{{Short description|Italian-Jewish physician (1525–1594)}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata=ALL}} {{Expand Italian|topic=hist|date=September 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}} right|thumb|''A discourse in Human suffering and How to Escape It'', 1572, Venice '''David ben Isaac de Pomis''' ('''David de' Pomi''') (1524–1594) was an Italian-Jewish physician, rabbi, linguist, philosopher, a significant figure in the intellectual exchange between Jews and Christians, and publisher of a 1587 trilingual Hebrew-Aramaic, Latin, and Italian dictionary known as ''Semah David'', and ''De Medico Hebræo Enarratio Apologica'', an apologetic work which deals with Jewish medicine.<ref name="Torbidoni-2022" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Graetz |first=Heinrich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AgHzDwAAQBAJ&dq=david+pomis&pg=PA437 |title=History of the Jews: Volume 4 |date=25 July 2020 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=978-3-7523-3834-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Friedenwald-1942" />
==Biography== Born into a wealthy family of bankers in Spoleto, Umbria, his father lost his fortune during the Italian Wars.<ref name="Heller-2022">{{Cite book |last=Heller |first=Marvin J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=damgEAAAQBAJ&dq=david+pomis&pg=PA755 |title=The Sixteenth Century Hebrew Book: Volume Two |date=5 December 2022 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-53167-3 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Bartolucci-2023">{{Citation |last=Bartolucci |first=Guido |title=Mobility and Creativity |date=23 August 2023 |work=Maimonides Review of Philosophy and Religion Volume 2, 2023 |pages=303–321 |publisher=BRILL |doi=10.1163/9789004508668_010 |isbn=978-90-04-50866-8|doi-access=free |hdl=11585/951909 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> His family claimed descent from King David.<ref name="JE">{{Cite web |title=POMIS, DE - JewishEncyclopedia.com |url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12263-pomis-de |access-date=9 September 2024 |website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref> According to ancient Italian-Jewish tradition, his aristocratic family, called "''Min HaTapuchim''", or of the apples (''pomis'' or ''pomeria''), was relocated from Jerusalem to Rome by Titus.<ref name="Friedenwald-1942">{{Cite journal |last=Friedenwald |first=Harry |date=1942 |title=Apologetic Works of Jewish Physicians |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1452355 |journal=The Jewish Quarterly Review |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=227–255 |doi=10.2307/1452355 |jstor=1452355 |issn=0021-6682|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Preschel-2024" /><ref name="Treccani" /> In 1527, when Pomis was two, the Sack of Rome prompted his family to relocate to Camerino. Along the way, the convoys carrying their possessions were attacked and their goods taken. Now poor, they relocated to Bevagna and then to Todi.<ref name="Preschel-2024">{{Cite web |authorlink=Tovia Preschel|first=Tovia|last=Preschel|date=5 June 2024 |title=David de Pomis, Italian Rabbi, Physician Philosopher and Philologist |url=https://www.toviapreschel.com/david-de-pomis-italian-rabbi-physician-philosopher-and-philologist/ |access-date=8 September 2024 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Treccani">{{Cite web |title=POMIS, David de' – Enciclopedia |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/david-de-pomis_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ |access-date=8 September 2024 |website=Treccani |language=it}}</ref> He studied at the University of Perugia and graduated with his medical degree in 1551, before settling in Magliano Sabino, but was compelled to migrate from town to town for a lengthy period due to the Church's anti-Jewish legislation.<ref name="Brisman-2000">{{Cite book |last=Brisman |first=Shimeon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AuuBhRQFf0MC&q=pomis |title=A History and Guide to Judaic Dictionaries and Concordances |date=2000 |publisher=KTAV Publishing House, Inc. |isbn=978-0-88125-658-1 |language=en|page=60}}</ref><ref name="Torbidoni-2022">{{Citation |last=Torbidoni |first=Michela |title=Pomis, David ben Isaac de: Born: 1524, SpoletoDied: ca. 1594, Venice |date=2022 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy |pages=2630–2634 |editor-last=Sgarbi |editor-first=Marco |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-319-14169-5_159 |access-date=9 September 2024 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-14169-5_159 |isbn=978-3-319-14168-8|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Pope Paul IV's bull prevented Jewish physicians from treating Christians.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yachnin |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UjNwCgAAQBAJ&dq=david+pomis&pg=PA43 |title=Shakespeare's World of Words |date=22 October 2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4742-5290-4 |language=en}}</ref> However, Pope Pius IV granted Pomis the right to treat Christian patients in 1565, but died five days later, and his successor Pope Pius V rescinded the grant.<ref name="Heller-2022"/> Pomis then moved to Venice after 1569.<ref name="Bartolucci-2023" /> In Venice he established relationships with Margaret of Savoy, {{ill|Giacomo Contarini (1536–1595)|it|Giacomo Contarini}}, Pasquale Cicogna, and Francesco Maria, Duke Urbino, as well as Jewish leaders such as Samuel Judah Katzenellenbogen.<ref name="Bartolucci-2023" />
