Abraham ben Shabbetai Ha-Kohen

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ABRAHAM BEN SHABBETAI HA-KOHEN

ABRAHAM BEN SHABBETAI HA-KOHEN (1670–1729), poet, physician, artist, and philosopher. Born in Crete when the island was under Venetian rule, he studied medicine and philosophy at the University of Padua and then practiced on the island of Zante. He was the author of Kehunnat Avraham (Venice, 1719), a paraphrase of portions of Psalms in rhymed verse in various meters, to which was appended Benei Keturah, a similar paraphrase of Pirkei Shirah. The title page of the book is followed by an engraved self-portrait of the author, who was also probably responsible for other engravings in the book. He also published a volume of homilies on the Pentateuch, Kevod Ḥakhamim (Venice, 1700).

bibliography:

Ghirondi-Neppi, 32, no. 76; A. Rubens, Jewish Iconography (1954), no. 2006.

[Cecil Roth]

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Abraham ben Shabbetai Ha-Kohen

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