LEVITA, ELIAHU. – Hebrew grammarian and lexicographer, b. Neustadt a. d. Aisch in 1469, d. Venice 28 Jan. 1549. His Hebrew name was Eljāhū ben 'Āšer hal-Lēwī 'Āškēnazī (German), also called Tibsita. He was a learned scholar of the Masorah and a lexicographer.
In 1496 he settled in Venice, later moving to Padua; in both cities he taught Jews and Christians. He then went to Rome, where he was received by the general of the Augustinians, later known as Cardinal Egidio da Viterbo, who was engaged in Cabbalistic Hebrew studies. E. L. translated Cabbalistic writings for the cardinal, from whom he learned Greek. Due to political events, E. L. returned to Venice in 1529, where he became a proofreader in the printing house of Daniel Bomberg. In 1532 he was taken into the household of the Patriarch of Aquileia. In the years 1535–36, he had as his pupil and patron George de Selve, the bishop-ambassador of Lavaur. At the latter’s suggestion, Francis I offered E. L. the chair of Hebrew at the University of Paris, but he declined so as not to be the only Jew permitted to reside in Paris. He also refused chairs offered to him in Catholic institutions. After a stay abroad, he returned to Venice for good.
From the Jewish side, he was reproached for transmitting Jewish knowledge to Christian priests, who would use it for Christological purposes.
E. L.’s works concern grammar, the Masorah, and lexicography. He composed in Judeo-German the Italian novel *Historia di Buono d’Ancona*.