Alternate Names

Capnion

Biography

Born to Georg and Elisabeth Eck in Pforzheim (Baden) on 22 February 1455, Johannes Reuchlin studied in Freiburg, Basle, Orléans, and Poitiers where he obtained his title of Magister Artium in 1481. Afterwards he was at the service of Duke Eberhard of Württemberg with whom he visited Italy in 1482. In Florence, he met Lorenzo de Medici and some prominent humanists: Angelo Poliziano, Cristoforo Landino, and Giorgio Merula. In Rome, he was instructed in Greek, after a first training in Paris with Hermonymos of Sparta and with Johannes Argyropulos. In 1490, he traveled again to Florence, meeting Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and to Rome, where he met his acquaintance Ermolao Barbaro. In 1492, at the imperial court of Linz, he deepened his knowledge of Hebrew under the guidance of the physician of the Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg, Jacob Yehiel Loans. Due to the protection of the bishop of Worms, Johannes von Dalberg, Reuchlin was introduced to the circle of the humanists of Heidelberg: Johannes Tritheim, Willibald Pirckheimer, Ulrich Zasius, and Jacob Wimpfeling. In 1498, he accompanied the Elector Palatine, Count Philipp to Rome, where he pleaded before Pope Alexander VI. During his stay in Rome, which lasted a few months, he acquired many precious Hebrew books and studied under the guidance of Obadiah Sforno, philosopher and exegete. In 1500, he was appointed triumvir of the Swabian League and switched from the diplomatic to the juridical career. As an expert on Hebrew literature, he was consulted in 1509 by the baptized Jew Johannes Pfefferkorn who, with the support of the Dominicans of Cologne, was campaigning for the destruction of all the books (with the sole exception of the Bible) in the possession of the Jews living in the imperial territories. He was among the consultants of the emperor, who collected expert opinions in order to proceed with the campaign initiated by Pfefferkorn but his Gutachten was decidedly against the undifferentiated destruction of Jewish literature. This courageous decision (together with some imprudence in his polemical language) brought to a long series of processes and to his final condemnation in 1520. Only after his death Reuchlin was rehabilitated. In 1520, he was appointed as an instructor of Greek and Hebrew at the University of Ingolstadt. He taught the same subjects at the University of Tübingen in the winter (1521–1522). Reuchlin died in Stuttgart on 30 June 1522.

Principal works: Vocabularius breviloquus (1478), De verbo mirifico (1494), Scaenica progymnasmata (Henno, 1498), Oratio ad Alexandrum VI pro Philippo Bavariae Duce (1498), Sergius vel Capitis caput (1504), Liber congestorum de arte praedicandi (1504), Tütsch Missive warumb die Juden in ellend sind (1505), De rudimentis hebraicis (1506), Augenspiegel (1511), In septem psalmos poenitentiales hebraicos interpretatio (1512), Defensio Johannis Reuchlin Pforcensis LL. Doctoris contra calumniatores suos Colonienses (1513), De arte cabalistica (1517), and De accentibus et orthographia linguae hebraicae (1518).

Translations: Hippocratis, De praeparatione hominis (1510); Joseph Ezobi, Lanx argentea (1512); Athanasii, Epistula ad Marcellinum in interpretationem psalmorum (1515); and Athanasii, De variis quaestionibus (1515).

Editions: Clarorum virorum Epistolae (1514); Illustrium virorum Epistolae (1519); Xenophontis Apologia Socratis, Agesilaus, Hieron (1529); and Greciae excellentium oratorum Aeschinis et Demosthenis orationes adversariae (1522).

