Solomon Löwisohn | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1788 or 1789 |
| Died | (aged 32) Moor, Weißenburg County, Kingdom of Hungary |
| Language | Hebrew,German |
| Literary movement | Haskalah |
Solomon Löwisohn (Yiddish:שלמה לעוויזאהן,romanized: Shelomoh Levizohn,German:Salomo Löwisohn; 1788 or 1789 – 27 April 1821) was a HungarianMaskilicpoet,historian, grammarian, and linguist.
Solomon Löwisohn was born into a prominentJewish family inMoor,Weißenburg County.[1] His father, himself a proficient Talmudist, taught the boy until he was fifteen years old.[2] Since there was no Jewish school in the village, he sent him to Moor'sCapuchin school to study German and arithmetic.[3] The boy showed unusual talents; by the age of 13, he had already completely mastered the 24 books of theTanakh and possessed a rare skill in Hebrew. During this period he tried his hand at festive andoccasional poetry.[2]
In 1809 he went to study at thePragueyeshivah with his relativeMoses Saphir, and between 1813 and 1815 studiedSemitic languages at theUniversity of Prague. Löwisohn soon became closely associated with theMaskilic circle ofBaruch andJudah Jeitteles. His first major work, adialogue on Hebrew grammar betweenDavid Kimḥi andJoel Brill entitledSiḥah be-ʻolam ha-neshamot, was published in 1811.[3]
In 1814, he accepted the position of corrector at the printing establishment ofAnton Edler von Schmid inVienna, but gave up his post in 1820. He quickly became physically and mentally ill, and succumbed to his ailments in his hometown in April 1821, at the age of 32.[2]
Löwisohn's other works includeMeḥkere erets, on thetopography of theTanakh, andDikduk leshon ha-Mishna (1815), an essay on the language of theMishnah. Further, he translated and annotated theMaḥzor, and part of the ritual forTisha B'Av (1819).[1] His most important works areMelitsat Yeshurun (1816), an analysis of thepoetics of the Bible,[3] andVorlesungen über die neuere Geschichte der Juden (1820), of which the first volume only was published.[4]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Singer, Isidore; Büchler, Alexander (1904)."Löwisohn, Solomon". InSinger, Isidore; et al. (eds.).The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 197.
Singer, Isidore; Büchler, Alexander (1904)."Löwisohn, Solomon". InSinger, Isidore; et al. (eds.).The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 197.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)