book did much to stimulate popular interest. He died in Venice. Among his deepest interests was music. He served as cantor at the synagogue in Venice for more than forty years. Earlier, he is believed to have introduced some sort of polyphony in the synagogue at Ferrara, and wrote two essays on music justifying polyphonic practice in services and celebrations. Modena was certainly a musician and a friend of Salamone Rossi; it is not clear whether he was also a composer. He wrote calling for radical religious reform. In his "Bet Yehudah," Leon went no further than to show his preference for religious reform; but he attacked traditional Judaism in a pseudonymous work entitled "Ḳol Sakal." Writings Magen VaHerev (Hebrew מגן וחרב "Shield and Sword") is a polemic attack upon Christian dogmas. In Magen VaHerev Leon Modena takes to task Christians for their interpretations of Hebrew scriptures and refutes the claims of Jesus. His written works include: She'elot uTeshuvot Ziqnei Yehudah (Collected Responsa, Mossad HaRav Kook ed. Shelomo Simonson, 1956 ) Beit Lechem Yehudah (Anthology of statements of Hazal organized by topic, Venice, 1625 and Prague, 1705 Diwan (Collected Poems, JTS Publications, ed. Shimon Bernstein, 1932 Ari Nohem (See above) Kitvei Y. A. Modena (Letters and musings, ed. Yehuda Blau, Budapest, 1906) Magen VeTzinah (Responsa, ed. A. Geiger, Breslau, 1857) Tzemach Tzadiq (Ethical Treatise: a recent translation into English of this work is now available on the Web) Lev HaAryeh (Monograph on Memory improvement and Mnemonics, in which he greatly extols the use of the method of loci ) Sur MeRa (A philosophical dialogue on gambling, written at the age of 13, Amsterdam 1692 , Vilna 1896 Historia de' riti hebraici (See above, translated into Hebrew by Shelomo Rabin, Vienna, 1867 ) Pi HaAryeh (Italian-Hebrew dictionary of all difficult words in Tanakh), Venice 1640 HaBoneh, commentary on Ein Yaakov; pub. Venice 1635, and reprinted with Ein Yaakov itself since 1684. Appearances in popular culture Leon of Modena is the basis of the character Judah Aryeh in the novel People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. Leon of Modena is depicted in a children’s book called The Painter and the Rabbi, it depicts an alleged relationship Leon had with the noted painter Tintoretto. The book is based on stories told by docents at Jewish Museum of Venice, although there is no proof of said relationship, there is certainly mythology about it.