Today in 1496, historian and physician Joseph Ben Joshua Meir HaCohen was born in Avignon, France.
HaCohen was the greatest Jewish historian of the Middle Ages and early Modern period. His most important work is דברי הימים למלכי צרפת ובית אוטומאן התוגר (the history of the Kings of France and the Ottoman empire). Printed in 1554, it is a chronological presentation of the history of the world since the fall of the Roman Empire, revolving around the conflict between Christianity and Islam. It was probably the first general history book written in Hebrew and the first Hebrew book to use the word “America” in describing the New World.
In 1558, HaCohen published Emek ha-Bakha (valley of tears), describing the "hardships which befell us since the day of Judah's exile from its land," listing the sufferings, persecutions, expulsions, and forced conversions undergone by the Jews.
Originally from Spain, HaCohen’s parents moved to Avignon with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. In 1501, they moved to Genoa and with the expulsion of the Jews from that city in 1516, HaCohen moved with his family to Novi. In 1538, he returned to Genoa, and in 1550, when the Jews were expelled from there a second time, he was invited by the inhabitants of Voltaggio to settle there as their physician. When the Jews were driven out of the territory of Genoa in 1567, he went to Costeletto (Montferrat), and in 1571 he moved back to Genoa, where he died around 1575.