Elia del Medigo

Who was Elia del Medigo?

Elias del Medigo, born under the name Elijah Mi-Qandia or Elijah mi-Qandia ben Moise del Medigo, also called in manuscripts as Elijah Delmedigo or Elias ben Moise del Medigo.

He was known to his contemporaries in Latin as Helias Hebreus Cretensis or in Italian Elias de Candia Del Medigo. Non-Jewish students of Delmedigo classified him as an “Averroist”, however, he saw himself as a follower of Maimonides. Scholastic association of Maimonides and Ibn Rushd would have been a natural one; Maimonides, towards the end of his life, was impressed with the Ibn Rushd commentaries and recommended them to his students. The followers of Maimonides had therefore been, for several generations before Delmedigo, the leading users, translators and disseminators of the works of Ibn Rushd in Jewish circles, and advocates for Ibn Rushd even after Islamic rejection of his radical views. Maimonideans regarded Maimonides and Ibn Rushd as following the same general line. In his book, Delmedigo portrays himself as defender of Maimonidean Judaism, and — like many Maimonideans — he emphasized the rationality of Jewish tradition.

Born in Candia, on the island of Crete, whither his family had emigrated from Germany, he spent ten years in Rome and in Padua in northern Italy, returning to Candia at the end of his life.