Azariah de' Rossi (M / Italy, 1513-1578), scholar
Azariah de' Rossi (c1513-1578) was a Jewish Italian scholar.
Biography
Azariah de' Rossi was born in Mantua [Italy], the descendant of an old Jewish family which claimed to have been brought by Titus from Jerusalem. Proficient in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Italian, studied medicine, archaeology, history, Greek and Roman antiquities and Christian ecclesiastical history.
Works on Second Temple Judaism
Azariah de' Rossi was the first modern Jewish scholar to focus on Second Temple Judaism, its history, archaeology and literature (especially Aristeas, Philo and Josephus), and use non-Jewish sources (secular and Christian) to supplement or check the data in Talmudic literature.
Books
References
- Benedetto Levi, Della vita e degli scritti di Azaria de' Rossi (Padova: Crescini, 1868)
- Salo Wittmayer Baron, La méthode historique d'Azaria de'Rossi (Paris: Elias, 1929)