Career
He lived most of his life in the northern Italian city of Mantua, until his death in the late 16th century. He had the fortune to live at Mantua during the apogee of its Renaissance cultural flowering, under the rule of the Gonzaga dynasty. This period was also one of relative peace and well-being for the Jewish community of Mantua, which blossomed from a mere 200 souls in 1500 to a population of 2,000 at the beginning of the 17th century.
However, by 1650, a series of catastrophes had cut this number is half, and reduced the remaining Jewish-Mantuan community to poverty.
He wrote and directed many of the plays which the Jewish community were obliged to perform for the duchal court every year at the Carnival celebrations. The only works of de" Sommi which survive to this day are the aforementioned Hebrew comedy, the Four Dialogues, a comedy and a pastoral work written in Italian, and a poem in defense of women, entitled Shield of Women (Hebrew: מגן נשים), which consists of alternate lines in Hebrew and Italian.
