A Jewish Professor at Sapienza. New Studies on Jacob Mantino (1490-1549) and the History of Jewish Scholarship in Modern European Universities

In 2021 Sapienza University of Rome funded a research project on Jacob Mantino (Tortosa?, c. 1490 - Damascus, 1549).1 As part of this project, on 29-30 May 2023 we organized an International Conference in the Department of Philosophy entitled: Jacob Mantino. Translator, Physician and First Jewish Teacher at Sapienza. The conference aimed at deepening knowledge of a little-known aspect of the Italian Renaissance, focusing on Mantino’s biographical and intellectual activity. This topic is of particular interest in the history of Sapienza University, because Mantino was the first Jewish scholar to be appointed as professor at the Roman Studium, in the year 1539, under the pontificate of Paul III. And he was also one of the very few Jewish scholars to teach at a European University before the 19th century – an extraordinary fact, made possible by the new climate of the Renaissance. The essays collected here develop the presentations given at the Rome conference, shedding new light on Mantino’s multifaceted life. They discuss the historical context within which Mantino acted; the history of the Roman Studium (the forerunner of Sapienza) in the 16th century; the relationship Pope Paul III had with the Jews; Mantino’s intellectual activity under the papacies of Leo X, Clemente VII and Paul III, and in the cities of Venice, Bologna, and Rome. They all try to expand on the pioneering essay by David Kaufmann,2 which is still the only comprehensive biography of this highly-respected Renais- sance rabbi, physician, collector of rare books and manuscripts, scholar and translator.