Between Two Worlds: The tractate "Light of the Nations" of the Last Jewish Scholastic Philosopher 'Ovadyah Sforno (1475 ca.-1550) in its Hebrew and Latin Version

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Giuseppe Veltri
• Subject Area: Religious Studies and Jewish Studies
• Term: from 2015 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 279800392

The primary aim of the “Between Two Worlds” research project is to conduct a comprehensive inquiry on the philosophical book entitled Light of the Nations written by the Jewish intellectual and eminent biblical commentator Obadiah Sforno (c. 1475–1550). The treatise was published in Hebrew in 1537, with the title of Or ‘Ammim, and the author himself translated the work into Latin (Lumen Gentium (1548)). Sforno’s text strives to reproduce the classical Scholastic argumentation form (summa) and attempts to refute Averroes’ Aristotelianism by using the Aristotelian method to subvert and undermine its own doctrines in order to elevate Jewish dogmatic religious concepts.The first of three phases of the research project provided a first critical edition of the Light, accompanied by pioneering English translations. The second phase contributed to the creation of a scientific and philosophical commentary on the work. This in-depth study disclosed the strong influence of both Scholastic and Jewish philosophers on the structure of the text. Moreover, a lengthy commentary on Or ‘Ammim (called here Menorah) produced in the 1540s was edited from manuscript and our findings led to the identification of its author: Elia di Nola alias di Butrio, a physician, rabbi, and pupil of Sforno. The aim of the project was broadened both including a commentary on the Menorah and giving a detailed exposition of di Nola’s method and his extensive investigation of Sforno’s works. It provides completely new access to the study of the reception of Obadiah Sforno’s philosophical and exegetical oeuvre.Moreover, the new discoveries facilitated the identification of a voluminous commentary on the Psalms containing numerous references to Sforno’s oeuvre and its attribution to di Nola. This commentary will be edited for the first time by Moshé Kravétz as part of his PHD under the supervision of Alessandro Guetta (INALCO, Paris) and the applicant.In the project’s third and final phase, the pivotal scientific commentary on the Light will be supplemented by studies on Sforno’s terminology, lexicography, and exegesis. The enquiry into Sforno’s terminology will be undertaken in co-operation with Alessandro Guetta, who has discovered a manuscript of a Hebrew–Italian dictionary composed by an anonymous author mentioning Or ‘Ammim as its principal source which will also be taken into account in our research. The results of this study will be shared with the DFG “PESHAT in Context” project.The project will enforce its fruitful co-operation with the international academic community by hosting its third symposium dealing with the intersection between exegesis and philosophy in Sforno’s thought. The outcome of the project’s research will be published in a three-volume edition in 2021.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France, Israel, Italy
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Saverio Campanini; Professor Alessandro Guetta; Professor Dr. Warren Zeev Harvey