Elia Levita (1469–1549), also known as Eliahu Bakhur ("Eliahu the Bachelor") was the author of the Bovo-Bukh (written in 1507–1508), the most popular chivalric romance in the Yiddish language, which, according to Sol Liptzin, is "generally regarded as the most outstanding poetic work in Old Yiddish". [Liptzin, 1972, 5, 7] Events July 26 - Battle of Edgecote Moor October 17 - Prince Ferdinand of Aragon wed princess Isabella of Castile. ... Events July - Ketts Rebellion Francis Xavier arrives in Japan. ... The Bovo-Bukh (Bovo book; a. ... Woman under the Safeguard of Knighthood, allegorical Scene. ... As a literary genre, romance refers to a style of heroic prose and verse narrative current in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. ... Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ...

Born at Neustadt near Nuremberg, he was the youngest of nine brothers. During his early manhood, the Jews were expelled from this area. He lived in Venice for a time after 1496, where he was part of a brief efflorescence of Yiddish literature, before the descendants of the Ashkenazic Jews who had emigrated this area adopted the local Italian speech. [Liptzin, 1972, 5] This article is about the city in Germany. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... Venice is known for its waterways and gondolas Gondola. ... Ashkenazi (אַשְׁכֲּנָזִי, Standard Hebrew Aškanazi, Tiberian Hebrew ʾAškănāzî) Jews or Ashkenazic Jews, also called Ashkenazim (אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים, Standard Hebrew Aškanazim, Tiberian Hebrew ʾAškănāzîm), are Jews who are descendants of Jews from Germany, Poland, Austria and Eastern Europe. ... Italian is a Romance language spoken by about 70 million people, most of whom live in Italy. ...

During these years, Levita scratched out a living as an entertainer. After Venice, he relocated to Padua (1504), where he wrote the 650 ottava rima stanzas of the Bovo-Bukh, based on the popular romance Buovo d'Antona, which, in turn, was based on the Anglo-Norman romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton. [Liptzin, 1972, 6] Tronco Maestro Riviera: a pedestrian walk along a section of the inland waterway or naviglio interno of Padua The city of Padua (Lat. ... The Anglo-Normans were the descendents of the Normans who ruled England following the conquest by William of Normandy in 1066. ... Bevis of Hampton, is the name of an English metrical romance. ...

Escaping a war, he left in 1509 for Rome, where he acquired a patron, the humanist Petrus Egidius (1471–1532) of Viterbo, who from 1517 held the rank of a Roman Catholic cardinal. Levita taught Hebrew to Petrus, and copied Hebrew manuscripts—mostly related to the Kaballah—for Petrus's library. [Liptzin, 1972, 6] Humanism is a system of thought that defines a socio-political doctrine (-ism) whose bounds exceed those of locally developed cultures, to include all of humanity and all issues common to human beings. ... Viterbo is a comune (township) in the Lazio region of central Italy, and the capital of Viterbo province, 42°25 12°06E, at 326 m (1070 ft) above sea-level. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official in the Roman Catholic Church, ranking just below the Pope and appointed by him as a member of the College of Cardinals, during a consistory. ... The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. ... The tree of life Kabbalah (קבלה Reception, Standard Hebrew Qabbala, Tiberian Hebrew Qabbālāh; also written variously as Cabala, Cabalah, Cabbala, Cabbalah, Kabala, Kabalah, Kabbala, Qabala, Qabalah) is a religious philosophical system claiming an insight into divine nature. ...

The 1527 Sack of Rome sent Levita back to Venice, where he worked as a proofreader and taught Hebrew. In 1541 he was back in Germany, working for a printer; there, in 1541, he printed his own works, including the first edition of the Bovo-Bukh. At the end of his life, he was back in Venice. [Liptzin, 1972, 6] The Sack of Rome in 1527 by the troops of Charles V marked a crucial imperial victory in the conflict between the emperor and the League of Cognac (1526–1529), consisting of France, Milan, Venice, Florence and the papacy. ... Proofreading is reading a proof copy of text for the purpose of detecting errors. ... Events The first official translation of the entire Bible in Swedish February 12 - Pedro de Valdivia founds Santiago de Chile. ... The Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is one of the worlds leading industrialised countries, located in the heart of Europe. ... Events The first official translation of the entire Bible in Swedish February 12 - Pedro de Valdivia founds Santiago de Chile. ...

Sol Liptzin writes that Paris and Vienna, attributed to Levita, "easily ranks with the Bovo-Bukh in quality though not in popularity. Also a chivalric verse romance, it tells the story of a knight Paris and a princess Vienna; the name of the work has no apparent connection to the similarly named cities. [Liptzin, 1972, 7-8]

Liptzin writes that Levita "was not the equal" of his contemporaries Ariosto or Tasso, and that the "knightly adventures" he depicted "had no basis in Jewish reality", although compared to other chivalric romances, those of Levita "tone down the Christian symbols of his original" and "substitute Jewish customs, Jewish values and Jewish traits of character here and there..." [Liptzin, 1972, 8] Ludovico Ariosto (September 8, 1474 _ July 6, 1533) was a Ferrarese poet, author of the epic poem Orlando furioso (1516), Orlando Enraged. He was born at Reggio, in Hungary in 1518, and wished Aniosto to accompany him. ... Torquato Tasso (March 11, 1544 - April 25, 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered; 1575), in which he describes the imaginary combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem. ... This article is about the religious people known as Christians. ...

Works

• Elia Levita Bachur's Bovo-Buch: A Translation of the Old Yiddish Edition of 1541 with Introduction and Notes by Elia Levita Bachur, translated and notes by Jerry C. Smith, Fenestra Books, 2003, ISBN 1587361604.
• Paris and Vienna (attributed)
• miscellaneous shorter poems

References

• Gottheil, Richard and Jacobs, Joseph Baba Buch (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=41&letter=B), Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901-1906
• Liptzin, Sol, A History of Yiddish Literature, Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972, ISBN 0-8246-0124-6.