JEWISH-CHRISTIAN POLEMICS IN EARLY MODERN ITALY
Yehoshua ben Tzion (Salvatore Benedetto) SEGRÉ (1709-1798): Asham talui (1731). A revised edition of the work was prepared by the author in 1771
Edition
The text of Asham Talui was published by D. J. Malkiel, Ha-Pulmus ha-Yehudi-Notsri Erev ha-Et ha-Hadashah: Yehoshua Segre mi-Sekandyano we-Hiburo Asham Talui [Jewish-Christian Debate on the Eve of Modernity: Joshua Segre of Scandiano and his Work Asham Talui] (Jerusalem, 2004) in Hebrew. Formerly two short excerpts of the text were published by A. Neubauer, The Fifty Third Chapter of Isaiah According to Jewish Interpreters, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1876-1877), 1: 307-315, and 1:333-336. (The second portion is erroneously described as an excerpt from a book entitled Milhamot ha-Shem.) Translations of the two text samples can be found in 2:355-366, and 1:388-391, respectively.
Manuscripts
The text of the disputation is extant in ten manuscripts:
- Berlin, Staatsbibliothek (BERLIN Fol. 2095, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-114v
The item is digitized.
- Jerusalem, National Library (JER 759=28, nineteenth-twentieth-century Ashkenazi cursive), 469 [350] pages (Pages 213-330 are omitted) = copy of FRANK UB Oct. 54.
- London, Montefiore Library (LON MON 453, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-40r, defective
The item is digitized, but only viewable from within the National Library of Israel.
- New York, Columbia University (NY COLUM X 893 J 78, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-33v, defective
- New York, Columbia University (NY COLUM X 893 Se 6, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-39v, defective
- Moscow, Russian State Library, Günzburg Collection (MOS RSL 215, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 227r-334r
- Moscow, Russian State Library, Günzburg Collection (MOS RSL 267, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-167r
- Oxford, Bodleian Library (OX 2406, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-74v
The item is digitized.
- Parma, Biblioteca Palatina (PARMA 2091, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-64r
The item is digitized.
- Torino, Archivo Terracini (TORINO TER 1507, Italian type handwriting), 42 dafs, defective
Secondary Literature
- G. B. de Rossi, Bibliotheca Judaica Antichristiana (Parma, 1800), 149.
- M.S. Ghirondi, Toledoth Gedole Yisrael u-Geone Italia (Trieste, 1853), 107.
- M. Steinschneider, Die Handschriften-verzeichnisse der königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1878-1897), 2:36-38. no. 192.
- Jewish Encyclopedia Online Edition: Segré
- S. Krauss, 'Josua Segre und sein polemisches Werk', Zeitschrift für Hebräische Bibliographie VIII (1904), 20-27.
- D. Simonsen, 'Über Josua Segre und seine Werke', Zeitschrift für Hebräische Bibliographie VIII (1904), 43-45.
- M. Steinschneider, 'Miszellen und Notizen von M. Steinschneider', Zeitschrift für Hebräische Bibliographie VIII (1904), 55-56.
- A. Marx, 'The Polemical Manuscripts in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary in America, in Studies in Jewish Bibliography and Related Subjects in Memory of Abraham Solomon Freidus (1867-1923) (New York, 1929), 258.
- D. Simonsen, 'Eine Sammlung polemischer und apologetischer Literatur', in Alexander Marx und Herman Meyer (eds), Festschrift für Aron Freimann zum 60. Geburtstage (Berlin, 1935), 116.
- J. Rosenthal, 'Anti-Christian Polemics from its Beginnings to the end of the Eighteenth Century', Areseth 2 (1960), p. 158. no. 114, and p. 176. no. 216 (in Hebrew). The last text sample, published by A. Neubauer, is described here as Milhamot ha-Shem.
- S. Krauss, The Jewish-Christian Controversy: From the Earliest Time to 1789 (ed. W. Horbury; Tübingen, 1995), 107, 241.
- M. Benayahu, 'The works of Rabbi Yehoshua Segre', Asufot 10 (1997), 318-319 (in Hebrew).
- B. Richler (ed), Hebrew Manuscripts in the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma (Jerusalem, 2001), 403.
- D. J. Malkiel, 'The Jewish-Christian Debate on the Eve of Modernity: Joshua Segre Scandiano and his Asham Talui', REJ 164/1-2 (janvier-juin) (2005), 157-188.
- M. E. Artom, 'Segré Joshua Benzion', in Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem, 20072), 18:252.
- A. Salah, La République des lettres Rabbins, crivains et médecins juifs en Italie au XVIIIe siecle (Leiden, 2007), 27.
© Karoly Daniel Dobos: Jewish-Christian Polemics in Early Modern Italy
Research that enabled the preparation of this bibliography was sponsored by the Anniversary Fund of the National Bank of Austria (Jubiläumsfonds der Österreichischen Nationalbank, project number: 16099: "Jüdisch-christiliche Polemik: Akkulturation und Modernisierung")
The webpage was created by Karoly Daniel Dobos