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Jewish Philosophy, Science of Judaism and Philology in Salomon Munk and Samuel David Luzzatto’S Letters Exchange

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Jewish Philosophy, Science of Judaism and Philology in Salomon Munk and Samuel David Luzzatto’S Letters Exchange European Journal of Jewish Studies 11 (2017) 115–129 brill.com/ejjs Jewish Philosophy, Science of Judaism and Philology in Salomon Munk and Samuel David Luzzatto’s Letters Exchange Chiara Adorisio Abstract The correspondence of the Italian Hebraist Samuel David Luzzatto (1800–1865) and the German-Jewish Orientalist Salomon Munk (1803–1867) sheds light on the trans- European dimension of the movement known as the Science of Judaism. This arti- cle is based on the reconstruction of the friendship between Luzzatto and Munk as reflected in Luzzatto’s letters to Munk in Paris. Their relationship was personal as well as intellectual: Luzzatto sent his son Philoxène, a promising Orientalist, to study under Munk’s supervision. Together with Munk’s letter to Philoxène, these letters provide us with details central to an understanding of the relationship between the two scholars. Although differing in their attitude toward Jewish faith and philosophy, Munk and Luzzatto shared a common interest in Hebrew and Oriental languages. Through their philological and linguistic studies, they challenged the Orientalistic attitude prevalent among European scholars and historians of philosophy in the first half of the nine- teenth century. Keywords Samuel David Luzzatto – Salomon Munk – Jewish philosophy – Wissenschaft des Judentums – Jewish studies – Orientalism – Judeo-Arabic literature and philosophy Samuel David Luzzatto (1800–1865), Italian Hebraist and professor at the Rabbinic College of Padua, and Salomon Munk (1803–1867), German-Jewish Orientalist and professor of Semitic languages and literature at the Collège de France in Paris, are two outstanding figures of the Wissenschaft des Judentums in Europe. They contributed to the main goal of the Wissenschaft des Judentums, the development of Jewish studies as an academic discipline in European © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���6 | doi �0.��63/�87�47�X-��34��Downloaded99 from Brill.com09/30/2021 11:46:46AM via free access 116 Adorisio universities, through their pioneering philological and historical works on Hebrew literature and language (Luzzatto) and on Islamic and Judeo-Arabic philosophy and literature (Munk). They both were accomplished scholars of Oriental languages and of Hebrew grammar and history. Munk, as the author of a geographical, historical and archaeological description of Palestine,1 was considered by his contemporaries, among them Adolph Jellinek in his Eulogy for Salomon Munk,2 to be one of the most important Orientalists of his epoch. Munk and Luzzatto were both in contact with representative figures of the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement, founded in Germany at the beginning of the nineteenth century: Munk began his studies with Leopold Zunz and was a student of Abraham Geiger and Eduard Gans in Berlin before he emi- grated to Paris in 1928; Samuel David Luzzatto held lively scholarly exchanges with Moritz Steinschneider, Leopold Zunz, Abraham Geiger, and others. They remained orthodox Jews throughout their lives—a fact which sets them apart from other representatives of the Wissenschaft des Judentums, such as Eduard Gans and Heinrich Heine, who abandoned Jewish orthodoxy or converted to Christianity. Although they were very dissimilar in personality and philo- sophical position, Munk and Luzzatto exchanged several ideas on the scien- tific and objective method of the Science of Judaism, shared their knowledge of Hebrew grammar and Hebrew literature, and warned, through their works, against the threat represented by pantheism both in Jewish mystical currents and in philosophy. Munk and Luzzatto were authors who tried to adapt the ideas of the German-Jewish Wissenschaft des Judentums to two very different contexts: the French academic world, and the world of Italian Hebraism, during the first half of the nineteenth century. The reconstruction of their scholarly dialogue will also allow us to reflect on Munk and Luzzatto’s position on the relationship between Judaism, rationalism and the scientific method. And though Munk and Luzzatto are much more known as historical scholars and philologists, and less as philosophers and Orientalists, still, in their historical and philologi- cal works, one finds numerous philosophical reflections influenced both by Jewish and non-Jewish philosophers, testifying to their profound interest in that subject. The present article is just such an examination of Munk and Luzzatto’s relationship—a relationship that exemplifies the trans-European dimension 1 Salomon Munk, Palestine: Description géographique, historique et archéologique (Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, 1845). 