IMMANUEL ROMANO (MANUELLO GIUDEO). - Poet, b. in Roma ca. 1268-72; d. after 1328. He belonged to the circle of Jewish scholars and poets of Roma. For reasons little known, he left Roma and lived as a tutor with wealthy families in Perugia, Fabriano, Fermo, Camerino, Ancona, and Verona.
A patron in Fermo encouraged him to compose his poetic work Molphdrōth (maṇāmāt). This work was printed in Brescia in 1491, in Costantinopoli in 1515, in Berlin in 1796, and in Leopoli in 1870. A critical edition was undertaken by Hermann Brody. Individual parts of the work were translated into Latin and various European languages. In matters of style, I. follows Salomone ibn Gēbhīrōl, Giuda Levita (v.), and especially Giuda al-Ḥarīzī. The content of I. R.'s work is jocular and at times frivolous, yet always witty and rich in wordplay; riddles and epigrams recur, as well as lamentations and religious hymns.
He was the first to introduce the Italian sonnet into Hebrew literature. On one occasion he refers directly to Dante; on another he imitates the «Sirventese del maestro di tutte l'arti». The final maṇāmāh depicts his passage through Hell and Paradise, dependent on Dante's Divina
Commedia. The opinion that I. R. was a friend of Dante is certainly unfounded; it is certain, however, that he maintained friendly relations with Cino da Pistoia and Bosone da Gubbio. He was also the author of Italian sonnets, a work on biblical hermeneutics, and commentaries on several biblical books, partly published and partly preserved in manuscript.