ALATRINI

ALATRINI (or Alatrino), Italian family originating in Alatri in central Italy and later dispersed throughout the country. Its members were known from the 14th century as copyists of Hebrew manuscripts, and from the 15th century as authors. MATTATHIAS BEN ABRAHAM ALATRINI (16th century), of Città di Castello, was author of a commentary (unpublished) on the Beḥinat Olam of jedaiah ha-penini , completed in 1562–63. ISAAC BEN ABRAHAM (16th–17th century), grandson of Mattathias, was active in Cingoli and Modena, where in 1621 he was authorized by the duke to teach Hebrew to Christians. He wrote Kenaf Renanim, a commentary on the Song of Songs in five parts (unpublished), in which he quotes passages from the Dialoghi di Amore of Leone Ebreo (judah abrabanel ). There also exists a Hebrew dictionary of philosophical terms with Italian translations, either composed by him or compiled from his works. JOHANAN JUDAH BEN SALOMON (fl. 2nd half of 16th century) was an early Jewish author in Italian and a poet in Hebrew. He wrote L'angelica tromba (Ferrara, 1589), an Italian version in "terza rima" (the poetic meter of Dante's Divina Commedia) of three seliḥot, to which he added some "Sonetti spirituali" (spiritual sonnets). The book was translated into Hebrew by Alatrini's grandson Natan Jedidiah of Orvieto, with the title Barekhi nafshi (1628). His Hebrew poems belong to the genre of tokheḥah and praise of friends (Abraham Yagel, Barukh ha-Cohen). One tokheḥah is translated by the author into Italian. He is perhaps identical with Angelo Alatrini (c. 1534–before 1611), of Città di Castello, early Jewish author in Italian. He wrote I Trionfi (Venice, 1611), a pastoral fable, completed in Ferrara in 1575 and seen through the press by leon modena , who added a sonnet in Petrarchian style. I Trionfi follows an arcadian model, with moral purposes and characters drawn from Latin mythology; but it also contains sections written in a more popular style, with obscene allusions. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. Roth, Jews in the Renaissance (1959), 135, 269–70; Schirmann, Italyah, 256–60; Mortara, Indice. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: U. Cassuto, Encycl. Judaica, vol. 2 (1971), 101; D. Pagis, Ḥidush u-Masoret (1976), 284–85; M.R. Cohen, The Autobiography of a Seventeenth-Century Venetian Rabbi. Leone Modena's Life of Judah (1988), 235; D. Bregman, Ẓeror Ẓehubim (1998), 111; H.E. Adelman and B.C.I. Ravid, "Historical Notes" to M.R. Cohen, The Autobiography of a Seventeenth-Century Rabbi (1988), 235; R.C. Melzi, "Una commedia rinascimentale di Angelo Alatini: I Trionfi," in: Italia 13 (2001), 343–56. (Cecil Roth / Alessandro Guetta (2nd ed.)