Samuel Sarfati

Samuel Sarfati (died 1519), known as Gallo,^[1] was a prominent Italian physician and leader of the Jewish community in Rome.

Family

Samuel Sarfati was the father of Joseph Sarfati (d. 1527), personal physician and medical adviser to Pope Clement VII, and a poet in Hebrew.^[2]

Activities in Rome

Status and privileges

Originally from Provence, Sarfati moved to Rome in 1498. After settling in Rome, Pope Alexander VI extended privileges on him such as permission to treat Christian patients and permission to not wear the special distinguishing Jewish badge that Jews were required to wear. He was a community leader, and represented the Jewish community at the coronation of Pope Julius II in 1503.

Physician to the pope

In 1504, Sarfati became the Pontifical Archiater^[2] during the reign of Pope Julius II.^[1][3][4] In August 1511, according to Erasmus, Sarfati successfully treated a "serious illness" of Pope Julius II,^[1] which some historians theorize might have been syphilis.^[5]

Other notable patients

In 1515, Sarfati became the physician of Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici.

References

1. Bietenholz, Peter G.; Thomas Brian Deutscher (2003). Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation. Vol. 3. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press. pp. 196. ISBN 978-0-8020-8577-1.
2. Lanciani, Rodolfo Amedeo (1906). The Golden Days of the Renaissance in Rome. The Riverside Press / Houghton, Mifflin and Company. pp. 86.
3. Blech, Benjamin; Doliner, Roy (2008). The Sistene Secrets. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 119. ISBN 978-0-06-146904-6.
4. Wittmayer Baron, Salo (1952). A Social and Religious History of the Jews. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. pp. 262. ISBN 978-0-231-08848-0.
5. Blech, Benjamin; Doliner, Roy (2008). The Sistene Secrets. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 120. ISBN 978-0-06-146904-6.