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Flavius Mithridates

1445 – 1489

Italian translator

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About Flavius Mithridates

Lived 1445 – 1489 (aged 43–44). Flavius Mithridates was a linguist and translator.

Flavius Mithridates was an Italian Jewish humanist scholar, who flourished at Rome in the second half of the 15th century. He is said to be from Sicily, and was a Christian convert, known for preaching impressively if tendentiously. He also had a knowledge of Arabic.

Biography About 1486 he lived at Fratta, near Perugia, in the house of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, whom he instructed in Aramaic. He is now best known as the translator for Pico della Mirandola of the Bibliotheca Cabalistica, a large compilation of cabbalistic literature. Modern scholarly reconsideration of this work have found it somewhat erratic and containing interpolations.

He also translated into Latin Maimonides' epistle on resurrection, Levi ben Gershon's commentary on the Song of Solomon, and Judah Romano's "Ma'amar ha-Hawayah ha-Heḳḳeshiyyah," or "Sermo de Generatione Syllogismorum Simplicium et Compositorum in Omni Figura." Flavius was the author of "De Tropis Hebraicis," an original work in Latin on Hebrew accents, which was praised by Sebastian Münster and Imbonatus.

Identity Some scholars have thought, but without sufficient reason, that Flavius is identical with the cabalist Johanan Aleman ben Isaac, a contemporary and associate of Pico della Mirandola, who taught him from the late 1480s.

Seidman notes Mithridates's "proliferation of identitites", listing the following: Gugielmo Raimondo Moncada Flavius Mithridates Siculus Romanus Chaldeus Samuel ben Nissim ibn Faraj YHWH (which Mithridates claimed based on kabbalistic gematria)

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Important facts

Born
1445, Caltabellotta
Birth century
Died
1489
Employers
Sapienza University of Rome

People in Flavius Mithridates's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Flavius Mithridates's

Frequently asked questions

Who was Flavius Mithridates?

Italian translator

When was Flavius Mithridates born?

Flavius Mithridates was born in 1445 in Caltabellotta.

When did Flavius Mithridates die?

Flavius Mithridates died in 1489.

What was Flavius Mithridates's occupation?

Flavius Mithridates was a linguist and translator.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Flavius Mithridates

· Wikidata: Q3073493

· DBpedia: Flavius Mithridates

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Flavius Mithridates. https://biography.guide/flavius-mithridates/

MLA: "Flavius Mithridates." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/flavius-mithridates/.

Chicago: "Flavius Mithridates." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/flavius-mithridates/.

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