Erudizione de’ confusi by Yedidya ben Moshe Recanati, a Late Renaissance Italian Translation of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed

Abstract

In 1581, Yedidya ben Moshe Recanati—who lived in San Marino and Pesaro, in the North‑eastern regions of Italy—wrote an Italian translation (in Hebrew characters) of the Guide of the Perplexed, based on the Hebrew version by Samuel Ibn Tibbon. According to his words in the introduction, this work was destined for Jewish students who, thanks to the translation of difficult words and expressions of Maimonides’ book, could address Jewish and especially non‑Jewish scholars, in order to have further explanations, in particular on scientific matters. Yedidya Recanati was a brilliant and prolific scholar, though almost completely unknown; actually, his rich literary production—biblical exegesis, epistolography, lexicography and translations from and into Hebrew, besides scattered Halakhic response has never been printed. The translation of the Guide, whose title is Erudizione de’ confusi, is the evidence of the persistent importance of Maimonides’ work within Italian Judaism, even in a period of growing defiance toward rationalistic philosophy.