Verga, Solomon Ibn

Verga, Solomon ibn a Jewish historian, was born in Spain in 1450, where he practiced medicine. He is the author of שבט יהודה, the Sceptre of Judah, a Jewish history, composed in part from notes left by his father, and afterwards continued by his son, rabbi Joseph ben-Solomon, of Adrianople. The book itself tells us that its author was employed by the Spanish synagogues in several difficult negotiations during the later years of his residence in the Peninsula. We have but few particulars of his life, after he shared in the banishment of his brethren; even the year of his death is unknown. The Sceptre of Judah, which was published first in Adrianople in 1544, and often since, was translated into Jewish-German in 1591, and often; into Spanish by Meir de Leon (Amsterdam, 1640); into Latin by Gentius (ibid. 1651); but the best translation is the German of M. Wiener (Hanover, 1855, 1856, 2 vols.).

Extracts in German are also given by Eisenmenger in Neuentdecktes Judenthum vol. 1; by Schudt, Jiidische Denkwürdigkeiten, vol. 1; and by Zedner, Auswahl historischer Stiicke aus hebr. SchrifJstellern (Berlin, 1840), p. 96 sq. See Fürst, Bibl. Jud. 3, 473 s.q.; De' Rossi, Dizionario Storico (Germ. transl.), p. 326; Finn, Sephardim, p. 456; Steinschneider, Jewish Literature, p. 251; Da Costa, Israel and the Gentiles, p. 398 sq.; Gratz, Gesch. d. Juden, 9:343 sq. (B. P.)