Lattes, Abraham ben Isaac

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LATTES, ABRAHAM BEN ISAAC

LATTES, ABRAHAM BEN ISAAC (1809–1875), rabbi in Venice, Italy, where he succeeded his grandfather Aaron Elijah Lattes in 1839. A collaborator of the Venetian patriot Daniele *Manin, Lattes took an active part in the Italian revolutionary movement, and during the existence of the Venetian republic (1848–49) was twice elected a councilor. He wrote one of the pioneering studies on Venetian Jewry, published in Venezia e le sue lagune (1847), and contributed to the Hebrew periodicals *Kerem Ḥemed and Bikkurei ha-Ittim. His son, moses lattes (1846–1883), devoted himself to study after qualifying as a rabbi and published many monographs on Italian, particularly Venetian, Jewish history and on talmudic lexicography. He was the first to publish selections of the historical writings of Elijah *Capsali.

bibliography:

Ottolenghi, in: rmi, 5 (1930/31), 25–35; C. Roth, Venice (1930), 365–6; Milano, Bibliotheca, index; U. Cassuto, Studi giudaici in Italia… 18611911, 1 (1913); G. Bedarida, Ebrei d'Italia (1950), 131, 225; M. Lattes, Notizie e documenti (1879), incl. bibl.

[Umberto (Moses David) Cassuto]