Don Isaac Abravanel: Nobility and the Church in Burgundy, 980-1198 - Paperback

by B. Netanyahu (Author)

Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508) was a major historical figure during the waning of the Middle Ages. Statesman, diplomat, courtier, and financier, he was, at the same time, a scholar of encyclopedic learning, a philosopher, an exegete, a prolific author, a mystic, and an apocalyptist. In Abravanel, B. Netanyahu suggests, two long lines of tradition met and concluded: that of medieval Jewish statesmen and that of medieval Jewish philosophers. In what is both a biography and an exploration of Abravanel's thought and influence, Netanyahu describes how Abravanel illuminated the grave crisis and profound transformation experienced by the Jewish people after the Spanish expulsion. First published in 1953, Don Isaac Abravanel has been out of print for several years. This new edition includes revisions in the text, notes, and bibliography.

Author Biography

B. Netanyahu is Emeritus Professor of Judaic Studies at Cornell University. He is the author of many books, including Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain and, most recently, Toward the Inquisition: Essays on Jewish and Converso History in Late Medieval Spain, published by Cornell.