham Epstein
has shown that extensive extracts from Donnolo are also to be found in Eleazar Roḳeaḥ's Yeẓirah commentary (ed. Przemysl, 1889), even to the extent of the tables and illustrations. He is also mentioned by Rashi
(to Er.
56a), by Samuel of Acco (who calls the Ḥakemani the Sefer ha-Mazzalot), and by Solomon ben Judah (1424) in his Ḥesheḳ Shelomoh to Judah Halevi's Cuzari.
Italian Jews
Italian Jews can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living or with roots in Italy or in a narrower sense to mean the ancient community who use the Italian rite, as distinct from the communities dating from medieval or modern times who use the Sephardi or Ashkenazi rite.-Divisions:Italian...
physician, and writer on medicine and astrology born at Oria
Oria, Italy
Oria is a town and comune in the Apulia region, in the province of Brindisi, in southern Italy. It is the see city of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oria.- History :...
. When twelve years of age he was made prisoner by the Arabs under the leadership of the Fatimite Abu Ahmad Ja'far ibn 'Ubaid, but was ransomed by his relatives at Otranto
Otranto
Otranto is a town and comune in the province of Lecce , in a fertile region once famous for its breed of horses.It is located on the east coast of the Salento peninsula. The Strait of Otranto, to which the city gives its name, connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea and Italy with Albania...
, while the rest of his family was carried to Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
and North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
. He turned to medicine and astrology for a livelihood, studying the sciences of "the Greeks, Arabs, Babylonians, and Indians." As no Jews at that time busied themselves with these subjects, he traveled in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
in search of learned non-Jews. His special teacher was an Arab from Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
. According to the biography of Nilus, abbot of Rossano
Rossano
Rossano is a town and comune in Southern Italy, in the province of Cosenza . The city is situated on an eminence c. 3. km from the Gulf of Taranto. The town is known for its marble and alabaster quarries....
, he practiced medicine for some time in that city. Later he would become the Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
court physcian. The alleged gravestone of Donnolo, found by Firkovich in the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
, is evidently spurious.
Donnolo is the earliest Jewish writer on medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, and one of the few Jewish scholars of South Italy
South Italy
South Italy is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics , a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency. South Italy encompasses six of the country's 20 regions:*Abruzzo...
at this early time. What remains of his medical work, Sefer ha-Yaḳar (Precious Book), was published by Moritz Steinschneider
Moritz Steinschneider
Moritz Steinschneider was a Bohemian bibliographer and Orientalist. He received his early instruction in Hebrew from his father, Jacob Steinschneider , who was not only an expert Talmudist, but was also well versed in secular science...
in 1867, from MS. 37, Plut. 88, in the Medicean Library
Laurentian Library
The Laurentian Library is a historical library in Florence, Italy, containing a repository of more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books...
at Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, and contains an "antidotarium," or book of practical directions for preparing medicinal roots. Donnolo's medical science is based upon Greco-Latin sources; only one Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
plant-name occurs. He cites Asaph ben Berekhyah.
In addition, he wrote a commentary to the Sefer Yeẓirah
Sefer Yetzirah
Sefer Yetzirah is the title of the earliest extant book on Jewish esotericism, although some early commentators treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory as opposed to Kabbalah...
, dealing almost wholly with astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
, and called Ḥakhmoni (in one manuscript, Taḥkemoni; see II Sam.
Sam.
Sam. can refer to:*Samvat*Books of Samuel...
xxiii.8; I Chron. xi.11). At the end of the preface is a table giving the position of the heavenly bodies in Elul
Elul
Elul is the twelfth month of the Jewish civil year and the sixth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a summer month of 29 days...
946. The treatise published by Adolf Neubauer
Adolf Neubauer
Adolf Neubauer was sublibrarian at the Bodleian Library and reader in Rabbinic Hebrew at Oxford University....
(Rev. Et. Juives, xxii.214) is part of a religio-astrological commentary on Gen. i.26 (written in 982), which probably formed a sort of introduction to the Ḥakhmoni, in which the idea that man is a microcosm is worked out. Parts of this introduction are found word for word in the anonymous Orḥot Ẓaddiḳim (or Sefer Middot) and the Shebeṭ Musar of Elijah Kohen. It was published separately by Jellinek
Jellinek
Jellinek is a surname and may refer to:* Adolf Jellinek , an Austrian rabbi and scholar.** Max Hermann Jellinek , son of Adolf Jellinek* E...
(Der Mensch als Ebenbild Gottes, Leipzig, 1845).
