A Ruling on the Printing of the Zohar

Isaac ben Immanuel de Lattes, the son of Bonet Lattes (physician to Pope Leo X) was born in Provence. He spent much of his life in poverty, in search of a livelihood. In 1530, he served as rabbi at Avignon. He later lived in Rome, where he managed a Hebrew printing house, and Mantua, where he worked as a printer and was involved in producing the Mantua edition of the Zohar (1558–1560). Toward the end of his life, he was employed as tutor to the sons of Isaac Abravanel and lived at the scholar’s home in Ferrara. Lattes composed many responsa, poems, and a commentary on the thirteenth-century work by Yedaiah Bedersi, Beḥinat ‘olam (Examination of the World).