Abraham Cohen of Zante

Abraham Cohen (Abraham ben Shabbetai ha-Kohen) (1670 – 1729) was a Jewish physician, rabbi, religious philosopher and poet on Zante (Zakynthos), an Ionian Island, and an overseas colony of the Venetian Republic.

Cohen's family was moderately wealthy and lived on Crete where he was born, although he lived most of his adult life in the town of Zante where he practiced medicine. He was a scholar and graduated as a physician from the University of Padua.

Work In 1700 Cohen published in Venice his Derashot 'al ha-Torah, In 1719 he published in Venice his Kehunnat Abraham (כהנת אברהם), a book of religious poems in Hebrew written in the manner of and inspired by the Psalms (Tehillim). Cohen used a number of different meters in his poetry. as did Issac Vita Cantarini and Shabbethai Marini, both in the mode of the times, sonnet form. Cohen's engraved self-portrait appears on the fly-leaf of his Kehunnat Abraham complete with wig.

In 1879 M. Ventura of Corfu found a Hebrew poem by Cohen inscribed on the wall of the synagogue in Candia, Crete, and later published his discovery.