Abraham b. Mordecai Farissol

אברהם בן מרדכי פריצול

1473

Born in Avignon, France in 1451, the Italian scholar and geographer lived until 1525, as per Grätz, though Zunz suggests he was still alive in 1526. After initially residing in Avignon in 1468, he later moved to Mantua and then Ferrara in 1473. In Ferrara, he served as a cantor in the synagogue, engaged in manuscript copying, and wrote a polemical work, "Magen Abraham," addressing Christianity and Islam. He also penned a brief commentary on the Pentateuch and a commentary on Job in "Biblia Rabbinica" (Venice, 1518).

His most significant contribution was the "Iggeret Oreḥot 'Olam," a cosmographic and geographic work with thirty chapters (1524, Ferrara; 1587, Venice), discussing newly discovered parts of the world, travelers' tales, and the Ten Tribes. Farissol stands out as the first Jewish scholar to delve into geography. Hyde translated the "Iggeret" into Latin as "Tractatus Itinerum Mundi" (Oxford, 1691). In 1525, Farissol authored a commentary on Ecclesiastes (De Rossi, ib. No. 48) and translated Aristotle's "Logic" and Porphyry's compendium into Hebrew (De Rossi, ib. No. 145). Some of Farissol's sermons and letters from 1468 and 1474, addressed to contemporaries such as Messer Leon of Ferrara, have also been preserved.

Bibliography:
Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iii., No. 117;
De Rossi, MSS. Codices, i. 95-97;
idem, Dizionario, pp. 117, 118;
Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 689;
idem, Hebr. Uebers. p. 81;
idem, Hebr. Bibl. vii. 27, 28; ix. 115;
Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim, pp. 91, 92;
Kirchheim, in Orient, Lit. vi. 7;
Michael, ib. vi. 253;
Grätz, Gesch. 3d ed., viii. 457, ix. 44-46;
Fürst, Bibl. Jud. i. 276;
Gross, Gallia Judaica, p. 11;
Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, pp. 52, 53;
Abraham Pesaro, in Il Vessillo Israelitico, 1879, p. 170;
Jewish Encyclopedia, ad vocem.