ר׳ גדליה בן יוסף אבן יחיא

ר׳ גדליה בן יוסף אבן יחיא (1526–1587) was an Italian talmudist and historian from a distinguished Portuguese-Sephardi family. Born at Imola, he studied at Ferrara and later lived in Rovigo. The burning of the Talmud and intensifying papal restrictions repeatedly displaced him: he spent time in Salonika, returned to Imola, and after the expulsions ordered under Pius V moved through Pesaro, Ferrara and other Italian centres. Amid this instability he laboured for decades on שלשלת הקבלה, beginning it at Ravenna in 1549 and completing it shortly before his death. Printed in Venice in 1587, the work combines a chain of rabbinic tradition, Jewish chronology, accounts of surrounding nations and discussions of philosophy, science and marvels. Although later historians criticised its chronology and legendary material, it became one of the most widely read early modern Hebrew chronicles and preserves valuable evidence about expulsions and Iberian Jewish memory. Older accounts placed his death at Alexandria in Egypt; modern research considers Alessandria in Piedmont more probable. This record follows the modern 1526–1587 chronology and maps the Italian Alessandria cautiously.