FARISSOL, JACOB BEN ḤAYYIM COMPRAT VIDAL:

By: Richard Gottheil, S. Kahn

Liturgical poet; born at Avignon; grandson of Vitalis Farissol, one of the three chief bailiffs of Avignon in 1400. He was a pupil of Solomon ben Menahem, or "Frat Maimon," under whose supervision he composed in 1422, at the age of seventeen, a commentary to Judah ha-Levi's "Cuzari" entitled "Bet Ya'aḳob." Jacob ben Ḥayyim is doubtless identical with the liturgical poet mentioned by Zunz ("Literaturgesch." p. 525) under the name of "Comprad Farissol," who flourished at Avignon in 1453. The name "Farissol" was a very common one among the Jews of Provence. It is found at Montpellier in 1306 (Saige, "Les Juifs du Languedoc," p. 128), at Perpignan in 1413 ("R. E. J." xiv. 67), and at Avignon in 1451, 1465-80, and 1558 (Bayle, "Les Médecins d'Avignon au Moyen Age," p. 54; Gross, "Gallia Judaica," p. 11; "R. E. J." xiv. 67, 89).

G. S. K.