LEO DI MODENA, b. Isaac b. Mordecai, also called Jehudah Arje Modanese, was born in Venice, April 23, 1571, of an ancient and literary family who emigrated from France into Italy. Leo displayed his talents at so extraordinarily tender an age that he read the Sabbatic lesson [HAPHTARA] before the whole congregation in the synargue when he was two and a half years old, and appeared as preacher ele,11) when he was ten years old. This thirst for learning and devoted ness to Biblical literature and exegesis, constituted the most prominent features of his long and chequered life, as may be seen from his numerous poetical, liturgical, ethical, doctrinal, polemical, and exegetical works. Those of his productions which relate to Biblical literature and exegesis are as follows :—(1) A Hebrew and Italian lexicon called ri-nro r.61 The Captivity of 7lidah, or 1U,n, Exislanation of I-Vora's, in which he explains in Italian all the difficult expressions in the Hebrew Bible, and which is preceded by grammatical rules, Venice 1612, Padua 1640. It has also been printed in the margin of the Hebrew Bibles published for the use of the Italian Jews, following the order of the Canonical books, and thus being equivalent to an Italian translation. (2) A Rabbinical and Italian vocabulary, called 'D ronN, The Lion's Month, of which the Italian title is Raccolta delle voci Rabin. non Hebr. Chald., etc., Padua 1640 ; appended to the preceding work, afterwards printed separately, in Venice 1648. (3) A polemical treatise on the genuineness of the celebrated Kabbalistical interpretation of the Pentateuch called the Soltar, entitled "MD '1N., Leipzig 184o. (4) Historia de' Rite
Hebraici, or the history of the rites, customs, and manner of life of the Jews, consisting of thirteen chapters, and written in Italian, Venice 1638. This celebrated and most useful Manual was translated into English by Edmund Chilmead, London 1650; and also edited by Simon Ockley, under the title History of the Present Jews throughout the World, London 1707, in Picard's Ceremonies and Relig,ious Customs of the Various Nations of the Known World, vol. i., London 1733 ; into French by Father Simon, who prefaced it with an elaborate account of the Karaites and Sama ritans, Paris 1674 ; into Dutch, Amsterdam 1683; and into Latin by Grosgebauer, Historia rituum yudaorma, Frankfort-on-the-Maine 1693. Leo also wrote (5) A commentary on the books of Samuel; (6) A commentary on the five Megilloth, i.e., the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther ; (7) A commentary on the Psalms ; (8) A commentary on Proverbs ; (9) A commentary on the Sabbatic lessons ; and (ro) A polemical work against Christianity, entitled lin znnt, but these works have not as yet been pub lished. Leo died in Venice, where he WO-% chief rabbi, in 1648, in the seventy-seventh year of his age ; comp. Fiirst, Bibliotheca .7:Ida/at, p. 383, ff.; Steinschneider, Catalogus Libr. Hebr. Biblio theca Bodleiana, col. 1345-1356 ; Der 1-slue/disc/le Volkslehrer, vol. iv., Frankfort-on-the-Maine 1854, pp. 91, ff. ; 123, ff. ; 186, ff. ; 247, ff. ; vol. v., 1855, p. 396, ff.—C. D. G.