Mattithiah Ben Moses Ben Mattithiah

Spanish Talmudist; lived toward the end of the fourteenth century and at the beginning of the fifteenth. He was a member of the Yiẓhari family of Narbonne. As he himself relates, his ancestors on being banished from France (1306) settled together with other scholars in Catalonia and Aragon. According to Neubauer, Mattithiah is identical with the rabbi of this name cited as one of those who took part in the disputation at Tortosa in 1413.

Mattithiah was the author of the followingworks: (1) "Derashot," homilies on the Pentateuch, no longer extant; (2) a commentary on Ps. cxix. (Venice, 1546; partly translated into Latin by Philippe d'Aquin, Paris, 1629); (3) a commentary on Pirḳe Abot, still extant in manuscript; (4) notes on Abraham ibn Ezra's commentary on the Pentateuch (Neubauer, "Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS." No. 236); (5) a philosophical commentary on the Pentateuch, still extant in manuscript; (6) "Parashiyyot," homilies; (7) "Derashot," no longer extant.

Bibliography:

  * Loeb, in R. E. J. vii. 155, ix. 119;
  * Neubauer, ib. vii. 154;
  * Steinschneider, ib. ix. 118;
  * Renan-Neubauer, Les Ecrivains Juifs Français, p. 432.



G. I. Br.