Medieval Jewish Thought and the Italian Renaissance

Medieval Jewish Thought and the Italian Renaissance

Speakers: Giovanna Cifoletti (Centre Alexandre-Koyré - EHESS), Michael Engel (Hamburg University), Francesca Gorgoni (University of Haifa), Yehuda Halper (Bar-Ilan University), Zev Harvey (Hebrew University), Jill Kraye (Warburg Institute), Yossef Schwartz (Tel Aviv University), Cedric Cohen-Skalli (University of Haifa), Giuseppe Veltri (Universität Hamburg), Joanna Weinberg (University of Oxford).

Organised by Hanna Gentili and Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute).

The reception of the medieval Hebrew philosophical tradition is a central element in the development of Renaissance philosophy, and a key factor in the interreligious dialogue which characterized the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Mediterranean context. This international conference will discuss themes, sources and languages which shaped the transmission of Jewish philosophy from the Iberian Peninsula and Provence to Italy. Intersecting Arabic, Hebrew and Latin sources, the reception of Jewish Medieval Philosophy in the early modern Italian tradition is an expanding area of research, and the conference aims to promote encounters and collaborations between senior scholars, early career researches and postgraduate students.

Read our interview with organiser Hanna Gentili about her experience of organising the conference and what to expect from the day, on the Warburg blog.

Programme:

9:30-9:45: Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute): Opening remarks

9:45-10:45: Yossef Schwartz (Tel Aviv University): ‘Early Manifestations of Jewish Italian Renaissance and Their Multi-Cultural Dimensions: Hillel ben Samuel ben Elazar of Verona’

10:45-11:00: Short break

11:00-12:00: Joanna Weinberg (University of Oxford): 'Rabbi or Church Father: the Jewish Debate over Philo in Early Modern Italy'

12:00-13:00: Lunch break

13:00-14:30: Afternoon session 1. Chair: Hanna Gentili (Warburg Institute):

• Yehuda Halper (Bar-Ilan University): 'Jacob Anatoli and the Foundations of Hebrew Philosophical Study in Italy'
• Francesca Gorgoni (University of Haifa): 'Posse est pati. Passion and imagination in Averroes’ theory of poetic discourse'
• Giovanna Cifoletti (Centre Alexandre-Koyré - EHESS): 'Averroes in Venetian Algebra: from Pacioli to Tartaglia'

14:30-14:45: Short break

14:45-16:15: Afternoon session 2. Chair: Jill Kraye (Warburg Institute)

• Hanna Gentili (Warburg Institute): 'The Reception of Averroes’ Natural Philosophy in the Jewish Fifteenth-century context'
• Michael Engel (Hamburg University): 'Was There Really a Hebrew-into-Latin Translation of Averroes’ Long Commentary on the De anima III.5 and III.36?'
• Cedric Cohen-Skalli (University of Haifa): 'Bible Criticism’s Forgotten Debt to Isaac Abravanel'

16:15-16:30: Short break

16:30-17:00: Giuseppe Veltri (Director of the Maimonides Center, Universität Hamburg): 'Jewish Philosophy in Protestant and Calvinist Dissertationes of the Early Modern Period'

17:00-18:00: Zev Harvey (Hebrew University): 'Averroes and Maimonides in Sforno's Lumen Gentium'
[click here for lecture notes]

THIS IS A FREE, ONLINE CONFERENCE VIA ZOOM. PLEASE BOOK IN ADVANCE

image: from Cod. Heb. 37, Royal Library in Copenhagen (Hebrew translation from Arabic of Maimonides Guide of the Perplexed), 1347