The house in Via Vignatagliata 33 was home to Isacco Lampronti (1679-1756), a Rabbi, medical doctor and philosopher who lived there. Lampronti was a preeminent figure in Ferrara’s Jewish history, he was a teacher and president of the Rabbinical Academy, and practiced the medical profession alongside his other intellectual pursuits. His name is associated with the Paḥad Yiṣḥaq (‘the Fear of Isaac’), an encyclopaedia of Talmudic laws and the subsequent responsa (answers), many of which were his or by his teachers, pupils and colleagues. The author continued to work on the book throughout his life, and had it published as an old man. The whole twenty volume collection was printed at the end of the 19th century, almost 130 years after the author’s death.
We do not know which grave is Lampronti’s because for years there was Church ban on placing tombstones, and the Ferrara’s Jewish cemetery was also looted at the time. In 1872 a plaque was placed at his home in Via Vignatagliata, and in 1957, the town council added a second commemorative plaque to his house to mark the bicentenary of his death, as well as naming the small square connecting Via Vittoria and Via Vignatagliata after him. The Jewish community also placed a plaque in his memory in the main hall of the former Italian Synagogue.
Via Vignatagliata, 33
