Five Polemics Concerning Women

Jacob Frances was a poet and businessman from Mantua. He was highly educated and knew Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, Italian, and Portuguese. He and his brother Immanuel often composed poetry together. After Jacob’s death, Immanuel compiled and corrected some of his elder brother’s poems, inserting additions. It is difficult to know exactly which brother is the author of a particular poem because both wrote on similar topics in similar style and form. However, some two hundred poems, including fifty-four sonnets, can almost certainly be attributed to Jacob. He wrote about a variety of subjects, including friendship, polemics, ethics, love, and eroticism. Jacob was involved in a number of quarrels with the Jewish community; he also attacked and ridiculed the Sabbateans. A satirical poem that he wrote in 1660/1, condemning the vulgarization of kabbalistic studies, aroused the ire of Mantuan rabbis, who destroyed almost all copies. Jacob was also consequently physically attacked and later left for Florence. Only isolated poems by Jacob were published in his lifetime.