Abraham Cohen de Herrera

Herrera, Abraham Cohen de (ār-rā'rä), c.1570-1635, Jewish philosopher and kabbalist, also called Alonso Nunez de Herrera and Abraham Irira. Born possibly in Portugal of a Marrano family, his studies of Neoplatonism, as taught in the Florentine Academy according to the interpretation of Marcel Ficino and as found in the Neoplatonic Dialoghi d'Amore of Judah Abravanel, and his studies of Lurianic kabbalah (see Luria, Isaac ben Solomon), prompted him to attempt a synthesis of these two traditions in his Puerta del cielo (n.d.). This work, circulating in the original Spanish manuscript, in Hebrew translation, and Latin abridgment, influenced religious developments in both Jewish and Christian communities, as well as such later philosophers as Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Herrera also wrote Casa de Dios, dealing with angels, and Epítome y compendio de la lógica o dialéctica, a treatise on logic (his only published work, n.d.).