Immanuel, Ben-salomon Romi

Immanuel, ben-Salomon Romi a Jewish philosopher, commentator, and poet, was born at Rome about 1265. Endowed with great natural ability, and with a fondness for study, he soon made himself master of Biblical and Talmudic, as well as of Grecian and Latin literature. He was a contemporary of Dante, and, being much given to a cultivation of the same art in which Dante immortalized his name, "the two spirits, kindred, and yet different in many respects, formed a mutual and intimate attachment." He died about 1330. Immanuel wrote commentaries on the whole Jewish Bible, excepting the minor prophets and Ezra. They are enriched not only by valuable grammatical and archaeological notes, but contain also some able remarks on the nature and spirit of the poetical books. 'It is greatly to be regretted that of all his exegetical works, which are in different public libraries of Europe, the Commentary on Proverbs and Some Glosses on the Psalms are the only ones as yet published, the former in Naples in 1486, and the latter in Parma in 1806. The introduction of his commentary on the Song of Songs has been published, with an English translation, by Ginsburg: Historical and Critical Commentary on the Song of Songs (Lond. 1857, p. 49-55)" (Ginsburg in Kitto). He wrote also some philosophical treatises, and translated for his Jewish brethren the philosophical writings of Albertus the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and other celebrated philosophers. See Gratz, Gesch. der Juden. 7, 307 sq.; Geiger, Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift, 1839, iv. 194 sq.; Furst, Biblioth. Jud. 2, 92 sq. (J. H.W.)