Carmi, Isaiah Ḥai ben Joseph

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CARMI, ISAIAH ḤAI BEN JOSEPH

CARMI, ISAIAH ḤAI BEN JOSEPH (1740–1799), Italian Hebrew poet. Carmi was a disciple of Israel Benjamin Bassani, whom he succeeded as rabbi of Reggio in North Italy. He died there when he was about to accept a call to Trieste. Carmi's pupil Anania (Hananiah Elhanan) Coen in his poetics Ru'aḥ Ḥadashah printed some of his poems. Carmi carried on a scholarly correspondence with the bibliophile Moses Benjamin *Foà and with the Christian Hebraist G.B. *de' Rossi. Isaiah Ḥai Carmi is not to be confused with an earlier poet, Isaiah Nathan Carmi, who lived c. 1591 (Ms. Kaufmann, no. 291).

bibliography:

A. Coen, Saggio di eloquenza ebrea (1827), 59; Ghirondi-Neppi, 104, no. 7; 186, no. 139; Gross, Gal Jud, 262; Guenzburg, in: Recueil Daniel Chwolson (1899), 70ff., 88–118; Davidson, Oẓar, 4 (1933), 425; A.B. Piperno, Kol Ugav (1846), nos. 25 and 26.

[Jefim (Hayyim) Schirmann]