SD
Science & Medicine

Sabbatai Donnolo

Who

Sabbatai Donnolo · Science & Medicine

What

Byzantine-Italian physician; wrote the Sefer ha-Yakar, an early pharmacological antidotary

When

913, Oria, Byzantine southern Italy — c. 982

Where

Southern Italy (Oria, Rossano)

Biography

Sabbatai Donnolo is recognized among Jewish contributors to Science & Medicine — Byzantine-Italian physician; wrote the Sefer ha-Yakar, an early pharmacological antidotary

How & why

Donnolo was a Byzantine-Italian Jewish physician, astronomer and one of the earliest writers on medicine in Hebrew in Christian Europe. His 'Sefer ha-Yakar' (Book of the Precious) was a practical antidotary and pharmacological handbook, and his 'Sefer Hakhmoni' offered an early Hebrew commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah blending medicine, astronomy and Kabbalistic cosmology. He was a professing Jew, captured as a youth during an Arab raid on Oria.

Sources & external links
Contributions & Sources

Byzantine-Italian physician; wrote the Sefer ha-Yakar, an early pharmacological antidotary

c. 950

Source: Jewish Encyclopedia