Galante Abraham Ben-mordecai

Galante Abraham ben-Mordecai a Cabalist and Jewish commentator of the 16th century. He was a disciple of the new-school Cabalist, Moses Cordovero, and is best known by his mystical commentary on the Lamentations (קַינִת סתָרַים) published, with additions, by Ibn-Shoeb under the title קוֹל בּוֹכַים (Venice, 1589; 2d ed. Prague, 1621). Galante wrote also a commentary on the Sohar (or Zohar) (q.v.), entitled יָרֵחִ יָקָר, extending over the Pentateuch, but of which only the first part, on Genesis, was printed under the title זָהֲרֵי חִמָּה (Venice, 1655). The MS. of the unpublished parts of this work remain unedited in the Oppenheine Library. Jost (pge 237) says that the name of Galante's father was originally Mordecai Angelo, but that he, on account of his beauty, was called Galante, or, rather, Galant'uomo, in Rome, where he lived. When his sons, Abraham and Moses, afterwards emigrated to Palestine, they retained the new name of their father. — Jost, Gesch. d. Judenthums u. s. Sekten, 3:150; Etheridge, Introd. to Hebr. Lit. page 360, 418; First, Bibl. Jud. 1:313. (J.H.W.)