Bresch Or Bres, Judah Löw Ben Moses Naphtali (Paulus Æmilius?)

Translator of the Pentateuch into Judæo-German; lived in Germany in the sixteenth century, He is known only from De Rossi (s.v. "Guida Figlio di Mose Naftali Bres"; Hamberger, s.v. "Bress"), who credits him with the translation which first appeared in Cremona in 1560 and was reprinted in Basel in 1583, and which, besides the Pentateuch, contains a translation of the Hafṭarot and the five Megillot with extracts from Rashi's commentary. But the preface to the translation states plainly that it is the work of Paulus Æmilius, a converted Jew residing in Rome; it seems probable therefore that this was the name assumed by Bresch after his conversion, although Steinschneider ("Sitzungsberichte der Phil.-Philol. K. der K. Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften," 1875, part 2, p. 185) says that the former Jewish name of Paulus Æmilius is not known. Fürst, who probably had no other source than De Rossi, knows only of Bresch, but the more critical Benjacob expresses some doubt on the matter. According to some authorities, the translation was reprinted in Basel in 1603, and in Prague in 1610, and there is also a quarto edition without date, which appeared in Augsburg. The translation is said to follow closely that of Elias Levita, which first appeared in 1544.

Bibliography:

  * Fürst, Bibl. Jud. i. 131, ii. 81;
  * Benjacob, Oẓar ha-Sefarim, p. 635;
  * Monatsschrift, xxv. 362et seq.;
  * Grünbaum, Jüdisch-Deutsche Chrestomathie, pp. 10-18, Leipsic, 1882.



G.P. Wi.