Ephraim Luzzatto

By profession a medical doctor and, by avocation, a poet, Ephraim Luzzatto was born into a family of physicians in San Daniele, Italy. After graduating from the University of Padua and having worked for some years in that city, Luzzatto settled in London, where he practiced at the hospital of the Portuguese Congregation. He was a gifted poet whose verse sometimes took a satirical bent, occasionally targeting medical practitioners. The range and power of his poetry made him an influential figure among modern poets writing in Hebrew. In religion, Luzzatto appears to have been a man at odds with himself, torn between the Jewish faith and atheism.