Solomon Norzi

Jedidiah Solomon ben Abraham Norzi (1560–1626) (Hebrew: ידידיה נורצי, Yedidya Nortzi) was a Rabbi and exegete born at Mantua. He studied under Moses Cases, and received his rabbinical ordination in 1585. Toward the beginning of the 17th century he was elected co-rabbi of Mantua, a position which he held until his death.

Jedidiah Solomon consecrated the greater part of his life to a critical and Masoretic commentary on the Bible, which was considered a standard work. The author spared no pains to render his critical labors as complete as possible, and to leave the Biblical text in as perfect a condition as thorough learning and conscientious industry could make it. He noted all the various readings which are scattered through Talmudic and midrashic literatures, and consulted all the Masoretic works, both published and unpublished.

To collate all the manuscripts to which he could gain access, and to find the Masoretic work Massoret Seyag la-Torah of Meïr ben Todros Abulafia, Jedidiah Solomon undertook extended voyages and lived for a long time abroad. Among the manuscripts consulted by him was that of Toledo of the year 1277 (now known as the Codex De Rossi, No. 782). He compared all the texts of the printed editions and availed himself of his friend Menahem Lonzano's critical labors in connection with the Pentateuch. The work was completed in 1626 and was entitled by its author Goder Pereẓ. It was divided into two volumes, the first embracing the Pentateuch and the Five Megillot, and the second comprising the Hagiographa and the Prophets, with two small treatises at the end—Ma'amar ha-Ma'arik, on the Meteg, and Kelale BeGaDKaFaT, on the six Hebrew letters that can receive a dagesh kal and the Ḳameẓ ḥaṭuf.

...
Wikipedia