Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/626

576 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Basilea

Karaite tradition, which the author claims to have received from Japheth ibn Sagliir; interpretation of the Law, and particularly of the precepts which are

arranged in numbers according to the Decalogue. (4) "Sefer Reuben" (The Book of Reuben), on dog-

mas and

articles of belief.

Bibliography



Jost,

<l.

Karxlert.

iii.

der Petersbmyir

hoict h'-Toledot

und Seiner Sec310-322; Neubauer, Gottlober, Bih-

Gesch. dex Judenthums

ten, ii.Sni; Hirst, Geneh.

Aus

Ilililintliek, pp. 63, Hi ha-Karaim, p. 202.



g.

I.

Br.

BASILEA, BASILA, BASSOLA, BASOLA,

BASLA

n^lD(N)3, n^rX3 B"N, family originally from Basel in Switzerland (whence the name), but resident in the north

n?TN3)



(K^rxn, ^DN3,

A

and in Palestine from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. In 1489 Mordecai Zarfati (the Frenchman) ben Reuben Bassola corrected at Soncino the proofs of an edition of the Talmudical treatises Hullin and Niddah, with scrupulous exactness and knowledge (see Rabbinowitz, "Dikduke Soferim "). His son of Italy

Moses ben Mordecai Bassola

the instruction of Moses, son of Benjamin della Rocca. The last-named, who was a grandson on his mother's side of the venerable Moses Bassola, whose family name he bore, came from Safed, where he had had as colleague Gedaliah, son of Moses Cordovero. When the latter also came to Italy, he associated him with himself, in pious tribute to the memory of Cordovero in the work "Or Ne'erab" (The Setting Luminary) (1587). In 1588 Moses Bassola received as a gift from the hands of R. Menahem Azariah de Fano, the manuscript of the work " Tomer Deborah " (The Palm-Tree of Deborah), which he also edited. His facility in writing is shown by the brief prefaces in prose and in verse, as well as by a homily preserved in the Italian manuscript of the Michael collection (Neubauer, " Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS. " No. 2192). He died soon after at an early age in the island of Cyprus, sincerely lamented by his pupil Leon of Modena (then thirteen years old), in the following elegy, which can be read both in Hebrew and in Italian

A

number

of

Maranos had

tied to

1

in Italy (compare "Toledot Gcdole Yisrael," p. 248). He is also quoted by R. Moses de Trani in No. 304 of the first partof his collection, and by Katzenellen-

bogen of Padua, in No. 13 of his responsa (Conforte, "Kore ha-Dorot," ed. Cassel, 3ib, din): see also responsa in manuscripts 9 and 228 of the Halbcrstamm Library ("Kehilat Shelomo," Vienna, 1890), His family established themselves at Safed. His son Azriel ben Moses Bassola gave lessons to the infant prodigy Leon de Modena, who enjoyed likewise, especially between 1582 and 1584,

DD3 nn in "nor nrp muor ohm& che pass' acerbo..

.

^N fH

?*

"I1N

.

'D13 Dr?'J! 3110

.

n

.

"?3

.



.

1

Santo sia ogn uom, con puro zelo. .

13

-WN

.

'nX

)!£>

ID' 3!0'D fT73

.

giammai senza riserbo. JN3 j'N jn nra din anrv

Ch'alla meta,

and there conceived the idea of boycotting Ancona, and turning the Levantine commerce to Pesaro (Jew. Enctc. i. 572). It was Moses who wrote the letter to the Constantinople Jews, begging them not to



l

Colto vien l'uom cosi ordin' il cielo. i:n ipi he'd 'iid nuo Mose mori Mose gia car de verbo. V? to Nin -nor dv Jin mi£>in Diy

the East,

carry out their threat, for fear of the reprisals that Paul might take (Gratz, " Gesch. der Juden, " ix. 376, 378, 383, 444; x.142; Kaufmann, in "Revue Etudes Juives," xxxi. 231 Zunz, " Gesammelte Schriften," While at Pesaro he encouraged his pupil Emi. 182). manuel Benevento to print the Zohar (Mantua ed. 1558-60), and he published at the head of the "Tikkune Zohar" his official approbation, an eloquent plea in behalf of the Cabala in general and of what claimed to be R. Simeon b. Yohai's work in particular. In his old age Moses journeyed to Palestine; his diary of the voyage, which Azariah dei Rossi examined with good results (see the Samaritan alphabet in eh. lvi. of "Imre Binah," part 3 of the "Me 'or 'Euayim"), evidences his scientific inquisitiveness and the clearness of his thought. In Safed, Moses was welcomed with great honor by all the scholars there resident; and Moses Cordovero, it is said, on the authority of Leon de Modena (" Ari No'em," xxvi.), ostentatiously kissed his hands, much disconcerting the modest old man. Rabbi Menahem Azariah de Fano eulogizes Moses in No. 67 of his responsa, in connection with certain commercial printing-offices

n -mo

.

" Chi nasce

(1480-1560), cele-

brated for his cabalistic attainments, was born at Pesaro, and was for a long time head of the Jewish Academy of Ancona. He was rabbi in Ancona when Paul IV. (1555-59) tried to take vengeance on Spain by persecuting the Maranos living in that city.

576

.

lS

nsT

Arriv'

.

.

uom ma vedran

in cangiar pelo.

UD' 131J! Soi Sp D'3 nj'flD abbiam, ch'al cielo vero o'meno IKE' 'E'l '3!f N3V DVTt l'uom va, se viva assai se meno.".

.

Se

Ah

fln

This "kinah" was

first

published (the Italian

in

Hebrew

characters) in Leon's "Midbar Yehudah," Venice, 1602; then in his "Pi Aryeh," Venice, 1640. It has since been often republished, notably by Bartolocci in "Bibliotheca Rabbinica," enseil in " Sotah," 50; in "

iii.

34;

The Occident,"

by Wag-

xiv., Phila-

and by N. S. Lebowitz, in "Leon Modena," 2d ed., 1901, p. 7. Compare Steinschneider, " Cat.Bodl." col. 1353; idem, in " Monatssehrift," xliii. 313,315; Michael, " Or ha-Hayyim," No. 963; Gratz, "Gesch. der Juden," x. 142. delphia, 1856;

Another Moses Basilea or Bassola edited the "Or Ne'erab," Venice, 1587; and the "Tamar Deborah

"

of

Moses Cordovero, Venice,

1589.

G.

A century later Rabbi Ezekias de

Basla (K^TNTT)

was

sent to Carpentras as representative of the city of Safed, which was in distress at that time (see

Luncz, D^ETl'', iii. 108). Mordecai ben Reuben designates himself in all his letters as belonging to the junior branch of the family. Contemporary with him was Azriel, who was related to Rabbi Joseph Colon (see Mortara, " Indice Alfabetico

"),

and who died

posterity (the Trabotti) the

in 1480.

name

"

Among

Azriel

his

recurs also in the "

frequently; there is one of that name above-cited branch of the Bassola family. The celebrated Rabbi Jehiel, son of Azriel Trabot(to), mentions in the sixteenth century a certain Abraham

ben Abraham Basola living in Cremona. Possibly the Azriel b. Abraham Zarfati in Solmona (Abruzzi) in 1535 (Mortara, "Indice Alfabetico,"

p.