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Matatyahu Nissim (Donato) TERNI (1745-1810): Derech emunah. A polemical drama written in 1770 and staged in Pesaro on Pentacost 1782 by the Society of "Supporter of the Fallen."

Edition

The text was first edited by Y. David, Zehut 2 (1982), 267-286 and reedited in D. Bregman, The Glory of Sinai: The Dramatic Works of Matityahu Nissim (Donato) Terni (Jerusalem, 2003) 117-139 (in Hebrew).

Manuscripts

The text of the disputation is extant in eleven manuscripts:

1. Cincinnati, Hebrew Union College (CIN 397, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 68r-76v

   The item is digitized.

2. Jerusalem, Ben Zvi Institute (JER BEN ZVI 4068, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-4v

   The item is digitized.

3. London, British Library (LON BL 1105 = LON BL Or. 3660, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 34r-40r

   The item is digitized.

4. Moscow, Russian State Library, Günzburg Collection (MOS RSL 161, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 41r-54v
5. Moscow, Russian State Library, Günzburg Collection (MOS RSL 161, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 281r-286v
6. Moscow, Russian State Library, M. Günzburg (MOS RSL 280, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 208r-222v
7. Moscow, Russian State Library, Günzburg Collection (MOS RSL 360, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 195v-206v
8. New York, Columbia University (NY COLUM X 893 M 692, eighteenth-century Italian type handwrighting), 1r-11v

   The item is digitized.

9. New York, Jewish Theological Seminary (NY JTS 1274, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 52v-53r, defective

   The item is digitized.

10. New York, Jewish Theological Seminary (NY JTS 1511, eighteenth-century Italian type handwriting), 1r-11v

    The item is digitized.

11. New York, Jewish Theological Seminary (NY JTS 2235, nineteenth-century Italian Rabbinic type handwriting), 37r-43r

    The item is digitized.

Secondary Literature

• Jewish Encyclopedia Online Edition: Terni, Mattathiah Nissim ben Jacob Israel
• 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), 256.
• C. Roth, 'Yad Joav', Metsudah 5-6 (1948), 264, 269. The play Derekh Emunah was here erroneously attributed to Yoav Almagia.
• J. Rosenthal, 'Anti-Christian Polemics from its Beginnings to the end of the Eighteenth Century', Areseth 2 (1960) p. 175. no. 204 (in Hebrew).
• S. Krauss, The Jewish-Christian Controversy: From the Earliest Time to 1789 (ed. W. Horbury; Tübingen, 1995), 245.
• D. Bregman, The Glory of Sinai: The Dramatic Works of Matityahu Nissim (Donato) Terni (Jerusalem, 2003) 9-41 (in Hebrew).
• A. Salah, La République des lettres Rabbins, écrivains et médecins juifs en Italie au XVIIIe siecle (Leiden, 2007), 627-629.
• K. D. Dobos, Shimi, the Sceptical: Sceptical Voices in an Early Modern Jewish, Anti-Christian Polemical Drama by Matityahu Nissim Terni,' in Melilah: Manchester Journal of Jewish Studies: Atheism, Scepticism and Challenges to Monotheism, Vol. 12 (2015), 43-52.

© 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")

Jubilaeumsfonds

The webpage was created by Karoly Daniel Dobos