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Elia Levita (13 February 146928 January 1549) ( he, אליהו בן אשר הלוי אשכנזי), also known as Elijah Levita, Elias Levita, Élie Lévita, Elia Levita Ashkenazi, Eliahu Levita, Eliyahu haBahur ("Elijah the Bachelor"), Elye Bokher, was a
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...
Hebrew grammarian Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved th ...
,
scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or research ...
, and poet. He was the author of the '' Bovo-Bukh'' (written in 1507–1508), the most popular
chivalric romance As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalr ...
written in Yiddish. Living for a decade in the house of Cardinal Giles of Viterbo, he was one of the foremost teachers of Christian clergy, nobility, and intellectuals in Hebrew and in
Jewish mysticism Academic study of Jewish mysticism, especially since Gershom Scholem's '' Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' (1941), distinguishes between different forms of mysticism across different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbalah, which emerged ...
during the Renaissance.


Life and work

Born at Neustadt near
Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
, to a Jewish family of Levitical status, he was the youngest of nine brothers. He preferred to call himself "
Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
," and bore also the nickname ''Bokher'' (Hebrew ''Baḥur''), meaning youth or student, which latter he gave as title to his Hebrew grammar. During his early adulthood, the Jews were expelled from this area. He then moved to Italy, which would remain his home. In
Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of t ...
, in 1504, he wrote the 650 ''
ottava rima Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio. The ot ...
'' stanzas of the '' Bovo-Bukh'', based on the popular romance ''Buovo d'Antona'', which, in turn, was based on the Anglo-Norman romance of Bevis of Hampton. iptzin, 1972p.6. By 1514 he was living in
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
, where he wrote two scathing satirical pasquinades. That same year he moved to Rome, where he acquired a friend and patron, the
Renaissance humanist Renaissance humanism was a revival in the study of classical antiquity, at first Italian Renaissance, in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term ''humanist'' ( it, umanista ...
and cardinal Giles of Viterbo (1471–1532), in whose palace he lived for more than ten years. Levita taught
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
to Giles, and copied Hebrew manuscripts—mostly related to the
Kabbalah Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "receiver"). The de ...
—for the cardinal's library. The first edition of Levita's ''Baḥur'' (Rome, 1518) is dedicated to Giles, to whom Levita dedicated his Concordance (1521). The 1527 Sack of Rome sent Levita into exile once more, back to Venice, where he worked as a proofreader and taught Hebrew. Levita published at Venice a treatise on the laws of cantillation entitled ''Sefer Tuv Ta'am''. At seventy years of age, Levita left his wife and children and departed in 1540 for Isny, in Bavaria, accepting the invitation of Paul Fagius to superintend his Hebrew printing-press there. During Elia's stay with Fagius (until 1542 at Isny), he published the following works: ''Tishbi,'' a dictionary focusing on words that don't appear in the Arukh, containing 712 words used in
Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
and
Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.
he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...
, with explanations in German and a Latin translation by Fagius (Isny, 1541); ''Sefer Meturgeman,'' explaining all the
Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated i ...
words found in the
Targum A targum ( arc, תרגום 'interpretation, translation, version') was an originally spoken translation of the Hebrew Bible (also called the ''Tanakh'') that a professional translator ( ''mǝturgǝmān'') would give in the common language of the ...
(Isny, 1541); ''Shemot Devarim,'' an alphabetical list of the technical Hebrew words (Isny, 1542); and a new and revised edition of the ''Baḥur''.''Jewish Encyclopedia'' article. While in Germany he also printed his ''Bovo-Bukh''. On returning to Venice, in spite of his great age, Elia worked on editions of several works, including David Kimhi's ''Miklol'', which he also annotated. Elia Levita died 28 January 1549 in
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
, aged 80 years. His monument in the graveyard of the Jewish community at Venice boasts of him that "he illuminated the darkness of grammar and turned it into light." In the period which saw the rise of the
Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and i ...
and gave to the study of the Hebrew Bible and to its language an importance in the history of the world, Levita furthered the study of Hebrew in Christian circles by his activity as a teacher and by his writings. To his pupils especially belong
Sebastian Münster Sebastian Münster (20 January 1488 – 26 May 1552) was a German cartographer and cosmographer. He also was a Christian Hebraist scholar who taught as a professor at the University of Basel. His well-known work, the highly accurate world map, ...
, who translated Levita's grammatical works into Latin, and Georges de Selve,
Bishop of Lavaur The bishopric of Lavaur ( Tarn, France) (in Latin: ''dioecesis Vaurensis'') was founded by Pope John XXII in his plan to reorganize the sprawling diocese of Toulouse. The town is situated some fifteen miles to the east of Toulouse. Lavaur had t ...
, the French ambassador in Venice. It was also during this time that he became acquainted with
Samson Ha-Nakdan Samson Ha-Nakdan ( Hebrew: סמסון הנקדאן; 1240) was a 13th-century German-Jewish writer and Hebrew grammarian. Biography Possibly born in Xanten, Germany, he studied Hebrew grammar in Germany, where he became aquatinted with the wor ...
. He has descendants living today, including former
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As moder ...
David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
, who describes him as "my forefather Elijah Levita who wrote what is thought to have been the first ever Yiddish novel".


Works

* ''Elia Levita Bachur's Bovo-Buch: A Translation of the Old Yiddish Edition of 1541 with Introduction and Notes'' by Elia Levita Bachur, translated and notes by Jerry C. Smith, Fenestra Books, 2003, . * ''Paris and Vienna'' (attributed) * miscellaneous shorter poems *The Massoreth Ha-Massoreth of Elias Levita, being an exposition of the Massoretic notes on the Hebrew Bible, or the ancient critical apparatus of the Old Testament in Hebrew, with an English translation, and critical and explanatory notes, London, Longmans, 1867


Notes


References

* Gottheil, Richard and Jacobs, Joseph
Baba Buch
''
Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...
'', 1901-1906 *Liptzin, Sol, ''A History of Yiddish Literature'', Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972, . *


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Levita, Elia 1469 births 1549 deaths German Ashkenazi Jews People from Neustadt (Aisch)-Bad Windsheim Medieval Hebraists Jewish poets Yiddish-language writers Jewish translators of the Bible 15th-century German Jews 16th-century German Jews