Pesaro, Jechiel

Pesaro, Jechiel (also called PISAURENSIS JECHIEL), OF FLORENCE, a Jewish convert to Christianity, is noted as a philosopher, physician, and theologian. Having for some time heard the sermons of the inquisitor Dionysius Costacciario, he repaired to Rome to renounce Judaism. Pope Gregory XIII, who then held the Papal See, was present at the speech Pesaro made before a numerous assembly in 1582, and received him, as he descended from the chair, with the words, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Soon after Pesaro was baptized by this pontiff, and became a preacher. Some of his sermons which he preached before and against the Jews at Florence were printed in the Italian language in 1585. See Furst, Bibl. Jud. 3:79; Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. 1:576; Bartolocci, Bibl. Rabb. 4:584; Adams, Hist. of the Jews, 2:79 (Boston, 1812); Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, p. 726 (Taylor's transl.); Kalkar, Israel u. d. Kirche, p. 71 (Hamb. 1869); Pick, Evangelical Review (Gettysburg, 1876), p. 367. (B. P.)