Abraham Portaleone אברהם פורטליאונה
physician to the dukes of Mantua, who wrote a book about the Temple that is in fact a Renaissance encyclopedia
Born at Mantua in 1542, died there in 1612. He graduated in philosophy and medicine at Pavia in 1563, was admitted to Mantua's College of Physicians three years later, and from 1573 was personal physician to the Duke of Mantua. For the court he wrote Latin medical *consilia* and the treatise Dialoghi tres de auro (Venice, 1584), on the medical uses of gold.
Shiltei ha-Gibborim (Mantua, 1612) was written for his own children after a stroke in 1605 left him partly paralysed, in fulfilment of a vow. By title and plan it is a book about the Temple: its architecture, the sacrifices, the priestly service. In substance it is a compendium of Renaissance knowledge: music, chemistry, pharmacology, weights and measures, military organisation, printing. It is reported to be the first Hebrew book to use European punctuation.
A correction: it is routinely filed under Temple antiquarianism. It is better read as a Renaissance encyclopedia in Temple dress, and that is how it is now studied.
On the timeline
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Shiltei ha-Gibborim, Mantua 1612 — a Renaissance encyclopedia under the guise of describing the Temple
Documents of the period
- Dialoghi tres de auro, Venice 1584 — a Latin medical treatise for the ducal court
Scholarship
- C. Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance — the medical class of Italian Jewry and service at court
Basis: documents and evidence.