Abraham Yagel

1553–1623

A northern Italian physician and intellectual highly regarded by contemporaries for his knowledge of medicine, natural philosophy, astronomy, astrology, and kabbalah, Abraham Yagel also had a career in banking. In his writings, Yagel incorporated some of the intellectual currents and genres of non-Jewish late-Renaissance literature alongside traditional Jewish sources. Ge’ ḥizayon (Valley of Vision), an early work, explores a variety of themes, including the unity of Jewish and scientific truths within the framing narrative of a nighttime visit from Yagel’s deceased father. Yagel also wrote Moshia‘ ḥosim (Savior of Those Who Take Refuge) in 1587, addressing an outbreak of plague, as well as a few encyclopedic scientific volumes.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

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Ge’ ḥizayon (Valley of Vision)

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In a dream, in a night vision, while [I was] asleep upon [my] bed during my imprisonment, a voice called in my ears. The voice was the voice of Jacob, like the voice of my father, may his memory be…

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Moshia‘ ḥosim (Savior of Those Who Take Refuge)

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On the signs of the plague and the poisonous fever that is called pestilence, and how a person should conduct himself to guard himself from them, in accordance with the nature of this lower…