Isaac Lampronti (February 3, 1679 – November 16, 1756) was an Italian rabbi and doctor.
He was born at Ferrara. His great-grandfather, Samuel Lampronti, had emigrated from Constantinople to Ferrara in the sixteenth century. His father, a man of wealth, died when Isaac was six years of age.
On completing his medical studies he was employed as teacher for a time in various Italian cities, and on his return to Ferrara the yeshivah conferred upon him the title of chaver. Shortly afterward he went to Mantua to complete his rabbinical studies under R.abbi Judah Brial and Rabbi Joseph Cases, who also was a physician. Lampronti entered into especially close relations with Rabbi Brial, whom he frequently mentions in his great work. In 1701, Lampronti returned to Ferrara, where he established himself as physician and teacher, delivering lectures for adults in his house both on week-days and on the Sabbath.
Lampronti’s life-work was this rabbinical encyclopedia Pachad Yitzchak, the material for which he had begun to collect as early as his student days at Mantua, and on which he worked during his whole life. He included a great deal of material on rulings of many of the rabbis of his time that had previously been found only in manuscripts.
My copy is the first edition of the first volume (letters Aleph-Bet) which was printed in the year 1750 in Venice. In the year 1753, the second volume was printed. The other parts up to the letter Mem was printed after his death by his son Solomon, first in Venice and then in Livorno. The rest of the manuscript was printed in the 19th century.
This is the first Talmudic encyclopedia, containing, in the order of the Hebrew alphabet, explanations of concepts and terms in the Talmud, Midrash and Rabbinic literature. The book includes definitions, short biographies, genealogy, legends, proverbs and bibliographic lists.
The second page in the book is written in Italian. It says:
This may be sold by review and consent of Fr. Paolo Tomaso Manuelli, Inquisitor General in Venice. The Book of The Fear Of Isaac does not malign the Holy Catholic Faith, by our secretary’s attestation there is nothing against its principles, or customs. We hereby grant permission to Benjamin Polacco of Bragadina Hebrew Printing of Venice, the owner of this printing house, in supervising the orders for printing, he will present the usual copies to the public libraries of Venice & Padua.
This is followed by a very important collection of approbations (haskamos), which were given in 1749 and 1750. It forms a listing of the Jewish scholars and rabbis of northern Italy in the eighteenth century; it includes sonnets and poems in other forms in honor of Lampronti. The following cities are represented by their yeshivahs or rabbis: Venice, Leghorn, Reggio, Verona, Ancona, Padua, Mantua, Casale Monferrato, Modena, Turin, Florence, Alessandria della Paglia, Pesaro, Finale, Lugo, Rovigo.
Jewish Miscellanies 