ר׳ עובדיה ספורנו

ר׳ עובדיה בן יעקב ספורנו (c.1475–1550), known simply as the Sforno, was an Italian rabbi, biblical commentator, philosopher and physician. Born at Cesena into a Jewish banking family, he pursued medicine and philosophy in Rome and taught Hebrew to the Christian humanist Johannes Reuchlin in 1498–1500. He obtained a medical degree at Ferrara in 1501, returned to Rome and became a prominent member of its Jewish community with access to papal circles. After the Sack of Rome in 1527, he settled in Bologna, where he practised medicine, served as a rabbi, taught a select circle and probably helped revive Hebrew printing. His philosophical אור עמים, printed in Bologna in 1537, challenged propositions of scholastic and Aristotelian philosophy that he considered incompatible with revelation; a revised Latin version, Lumen gentium, appeared in 1548. His concise commentary on the Torah combines close reading, ethical interpretation, rational inquiry and occasional medical knowledge. Most of his biblical commentaries, including the Torah commentary edited by his brother ר׳ חננאל ספורנו, appeared only after his death. He died in Bologna in 1550; subsequent expulsions and destruction of the Jewish cemetery left his burial place unidentified.