Moses of Pavia

views updated

MOSES OF PAVIA

MOSES OF PAVIA , medieval talmudist (dates unknown). Moses of Pavia is reported as being mentioned in the talmudic lexicon Arukh of *Nathan b. Jehiel, although his name nowhere appears in the printed editions. There are no certain details concerning the time and place of his labors. In the Mikdash Me'at of Moses de Rieti (15th cent.), it is noted that Moses of Pavia died a martyr's death in Lombardy, but there is no discernible historical basis for this statement. In the Parma manuscript (De'Rossi, 1360) the event is pinpointed as having taken place in 1096, i.e., at the time of the First Crusade. It is possible that Moses was one of the German scholars who migrated to Germany and were murdered there in 1096. Kaufmann's conjecture (Schriften, 3 (1915), 26) is that Moses of Pavia is to be identified with a tutor of the same name who, after having been banned, went to Capua and later to Pavia.

bibliography:

Guedemann, Gesch Erz, 2 (1884), 14; Kohut, Arukh, 1 (19262), xxxviii; S.J.L. Rapoport, Toledot Rabbi Natan Ish Romi (1913), 56 n. 41; Zunz, Gesch, 57; Zunz, Poesie, 19.

[Umberto (Moses David) Cassuto]

More From encyclopedia.com