LAMPRONTI, ISACCO di SAMUELE. – Rabbi and physician, born in Ferrara in 1679, died there in 1756. He was a disciple of the rabbis Recanati and Sanguinetti of Ferrara and Provenzal of Lugo; he then studied medicine and philosophy at the University of Padua. After obtaining his medical degree, he resumed his Jewish studies with the rabbis Briel, Segré, and Cases of Mantua. From 1701 he settled in Ferrara, where he devoted himself to the practice of medicine, teaching, and preaching. From
1718 he was a member of the rabbinical academy of Ferrara. In 1737 he was appointed rabbi.
His principal work is the Talmudic encyclopedia Pahadh Jishāq (“Fear of Isaac”), which was the work of his entire life. For each headword he provides the Tannaitic sources with their related commentaries, followed by the Gēmdra, and then proceeds to the decisory commentaries and responsa. He makes extensive use of the responsa of his contemporaries and predecessors in Italy, sometimes drawing on unpublished materials. He treats both nomistic questions and narrative and historical matters. The exposition is not systematic, but is nevertheless of great practical value. He began printing it at the age of seventy and was able to publish only vol. I; the printing was continued in several stages. Most of his other, less important works were subsequently incorporated into his major work.