The article presents several cases of Christian scholars starting to learn Hebrew during the late Humanistic period and at the beginning of the Renaissance, extracting from a vast range of historical evidence and from a remarkable collection of autobiographical testimonies, the principal traits of the learning situation and of the relationship teacher-pupil, complicated by the religious allegiance of the participants: Jews, converted or not, and Christians did by necessity or by choice share a common learning and teaching space during several decades and were protagonists of a unique phase of the ongoing Christian-Jewish confrontation with exceptional features in comparison to the longue durée of this theological and historical confrontation. Hebrew became, during the Renaissance in several European countries, a surprising token for an embryonal mutual recognition that, against the boundaries of identitarian politics, soon met its limit, but promoted without any doubt the birth of modern Jewish Studies.
Saverio Campanini (2023). Learning Hebrew in the Renaissance: Towards a Typology. Berlin - Boston : De Gruyter.
Learning Hebrew in the Renaissance: Towards a Typology
Saverio Campanini
2023
Abstract
The article presents several cases of Christian scholars starting to learn Hebrew during the late Humanistic period and at the beginning of the Renaissance, extracting from a vast range of historical evidence and from a remarkable collection of autobiographical testimonies, the principal traits of the learning situation and of the relationship teacher-pupil, complicated by the religious allegiance of the participants: Jews, converted or not, and Christians did by necessity or by choice share a common learning and teaching space during several decades and were protagonists of a unique phase of the ongoing Christian-Jewish confrontation with exceptional features in comparison to the longue durée of this theological and historical confrontation. Hebrew became, during the Renaissance in several European countries, a surprising token for an embryonal mutual recognition that, against the boundaries of identitarian politics, soon met its limit, but promoted without any doubt the birth of modern Jewish Studies.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.