MODON, SIMSON HA-KOHEN:
Poet; born in Mantua Aug. 1, 1679; died there June 10, 1727. He received a thorough education and was recognized as an accomplished linguist. He was one of those sent by the congregation in Mantua to do homage to Emperor Charles VI. at Vienna, where he acquitted himself most creditably and gained the emperor's good-will. Encouraged by David Finzi, rabbi of Mantua, he devoted himself to the writing of poetry; Finzi added some of his own poems to the collection "Ḳol Musar," published by Modon at Mantua in 1725 (Lemberg, 1845). Others of his poems are "Keter Torah" (Venice, 1721); "Ẓir ha-Ẓirim" (ib. 1722), an elegy on his teacher Judah Brill; and "Shigyon Shimshon." The last is a poem of three hundred lines, each commencing with the letter 
. He also compiled a rabbinical encyclopedia, arranged alphabetically, and called "Sefer Zikronot"; this and the "Shigyon Shimshon" are in manuscript.
- Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 2636;
- Fürst, Bibl. Jud. ii. 386;
- Samuel della Volta, in Kerem Ḥemed, ii. 113 et seq.;
- Allg. Zeit. des Jud. 1838, p. 216;
- Mortara, Indice, p. 41;
- Benjacob, Oẓar ha-Sefarim, p. 159, No. 185.
