Joseph Solomon Delmedigo

From the frontispiece to his "Sefer Elim."

Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, also known as ישר מקנדיא, Yashar Mi-qandia (June 16, 1591 – October 16, 1655) was a rabbi, author, physician, mathematician, and music theorist.^[1]

Born in Candia, Crete, he moved to Padua, Italy, throughout most Europe and north Africa, and finally died in Prague. Yet in his lifetime wherever he sojourned he earned his living as a physician and or teacher. His only known works are Elim (Palms), dealing with mathematics, astronomy, the natural sciences, and metaphysics, as well as some letters and essays.

As Delmedigo writes in his book, he followed the lectures by Galileo Galilei, during the academic year 1609-1610. In the following years he often refers to Galilei as "rabbi Galileo".

Elim (1629, published by Menasseh ben Israel, Amsterdam) is written in Hebrew, in response to 12 general and 70 specific religious and scientific questions sent to Delmedigo by a Karaite Jew, Zerach ben Natan from Troki (Lithuania). The format of the book is taken from the number of fountains and palm trees at Elim in the Sinai Peninsula, as given in Numbers, xxxiii, 9: since there are 12 fountains and 70 palm trees at Elim, Delmedigo divided his book into twelve major problems and seventy minor problems. The subjects discussed include astronomy, physics, mathematics, medicine, and music theory. In the area of music, Delmedigo discusses the physics of music including string resonance, intervals and their proportions, consonance and dissonance.

Some parts of the book were as follows:

Ma'ayan Chatum (Closed or Sealed Fountain - Heb. מעין חתום) is the second part of Sefer Elim, containing the 70 questions and answers.
Ma'ayan Ganim (Fountain of the Gardens - Heb. מעין גנים) is a continuation of Sefer Elim, consisting of the following short treatises: on trigonometry, on the first two books of the Almagest, on astronomy, on astronomical instruments, on Kabbalah (mainly the Ari) and the supernatural, on astrology, on algebra, on chemistry, on the aphorisms of Hippocrates, on the opinion of the ancients concerning the substance of the heavens, on the astronomy of the ancients, who considered the motion of the higher spheres due to spirits (Delmedigo shows that their motion is similar to that of the earth), on the principles of religion, and mathematical paradoxes.
Chukkot Shamayim is a part of Mayan Ganim dealing with the first two books of the Almagest.
Gevurot Hashem is a treatise on astronomy.

Descendants

Some of Delmedigo's descendants settled in Byelorussia and took on the Surname Gorodinsky (after the town of Gorodin). A member of this family, Mordechai Gorodinsky (later hebraized to Nachmani) was one of the founders of the Israeli city of Rehovot.

Notes

^ Yashar is an acronym that includes both his two Hebrew initials, Yosef Shlomo and his profession, rofe, i.e. physician. Yashar from Candia (יש"ר מקנדיה) is also a Hebrew pun, since Yashar means straight, as in "the straight [man] from Candia". The drawing (reproduced above to the right) on the frontispiece of his only printed work gives his name simply as "Ioseph Del Medico 'Cretensis'," or "Joseph [of] the Physician, from Crete, Philosopher and Physician." It is hard to determine which of the two, the family name Delmedigo on the one hand or the profession (physician), existed in the first place, giving origin to the other. The Hebrew title page to Sefer Elim gives his occupations specifically as a "complete" rabbi (shalem; this may mean that he had some sort of official smicha), philosopher, physician, and "nobleman" (aluf).

References

Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem, 1972), Vol. 5, 1477-8
Barzilay, Isaac, Yoseph Shlomoh Delmedigo (Yashar of Candia): His Life, Work and Times, Leiden, 1974
Don Harrán. "Joseph Solomon Delmedigo", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed February 5, 2005), grovemusic.com (subscription access).

External links

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[1] Yashar is an acronym that includes both his two Hebrew initials, Yosef Shlomo and his profession, rofe, i.e. physician. Yashar from Candia (יש"ר מקנדיה) is also a Hebrew pun, since Yashar means straight, as in "the straight [man] from Candia". The drawing (reproduced above to the right) on the frontispiece of his only printed work gives his name simply as "Ioseph Del Medico 'Cretensis'," or "Joseph [of] the Physician, from Crete, Philosopher and Physician." It is hard to determine which of the two, the family name Delmedigo on the one hand or the profession (physician), existed in the first place, giving origin to the other. The Hebrew title page to Sefer Elim gives his occupations specifically as a "complete" rabbi (shalem; this may mean that he had some sort of official smicha), philosopher, physician, and "nobleman" (aluf).

[1]