Jewish Poets in Crete

This book offers for the first time a critical edition of works by 14 Jewish poets living in Crete under the rule of Byzantium (961-1204) and Venice (1204-1669). The poems—collected from manuscripts and rare printed editions of Balkans literature in the Bodelian, Oxford; the BritishMuseum; the Biblioteca Palatina, Parma; the Vatican; the Montefiore Collection, London; and the Adler Collection, New York—encompass a wide range of themes and forms. Influenced in part by the Italian renaissance, the poems reflect a renewed interest in Neoplatonic philosophy and Aristotelian logic that in turn aroused opposition from traditionalists and mystics, as may be seen in the bitter exchange on this subject, included in this volume, between Michael Balbo and Moses Ashkenazi.