In this volume, Alessandro Grazi offers the first intellectual biography of the Italian Jewish writer and politician David Levi (1816-1898). In this intriguing journey through the mysterious rites of Freemasonry and the bizarre worldviews of Saint-Simonianism, you can discover Levi's innovative interpretation of Judaism and its role in modernity. As a champion of dialogue with Catholic intellectuals, Levi's importance transcends the Jewish world. The second part of the book presents an unpublished document, Levi's comedy "Il Mistero delle Tre Melarancie", a phantasmagorical adventure in search of his Jewish identity, with an English translation of its most relevant excerpt.

The present volume focuses on Henry Bate of Mechelen (1246-after 1310), the first scholar to bring Ibn Ezra's astrological work to the knowledge of Latin readers. The volume has two main objectives. The first is to offer as complete and panoramic an account as possible of Bate's translational project. Therefore, this volume offers critical editions of all six of Bate's complete translations of Ibn Ezra's astrological writings. The second objective is to accompany Bate's Latin translations with literal English translations and to offer a thorough collation of the Latin translation (with their English translations) against the Hebrew and French source texts. This is volume 2 of a two-volume set.

This book examines the relationship between divine in/activity and human agency in the five books of the Megilloth-the books of Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther. As works of literature dating to the early Second Temple period (ca. 6th-3rd centuries BCE), these books and the implicit interpretation of these particular themes reflect the diverse cultural and theological dynamics of the time. Megan Fullerton Strollo contends that the themes themselves as well as the correlation between them should be interpreted as implicit theology insofar as they represent reflective interpretation of earlier theological traditions. With regard to divine in/activity, she argues that the Megilloth presents a certain level of skepticism or critical analysis of the Deity. From doubt to protest, the books of the Megilloth grapple with received traditions of divine providence and present experiences of absence, abandonment, and distance. As a correlative to divine in/activity, human agency is presented as consequential. In addition, the portrayal of human agency serves as a theological response insofar as the books advance the theme through specific references to and reevaluations of earlier theocentric traditions.

The books of Enoch are famed for having been “lost” in the Middle Ages but “rediscovered” by modern scholars. But was this really the case? This volume is the first to explore the reception of Enochic texts and traditions between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. Bringing specialists in antiquity into conversation with specialists in early modernity, it reveals a much richer story with a more global scope. Contributors show how Enoch and the era before the Flood were newly reimagined, not just by scholars, but also by European artists and adventurers, Kabbalists, Sufis, Mormons, and Ethiopian and Slavonic Christians.

This richly illustrated volume offers the most comprehensive and updated survey on about sixteen thousand Hebrew manuscript fragments reused as book-bindings and preserved in hundreds of libraries and archives in Italy. Contributions by the leading scholars in the field elucidate specific collections and genres no less than individual fragments, bringing to new life a forgotten library of medieval Jewish books, as almost 160 Talmudic codices, which include the Mishna, Tosefta, Palestinian Talmud and, for the most part, the Babylonian one, and several hitherto unknown texts. The contribution of these fragments to the ongoing research on the "European Genizah", as the Books within Books Project, and to Jewish Studies in general cannot be overestimated.

A completely new, expanded edition of this classic college text book about two key kinds of writing in the Old Testament: wisdom and law. Completely revised and updated, the book also includes much more on literary interpretation. This book is intended for primarily aimed at college students studying the Old Testament, on religious studies courses.