Rama mi-Pano — Rabbi Menachem Azariah da Fano הרמ"ע מפאנו — רבי מנחם עזריה מפאנו

Born in 1548, died at Mantua in 1620. He studied Talmud under R. Ishmael Hanina of Valmontone at Ferrara; Kabbalah first at a distance from R. Moses Cordovero, who sent him the Pardes Rimmonim, and then under R. Israel Sarug, who brought his version of the Lurianic teaching to Italy.

His chief book is Asarah Ma'amarot, ten kabbalistic treatises (Venice, 1597). But his hundred and thirty responsa (Venice, 1600) matter no less: they made him a halakhic authority, and it is for that reason his kabbalistic endorsement carried a weight no halakhah-less mystic's would have.

He used money as a scholarly instrument, paying for the printing of Cordovero's works and of Joseph Karo's Kesef Mishneh on Maimonides (Venice, 1574–76). Italian Kabbalah exists in print partly because he paid for it. He also knotted together the Mantua–Reggio–Venice network out of which came Moses Zacuto, Benjamin ha-Kohen Vitale of Reggio and, further on, the world of the Ramchal.

Two cautions. The neat story that he bought Cordovero's manuscripts from the widow for a thousand sequins and then, meeting Sarug, left Cordovero for Luria is kabbalistic hagiography. Both the Encyclopaedia Judaica and the Jewish Virtual Library say the opposite: under Sarug's influence he became acquainted with Luria's teaching while remaining committed to Cordovero's system. This is layering, not conversion. And the thousand sequins come from later literature with no document behind them.

One more: the acronym is confused with the Rema, R. Moses Isserles. Different men, different countries, half a century apart.