The style of Donnolo is worthy of note; many Hebrew forms and words are here found for the first time. He uses the acrostic freely, giving his own name not only in the poetic mosaic of passages from the Book of Proverbs
Book of Proverbs
The Book of Proverbs , commonly referred to simply as Proverbs, is a book of the Hebrew Bible.The original Hebrew title of the book of Proverbs is "Míshlê Shlomoh" . When translated into Greek and Latin, the title took on different forms. In the Greek Septuagint the title became "paroimai paroimiae"...
in the Bodleian fragment, but also in the rimed prose introduction to the Ḥakemani. He is also the first to cite the Midrash Tehillim
Midrash Tehillim
Midrash Tehillim or Midrash to Psalms is a haggadic midrash known since the 11th century, when it was quoted by Nathan of Rome in his Aruk , by R. Isaac ben Judah ibn Ghayyat in his Halakot , and by Rashi in his commentary on I Sam. xvii. 49, and on many other passages. This midrash is called also...
. In the Pseudo-Saadia
Saadia
Saadia is a Jewish name and Arabic name. it can refer to several people:*Saadia Gaon - Ninth century rabbi, philosopher, and exegete of the Geonic period.*Saadia Afzaal - Pakistani journalist and television news anchor....
commentary to Yeẓirah there are many citations from Donnolo, notably from a lost commentary of his on the Baraita of Samuel
Baraita of Samuel
A Baraita of Samuel was known to Jewish scholars from Shabbethai Donolo in the 10th century to Simon Duran in the 15th century, and citations from it were made by them. It was considered as lost until around 1900, when it unexpectedly appeared in print.In its present form, the Baraita is composed...
. Abraham Epstein
Abraham Epstein
Abraham Epstein was a Russo-Austrian rabbinical scholar born in Staro Constantinov, Volhynia.Epstein diligently studied the works of Levinsohn, Krochmal, and S. D. Luzzatto, and when he traveled in western Europe for the first time in 1861, he made the acquaintance of J. L. Rapoport, Z. Frankel,...
has shown that extensive extracts from Donnolo are also to be found in Eleazar Roḳeaḥ's Yeẓirah commentary (ed. Przemysl, 1889), even to the extent of the tables and illustrations. He is also mentioned by Rashi
Rashi
Shlomo Yitzhaki , or in Latin Salomon Isaacides, and today generally known by the acronym Rashi , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh...
(to Er.
Moed
Moed is the second Order of the Mishnah, the first written recording of the Oral Torah of the Jewish people . Of the six orders of the Mishna, Moed is the third shortest. The order of Moed consists of 12 tractates:# Shabbat: or Shabbath deals with the 39 prohibitions of "work" on the Shabbat...
56a), by Samuel of Acco (who calls the Ḥakemani the Sefer ha-Mazzalot), and by Solomon ben Judah (1424) in his Ḥesheḳ Shelomoh to Judah Halevi's Cuzari.
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
- Preface to Ḥakemani, published by Abraham GeigerAbraham GeigerAbraham Geiger was a German rabbi and scholar who led the founding of Reform Judaism...
, in Melo Chofnajim, p. 29 (p. 95 of German text), the whole by D. Castelli; - Il Commenti di Sabb. Donnolo sul Libro della Creazione, Florence, 1880 (reprinted in Sefer Yeẓirah, pp. 121–148, Warsaw, 1884).
- Text of medical fragments, edited by M. Steinschneider — Donnolo, Fragment des Aeltesten Med. Werkes, etc., 1867;
- translation in idem, Donnolo (Berlin, 1868; from Archiv für Pathologische Anatomic, vols. xxxviii-xlii)
- See, also, Biography of Nilus, in Acta Sanctorum, vii.313;
- Leopold ZunzLeopold ZunzLeopold Zunz was a German Reform rabbi and writer, the founder of what has been termed "Jewish Studies" or "Judaic Studies" , the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual...
, G.V. 2d ed., p. 375; - Moritz SteinschneiderMoritz SteinschneiderMoritz Steinschneider was a Bohemian bibliographer and Orientalist. He received his early instruction in Hebrew from his father, Jacob Steinschneider , who was not only an expert Talmudist, but was also well versed in secular science...
, Cat. Bodl. col. 2231 et seq.;- idem, Hebr. Uebers. p. 446;
- idem, in Monatsschrift, xlii.121;
- A. Epstein, in ib. xxxix.75 et seq.;
- Heinrich GraetzHeinrich GraetzHeinrich Graetz was amongst the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective....
, Gesch. 3d ed., v.292; - BuberBuberBuber is a surname. It may refer to:* Martin Buber, Austrian-born Israeli Jewish scholar, socialist, Zionist, and prominent advocate of a joint Jewish-Arab state of Israel...
, Lekah Tob, p. 22; - Berliner's Magazin, 1892, p. 79;
- Isaac Hirsch WeissIsaac Hirsch WeissIsaac Hirsch Weiss, also Eisik Hirsch Weiss was an Austrian Talmudist and historian of literature born at Velké Meziříčí, Moravia....
, Dor, iv.227, Vienna, 1887.
External links
- Jewish Encyclopedia article on Shabbethai Donnolo, by Richard Gottheil.