Joseph ha-Kohen
A physician and historian, Joseph ha-Kohen was born in Avignon. His family moved to Genoa when he was still a child, and he spent most of his life in Piedmont and Lombardy. His letters reveal a person deeply engaged in community matters, especially in the redemption of captive Jews. His Sefer divre ha-yamim le-malkhe Tsarefat u-vet Otoman ha-Togar (Chronicle of the Kings of France and the Ottoman Empire), printed in Sabbioneta in 1554, is considered the first world history written in Hebrew. Emek ha-bakhah (Valley of Tears), composed in 1558, describes the history of the Jews as a series of persecutions from the fall of the Second Temple to the sixteenth century.
Content by Joseph ha-Kohen
Primary Source
Divre ha-yamim le-malkhe Tsarefat u-vet Otoman ha-Togar (Chronicle of the Kings of France and the Ottoman Empire)
Primary Source
Emek ha-bakhah (Valley of Tears)
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