Editing Immanuel the Roman

{{Short description|Jewish scholar and poet}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] --> 
| name         = Immanuel of Rome
| image        = 
| imagesize    = 150px
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| pseudonym    = 
| birth_name    = Immanuel ben Solomon ben Jekuthiel
| birth_date    = {{birth date text|1261}}
| birth_place   = Rome
| death_date    = {{Death year and age|1332|1261}}
| death_place   =
| occupation   = Poet
| nationality  = Italian
| period       = 
| genre        = 
| subject      = 
| movement     = 
| notableworks = ''Mahberot Immanuel''
| spouse       = 
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| influences   = 
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}}
[[File:Emanuel the roman str. in Tel Aviv.JPG|right|thumb|street in [[Tel Aviv]]]]

'''Immanuel ben Solomon ben Jekuthiel of Rome''' ('''Immanuel of Rome, Immanuel Romano, Manoello Giudeo''') (1261 in [[Rome]] – 1332 in [[Fermo, Italy]]) was a Jewish poet and writer who lived in the [[Papal States]] and composed works in Hebrew and Italian.<ref>{{Citation |last=van Bekkum |first=Wout Jac. |title=Jewish Intellectual Culture in Renaissance Context |date=2003-01-01 |work=Medieval and Renaissance Humanism |pages=227–241 |editor-last=Gersh |editor-first=Stephen |url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789047402619/B9789047402619-s012.xml |access-date=2025-05-08 |publisher=BRILL |doi=10.1163/9789047402619_012 |isbn=978-90-474-0261-9 |editor2-last=Roest |editor2-first=Bert}}</ref> Immanuel’s most well-known work is his Hebrew-language ''[[maqama]]'' collection, the ''Mahberot Immanuel''.

==Biography==
Immanuel was born in [[Rome]] in 1261 to the Zifroni family. His cousin, [[Judah ben Moses Romano]], was an author and translator employed by the King of Naples, [[Robert of Anjou]].<ref name="FA">{{cite journal |last1=Alfie |first1=Fabian |date=1998 |title=Immanuel of Rome, Alias Manoello Giudeo: The Poetics of Jewish Identity in Fourteenth-Century Italy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/480053 |journal=Italica |volume=75 |issue=3 |pages=307–329 |access-date=May 9, 2022}}</ref>{{rp|page=308}} Immanuel served as the head of correspondence for Rome’s Jewish community and likely occupied another prominent position during his lifetime. 
He left Rome in 1321, perhaps in response to a papal edict of that year which ordered the expulsion of Jews from Rome. After this, he travelled around Italy, possibly residing in Gubbio. Immanuel likely died around 1335.<ref name="Levy">{{cite web |last1=Levy |first1=Isabelle |title=Immanuel of Rome and Dante |url=https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/history/immanuel-of-rome-and-dante-levy/ |access-date=May 9, 2022 |website=Digital Dante |publisher=Columbia University Libraries}}</ref>

==Works==
Immanuel wrote in both in Hebrew and Italian. He is the only Jewish author from this time with surviving Italian-language works. Apart from the ''Mahberot Immanuel'', his most-known composition, he authored biblical commentaries, a work of [[Hermeneutics]], a treatise on the esoteric aspects of the Hebrew alphabet (not extant), and five poems in Italian. He is the first poet to author a [[sonnet]] in a language other than Italian.<ref name="Levy"/>

===Mahberot Immanuel===
Immanuel is most celebrated for the ''Mahberot Immanuel'', a Hebrew collection of ''maqamat''. The ''[[maqama]]'', also referred to in Hebrew as ''mahberet'' is a genre of rhymed prose that originated in Arabic but flourished in both Arabic and Hebrew in medieval Iberia. In his introduction to the ''Mahberot Immanuel'', Immanuel references [[Judah al-Harizi]]’s ''Takhemoni''. Hebrew was not a spoken language in either medieval Iberia or 14th century Italy and authors re-worked Biblical Hebrew to suit their literary exploits.

''Mahberot Immanuel'' consists of 28 chapters that each deal with various subjects and inter-weave rhymed prose and metered verse. It reflects elements of Hebrew literary tradition as well as contemporary Italian literary trends. Immanuel’s sonnets employ motifs characteristic of [[Dante]] and [[Cecco Angiolieri]], two contemporaries of Immanuel.<ref name="Brener">{{cite journal |last1=Brener |first1=Ann |date=Spring 2012 |title=The Scroll of Love by Immanuel of Rome |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/prooftexts.32.2.149 |journal=Prooftexts |volume=32 |pages=149–175 |access-date=May 9, 2022}}</ref>{{rp|150}} The beloved is referred to both as a “gazelle”, typical of Arabic and Hebrew literary heritage, and as a “lady,” Immanuel’s translation of the Italian ''donna''.<ref name="Brener"/>{{rp|151}}

