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"Glasner, Ruth"
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Hebrew Translations in Medieval Christian Spain: Alfonso of Valladolid Translating Archimedes?
We know of only a small number of philosophical or scientific translations from Arabic to Hebrew that were certainly produced in Christian Spain in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. An anonymous translation of Archimedes' The Measurement of the Circle (referred to by Tony Lévy as HA) may have been produced in fourteenth-century Castile by Alfonso, the author of Sefer Meyaššer῾aqov (henceforth SMA)—identified by Gita Gluskina, and subsequently by Gad Freudenthal, as Alfonso of Valladolid, the Jewish apostate otherwise known as Abner of Burgos. A comparison of translation HA of Archimedes and the original mathematical treatise SMA strongly suggests, but does not conclusively prove, that they are by the same hand. It is shown that Alfonso had a good command of Arabic and studied mathematics and probably also philosophy from Arabic sources. There is no decisive piece evidence that he was acquainted with any of the Hebrew translations of either mathematical or philosophical texts produced in Provence in the thirteenth and first half of the fourteenth century. Abner of Burgos was known as an erudite scholar who was a central figure in Jewish intellectual life in Castile before his conversion. If he was indeed the author of SMA and the translator of The Measurement of the Circle, we may conjecture that Castilian Jews of the first half of the fourteenth century had scant exposure to the translations of Greek and Arabic authors by their Provençal coreligionists. This situation gradually changed in the second half of the century.
Journal Article
Two Notes on the Identification of Two Anonymous Hebrew Commentaries on the Physics
In the following notes I wish to tell the stories of two anonymous Hebrew commentaries on the Physics, which were wrongly identified by Steinschneider. I maintain that both commentaries were written in Spain in the second half of the fifteenth century and that Steinschneider's earlier dating obscured the picture of the development of Hebrew scholarship in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. (1) The first text has not been studied before; the second was studied several times, but its confusing structure kept its story from being understood properly.
Journal Article
Averroes' Physics. A Turning Point in Medieval Natural Philosophy
If anyone still raises doubts about the function of philology and the need for critical editions, this book should definitely put those doubts to rest. It shows that no history of philosophy is possible without intensive philological work with the original texts. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Journal Article
IBN RUSHD'S THEORY OF MINIMA NATURALIA
The essence of the theory of minima naturalia is the contention that a physical body is not infinitely divisible qua that specific body. A drop of water cannot be divided again and again and still maintain its “wateriness”. There are several statements in Aristotle's Physics which suggest such an interpretation, and the theory of minima naturalia is commonly considered to have originated in the thirteenth century as an interpretation of these statements. The present paper is a preliminary presentation of the role of Ibn Rushd in the evolution of the theory, hitherto neglected. His theory developed not only as an elaboration on the “suitable” statements of Aristotle, but mainly as an attempt to solve the difficulties raised by Aristotle's thesis (developed in Physics VI and VII) that body and motion are continuous, infinitely divisible entities and are associated qua such. According to Ibn Rushd's interpretation, body and motion are associated not qua being continuous but qua having indivisible minimal parts. It seems that Epicurus' and Ibn Rushd's theories of minima developed as responses to Physics VI and offer modifications of classical atomism and of classical Aristotelianism (respectively), which to a certain extent reduce the gap between these two systems.
Journal Article