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Abramo Colorni
Born1544
Mantua
Died1599 (aged 54–55)
Mantua
OccupationEngineer, architect, inventor
[edit on Wikidata]

1593, Scotographia, published in Prague, collection of Biblioteca Teresiana[1]

Abramo Colorni (Abram or Abraham, Colorno or Calorno, sometimes Colorini, 1544–1599) was an Italian-Jewish polymath and Renaissance man. An engineer, architect, mathematician, chiromancer, cryptographer, alchemist, inventor, magus (magician) and merchant, Colorni spent nine years as a Court Jew for Rudolf II.[2][3][4] He is the author of the 1593 treatise on cryptography, Scotographia.[5] As court alchemist, he was a major player in cultural transfer from Italy to Baden-Wurttemberg and Prague.[6]

Sometimes thought of as a charlatan, a genius "Jewish Leonardo" or "Jewish Baron von Munchhausen", or a professore de’ secreti, "professor of secrets", he was also known as a clockmaker, for his magic tricks and escapology, and invented a new kind of revolver.[7][8][9]

Biography

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From an 18th-century copy of Clavicula Salomonis, the use of knives, swords, and wands[10]

A devout Jew whose ancestors migrated from Germanic lands to Italy, Colorni was described as a Jewish Daedalus by his Christian and Jewish contemporaries and admired as one of the most famous and prominent Italians by Tomaso Garzoni.[11] He was also praised by the poet Alessandro Tassoni.[5] Jacopo Gaddi and Francesco Rovai composed baroque eulogies about Colorni,[12] and he also was cited by Rafael Mirami. [13]: 123, 211, 364 [14][15]

Colorni attended the University of Ferrara where he studied under Antonio Maria Parolini, and was proficient in Latin. Known as a remarkable fencer, he was fascinated with weapons, and was hired in 1572 to design arms for the noble Italian Gonzaga family, and in 1579 by the Este court.[11] He accepted employment as a master engineer for the dukes of Ferrara.[16] Contemporary Christians considered Colorni's education "well-rounded" and he likely had Christian as well as Jewish teachers.[17]: 170  From the 1570s during the time that Colorni was at the ducal court, Jews were banned in most of Italy, and Ferrara was the only Christian city to allow "the apostasy of baptized persons," allowing a population of about 2,000 Jews or almost 10% of the city population.[18]

Colorni married his first wife Violante, the daughter of Yechiel Nissim da Pisa, a highly respected moneylender and scholar, in 1577, and had two children: a son Simone, who continued his father's work, and daughter Colomba, who married a moneylander named Garbriele Fattorino, who died young, and had four children.[13]: 131, 213, 418 

Šelomoh b. Avraham b. Šemuʼel, of Urbino, Ohel Mo‘ed, Venice 1548; title page. (Kaufmann B 33) Hebrew cursive purchase note, Abramo Colorni, in Prague in 1590, top.

In his works Piazza universale, La sinagoga and Il serraglio, Garzoni recounts Colorni's fame and feats of stage magic and sleight of hand, such as impressing audiences with illusions of transforming nuts into jewels and pearls, gold necklaces into live snakes, making painted animals appear to move, and card tricks, including a "Rising Card" trick.[19][20][21][13]: 152, 315  Abraham Yagel, a physician, scholar, and contemporary of Colorni's, also admired his skills with playing cards, which historian Daniel Jütte believes may have been inspired by or learned from Girolamo Scotto.[13]: 153  Colorni also dabbled in escape artistry, and at the behest of his patron Vincenzo Gonzaga, so-called black or Solomonic magic.[13]: 160  He also served as a technical advisor to the theater in the Mantuan court.[17]: 248 

Colorni's carriage with odometer, from Euthimetria, Herzog August Library [22]
table from Scotographia, 1593

