David de’ Pomis, Zemah David: Dittionario novo Hebraico…Dechiarato in Tre Lingue (Venice: 1587), Hebrew Introduction.
Said David the son of Isaac, the son of Eliezer the son of Isaac the son of Obadiah the son of Isaac known as “the wealthy,” the son of Elia known as the Saint, whose purity and saintliness were so great that for seven nights after his death candles were seen burning on his grave. He was from the family of the de’ Pomis from the Tribe of Judah, one of the four noble clans whom Titus Caesar exiled from Jerusalem to Rome. After the death of the above-mentioned saint, the entire family left Rome in the number of seventy souls and they spread throughout the land. Indeed most of them ended in Spoleto, the city in the province of Umbria, and there they multiplied and increased, building houses and courtyards, they planted vineyards and dug pits [cisterns], and they stood on a broad pillow more than 420 years, as I discovered in an ancient book that my late father and teacher had.
In the year 287 [1526–27], two years after I was born, the gold [^1] ended and what was left was copper. This was because when the Spanish and the German [Imperial armies] sacked the great and glorious City of Rome, most of the surrounding areas were also destroyed. At the sound of the terror, my father and teacher of blessed memory fell into the pahat and became entangled in the pot. He decided to exile himself and to flee with all of his household wealth because of the pillage and looting, the famine and war. At a general meeting and with the agreement of all the community of Spoleto, he sent 40 asses loaded with woolen and linen cloths taken in pawns, and within them 700 libbre of pure silver [money] purified seven times, treasures and precious stones and pearls to the fortified cities of Camerino and Cerreto. But the shipment went out to הדרח and walked on coals. For the soldiers of the confederation, called The League in Italian, whose military officer was Sciarra Colonna, pillaged every place and refuge and there was no encampment left to flee. He looted all of our money and our wealth declined steeply.
Had the Lord of Hosts not left us a remnant of fields and houses, we would have been moaning and searching for bread to stay alive. That militia never came to Spoleto and not a whit was taken. It was a day of upset and defeat and wailing from my lord father, of blessed memory, and it kept any happiness from his heart and sighing became his medicine. Nevertheless, he never sinned with his lips, and he never abandoned fear of the Almighty. He judged his actions with righteousness and his feet never slipped from the straight path, for he was truly and properly a righteous and perfect man of his time. Even though fortune turned its back on him, he stayed quiet and trusted in the faithful God.
My eye also saw into the viper’s hole of that time that spread a net around his feet. Because of the events of his time I was burdened with hardships all of my days. I was a man of pains because after the catastrophe, he went to Bevagna to inherit what was left from his brother. There he stayed for days and years together with his entire family. It was a place without rabbinical teachers except for him, himself. He was great in Talmudic learning and expert in all the sacred books and a divine philopher, [but] “he sealed up the message, and closed off the Torah in my studies.”[^2] Though he sometimes instructed me, it was not at fixed times bbecuase of his many distractions and quarrels. Until I chose on my heart [literally, in my heart] to walk after Jewish and secular rational ideas. From my youth I was “a strong pack-animal sitting among the folds”[^3] studying the law without a friend or teacher. I had a copy of the Great Arukh; it was very old and blurred and spoiled, a manuscript on parchment, and the handwriting was that of the original author, Rabbi Natan of blessed memory, who, according to tradition, was from our family. After great effort, work and strain, I came to understand the word of that book, and I decided to publish an abbreviated version. I translated its words into three languages. I did the same with R. David Kimhi’s Shaar ha-Shorashim together with the declensions.[^4] Then I got hold of Sefer ha-Tishbi and Sefer ha Meturgaman by the great late grammarian Elia the Ashkenazi [i.e., Elias Levita Bahur 1469–1549], and I took from them what I found useful in them.[^5]
Out of all of these I composed this work which I called Tzemah David [The Sprout of David], because I composed it in my youth. And in the year [53]92 [i.e., 1531– 32], my late lord father moved from Bevagna and went to live in Todi where he bought fields and vineyards. There I “heard” the entire Logic in three consecutive years. I never moved from sitting in the dust at the feet of the master doctor, His Honor Rabbi Yehiel Rehavia Alatino[^6] my late uncle. I gathered the pearls of his parables and drew living water from his wellsprings with which to open my blind eyes. He was a great wealthy, and famous scholar in all the lands, and had no equal. Currently, his paternal brother and my relative, Moses Alatini, may God protect him, is a doctor and eminent philosopher in Ferrara. He translated the first part of Avicenna and the book Heaven and Earth of Themistius from Hebrew into Latin in a clear language.[^7] He has a son, may he gladden the heart of his father, and may God protect him.
