Moses ben Joab
MOSES BEN JOAB
MOSES BEN JOAB (d. after 1530), Hebrew poet who lived in Florence. His diwan (Montefiore Collection, Ms. 366) contains a colorful variety of poems, ranging from elegy to satire, from love song to religious hymn, and from epigram to epithalamium. The collection consists of three groups: (1) satiric verses, in which the poet presents a series of persons characteristic of his time, such as Isaac of Correggio and Solomon of Poggibonsi; (2) love songs stylistically modeled on the Spanish poets and Immanuel of Rome; (3) religious poetry – artistically the most important of his work. While it contains all the flavor of the early hymnology, some well-known secular motives have also been included, without in any way detracting from the poetic form. The greater part of his religious verse is consecrated to the festivals. One of his poems describes the tragic conditions in Florence during the siege of 1529–30.
bibliography:
U. Cassuto, Gli ebrei a Firenze nell'età del Rinascimento (1918), 340–54; idem, in: mgwj, 77 (1933), 365–84; Davidson, Oẓar, 4 (1933), 36, no. 204; Schirmann, Italyah, 236–40.
[Yonah David]