He resided in Mantua until 1588 when he moved to Prague, the power center of the Holy Roman Empire, invited by Emperor Rudolf, a known patron of engineers, scientists and artists.[23][13]: 161  His help was sought to free Archduke Maximilian, Rudolf's brother, who was arrested by Sigismund Vasa in a 1588 dispute over the Polish crown.[13]: 161–162  After going to Prague he was engaged in "practical alchemy" and the production of saltpeter.[11][24] He also sourced jewelry for Rudolf, and constructed a sundial and a box of "magic mirrors".[13]: 166  His work on developing cryptographic ciphers shows his familiarity with contemporary cryptographic literature such as Steganographia as well as ancient methods.[13]: 182  His Scotographia is also called the "dark treatise".[19] He later returned to the court of Alfonso II d'Este, who sent him to the duchy of Wurttemberg in 1597.[25] Alfonso died in 1597 leading to the breakup of the Este Territory.[13]: 168 

In Wurttemberg, Colorni encountered anti-Jewish sentiment. Jews had not been allowed to settle there since the 1490s, a leading Protestant territory known as "Lutheran Spain". He was referred to by the court preacher and the university professors as an "evil-minded magician", although his main activities were in sourcing weapons and luxury goods, such as musical instruments; for example, he sent instruments to the court in Mantua for use by Claudio Monteverdi.[11]

Colorni worked with Maggino Gabrielli, a Venetian Jewish entrepreneur who had worked in Florence and Rome, to establish an "Oriental Trade Company" in Wurttemberg. Gabrielli had experience in the textile and spice trade, moneylending, and the glass industry, as well as alchemy, and planned to create a trade network with the Levant, seeking an entrepôt in the Holy Roman Empire. He began working with Colorni in the 1580s, who invited him to the court, but their plans failed, largely due to anti-Jewish polemics. A coalition between the Church, the Estates, and the city magistrates, fearing a rise in Jewish settlement, invoked a blood libel and withdrew the Oriental Trade Company's branch rights in Stuttgart, the capital and where Colorni was residing.[11]

After Colorni's position at Wurttemberg eroded, he found himself under surveillance by the Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg's armed guards to prevent him from leaving. After he fled, the duke sent envoys throughout the Holy Roman Empire and Italy to locate him, but was unable to capture him. If caught, he likely would have faced a death sentence.[11] His departure, in 1599, with 4000 gulden was met with extradition attempts by Stuttgart, and for his son after his death, that failed due to the protection of Mantua.[26]

Cipher wheel from Scotographia, spider in center trapping insect reading "RETI MEO CAPTVR," (in my net he is caught) "and he will be caught in my snare," a reference to Ezekiel 17:20,[27] Biblioteca Teresiana[1]

Similar to his peer and follower[28] Giambattista della Porta, his work attacked superstition while advocating a systematic natural science, invoking King Solomon, popularly thought of as a holder of secret knowledge.[7] Colorni is also compared to Leonardo Fioravanti or Johann Joachim Becher.[11] Daniel Jütte believes the reference to scotographia in James Joyce's Ulysses might indicate a familiarity with Colorni's works, based on Joyce's time in Italy and his use of Jewish renaissance mysticism as inspiration for his work.[13] Colorni also devised a "small volvelle for enigmatic writing" or a type of cipher wheel.[9] His cryptographic methods were intended to be universal, and made use of Roman letters that were not in the Italian alphabet at the time, such as K, W, X, and Y.[19] Colorni's polyalphabetic substitution ciphers particularly appealed to Augustus II, Duke of Brunswick, who allotted Colorni the 2nd most space after Trithemius in his 1624 compendium Cryptomenytices.[29]

Colorni died of a fever in Mantua in 1599, though Jütte considers the possibility he may have been poisoned as an open question. His son Simone took up several aspects of his father's work.[11][13]: 211 