Pomis translated Ecclesiastes into Italian and wrote a work on the bubonic plague,<ref name="Heller-2022"/> and wrote other works of biblical exegesis.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Freedman |first=Harry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mo7mEAAAQBAJ&dq=david+pomis&pg=PT57 |title=Shylock's Venice: The Remarkable History of Venice's Jews and the Ghetto |date=15 February 2024 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-3994-0726-7 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Veltri |first=Giuseppe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3EuNhr_Ar1cC&dq=david+pomis&pg=PA219 |title=Renaissance Philosophy in Jewish Garb: Foundations and Challenges in Judaism on the Eve of Modernity |date=2009 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-17196-1 |language=en}}</ref> He is notable for his call for equality and religious liberty for Jewish people.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Karp |first1=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MXQ6DwAAQBAJ&dq=david+pomis&pg=PA46 |title=The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 7, The Early Modern World, 1500–1815 |last2=Sutcliffe |first2=Adam |date=30 November 2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-13906-9 |language=en}}</ref> His ''Zemah David'' was dedicated to Pope Sextus V, who had reversed the earlier anti-Jewish physicians bull.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fuchs |first1=James L. |last2=פוקס |first2=ג'ימס |date=1989 |title=ספרי רפואה יהודיים ויחסי יהודים-נוצרים בראשית העת החדשה באירופה / Jewish Medical Compendia and Jewish-Christian Relations in Early Modern Europe |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23535618 |journal=Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies / דברי הקונגרס העולמי למדעי היהדות |volume=י |pages=83–90 |jstor=23535618 |issn=0333-9068}}</ref> He cites David Kimhi's ''Shorashim'', Nathan ben Yehiel's ''Arukh'', and Elia Levita's ''Tishbi''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Berns |first=Andrew D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HqYaBQAAQBAJ&dq=david+pomis&pg=PA114 |title=The Bible and Natural Philosophy in Renaissance Italy: Jewish and Christian Physicians in Search of Truth |date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-06554-3 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Burnett |first=Stephen G. |title=Christian Aramaism |date=23 June 2005 |work=Seeking Out the Wisdom of the Ancients |pages=421–436 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/j.ctv1w36pmb.32 |access-date=9 September 2024 |publisher=Penn State University Press |doi=10.5325/j.ctv1w36pmb.32 |isbn=978-1-57506-562-5|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Brisman-2000" /> He was cited by Johannes Buxtorf and Joseph Scaliger.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mandelbrote |first1=Scott |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qOAzDwAAQBAJ&dq=david+pomis&pg=PA235 |title=Jewish Books and their Readers: Aspects of the Intellectual Life of Christians and Jews in Early Modern Europe |last2=Weinberg |first2=Joanna |date=23 May 2016 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-31815-1 |language=en}}</ref> His ''Medico Hebræo'' earned praise from Aldus Manutius the Younger.<ref name="JE"/> His work defended Jews, recounting the anti-Jewish actions of the time and refuting anti-Jewish claims, and emphasized medical humanism and compassion.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shulvass |first=Moses A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mNn7EAAAQBAJ&dq=david+pomis&pg=PA320 |title=Jews in the World of the Renaissance |date=28 August 2023 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-67039-6 |language=en|authorlink=Moses Shulvass}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mampieri |first=Martina |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6GzDDwAAQBAJ&dq=david+pomis&pg=PA93 |title=Living under the Evil Pope: The Hebrew Chronicle of Pope Paul IV by Benjamin Neḥemiah ben Elnathan from Civitanova Marche (16th cent.) |date=26 November 2019 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-41515-7 |language=en}}</ref>
==Further reading== *{{Cite book |last=Pomis |first=David de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YkJMAAAAcAAJ |title=Dittionario novo Hebraico ...: in 3 lingue |date=1587 |language=he}}
==''Jewish Encyclopedia'' bibliography== *Wolf, ''Bibl. Hebr''. i. 311–313; *Jost, ''Annalen'', 1839, p. 223; *Grätz. ''Gesch''. ix. 504; *''Il Vessillo Israelitico'', 1875, p. 175; 1876, p. 319; *Berliner's ''Magazin'', 1875, p. 48; *Steinschneider, ''Jewish Literature'', p. 235; *idem, in ''Monatsschrift'', xliii. 32; *Dukes, in R. E. J. i. 145–152; *Vogelstein and Rieger, ''Gesch. der Juden in Rom'', ii. 259–260; *Carmoly, ''Histoire des Médecins Juifs'', i. 150–153.
== References == {{Reflist}} {{JewishEncyclopedia|url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12263-pomis-de|title=POMIS, DE}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pomis, David de}} Category:1524 births Category:1594 deaths Category:Jewish translators of the Bible Category:Jewish humanists Category:Linguists of Hebrew Category:Jewish lexicographers Category:Bible commentators Category:16th-century Italian Jews Category:16th-century Italian male writers Category:Jewish Italian writers Category:People from Spoleto Category:16th-century biblical scholars