BODY OF CONVERSION AND THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL: THE “BEAUTIFUL JEWESS” SARA COPIO SULLAM* Giuseppe Veltri In 1856, Les quatre martyrs was published in Paris. In this book, the art historian Alexis François Rio wished to provide an evaluation of the biographies of four Roman Catholics as paradigmatic examples of a life of sacrifice. It is the fourth biography that is of special interest to us here,1 that of the Genoese scholar Ansaldo Cebà, called by Rio le martyr de la charité (“the martyr of charity”).2 Ansaldo had had a spirited correspondence with Sara Copio Sullam3 from Venice, the poet from * A first draft of the text was translated into English by Bill Templer. An earlier version was published in German as “Die schöne Jüdin und die Unsterblichkeit der Seele: Ein philosophisch-apologetischer Wettstreit im Venedig des 17. Jahrhunderts,” Frankfurter Judaistische Beiträge 32 (2005): 53–71. This contribution will be also published in my forthcoming book: Renaissance Philosophy in Jewish Garb. Foundations and Challenges in Jewish Thought on the Eve of Modernity (Leiden: Brill). 1 The first person was the British Count of Arundel, Philipp Howard (1557–1595), who died in England at the time of ‘Bloody Mary.’ Rio calls him the “le martyr de la verité” (“the martyr of truth”). The second was a woman, the first to receive a doctorate at a European university, the polymath scholar Elena Lucrezia Piscopia Cornaro (1646–1684), born in Venice and called by Rio “la martyre de l’humilité” (“the martyr of humility”). The third also stemmed from Venice, the commander of Famagusta in Cyprus, Marc-Anton Bragadin, whom the Turks skinned alive, “le martyr soldat”(“the soldier martyr”). 2 Alexis François Rio, Les quatre martyrs (Philippe Howard, Ansaldo Ceba, Héléna Cornaro, Marc-Antoine Bragadino) (Paris: Bray, 1856). 3 For literature about Sara Copio Sullam from the nineteenth century, see: Moses Soave, “Sara Copio Sullam,” Corriere Israelitico 3 (1864): 157–160; 188–196;Emanuele Antonio Cicogna, “Notizie intorno a Sara Copia Sulam: Coltissima Ebrea Veneziana del Secolo XVII,” Memorie dell’Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 13 (1864): 227–246; Heinrich Graetz, Geschichte der Juden von den ältesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart,vol.10, 3th edition. (Leipzig: Leiner, 1897), 134–136; Abraham Geiger, “Sara Copio Sullam,” Jüdische Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft und Leben 7 (1869): 178–183; Ernest David, Sara Copia Sullam, une héroïne juive au XVIIe siècle. Étude historique et biographique (Paris: Wittersheim, 1877); Abraham Berliner, Luhot. avanim: Hebräische Grabinschriften in Italien (Frankfurt am Main: Kauffmann, 1881), 78ff.; Mayer Kayserling, Die jüdischen Frauen in der Geschichte, Literatur und Kunst (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1879, reprint Hildesheim: Olms, 1991), 159–170; Nahida Remy, Das jüdische Weib (Leipzig: Laudien, 1892), 170–184, reprint ed. Esther Sharell (Frankfurt: Cultura Judaica, 1999); Gustav Karpeles, Jewish Literature and Other 332 giuseppe veltri the ghetto of Venice, trying to convince her to convert to Christianity. Cebà’s biography was not the first time the name of this highly gifted Jewish poet and intellectual was mentioned in the context of the res publica literaria.4 But Rio’s book was probably the prime stimulus for scholars associated with the German “Science of Judaism” (Wissenschaft des Judentums) to deal with her life and work.5 For example, the book proved very useful for the Breslau-based Orientalist Moritz Abraham Levy in preparing a lecture in 1862. He recommended emulating Sara Copio Sullam as a paragon for extraordinary erudition, general education and religious zeal.6 For the exponents of the Science of Judaism, the Italian Renaissance was in any case a singularly privileged era of the first Enlightenment and of Jewish scientific tradition, standing in marked contrast with the “darker centuries” of the medieval world. Fascination with that humanistic era then flowed into the Berlin of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as Fritz (Yiz.hak). Baer has shown in his Galut.7 Sara was born about 1590 in the ghetto of Venice. Raised by her father Simone Copio in the court culture of the time, she read literary, philosophical and theological works. By the age of 15,shewasable to read Latin, Greek, Spanish, Hebrew and Italian, displayed musical talents, remarkable social graces, and a gift for improvising poetry.8 In addition, she organized an academy in her father’s house, frequented Essays (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1895), 124–128; Moritz Steinschneider, “Die italienische Litteratur der Juden,” Monatschrift für die Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums 43 (1899): 318; Eden Sarot, “Ansaldo Ceba and Sara Copia Sullam,” Italica 31 (1954): 138–150. A complete biography is provided by Carla Boccato, “Sara Copio Sullam, la poetessa del Ghetto di Venezia: Episodi della sua vita in un manoscritto del secolo XVII,” Italia 6 (1987): 117–121. For further bibliographical references on Sara, see also the following footnotes. 4 I exclude here the first mention in Johann Christoph Wolf’s Bibliotheca hebraea (Hamburg: Liebezeit, 1727), 3:1162, and other direct or indirect references in the older literature. 5 That is very evident from Heinrich Graetz and Moritz Levy (see above, note 3), who were doubtless dependent on Rio. 6 Moritz A. Levy, “Sara Copia Sullam. Lebensbild einer jüdischen italienischen Dichterin aus dem siebzehnten Jahrhundert,” Jahrbuch für die Geschichte der Juden und des Judentums 3 (1862): 67–92. 7 Itzhak F. Baer, Galut (New York: Schocken, 1947); see Giuseppe Veltri, “Von Fasz- ination und Irrtum des Humanismus: Jüdisches Denken in der Italienischen Renais- sance,” in An der Schwelle zur Moderne: Juden in der Renaissance, ed. Giuseppe Veltri and Annette Winkelmann (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 1–21. 8 Cecil Roth, Venice (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1930), 237–238..