Publications

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Abramo Colorni.
  • Colorni, Abramo (1593). Scotographia. (Prague)
  • Colorni, Abraham (1799). Clavicula Salomonis Regis: ex idiomate Haebreo versa (in Latin). Translation from Hebrew at the request of the Duke of Mantua.[10][30] Also known as Sefer Mafteah Shelomoh (Book of the Key of Solomon).[31] (Mantua, 1580) According to Jütte, this could possibly be an original work synthesized by Colorni and not a translation of an earlier Hebrew work, with later Hebrew versions a translation from Colorni's Latin or Italian versions. However, he believes it is not possible to conclusively determine the philological origin and nature of the work, since there are differences in the 17th and 18th French century manuscripts which claim to be based on Colorni.[13]: 158–159  Robert Mathiesen believed the Greek manuscript to be the original.[30]
  • Tavole Mathematiche (Mathematical Tables)[13]: 135–136, 309, 418 
  • Entimetria, rules for the measurement of straight lines[25]
  • Euthimetria, MS Wolfenbüttel, treatise on engineering[2][13]: 135–136, 139, 201, 212, 220, 302–303, 306, 340, 358 
  • Nova Chirofisionomia, 1588, Ferrara, in which he opposes superstitions such as palmistry[22]

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Approfondimenti Biblioteca Israelitica". Biblioteca Teresiana. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
  2. ^ a b Walker, Katherine (2017). "Review of The Age of Secrecy: Jews, Christians, and the Economy of Secrets, 1400–1800, Daniel Jütte". The Sixteenth Century Journal. 48 (1): 294–296. doi:10.1086/SCJ4801179. ISSN 0361-0160. JSTOR 44816044.
  3. ^ Roth, Cecil (1953). Personalities and Events in Jewish History. Jewish Publication Society of America.
  4. ^ Pesaro, Abramo (1878). Memorie storiche sulla comunità israelitica ferrarese (in Italian). Premiata Tipografia Sociale.
  5. ^ a b Berns, Andrew (2016). "Review of The Age of Secrecy: Jews, Christians, and the Economy of Secrets, Daniel Jütte". AJS Review. 40 (1): 178–180. doi:10.1017/S0364009416000222. ISSN 0364-0094. JSTOR 26375053.
  6. ^ Veltri, Giuseppe; Miletto, Gianfranco, eds. (2 March 2012). Rabbi Judah Moscato and the Jewish Intellectual World of Mantua in the 16th–17th Centuries. Studies in Jewish history and culture. Leiden: BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-22225-0.
  7. ^ a b Bregoli, Francesca; Jütte, Daniel (2016). "Review of The Age of Secrecy: Jews, Christians, and the Economy of Secrets, 1400–1800, JütteDaniel". Renaissance Quarterly. 69 (4): 1465–1467. doi:10.1086/690352. ISSN 0034-4338. JSTOR 26560098.
  8. ^ Karp, Jonathan; Trivellato, Francesca, eds. (2023). Classic essays on Jews in early modern Europe. Classic essays in Jewish history. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-4094-3155-8.
  9. ^ a b Zanetti, Cristiano (12 January 2023), "6 The Diverse Agencies of Renaissance Engineers in the Shadow of War", Shadow Agents of Renaissance War, Amsterdam University Press, pp. 173–200, doi:10.1515/9789048553327-009, hdl:10278/5018841, ISBN 978-90-485-5332-7, retrieved 6 September 2024
  10. ^ a b "OPenn: Ms. Codex 1673 Clavicula Salomonis Regis : ex idiomate Haebreo versa". Charles Rainsford Collection of Alchemical and Occult Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Library. Retrieved 20 October 2024.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Jütte, Daniel (2012). "Trading in Secrets: Jews and the Early Modern Quest for Clandestine Knowledge". Isis. 103 (4): 668–686. doi:10.1086/668962. ISSN 0021-1753. JSTOR 10.1086/668962. PMID 23488236.
