Nathanael ben Nehemiah Caspi was a

Provençal Provençal may refer to: *Of Provence, a region of France * Provençal dialect, a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the southeast of France *''Provençal'', meaning the whole Occitan language *Franco-Provençal language, a distinct Roman ...

scholar. He lived at the end of the fourteenth century and at the beginning of the fifteenth. He was a disciple of

Frat Maimon Frat Maimon (also known as ''Prat Maimon'' or ''Solomon ben Menaham'') was a French Jewish Provençal scholar. A liturgical poet, he flourished in the second half of the 14th century. The name "Frat" is, according to Neubauer,Ernest Renan and Ado ...

, under whose direction he composed in 1424 his first work, a commentary on the '' Cuzari'' of

Judah ha-Levi Judah Halevi (also Yehuda Halevi or ha-Levi; he, יהודה הלוי and Judah ben Shmuel Halevi ; ar, يهوذا اللاوي ''Yahuḏa al-Lāwī''; 1075 – 1141) was a Spanish Jewish physician, poet and philosopher. He was born in Spain, ...

. This commentary, still extant in manuscript (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, MS. No. 677, and elsewhere), is based upon the Hebrew translation of the ''Cuzari'' made by Judah ben Isaac Cardinal. Caspi was also the author of the following works: # A commentary on the ''Ruach Chen'', which treats of the terminology of

Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...

(''ibid''. No. 678, 3; Parma, No. 395); # A commentary on Maimonides' ''Shemoneh Peraqim'' (Paris, No. 678; Parma, No. 395); and # ''Liqqutot'', a collection of glosses on the

Pentateuch The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the sa ...

(Munich MS. No. 252). These glosses are based upon those of

Joseph ben Nathan Official Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

. Many rabbis of eastern France are cited in these glosses, and many French words and sentences may be found in them.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Caspi, Nathanael ben Nehemiah Hebrew-language writers Provençal Jews 14th-century French rabbis French Orthodox rabbis 15th-century French rabbis Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown