GERONDI (Gerundi), ISAAC BEN JUDAH

GERONDI (Gerundi), ISAAC BEN JUDAH (13th century), Spanish Hebrew poet. It has been suggested that Gerondi may perhaps be identified with Isaac ha-Nasi of Barcelona (a nephew of Sheshet ha-Nasi) whose poetry is lauded by Al-Ḥarizi (Taḥkemoni, ed. by A. Kaminka (1899), 350–1). Gerondi's surname, Ibn Fasad (בן פשאד), has so far not been satisfactorily explained. The Latin transcription of this name, Avenpesat, is that of many Jews of Aragon, Navarre, and Marseilles (Baer, Urkunden, 1 (1929), 1095 S.V. Avenpesat). The designation ha-Nadiv, found in some of his acrostics, may refer to his father only. About 20 of Gerondi's poems are extant; among these are the individual parts of his kerovah, "Va-Areẓ Etnappal Lifnei Dar Gevohai" for rosh ha-shanah . The composition, in which poems by other authors are interpolated, is to be found in the rites of Algiers, Tunis, Constantine, and Tlemcen; and while the text in all four is the same, the incidental poems vary. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Derenbourg, in: WZJT, 5 (1844), 404, 407, 478; Landshuth, Ammudei, 120–1; Zunz, Lit Poesie, 481–2; Halberstam, in: Jeschurun, 7 (1871), 38 (Heb. pt.); Luzzatto, in: Oẓar Tov, 3 (1880), 42; Davidson, Oẓar, 4 (1933), 421. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Schirmann-Fleischer, 434 n. 28. (Jefim (Hayyim) Schirmann)