  12. ^ Rovai, Francesco (1652). Poesie di Francesco Rovai, etc. [Edited by N. Rovai.] (in Italian). Nella Stamperia di S.A.S.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Jütte (Jutte), Daniel (26 May 2015). The Age of Secrecy: Jews, Christians, and the Economy of Secrets, 1400–1800. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-21342-3.
  14. ^ Mirami, Rafael (1582). Compendiosa introduttione alla prima parte della specularia, cioè della scienza de gli specchi. Opera noua, nella quale breuemente, e con facil modo si discorreintorno agli specchi e si rende la cagione, di tutti i loro miracolosi effetti composta da Rafael Mirami . (in Italian). appresso gli heredi di Francesco Rossi, & Paolo Tortorino, compagni. p. 45.
  15. ^ McClure, George W. (1 January 2004). The Culture of Profession in Late Renaissance Italy. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-8970-0.
  16. ^ Paulus, Simon (2021). Brämer, Andreas; Keßler, Katrin; Knufinke, Ulrich; Przystawik, Mirko (eds.). Maneschin the Master Builder. Jews as "Architects" in the Middle Age and Early Modern Period? in Jewish architects – Jewish architecture?. Schriftenreihe der Bet Tfila-Forschungsstelle für jüdische Architektur in Europa. Petersberg: Michael Imhof Verlag. pp. S. 21–32. ISBN 978-3-7319-1161-6.
  17. ^ a b Shulvass, Moses Avigdor (1973). The Jews in the World of the Renaissance. Brill Archive. ISBN 978-90-04-03646-8.
  18. ^ Wilke, Carsten L. (31 July 2014). The Marrakesh Dialogues: A Gospel Critique and Jewish Apology from the Spanish Renaissance. BRILL. p. 81. ISBN 978-90-04-27402-0.
  19. ^ a b c Iordanou, Ioanna (28 October 2019). Venice's Secret Service: Organizing Intelligence in the Renaissance. Oxford University Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-19-250883-6.
  20. ^ Wolfe, David; Rodgers, Tom (5 December 2001). Puzzlers' Tribute: A Feast for the Mind. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4398-6410-4.
  21. ^ Garzoni, Tomaso (1613). Il serraglio de gli stupori del mondo: di Tomaso Garzoni ... (in Italian). Appresso A., et B. Dei, fratelli. p. 226.
  22. ^ a b Toaff, Ariel (2010). Il prestigiatore di Dio: avventure e miracoli di un alchimista ebreo nelle corti del Rinascimento (in Italian). Rizzoli. ISBN 978-88-17-03996-3.
  23. ^ Levenson, Alan T. (12 March 2012). The Wiley-Blackwell History of Jews and Judaism. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-23293-4.
  24. ^ Jütte, Daniel (13 July 2022). "jüdische Alchemist Kaiser Rudolfs II". Schwäbische Heimat. 60 (1): 57–62. doi:10.53458/sh.v60i1.3338. ISSN 2750-4662.
  25. ^ a b "COLORNI (COLORNO), ABRAHAM - JewishEncyclopedia.com". www.jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  26. ^ "Abramo Colorni and the Economy of Secrets". Primo Levi Center. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  27. ^ "Abramo Colorni. Scotographia overo, Scienza di scriuere oscvro ..." Biblioteca Teresiana. Retrieved 20 October 2024.
  28. ^ Reeves, Eileen (1 July 2009). Galileo's Glassworks: The Telescope and the Mirror. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-04263-6.
  29. ^ Strasser, Gerhard F. (2007), "The rise of cryptology in the European Renaissance", The History of Information Security, Elsevier, pp. 277–325, doi:10.1016/b978-044451608-4/50012-2, ISBN 978-0-444-51608-4, retrieved 20 October 2024
  30. ^ a b Mathiesen, Robert (2007). "The Key of Solomon: Toward a Typology of the Manuscripts" (PDF). Societas Magica Newsletter (17).
  31. ^ Ruderman, David (1992). Essential Papers on Jewish Culture in Renaissance and Baroque Italy. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-7420-5.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "COLORNI (COLORNO), ABRAHAM". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

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