 Elijah Del Medigo was born in Candia (nowadays Heraklion), in the island of Crete, in 1458 or shortly before that. Crete being a Venetian colony, Del Medigo traveled to Venice around 1480. The reasons for this move cannot be determined with certainty; one suggestion is that Del Medigo moved to Padua in order to study medicine (Cassuto 1918: 222; Ross 1984: 18). However and whatever were his initial motives, Del Medigo’s activity while in Italy concentrated around the instruction of philosophy and the composition of philosophical works. More specifically, during his long stay in the Italian peninsula Del Medigo earned his fame as translator of and commentator on works by Averroes, and as the author of original treatises aimed at clarifying Averroes’ doctrines in various fields. The target audience of these works were leading Christian figures within the intellectual circles of Padua and Venice, among them Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Domenico Grimani. During the academic year 1480/81 Del Medigo composed his Quaestio de primo motore and Quaestio de efficientia mundi following a public discussion in Padua, which led scholars to speculate that Del Medigo held an official role in that university (Montada 2013: 165). It seems however that while Del Medigo did play a major role in the intellectual life in the Veneto in that period, he was not officially affiliated with the university of Padua. Around 1482 Del Medigo moved to Venice, returned again to Padua, and in the years 1484–85 stayed with Pico della Mirandola in Florence. During the academic year 1485/86 we find Del Medigo again in Padua (Ross 1984: 20), and it is around that time he composed his commentary on the De substantia orbis.  Del Medigo then continued to travel throughout the cities of Northern Italy, spending some time in Venice in 1488 under the patronage of Domenico Grimani. During his Italian sojourn Del Medigo composed four original works, wrote two commentaries on works by Averroes, and translated about nine works by Averroes from Hebrew into Latin.