This ''maqama'' collection includes thirty-eight sonnets. Immanuel employs a meter that combines both Hebrew quantitative meter (itself an Andalusian adaptation from Arabic) and Italian syllabic meter.<ref name="Levy"/> These sonnets were included amongst the 28 stories of the Mahberot. For example, in the third chapter, lovers exchange sonnets with each other.<ref name="Brener"/>{{rp|151}}

Immanuel’s ''Mahberot Immanuel'' was a highly popular work amongst Hebrew readers. It was one of the early Hebrew works printed after the advent of the printing press, particularly since Italy was a center for Hebrew printing. Further proof of its notoriety is attested by its prohibition for reading on the Sabbath according to the 16th legal code [[Shulchan Aruch]].<ref name="Levy"/>

Two of the most-known stories of the ''Mahberot'' Immanuel are the ''Scroll of Love'' (''megilat ha-hesheq'') and the ''Tale of Hell and Paradise'' (''Mahberet ha-Tophet veha-'Eden'').

Through a series of rhymed letters, the ''Scroll of Love'' recounts the story of Immanuel whose patron entices him to romantically pursue a nun who he has never seen.<ref name="Levy"/><ref name="Brener"/>{{rp|151}} The pair exchange ten letters, four of them sonnets. Immanuel’s poetic chops convince the nun to run away with him however the tale turns sour when Immanuel discovers she is his patron’s half-sister. His patron threatens to cut off his support of Immanuel and so Immanuel is forced to end the budding romance. Heartbroken and humiliated, the woman stops eating and drinking and quickly dies. Immanuel mourns her death with a sonnet<ref name="Levy"/><ref name="Brener"/>{{rp|161}}

The ''Tale of Hell and Paradise'' is an account of hell and heaven delivered by Immanuel’s literary persona who was guided by Daniel. Daniel is either a reference to the biblical prophet or to Dante. He includes a description of a sinner bound to a post crowned with thorns, possibly an allusion to Jesus. Notably, this man is being punished for his heretical and sexually improper acts.<ref name="Fishkin">{{cite journal |last1=Fishkin |first1=Dana |date=2018 |title=The Sting of Satire The Jesus Figure in Immanuel of Rome’s Hell |url=https://touroscholar.touro.edu/gsjs_pubs/49/ |journal=Prooftexts |volume=36 |pages=355–382 |access-date=May 9, 2022}}</ref>{{rp|pages=356–360}} Daniel and Immanuel meet other biblical and contemporary people in hell and heaven. Scholars have pointed to similarities between this story of Immanuel’s and Dante’s [[Divine Comedy]]. Unlike Dante, Immanuel does not include purgatory which is not present in Jewish theology. Interestingly, this section is the lone story to feature exclusively rhymed prose. Immanuel does not mix in metered verse.<ref name="Levy"/>

===Italian poems===
Immanuel is the only Jewish poet from this period with extant Italian poetry. Immanuel authored five poems in Italian – four sonnets and ''Bisbidis''. ''Bisbidis'' was well-received and included in poetic anthologies from this time.<ref name="Levy2">{{cite journal |last1=Levy |first1=Isabelle |date=May 26, 2021 |title=Immanuel of Rome’s Bisbidis: An Italian Maqāma? |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/me/27/1/article-p78_3.xml?ebody=pdf-49903 |journal=Medieval Encounters |volume=27 |pages=78–115 |doi=10.1163/15700674-12340095 |access-date=May 9, 2022|doi-access=free }}</ref>{{rp|86}} ''Bisbidis'' has received scholarly attention for its inventiveness and rich onomatopoeia.<ref name="Levy2"/>

==References==
<references/>

== External links ==
{{EB1911 poster|Immanuel ben Solomon}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20010626142755/http://petrarch.freeservers.com/imrom.html The Italian Poems of Immanuel ben Solomon]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20091027060533/http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Choir/4792/manuello.html The Poetry of Manuello Romano (Guy Shaked)]
*[https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/history/immanuel-of-rome-and-dante-levy/ Digital Dante - Immanuel of Rome and Dante]
*[https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/immanuel-ben-solomon-rome IMMANUEL (ben Solomon) OF ROME] Encyclopaedia Judaica article by [[Umberto Cassuto]] and Angel Sáenz-Badillos at [[Encyclopedia.com]]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Immanuel The Roman}}
[[Category:1261 births]]
[[Category:1330 deaths]]
[[Category:13th-century Italian Jews]]
[[Category:14th-century Italian Jews]]
[[Category:13th-century Italian poets]]
[[Category:14th-century Italian poets]]
[[Category:Jewish poets]]
[[Category:Italian male poets]]
[[Category:Writers from Rome]]
[[Category:Writers from the Papal States]]
[[Category:13th-century Italian writers]]
[[Category:14th-century Italian writers]]
[[Category:Jewish Italian writers]]