BENEVENTO, IMMANUEL BEN JEKUTHIEL

BENEVENTO, IMMANUEL BEN JEKUTHIEL (died c. 1560), Italian grammarian and kabbalist. Benevento, who lived in Mantua, was the pupil of R. Moses Basola\>\> of Pesaro. He wrote Livyat Hen (Mantua, 1557) on Hebrew grammar and poetry and published Ma'arekhet ha-Elohut, the kabbalistic work of Perez b. Isaac Gerondi (of Barcelona), which he annotated with his own commentary (Mantua, 1558). He was also one of the publishers of the first printed edition of the Zohar (Mantua, 1558–60), and went to the Ottoman Empire in search of new Zohar manuscripts for this edition. Benevento was also involved in the dispute about printing the Zohar, justifying it in the introductions to his books. He died before the printing was completed. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Steinschneider, Cat Bod, 541, no. 3492, 1055, no. 5266; J. Perles, Beitraege zur Geschichte der hebraeischen und aramaeischen Studien (1884), 220; G. Scholem, Bibliographia kabbalistica (1927), 166, 177. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: I. Sonne, Mi-Paolo Harevi'i ad Pius ha-Hamishi (1954), 110–17, 127–29; I. Tishby, "Studies in Kabbalah and Its Branches" (Heb., 1982), 79–130. (Umberto (Moses David) Cassuto / Moti Benmelekh (2nd ed.)