Immanuel of Rome’s Bisbidis: An Italian Maqāma?

Although Immanuel of Rome’s Bisbidis abounds with onomatopoeic inventiveness, it has received little critical attention aside from its status as a curiosity: a dazzling poem by the only Italian Jew with extant medieval Italian lyrics. While this paper explores Immanuel’s familiarity with works by Cecco Angiolieri, Dante Alighieri, and other duecento Italian poets, it aims to demonstrate the ways in which Bisbidis embodies the medieval Hebrew-via-Arabic genre of the maqāma. After providing background on secular medieval Hebrew literature composed in the Mediterranean region and situating Immanuel’s composition in its literary-historical context, I evaluate several components – including thematic, formal, and philological correspondences – that Bisbidis shares with the Hebrew maqāma.