LUZZATTO, SAMUEL DAVID. — Jewish scholar, one of the founders of the science of Judaism, born in Trieste on 22 August 1800, died in Padua on 30 September 1865. He became well known in his community for certain technical compositions in Hebrew. In 1825 he published a work on Hebrew synonyms. In 1829 he was appointed professor of Bible, grammar, history, and Jewish theology at the Rabbinical College in Padua. Many family misfortunes and the precarious position of the College made his laborious existence difficult.
Among his early works are to be noted: Italian translations of Jewish prayers according to the German and Italian rites (Vienna 1821–22, 1829); a commentary on the Pentateuch (ibid. 1846–47); Prolegomena to a reasoned grammar of the Hebrew language (Padua 1853–1869); the Italian translation with Hebrew commentary of Isaiah (ibid. 1855–67); Grammatical elements of Biblical Aramaic and of the Talmudic-Babylonian dialect (ibid. 1865); the Italian translation of the entire Bible, carried out by L. together with his disciples (Rovigo 1866–67; the Pentateuch separately, ibid. 1872); the Italian translation of the Pentateuch with Hebrew commentary (Padua 1871–76); Hebrew commentaries (Pirqe) on selected passages from Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Proverbs, and Job (Lviv 1876). L. also published a collection of his poems and many dissertations of scholarly interest. The fruit of his teaching includes: Hebrew Calendar for 20 Centuries (1849); Lectures on Moral Theology of Israel (1862); Lectures on Dogmatic Theology of Israel (1864); Historical-Religious Discourses to Jewish Students (1870). His Autobiography appeared posthumously (1882). The importance of his correspondence in Hebrew and Italian is very notable from a scholarly point of view.