Mine Is The Golden Tongue, The Hebrew Sonnets Of Immanuel Of Rome

Description

 “Among the sublime creations of world literature,” wrote the great modern Hebrew poet Shaul Tchernichovsky of the work of Immanuel of Rome.

Now, for the first time, these poems are available to English-speaking readers in Mine Is the Golden Tongue: The Hebrew Sonnets of Immanuel of Rome. This volume presents the earliest known sonnets written in Hebrew by one of medieval Italy’s most enigmatic Jewish literary figures: Immanuel ben Shelomò, also known as Immanuel of Rome.

A contemporary of Dante who wrote in both Hebrew and Italian, Immanuel lived in 14th-century Rome during the Papacy’s relocation to Avignon—a moment of relative openness that allowed Jewish cultural life to thrive. In his magnum opus Maḥbarot (מחברות), a sequence of poetic tales in prose and verse in the style of Boccaccio and Chaucer, Immanuel drew from biblical Hebrew, the Arabic maqama style, and the newly emerging Italian sonnet form. His writing is rich in allusion, playful in language, and marked by a sharp satirical streak—parodies and provocations run throughout his work. The sonnets collected in Mine Is the Golden Tongue are extrapolated from within these tales and appear here independently for the first time, accompanied by commentary that provides literary, linguistic, and historical context.

Though a foundational figure in Hebrew literature and widely studied, Immanuel of Rome has remained largely unknown outside scholarly circles. Mine Is the Golden Tongue makes his complex, subversive, and brilliant voice accessible to a broader audience.

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