In the year 305 [1544–45] I went to Perugia, the great city, to study and teach[^8] the words of the sages and their riddles—especially the works of Aristotle, Hippocrates and Galen, and there I stayed six and one-half years until I was registered in Perugia in that city and the College was kind enough “to sing me a song of degrees” in logic, philosophy and medicine. Immediately, I was called by the commune of the city of Majjano, the chief city of the region of Savina,[^9] with a vote of the general commune, then under Roman rule. I stayed in that territory with a good salary for three consecutive years. It was then that Pope Paul IV was elected [literally: born], and a government edict was issued, and for our sins it was directed against our people. This put fear in my heart, and it melted and became water. My breath was knocked out of me. This was because the commissarii hurried out against us and went to Todi and quickly looted whatever they found in our house, leaving me naked and bereft; they broke through and demolished again and again. I was like a screeching crane or swallow, I foamed, my eyes were weary with looking upward [to heaven for help].[^10] My cry went up to the Lord, and He, may His name be blessed, put a secure plan into my mind. He gave me the idea of serving the great lord, Count Niccolo Orsini, one of the great men of long-standing reputation. I served him in the craft of medicine for five years in the three ‘cities of refuge’: Pitigliano, Sorano, and Sovana. But these are a land that eats its inhabitants on account of the bad air. There I buried the consort who stood on my right hand,[^11] the wife of my youth who was the sister of kind and faithful people who sit first in the kingdom of knowledge and insight, his honor our teacher rabbi Eliezer, a sage and excellent doctor and his honor our teacher rabbi Isaac his brother, the brilliant and great philosopher, both of them the leaders of greatness of the kingdom of priests who were from Viterbo. And in the territory of Sovana I also lost my two sons. My tent cords are broken, my tent was pillaged,[^12] and I was left alone and desolate. I don’t know what happened to the last of my family, except for Reuben and his sons who live in the territory of the lords of S. Fiore.[^13] He has one son in Rome named Asael Pomis; he is learned and wise in many sciences, a delightful fellow and the brother-in-law of his excellency, our teacher Rabbi Elia Corcos, the doctor. After that I was asked to serve the noble Sforzas, generous people whose family produced three cardinals. I served them for three years. After that I was called by the commune of Chiusi by the general commune. This is a city under the grand duke of Florence, and the bishop of the city prevented and forbade my going there. Nevertheless [?] I traveled to Rome to beg mercy and justice from Pope Pius IV. I delie3vered a lengthy appeal in Latin, called an orazione, before him, the great officials and cardinals, and a large, indeed uncountable, audience. I gained favor in his eyes and I received everything for which I asked. But in a single week of my achievement, he died for my sins, and they enthroned under him Pius V. He renewed all the rules and orders of Paul IV and destroyed the entire structure, annulling everything. I lost in a single moment everything that I had accomplished over many years….
- Test footnote
[^2]: Test footnote
Hebrew text copied from pdf:
תמדקה רפסה םע רופס תצק תואלתה ועריא רבחמל ינשמ ]![ וירוענ דע םויה :
רמא דוד ןב קחצי ןב רזעילא ןב קחצי ןב הידבוע ןב קחצי הנוכמה רישעה ןב הילא הנוכמה שודקה
רובעבו ותרהט ותשודקו המוצע ]![ עבשב ’ תוליל רחא ותתימ דימת וארנ תורנ תוקלוד לע ורבק היהו
תחפשממ םיחופתה טבשמ הדוהי העבראמ יתב תובא תוסחוימה הלגהש טיט ” סו רסקה ” םלשורימ
המורב המורמו רחא תתימ דיסחה נה “ל ואצי לכ ינב ותיב םיעבשב שפנ וצופנו לכב ץראה . ןכא םבור
וראשנ יטילופסב ריעה איהש לילגב האירמוא ]![ המשו ורפ וברו ונבו םיתב תורצחו ועטנו םימרכ
ורפחו תורוב ודמעו לע רכ בחרנ רתוי ירשעמ ’ עבראו תואמ הנש יפכ יתאצמש אב ’ רפס ןשי היהש לצא