Kalonymus ben Kalonymus


Kalonymus ben Kalonymus ben Meir, also romanized as Qalonymos ben Qalonymos or Calonym ben Calonym, also known as Maestro Calo was a Jewish philosopher and translator from Hachmei Provence. He studied philosophy and rabbinical literature at Thessaloniki under the direction of Abba Mari ben Eligdor and Moses ben Solomon of Beaucaire. He also studied medicine, although he seems never to have practised it.
He was from a prominent and distinguished Provençal Jewish family. The father of Kalonymus and Kalonymus himself each bore the title "Nasi".

At Rome

About 1314 Kalonymus settled at Avignon, where he later became associated with Robert, King of Naples, who sent him, provided with letters of recommendation, on a scientific mission to Rome. Kalonymus' learning and character gained for him the consideration of the Roman Jewish notables; and when his family, finding that his sojourn at Rome was longer than had been anticipated, recalled him, the poet Immanuel the Roman wrote a letter to Nasi Samuel of Arles, protesting in the name of the Jewish community of Rome against Kalonymus' return. According to Steinschneider and Gross, Kalonymus was the poet referred to by Immanuel as having pleaded the cause of the Roman Jews before the pope at Avignon in 1321, but this assertion needs confirmation since the exact dates of Kalonymus' stay in Rome can not be ascertained. Heinrich Graetz and Adolf Neubauer believe that Kalonymus went to Rome after his sojourn in Catalonia, which was in 1322; and the fact that he does not mention Rome in his Eben Boḥan confirms their supposition. In 1328 Kalonymus was in Arles, where he probably remained until his death, the exact date of which is unknown.

Works

Kalonymus acquired a high reputation both as an original writer and as a translator. He began his literary career when only twenty years old. His translations, which, with the exception of one that was printed, are all still in manuscript, include the following :
Kalonymus' original works are as follows:
A great number of other works have been wrongly attributed to Kalonymus ben Kalonymus.

Transgender legacy

In one poem in Even Boḥan, Kalonymus expresses lament at and curses having been born a boy, referring to his penis as a :wikt:מוּם|מוּם, a "defect", and wishes to have been created as a woman. This poem, long interpreted as satire, has been increasingly embraced by some in the LGBT+ Jewish community as an expression of gender dysphoria and transgender identity, suggesting that the poet may have been a trans woman. Judaism traditionally recognizes a number of gender or sex categories besides man and woman, and it is impossible to know the gender identity of this person who lived in the 14th century for certain. Some scholars view Kalonymus ben Kalonymus as a possible example of a transgender person in Jewish history. Steven Greenberg acknowledges this possibility but also suggests another, that Kalonymus might have been homosexual, asking: "might it be that for Kalonymus the only way to make sense of the desire to be loved by a man is to fantasize being a woman?"