"Prisca Philosophia" and "Docta Religio": The Boundaries of Rational Knowledge in Jewish and Christian Humanist Thought
In the second half of the 15th century, Christian humanist appraisal of "Hebraica veritas" motivated Jewish scholars to accept several features of this appraisal from their Christian colleagues. In particular the concept of "prisca philosophia" (ancient philosophy) was stressed i...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Published: |
Penn Press
2000
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| In: |
The Jewish quarterly review
Year: 2000, Volume: 91, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 53-99 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In the second half of the 15th century, Christian humanist appraisal of "Hebraica veritas" motivated Jewish scholars to accept several features of this appraisal from their Christian colleagues. In particular the concept of "prisca philosophia" (ancient philosophy) was stressed in order to point out the superiority and greater antiquity of Jewish culture over rational thought. In addition, Christian humanists were eager to read Jewish kabbalah as a doctrine allegedly attributed to prophetically inspired personages so that they could incorporate it into the prisca "philosophia" tradition. By turning to prophetic writings that supposedly predated the Platonic and Aristotelian texts, Jews and Christians were trying to prove the superior nature of theology to rational thought. To this end, scholars belonging to both religions outlined a common intellectual program aiming to overcome the boundaries of human reason in order to attain mystic union with God. Yoḥanan ben Isaac Alemanno (c. 1435 - c. 1504), Italian Jewish exegete, philosopher, and kabbalist, spent most of his life in Northern Italy, especially in Florence, where he met the outstanding humanist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, with whom he established a long-lasting relationship. In this article I analyze the affinities between Alemanno's and Pico's understanding of issues related to the boundaries of human rational knowledge. The article is followed by a translation of the still unedited 44th chapter of Alemanno's encyclopedic masterwork "Ḥay ha-ʿOlamim," which is devoted to the issues of concern in this article. The English version is accompanied by a reproduction of Alemmano's autograph manuscript now in the Biblioteca della Comunità Ebraica presso la Biblioteca Comunale, Mantua. |
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| ISSN: | 1553-0604 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The Jewish quarterly review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1454787 |