2 Adolph Jellinek, Gedächtnisrede auf den verewigten Herrn Salomon Munk (Vienna: Herzfeld & Bauer, 1867). European Journal of JewishDownloaded Studies from 11 Brill.com09/30/2021 (2017) 115–129 11:46:46AM via free access Jewish Philosophy, Science Of Judaism And Philology 117 of the Wissenschaft des Judentums, and the influence that the German-Jewish scholars had on the development of nineteenth-century Orientalism through- out the continent. My examination is mainly based on the reconstruction of Luzzatto’s and Munk’s friendship through Luzzatto’s correspondence. Both his published and unpublished letters, as well as the letter that Munk wrote to Luzzatto’s son, Philoxène (who was for a brief period of time Munk’s student in Paris), will provide us with details about their relationship. All these letters are preserved in the Samuel David Luzzatto archive of the Centro Bibliografico dell’Unione delle Comunità Ebraiche Italiane in Rome. 1 The Relationship between the Study of Judaism and the Study of Language in Munk and Luzzatto The correspondence between Luzzatto and Munk began around March 1850, when Salomon Munk wrote to Samuel David’s son, Philoxène Luzzatto, a promising student of Oriental languages, saying that he would like to read an example of the young scholar’s work on Assyrian.3 After this letter, Philoxène decided to move to Paris in order to continue his studies under Munk’s guid- ance, and thus became a sort of intermediary between his father and Munk. Writing to Munk about his son, Luzzatto also discusses several questions regarding his own work: I have waited far too long in writing to you and in praising your admirable “Notice” on our ancient grammarians, always awaiting the opportunity to send you my letter with my Philoxène. I am happy to have, in Paris, a man worthy of being a father to my son. His feelings of admiration and sym- pathy toward you equal my own . I thank God that my son may reach France after the fall from power of the pompous words and charlatanism of the tribune, which are diametrically opposed to the motto of Judaism, “speak little and do much.”4 3 At that time, Philoxène Luzzatto had already written his Le sanscritisme de la langue assyri- enne (Padua: A. Bianchi, 1849), and was thinking about publishing a study on Assyrian Inscriptions: Etudes sur les inscriptions assyriennes de Persépolis, Hamadan, Van et Khorsabad (Padua: A. Bianchi, 1850). 4 “J’ai trop long-temps tardé à vous écrire et à vous faire l’éloge de votre admirable ‘Notice’ sur nos anciens Grammairiens, attendant toujours le moment de pouvoir vous envoyer ma lettre par mon Philoxène. Je suis heureux d’avoir à Paris un homme digne d’être père à mon fils. Ses sentiments d’admiration et de sympathie envers vous égalent les miens. Je remercie Dieu European Journal of Jewish Studies 11 (2017) 115–129Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 11:46:46AM via free access 118 Adorisio In his letters (to his son, to Munk and to other scholars such as Albert Cohn), Luzzatto expressed great interest in the work of his German-Jewish émigré colleague, who around 1850 was already known for his French translation of Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed. At that time, Munk had already pub- lished seminal studies on Judeo-Arabic texts, a study on the Jewish philoso- pher Salomon Ibn Gabirol and a survey of the history of Jewish philosophy titled Philosophy and Philosophical Authors of the Jews: A Historical Sketch with Explanatory Notes, in which he sketched a history of Jewish philosophy up to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, and claimed that there was a fundamental conflict between philosophy and Judaism. This claim notwith- standing, the idea of the fundamental difficulty of reconciling Judaism and philosophy took different paths in the thought of the two authors, whose let- ters show their awareness of the differences in their positions. In 1850, Munk invited Luzzatto to join him in Paris and to accept a position at the French Academy of Inscriptions and Literature. Luzzatto politely turned down Munk’s offer and explained his decision in a letter to his son in Paris: Although Munk’s idea consoled me, I have already told you that I would prefer not to leave Italy. But I am happy that that man, whom I consider the best and most learned of the Israelites of France, holds me worthy of such an eminent position, which, however, is not for me; it would impede my studies and distract me with worries alien to my vocation.5 In his autobiography, Luzzatto himself explains what that vocation is. He tells us, for example, that when he was eight years old, a young teacher awakened in him a love for the search for truth, for progress, and for rigorous enquiry. Then, under the influence of the Catholic author Francesco Soave,6 in particular, via Soave’s book Istituzioni di Logica, Metafisica ed Etica, Luzzatto became inter- ested in modern philosophers such as Montesquieu, Locke, and Condillac. Luzzatto never abandoned the study of Jewish sources, but considered que mon fils arrive en France après la chûte du pouvoir des paroles pompeuses, et du char- latanisme de la tribune, diamétralement opposé à la devise du Judaïsme, ‘emor me’at va’aseh harbeh.’ ” From a letter to Salomon Munk in Paris, Padua, Purim 1852, in Epistolario italiano, francese, latino, di Samuel David Luzzatto da Trieste; pubblicato da’ suoi figli, ed.
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