The Sting of Satire: The Jesus Figure in Immanuel of Rome's Hell

Abstract:This article explores Jewish-Christian relations in Italy from a new vantage point: the poetic Hebrew literature composed by Immanuel of Rome in the fourteenth century. By focusing on a particular sinner in Immanuel's hell, the Jesus figure, the article illuminates the ways in which Immanuel marshaled polemical imagery from Ashkenazic and Sephardic sources as well as the Talmud and biblical exegesis. It also explores the ways in which Immanuel subverted his model text, Dante's Comedy, to insult Christianity and its holiest figure. This examination sheds light on Immanuel's textual and glossatorial practices, as well as his engagement with anti-Christian invective that was developing throughout thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Europe.