🏰 The four famed families of Rome and the multi-branched Kalonymos family were renowned as founders of Ashkenazi culture. Today, we further untangle the relationship of Italy to the Rhineland.
Minor typo in the quote from Binyamin of Tudela: הממונה על כל אדוםץ should be הממונה על כל אדום. , with a period at the end instead of a ץ. It's the same key, but one in the Hebrew keyboard and the other in the English.
There is, to my knowledge, not direct evidence of such and it remains conjectural. The presumption rests on the relative unusualness of the name, the regional proximity, and the eminence of the Provençal Kalonymides.
My family points to the semi-regular migration between Italy and Ashkenaz. My oldest ancestor Reb Judah Mintz was from, either directly or ancestrally, Mainz as attested by the name. His descendants then married into the Katzenellenbogen family and journeyed north into what in now Germany and then points East. To the best of my knowledge though we only know he came from Mainz due to the name, and have no records before his arrival in Padua.
Thank you very much for your article, Dr. Ron Marvin. As I told you in my connection requests, I am a descendant in direct line (35th Generation) in the Kalonymos family on my mother side. We have been able to trace all the lines in our genealogical tree up until 685 AD in Lucca. Your article is very fascinating to me, and very moving too.
Minor typo in the quote from Binyamin of Tudela: הממונה על כל אדוםץ should be הממונה על כל אדום. , with a period at the end instead of a ץ. It's the same key, but one in the Hebrew keyboard and the other in the English.
Thank you, I'll correct!
is there any evidence for the Provençal Kalonymos family being viewed as Ashkenazim?
There is, to my knowledge, not direct evidence of such and it remains conjectural. The presumption rests on the relative unusualness of the name, the regional proximity, and the eminence of the Provençal Kalonymides.
The name Kalonymos itself seems to be a vernacular version of שם-טוב , or at least they have the same meaning.
Fascinating! I almost took Greek but Latin was, don't laugh, more practical... Thanks for adding this.
My family points to the semi-regular migration between Italy and Ashkenaz. My oldest ancestor Reb Judah Mintz was from, either directly or ancestrally, Mainz as attested by the name. His descendants then married into the Katzenellenbogen family and journeyed north into what in now Germany and then points East. To the best of my knowledge though we only know he came from Mainz due to the name, and have no records before his arrival in Padua.
Thank you very much for your article, Dr. Ron Marvin. As I told you in my connection requests, I am a descendant in direct line (35th Generation) in the Kalonymos family on my mother side. We have been able to trace all the lines in our genealogical tree up until 685 AD in Lucca. Your article is very fascinating to me, and very moving too.