Don Isaac Abravanel – An Intellectual Biography

Cedric Cohen-Skalli teaches early modern and modern Jewish philosophy at the University of Haifa and is the director of the Bucerius Institute for the Research of Contemporary German History and Society.

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsPart 1: Don Isaac Abravanel in Portugal (1437-1483)1. The Kingdom of Portugal and the Abravanel Family2. Isaac Abravanel and Iberian Court Culture3. Isaac Abravanel as a Jewish Leader in His Hebrew Epistles 4. Isaac Abravanel: Philosopher and Theologian 5. Don Isaac’s Fall from Grace in Portugal Part 2: Don Isaac Abravanel in Castile (1483-1492)6. Don Isaac Abravanel Immigrates to Castile 7. Isaac Abravanel’s Historical and Literary Approach to the Books of the Former Prophets8. The Figure of the Leader in Abravanel’s Commentary on the Former Prophets9. Don Isaac’s Republicanism10. Success at the Courts of the Catholic MonarchsPart 3: Don Isaac Abravanel in Italy (1492-1508)11. Abravanel’s Arrival in Naples12. Commentary on Kings as a Response to the Expulsion13. Solomon: The Ideal King14. The Temple: Construction, Glory, Destruction15. The Military Crisis in Italy at the End of the Fifteenth Century 16. A Defense of Judaism in the Midst of the Storm 17. Messianism18. The Last Years in Venice (1503–1508) Afterword: Don Isaac Abravanel in the Twentieth CenturyNotesBibliographyIndex

"Cohen-Skalli's book is a daring, suggestive and stimulating book...without a doubt, the work that Cohen-Skalli offers us will have to be taken into account in the future when approaching the study of the figure of Abravanel and his Biblical commentaries and theological treatises."