Elijah Of Pesaro

Italian Talmudist and philosopher of the sixteenth century. After a long residence in Venice as Talmudic teacher, he started for Palestine (1563). Arrived at Famagusta, in Cyprus, he heard that the cholera was devastating the Holy Land and decided to go no farther. He wrote a number of works which are preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris (MS. No. 24). They comprise a commentary on Job, an allegorical explanation of the Song of Songs, a philosophical treatise on the Talmud and Midrashim, a funeral oration on the death of R. Mordecai Kunavoti, a fragment of his commentary on Jonah, a number of sermons, and a letter written from Famagusta to his relatives at Venice in which he described his journey to the former place. It has been translated into German by Jost ("Jahrbuch für die Gesehichte der Juden," 1861) and into French by Moïse Schwab ("Revue de Géographie," 1877).

Bibliography:

  * S. J. Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 118,
  * Carmoly, in Revue Orientale, i. 92;
  * Steinschneider, Jewish Literature, p. 257;
  * Orient, Lit. ii. 444.



L. G. M. Sel.