Mantino, Jacob ben Samuel
MANTINO, JACOB BEN SAMUEL
MANTINO, JACOB BEN SAMUEL (d. 1549), physician and translator. Mantino was apparently of Spanish origin but he spent most of his life in Italy. After graduating in medicine at Padua in 1521, he developed a flourishing practice in Bologna, Verona, and Venice, especially among the upper classes. At the same time he became known for his translations from Hebrew into Latin of philosophical works, mainly those of Averroës and Avicenna. In the stormy debate on the annulment of the marriage between Henry viii of England and Catherine of Aragon he opposed Henry's supporters, thus earning the gratitude of Pope Clement vii, and at his request Mantino was appointed lecturer in medicine in Bologna in 1529. In 1533 the pope invited him to Rome where, unlike his protector, Mantino took a strong stand against the messianic claims of Solomon *Molcho. In 1534 Pope Paul iii appointed him his personal physician and in 1539–41 professor of practical medicine at the Sapienza in Rome. In 1544 he returned to Venice. Five years later he left for Damascus as personal physician of the Venetian ambassador. He died soon after his arrival there.
bibliography:
Kaufmann, in: rej, 27 (1893), 30–60, 207–38; Milano, Italia, 242, 625, 631; idem, Ghetto di Roma (1964), 60, 68f.; C. Roth, Jews in the Renaissance (1959), index; Ravà, in: Vessillo Israelitico, 51 (1903), 310–3; Muenster, in: rmi, 20 (1954), 310–21.
[Attilio Milano]