Don Isaac Abravanel: An Intellectual Biography (The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry) - Hardcover

Cohen-Skalli, Cedric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1684580234 ISBN 13: 9781684580231

Publisher: Brandeis University Press, 2020

Synopsis

Don Isaac Abravanel (1437–1508) was one of the great inventors of Jewish modernity. A merchant, banker, and court financier, a scholar versed in both Jewish and Christian writings, a preacher and exegete, a prominent political actor in royal entourages and Jewish communities, Abravanel was one of the greatest leaders and thinkers of Iberian Jewry in the aftermath of the expulsion of 1492. This book, the first new intellectual biography of Abravanel in twenty years, depicts his life in three cultural milieus—Portugal, Castile, and post-expulsion Italy—and analyzes his major literary accomplishments in each period. Abravanel was a traditionalist with innovative ideas, a man with one foot in the Middle Ages and the other in the Renaissance. An erudite scholar, author of a monumental exegetical opus that is still studied today, and an avid book collector, he was a transitional figure, defined by an age of contradictions. Yet, it is these very contradictions that make him such an important personality for understanding the dawn of Jewish modernity.

About this title

About the Author

Cedric Cohen-Skalli teaches early modern and modern Jewish philosophy at the University of Haifa and is the director of the Bucerius Institute for the Research of Contemporary German History and Society.

Edition details

• Publisher: Brandeis University Press
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1684580234
• ISBN 13: 9781684580231
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368