Benedetta Manfrinetti

The research project aims to investigate more deeply the development of the halakhic and philosophical thought of Judaism in the 16th-17th centuries, through a comparative study of some rabbinical commentaries and treatises. The cornerstone of the research is the Spanish-language commentary Tesoro de Preceptos by Isaac Athias, ḥakam of the Portuguese-Jewish community of Hamburg in the 17th century and translator from Hebrew to Spanish of the anti-Christian polemical work Ḥizzuk Emunah by the Karaite Jew Isaac ben Abraham Troqi (1522-1594); starting from a linguistic perspective and a lexicographic analysis, the Tesoro de Preceptos will be compared with Maimonides’ Sefer ha-Mitzvot. The study will be focused on any dissimilarities between Jewish and Spanish terminology and, at the same time, on the evolutions that these variations may have entailed on a philosophical and halakhic level, considering the respective historical and cultural contexts. The research is under the supervision of prof. Myriam Silvera and prof. Carsten Wilke (Central European University, Wien).