Johannes Reuchlin, though distinguished in many fields, was not a philosopher in the professional meaning of the word nor in any metaphorical sense. Nonetheless, he deserves an enduring place in the hall of fame of Renaissance thought for at least three reasons: the rediscovery of Hebrew, Jewish literature, and Kabbalah for a Christian readership. Reuchlin was not merely a faithful pupil of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: in his footsteps, he had the ambition to complete Pico’s only sketched project to win Jewish Kabbalah for the humanist movement. His first essay of considerable extent was the dialogue among three interlocutors bearing the title De verbo mirifico (1494). It contains already, although in a less developed form, all the essential themes of the literary production of the mature Reuchlin, who had a considerable evolution but maintained his fundamental attitude and the intuitions of his younger years. Deeply persuaded of the values and the stylistic paradigms of Italian Humanism, Reuchlin sought, already in this early “kabbalistic” work, to fill with a tangible meaning the rapid allusions of the Conclusiones (1486) by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. On the basis of a still quite primitive knowledge of Hebrew, Reuchlin attempted the construction of a discursive model which could explain some kabbalistic theses of the Mirandulan. He focused his discussion on the typically humanistic persuasion of the centrality of the “word” (verbum), and he tried to apply it to Christianity, explaining that the most powerful word, the wonder-working utterance, is the name of Jesus. One of the most contested theses of the Mirandulan, pointed to magic, together with Kabbalah, as the principal disciplines which would prove the divinity of Christ. Reuchlin interprets this conclusion, avoiding the theologically problematic black magic, as a reference to the efficiency of the Word, combining the virtues of the evangelical Logos with the power of the Hebrew biblical Name. Jesus’ name represents thus a progress, granted by God’s mercifulness, in comparison to the ineffable Tetragramm, toward the redemption of the entire humanity. By inserting an S into the Tetragramm, the name IHSUH is obtained, which makes the divine name pronounceable, actualizing its power for the believers in Jesus, as if the real name of the Savior would be revealed or rediscovered after centuries of oblivion. It would be far from correct, however, to reduce Reuchlin’s discovery to the magical dimension of the knowledge of the true name of Jesus. His most original contribution was rather, following Pico’s lead, to be sought in the worship of the divine word and in the development of the exegetical methods allowing a Jewish confirmation of Christianity. The very structure of the De verbo mirifico, as well as in the later De arte cabalistica, serves precisely the apologetic function of letting truth emerge after and beyond the choices and the interests of the participating voices: the Epicurean philosopher Sidonius, not by chance at the center of the first book (of the three making up the work), represents the philosophical option, the lowest, but characterized by the curiosity which leads to unqualified “religion,” interpreted in the second book by the Jew Baruchias, whose function is to interpret Judaism, but in a new form, not structured according to the traditional stereotypes of stubbornness, obstinacy, and blindness, but as the heir to a venerable tradition which potentially contains the highest truth and can access ultimate salvation, provided that it accepts Jesus as the solution of every enigma. The protagonist of the third book is Capnion, bearing the humanist Latinized name of Johannes Reuchlin himself (imagined as derived from “Rauch,” smoke, through a diminutive of the Greek “kapnos” with the same meaning). He combined the philosophical curiosity of the first interlocutor with the religious tradition of the second, offering the definitive synthesis of Christianity, understood as perfect realization and ultimate answer to the questions of the philosopher as well as to the obscure intricacies of kabbalistic tradition. Reuchlin’s Christianity is the focus toward which all sincere aspirations to truth converge, in other words his is a pious philosophy, striving to achieve the confirmation of Christianity through kabbalistic methods. Shortly after Pico had been rehabilitated from the accusations of heresy by Pope Alexander VI in 1493, Reuchlin revives some suggestions of the theses, in particular the idea that the name of Jesus, which actually was for Pico Yeshu, in accordance with the Jewish tradition, containing a Shin (S), was in itself the kabbalistic proof of the Christian dogma of Jesus’ humanity and divinity. Now, since the public discussion of the theses had been prohibited and Pico had