The Place of Paradise in Renaissance Jewish Thought

Renaissance Jews thought that Paradise existed on earth, and could be found. To their minds its most conspicuous property was the fertility of its soil, quality of its climate, and salubriousness of its produce. That they approached Paradise in this manner demonstrates their preference for natural, as opposed to theological, explanations of Eden. One such Jew was Judah Saltaro, the author of an unstudied composition on terrestrial Paradise. This article introduces Saltaro, explores connections between trends in Renaissance thought—dietetics, natural philosophy, and writings about the New World—and explains how those trends altered Hebraic traditions of the late Renaissance.