Rachel Morpurgo - 19th-century Italian Jewish poet

(6.) Georges Vajda, "Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda," Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 4, pp. 105-108.

(7.) Tovia Preschel, "Altschuler David," Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 2, pp. 783-784.

(8.) "Aboab, Isaac I," Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 2, pp. 90-93.

(9.) Gershom Scholem, "Vidas, Elijah ben Moses de," Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 16, p. 120.

(10.) Samuel David Luzzatto, Letter, Kokhevei Yizhak (henceforth: KY) 35 (1868): 17.

(11.) Luzzatto, KY35 (1868): 18. Compare Castiglioni, UR, "Introduction," p.6, according to whom this was a continuous request.

(12.) Luzzatto, KY35 (1868): 17.

(13.) KY8 (1847): 32-34 [=UR, pp. 50-51]; Samuel David Luzzatto, Kinnor Na'im, II (Padova, 1879), pp. 17-18.

(14.) KY10 (1847): 13 [=UR, p.52]; Kinnor Na'im, II, p. 205.

(15.) Shadal also wrote a sonnet on occasion of Rachel's marriage (Kinnor Na'im, II, p.204). Rachel was later to compose one upon the marriage of Shadal (KY17 [1852]: 74 [=UR, p. 67]).

(16.) See in further detail below.

(17.) "Three years have elapsed in which I have not merited to offer before you a praise of thanks, for the good that you have bestowed upon me, in placing your handmaid among the stars. Now you have granted and honored me with the twenty fourth issue, which I received last week. [ldots] I have sent my cousin Shadal some poems, but I do not know if all have reached you or perhaps some of them, because it is two years since I have received a letter from him. I present here before you four poems, perhaps they will find favor in your eyes. May peace be with you and your household. May God inscribe and seal us in the book of good life together will all of Israel, Amen so may it be. Tomorrow is Yom Kippur 5619. The fourth poem I will send another time because I couldn't, since it is the third hour past midnight"(UR, p. 114).

(18.) KY25 (1860): 53-55 [=UR, pp. 83, 84, 82, 114].

(19.) UR, p. 94.

(20.) UR, "Introduction," p. 8; p. 99.

(21.) KY8 (1847): 33-34 [=UR, p.5]. Samuel David Luzzatto, Kinnor Na'im, II, p. 18. Some thirty years were to transpire from the time Rachel composed her first sonnet until its publication.

(22.) KY12 (1848): 2 [=UR, p. 49].

(23.) See the letter to Stem mentioned above, note 17.

(24.) S. D. Luzzatto, Epistolario Italiano Francese Latino (Padova, 1890), II, p. 623. The majority of Rachel's poems were occasional, i.e., composed for specific events, as was the custom of the time. The Austrian revolution of 1848 served as inspiration for the poem "The Events of the Times," in which she noted the disaster and ruin that the war had shed, stating that the servants of God bear the Yoke of their Rock. She concluded by expressing her hope that God would bring the Messiah (KY14 [1851]: 2 [=UR, p. 59]). The Jewish movement for the return to the Land of Israel evoked in her profound feelings of redemption. She composed a poem in honor of Moses Montefiore's journey to Jerusalem in 1855, the entourage of whom passed, among other places, through Trieste (KY21 [1856]: 77 [=UR, p.71]). She herself wished to accompany him and his wife Judith on this journey, and serve Judith Montefiore. This prospect did not, however, materialize.