received a formal interdiction to explain himself, Reuchlin advances his own conjectures, creating a new blend of Christian Kabbalah, not only interpreting Pico but also presenting an innovative and creative approach to Pico’s slogans, with a rather peculiar “German” bent, since Nicolaus Cusanus had suggested, in one of his sermons, the idea that the letter S, peculiar of Jesus’ name, could make pronounceable the ineffable Tetragrammaton. The book, quoted with respect to Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples, in his Psalterium Quincuplex, established Reuchlin, way beyond his real merits, as one of the foremost experts of Hebrew literature, in particular of its most recondite meanders, which were becoming, at the beginning of the XVI century, object of a growing curiosity among the Christians as a possible way of neutralizing the neo-pagan inclination of the humanist movement. Hebrew, as a language and as a “forgotten” tradition to be rediscovered in the “ad fontes” humanistic race, remained at the center of Reuchlin’s interests and publishing activity, becoming the cause of his glory but also of his judiciary suffering. The reactions of the readers to De verbo mirifico, documented by the correspondence, show clearly that his essay found a largely benevolent and remarkably curious readership but the majority could not grasp thoroughly his intentions, due to technical problems, since the Basle edition did not have Hebrew fonts, and also due to his intentional esotericism in tone. Reuchlin gave only partial explanations of the divine names hidden in the verses of the Psalms symbolizing the Shem ha-Meforash, the explicit and miraculous name of God, making prayer effective through the intercession of the angels. He understood very well that, in order to realize his project of Christianizing the Kabbalah, two preliminary conditions had to be fulfilled. On the one hand, his knowledge of Hebrew and his Hebrew library needed to be significantly enriched. Moreover, the knowledge of Hebrew of his readers had also to be improved since his kabbalistic reasoning in Latin translation makes almost no sense at all. In order to achieve this ambitious double target, he went first to Rome, where he took lessons of Hebrew at an advanced level from Obadiah Sforno and he enriched enormously his Hebrew library. Then, in 1506, he published the first (if one excepts the modest primer written by Konrad Pellikan, which appeared two years earlier) systematic grammar of the Hebrew language in Latin with a pioneering dictionary, the De rudimentis hebraicis, supplemented, twelve years later, by the De accentibus et orthographia linguae Hebraicae (1518): the basic tools for teaching Hebrew at the university level were thus laid. The vicissitudes, on the other hand, were caused by the very same emergence of Reuchlin as the outstanding expert for Hebrew literature among the Christians. The vast campaign of persecution of Hebrew literature promoted by the convert Johannes Pfefferkorn found a benevolent ear in Emperor Maximilian I, who supported it under certain conditions: he most certainly saw in it an occasion to refill the imperial treasure, impoverished by continuous military campaigns, with the perspective of the fines which would ensue from a generalized seizure of books in the possession of the Jews in the Holy Roman territories. As a matter of course, his objective could not have been the undifferentiated destruction of the totality of these books, which was favored by the convert and the watchdogs of the orthodoxy and would have led to their unmitigated triumph, but which at the same time would have had no significant “outcomes” from a more material, strictly fiscal point of view. Reuchlin’s expert opinion on this delicate matter could not have been ignored and, as it is well known, it was decidedly negative. Although favorable to the censorship and control, especially of blasphemous books and libels against Christianity, such as the notorious Sefer Nizzahon Yashan and Toledot Yeshu, Reuchlin was sternly opposed to an indiscriminate destruction of the Jewish books. He was rather inclined to consider them, with few exceptions, and with different degrees, a most precious potential asset for the Christians, not only nor primarily as an apologetic tool for inducing conversion, but in order to retrieve the forgotten Jewish root of Christianity and, in perspective, to complete with Hebrew an ideal triad of humanistic languages associating with the already established Latin and Greek. Reuchlin’s advice, although quite isolated and bitterly opposed by the suspicious Dominicans, happened to coincide with the imperial interests and prevailed, although only in the judicial matter of the seized Hebrew books. The quick formation of two parties the Reuchlinists and the so-called Obscurantists (the latter name, derived from the