ABSTRACT
Johannes Reuchlin1 (1455-1522), also known by his humanist name of Capnion, was one of the greatest scholars of the German Renaissance, equally proficient in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew learning. As a young man he travelled in Italy. He tells Pope Leo X in the dedication of the De arte cabalistica how he had met Pico della Mirandola and his circle of learned men who were bringing ancient truth to light. It was certainly Pico’s work which inspired Reuchlin, and he came to Italy to learn Hebrew and to profit from the wealth of Hebrew literature now circulating in Italy. Reuchlin’s first Cabalist work, the De verbo mirifico, was published in Germany in 1494, two years after the Expulsion.
