Biography
Rabbi Moshe ben Yitzchak da Rieti (ר’ משה דה ריאטי), also known as Moses da Rieti and Mosè di Gaio, was a rishon of Italy (1388–1466): a rav, a poet, a philosopher and a physician. He wrote in Hebrew and in Italian.
He was born in Rieti to Yitzchak, called Gaio, most likely a banker. He went away from Rieti to study medicine and returned in 1422 to work there as a physician and a banker. With his wife Sella he had at least three sons, Yitzchak (Gaio), the eldest, Leone and Bonaiuto, and each of the three took up the same line of work as their father. From 1431 he served as rabbi in Rome, held various posts for the communities of the Papal States throughout his life, and kept a yeshiva in Narni.
His main work is Mikdash Me’at (Little Sanctuary), a long philosophical poem in Hebrew. It also holds a survey of the sciences, a vision of Gan Eden, and a history of Jewish sefarim written after the close of Tanach.
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Moses da Rieti was an Italian-Jewish poet, philosopher, and physician. Born in Rieti, he composed works in Hebrew and Italian and has been called a Hebrew Dante. His major work, the transitionally post-medieval and philosophical Hebrew poem Miqdash me'at, includes an encyclopedia of sciences, a Jewish paradise fantasy, and a post-biblical history of Jewish literature.
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