pro-Reuchlin satire Epistulae obscurorum virorum) started to delineate the front lines which will soon divide the German lands on the much more explosive theme of the reformation of the Church. The massive usage of the press, with the publication and capillary diffusion of pamphlets, satires, flyers, etc., shows clearly the new dimensions of the debate, which, such as in the case of Ulrich von Hutten, went quickly far beyond the original frame. The personal, decidedly slanderous confrontation with Pfefferkorn was certainly the immediate cause for Reuchlin’s ultimate condemnation in 1520, but it is evident that the general context of unease in the Church, the first breaks in Christianity, and the dangerous extension of the terms of the discussion convinced the Pope and the Cardinals of the necessity of an exemplary punishment. One element deserves a special mention, since it forms the most important legacy of Reuchlin’s argument, first in defense of the Jewish books and then in self-defense, is his strictly juridical argument, even more solid (in principle) than the cultural appeal held in the most general terms, according to which Jewish books are an intellectual heritage of importance for the Christians too. Juridically, Reuchlin argues that since Emperor Caracalla’s edict, the Jews are fellow citizens (concives), and they share with the Christians, in front of the secular power, the same rights: among others the right to see their property respected, as long as it is not demonstrated that they host in their libraries libels or blasphemous books. Within this frame, Christian-Jewish relations could find, in Reuchlin’s vision, a new dimension. From a theological point of view, in fact, he did not differ very much from his Dominican opponents, but on a juridical basis, Reuchlin identified a possible common ground on which cultural exchanges would be mutually beneficial. With the publication of the De arte cabalistica (1517), Reuchlin reached the apex of his intellectual development and could reap the fruits of his patient strategy which, almost incidentally, constituted the foundation of modern Jewish studies. Once again a dialogue among three interlocutors, in this later work, there is no representative of the author’s voice and not even a voice representing explicitly Christianity. The three participants represent each a philosophical or religious position: from the Pythagorean Philolaos to the eclectic, singular figure of baptized Moslem, bearing the curious name of Marranus, to the authentic protagonist of the trialogue: Simon, the Jewish Kabbalist who, in the heat of the debate, appears inadvertent of the fact that, while explaining methods, techniques, and contents of kabbalistic wisdom, he is delivering the key to discover and understand the true name of Jesus according to Kabbalah. At odds with the De verbo mirifico, anyway, the later dialogue presents a massive usage of kabbalistic texts (or of medieval Jewish texts, such as the Guide of the Perplexed which, in accord with Pico della Mirandola who in turn followed Abraham Abulafia, Reuchlin ascribed to the core of Kabbalah), in the original Hebrew and in Latin translation. The consistent practice of analogy to establish vast resemblances between Christianity and Judaism, the delineation of the contents of a “perennial philosophy,” and the sustained polemics against scholasticism in favor of a Platonic, Dionysian, and Cusanian hermeneutics make Reuchlin the principal exponent of the transplantation of Florentine humanism with some corrections, inspired by Pico in the German intellectual climate. Reformation and the religious struggles which will soon tear apart Germany and the Christian west will rapidly destroy his project of religious and intellectual renewal, whereas his enthusiasm for Kabbalah, the key, in his conception, to reconstruct the lost Pythagorean mysteriosophy, will wreck in the XVII century, under the attack of critical philology (showing that the supposed antiquity of kabbalistic doctrines was largely fictitious), a discipline he himself had contributed to establish with his bibliographic rigor and with his determination in reaching the authentic sources of the Christian synthesis, especially the Jewish ones. Nevertheless, it was Reuchlin, far more than Pico, the true father of modern Jewish studies, who established the knowledge of Hebrew as the precondition for any serious study of Judaism and as a peculiar intellectual interest for Christians. Moreover, his name will always be mentioned whenever there will be the need for a plaidoyer in favor of civil coexistence between Jews and Christians and also whenever, as it is periodically the case, one will want to understand Jewish esoteric tradition and the uncanny family resemblance it evokes among the Christians in an almost irresistible way, be it as repulsion or as powerful fascination.