Pope Prophecies in a Jewish Key: Menahem de Lonzano's Reading of the Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus

In the early 1620s Jewish polymath Menahem de Lonzano wrote a short work of messianic prognostication which he named Masa Dumah. Preserved in a single manuscript, the work is dedicated not to a classic of Jewish Messianism, but rather to a popular medieval collection of mysterious images and cryptic prophecies pertaining to the vagaries of the papacy: the Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus. Undeterred by the work's overtly Christian trappings and content, Lonzano took it upon himself to convert the text to Judaism, using fantastical premises and creative exegesis to argue that it foretold the impending rise of a Jewish messiah. This article offers an overview of this remarkable text − identifying the specific editions used by Lonzano, showing how he sought to transform the Christian text into a Jewish apocalypse, and laying the ground for a wider discussion of Lonzano's messianism and its place in the history of Early Modern Jewish messianism.