Felix Pratensis (Felice da Prato) (died 1539 in Rome) was a Sephardic (specifically Italian)

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

scholar who embraced Roman Catholicism. He is known for his collaboration with the Flemish printer

Daniel Bomberg Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...

on the first printed

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 ...

''Biblia Rabbinica''From 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia

''It contains the Pentateuch with Onḳelos and Rashi, the Former and Later Prophets with Targum Jonathan and Ḳimḥi's comments (the anti-Christian passages omitted); Psalms with Targum and Ḳimḥi; Proverbs with the commentary known as "Ḳaw we-Naḳi"; Job with the commentaries of Naḥmanides and Abraham Farrisol; the Five Scrolls with the commentary of Levi b. Gerson; Ezra and Chronicles with the commentaries of Rashi and Simon ha-Darshan. To these were added the Jerusalem Targum to the Pentateuch; Targum Sheni to Esther; the variant readings of Ben Asher and Ben Naphtali; the thirteen "articles of faith" of Maimonides; the 613 precepts according to Aaron Jacob Ḥasan; and a table of the parashiyot and Hafṭarot according to the Spanish and German rites. This edition is the first in which Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles are divided into two books, and Nehemiah is separated from Ezra. It is the first also to indicate in the margin the numbers of the chapters in Hebrew letters (Ginsburg, "Introduction," p. 26). The ḳeri consonants are also given in the margin.'' (''Veneta'') of 1517/8. He received a good education and acquired three languages. In 1518, he embraced Christianity and affiliated himself with the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Having become an

Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...

friar, he devoted himself to

proselytizing Proselytism () is the policy of attempting to convert people's religious or political beliefs. Proselytism is illegal in some countries. Some draw distinctions between ''evangelism'' or '' Da‘wah'' and proselytism regarding proselytism as invol ...

especially fellow Jews who had not embraced Christianity as he had. He displayed in his sermons great intolerance against his non-Messianic counterparts, earning for himself the sobriquet "the Jews' scourge." Before his conversion to Roman Catholicism, Felix published a Latin translation of the ''

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

'', entitled ''Psalterium ex Hebræo ad Verbum Translatum'', Venice, 1515.

References

*Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. i. 918, iii. 935; * Moritz Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 2111 * and

Paul Rieger Paul Warren Rieger (born ) is a former New Zealand local-body politician. He served as mayor of Palmerston North from 1985 to 1998, and was a member of the Horizons Regional Council between 1998 and 2019. Rieger served on the Council of Massey ...

, ''Geschichte der Juden in Rom'', ii. 37

Notes

External links

* * * {{Authority control 1539 deaths 16th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests Augustinian friars Italian biblical scholars Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Italian Sephardi Jews Jewish scholars 16th-century Italian Jews Year of birth unknown