Reggio, Isaac Samuel

Reggio, Isaac Samuel a Jewish writer, was born Aug. 15, 1784, at Gorz, in Illyria. As the son of a rabbi, he received a thorough Jewish education, and with his brilliant powers he soon became master of Jewish literature, and acquired an extraordinary knowledge of Hebrew. His talents and fame secured for him the appointment to the professorship of mathematics at the Lyceum when Illyria became a French province. He succeeded his father in the rabbinate of his native place, and died Aug. 29, 1855. Of his many writings, we mention, מאמר תורה מן השמים, a treatise on the inspiration of the Mosaic law, incorporated in the introduction to the Pentateuch (Vienna, 1818): — -אלהים ס תורת, colla Traduzione Italiana ed un Comento Ebreo, an Italian translation of the Pentateuch, with a Hebrew commentary and a most elaborate introduction, in which he gives an account of 148 Hebrew expositions of the Pentateuch of various ages (ibid. 1821, 5 vols. 8vo): — On the Necessity of having a Theological Seminary in Italy, written in Italian (Venice, 1822); in consequence of which the Collegium Rabbinicum was opened at Padua in 1829, for which he had drawn up the constitution: — התורה והפילוסופיאה, Religion and Philosophy (Vienna, 1827): — a disquisition, Whether Philosophy is in Opposition to Tradition, התנגד אלאּהקבלה אם התורה (Leipsic, 1840): — Il Libro d' Isaia, Versione Poeticafatta sull' Originale Testo Ebraico (Vienna, 1831): — a historico-critical introduction to the book of Esther, entitled מפתח אלאּמגלת אסתר (ibid. 1841). Besides these, Reggio wrote numerous treatises on various points connected with the Hebrew Scriptures and literature in the different Jewish periodicals. See Furst, Bibl. Jud. 3:139- 142; Steinschneider, Catalogus Libr. Hebr. in Biblioth. Bibl. col. 2135- 2137; Geiger, Leo da Modena (Breslau. 1856), p. 57-63; id. Nachgelassene Schriften (Berlin, 1875), ii, 272; Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. u. s. Secten, 3:346; Dessauer, Gesch. d. Israeliten, p. 534; Zlinz, Die Monatstage des Kalende jahres (Berlin, 1872; English transl. by the Rev. B. Pick in the Jewish Messenger, N. Y. 1874-75). (B. P.)