French poet
Kalonymus ben Kalonymus ben Meir (Hebrew: קלונימוס בן קלונימוס), also romanized as Qalonymos ben Qalonymos or Calonym ben Calonym, also known as Maestro Calo (Arles, 1286 – died after 1328) was a Jewish philosopher and translator and hakham of Provence.
Kalonymus studied philosophy and rabbinical literature at Salon-de-Provence under the direction of Abba Mari ben Eligdor and Moses ben Solomon of Beaucaire. Kalonymus also studied medicine, but seems not to have practiced it.
Kalonymus was from a prominent and distinguished Provençal Jewish family. The father of Kalonymus and Kalonymus themselves each bore the title "Nasi" (prince).
At Rome.
About 1314, Kalonymus settled at Avignon, and there later became associated with Robert, King of Naples, who sent Kalonymus (with letters of recommendation) on a scientific mission to Rome. Kalonymus's learning and character gained the consideration of the Roman Jewish notables; and when family members, finding that Kalonymus's sojourn at Rome was longer than had been anticipated, recalled Kalonymus, the poet Immanuel the Roman wrote a letter to Nasi Samuel of Arles, protesting in the name of the Jewish community of Rome against Kalonymus's departure. According to Moritz Steinschneider and Gross, Kalonymus was the poet referred to by Immanuel (ib. p. 28) as having pleaded the cause of the Roman Jews before the pope at Avignon in 1321, but this assertion needs confirmation since the exact dates of Kalonymus's stay in Rome can not be ascertained. Heinrich Graetz and Adolf Neubauer believe Kalonymus went to Rome after a sojourn in Catalonia, which was in 1322, and believe the fact that Kalonymus does not mention Rome in "Eben Boḥan" confirms this supposition. In 1328 Kalonymus was in Arles, and probably remained there until dying at an unknown date.
Works.
Kalonymus acquired a high reputation both as an original writer and as a translator. Kalonymus began a literary career when only twenty years old. Kalonymus's translations, which, with the exception of one that was printed, are all still in manuscript, include the following (arranged in chronological order, the Hebrew titles being those of the translations):
Kalonymus's original works are as follows:
A large number of other works have been wrongly attributed to Kalonymus ben Kalonymus.
Transgender legacy.
In the poem "Even Boḥan", Kalonymus expresses lament at and curses having been born a boy, referring to Kalonymus's penis as a מוּם "mum" or "defect". Kalonymus wishes to have been created a woman. This poem has been increasingly embraced by some in the LGBTQIA+ Jewish community as an expression of gender dysphoria and transgender identity, suggesting that the poet may have been a trans woman. Judaism traditionally recognizes a number of gender or (inter)sex categories besides man and woman (although those genders are defined in terms of physical sexual characteristics, not self-perception), and it is impossible to know the gender identity of this person who lived in the 14th century for certain. Some scholars view Kalonymus ben Kalonymus as a possible example of a transgender person in Jewish history. Steven Greenberg acknowledges this possibility but also suggests another, that Kalonymus might have been a homosexual man, asking: "might it be that for Kalonymus the only way to make sense of the desire to be loved by a man is to fantasize being a woman?"
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