EMANUEL-BEN-SALOMON, a Hebrew poet of whose life the few facts that are known are gathered from allusions in his works. He was born at Rome about the middle of the 13th century, and spent the greater part of his life in that city. He seems also to have resided for a considerable period at Fermo. The precise date of his death, like that of his birth, is unknown. His collected poems, entitled Mechabberoth, were printed at Brescia in 1491 and at Constantinople in 1535. Both editions are exceedingly rare. The work contains about thirty different poems of various kinds, love songs, drinking songs, odes, madrigals, &c. The last is a descriptive poem, the subject being heaven and hell, and it was published separately at Prague in 1559 and at Frankfort in 1713. As a poet Emanuel is distinguished by the liveliness of his fancy and the finish of his versification. His choice of subjects, and his free method of treating them, led to his being proscribed by the stricter rabbis as a blasphemer. He has been called the Voltaire of the Hebrews, but with even less appropriateness than such far-fetched comparisons generally possess. Besides his poetical works, Emanuel wrote commentaries on several of the books of the Old Testament Scriptures, some of which exist only in manuscript. He was also, the author of a work on Hebrew grammar and criticism.