In passing, it may be mentioned that the same controversy about the merits and demerits of the married state was still carried on in the sixteenth century among some learned Jewish writers in Italy. Among these are most conspicious: Jacob of Fano, who in his poem ‪שלטי הגבורים‬, “The Shield of the Mighty,” makes a strong attack on women, and Judah Sommo, of Portaleone, who in his treatise ‪מגן נשים‬, “The Women's Protector,” which exists in a MS. in the Bodleian Library, presents himself as a champion of women. To these writers may be added Messer Leon (flourished at Mantua, at the end of the fifteenth century) who, in a commentary on the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs, eulogizes the female sex in general, and a few specially named women in particular. Among them he mentions Laura, the lady-love of the poet Petrarch; and it is interesting to notice the trouble which the author takes to prove that Laura was by no means a myth, as some writers on Petrarch consider her, but that she really existed in person, and was remarkable for her exquisite beauty and grace. Resuming now our review of Yedaya's literary compositions, especially of those he wrote when he was still very young, we have to refer to a Hebrew hymn of his, well known under the title of ‪בקשת הממין‬, the formal characteristic of which is this, that each word of it begins with the letter _Mem_ (מ). Bartolocci, in his _Bibliotheca Rabbinica_, III, p. 7, gives the same hymn the title of ‪תהלה לשם‬, “Praise of God.” This seems to have been Yedaya's first literary attempt, it being generally assumed that it was composed by him at the age of fourteen. His father, Abraham, himself a writer of Hebrew verses of inferior quality, was so delighted with his son's hymn that he sang its praises in a short Hebrew quatrain. Although, from a literary point of view, the _Supplication of the Memmin_ has little to recommend it, it has passed through fifteen editions, and has frequently been translated into German, and once also into Latin by Hil. Prache, who published his version at Leipzig, in 1662. Another short composition belonging to an early period of Yedaya's life is his ‪ספר הפרדס‬, “The Book on Paradise,” which was composed by him at the age of seventeen, and appeared for the first time in print at Constantinople, in 1517. It is divided into four chapters, each of which has a different heading, while the fourth chapter is again subdivided into four sections. The principal subjects discussed in these chapters are (_a_) The worship of God; (_b_) Friendship and Enmity; (_c_) The Lack of Stability in the World; and (_d_) The Desirability of Studying Science after the usual Devotions. After having reached manhood, he wrote several other treatises of a similar description, each of which will be briefly noticed here. (1) ‪לשון הזהב‬, “The Golden Tongue.” This forms part of a commentary (existing as a MS. on the _Agada_ and the _Midrashim_), and was first printed at Venice in 1599.