Gad Freudenthal | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research (original) (raw)
Festschrift by Gad Freudenthal
Articles & Reviews by Gad Freudenthal
3. On the different spellings of 'Laguiri' see Glasner, The Hebrew Version o/De Celo et Mundo, p.... more 3. On the different spellings of 'Laguiri' see Glasner, The Hebrew Version o/De Celo et Mundo, p. 94, n. 31.1 follow Glasner's choice of spelling. 4. Hi; §152, 153 (pp. 283-284). §512 (p-822). .{mTO n'a .3 ;!?ts nw.« iQ'pVn':») o-n^K n's
The history of Jewish philosophy is the story of the receptions of foreign bodies of knowledge.
Freudenthal recent studies, which I had the pleasure to co-author, have shed some new light on th... more Freudenthal recent studies, which I had the pleasure to co-author, have shed some new light on the history of the text.5 The present publication is based on these studies. 1 Nicomachus' Introduction to Arithmetic reached the Arabic world twice: a first version was made from a Syriac one; this version will be discussed below. Subsequently, the work was translated into Arabic a second time, now directly from the Greek, by the noted mathematician Thābit Ibn Qurra (d. 901); this version will not concern us here.6 The Hebrew work is entitled Sefer ha-'aritmatiqa' ("The book of arithmetic") and the name of the author is given, following the Arabic, as Nīqūmākhūs al-gaharshīnī. The name of the translator, Qalonymos b. Qalonymos of Arles, appears in the colophons of two manuscripts (out of eight) of the text. In these colophons, the well-known translator indicates that he completed his work on 5 Nissan [50]77, i.e., March 19, 1317, when he was 30 years old. Sefer ha-'aritmatiqa' , the Hebrew version of the Introduction to Arithmetic, opens with a Prologue, which is not part of the Greek original of the work and which sheds important light on the history of the text. Its anonymous author addresses an unnamed personality, apparently of high rank; I will call that person the Addressee. From the Prologue we understand that the Addressee had already studied in part the Introduction to Arithmetic (the "famous work"), in a version that the author of the Prologue had "corrected" or "revised" "under the authority of our master, the noble Yaʿqūb ibn 'Isḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī" (515.3-5).7 I will therefore call the author of the Prologue the Revisor. Al-Kindī was much interested in mathematics,8 and so it is not surprising that he was interested in Nicomachus' work, to the point of "reading" it with his students while also "revising" the text. Certain works of al-Kindī indeed contain identifiable traces of his study of the Introduction to Arithmetic.9 It should be noted, 5 Freudenthal and Lévy 2004. (This publication includes a critical edition of the Hebrew text of the first part of the work, accompanied by an annotated French translation.
The 1866 Leipzig Edition of Milḥamot ha-Shem and Its Anonymous "Revisor" "Rabbi Abraham who?" the... more The 1866 Leipzig Edition of Milḥamot ha-Shem and Its Anonymous "Revisor" "Rabbi Abraham who?" the reader of the title may well wonder, rubbing his or her eyes in incredulity. And for good reason. Hardly anyone, myself (until most recently) included, has ever come across the name "Abraham Nager." Below, however, I will argue that it is practically certain that the young Nager, an ordained rabbi in search of a position and the holder of a doctorate in Oriental languages from the University of Jena, is the person who, in 1866, oversaw the Leipzig edition of Gersonides' Milḥamot ha-Shem (The Wars of the Lord), still the most commonly used today. I will submit, however, that the initiative for this undertaking was not Nager's own; rather, the endeavor was launched by the well-known liberal Jewish intellectual Ludwig Philippson, who hired Nager for the task. The process of gathering relevant evidence will take us through the cultural and academic landscape of Jewish and Oriental studies in midnineteenth-century Germany and will throw some light on the early phases of the scholarly study of Jewish philosophy and on issues related to the history of publishing. As is well known, the printing history of Gersonides' Milḥamot ha-Shem begins in 1560, when Jacob Marcaria (d. 1562) brought out the work in Riva di Trento (along with two other works by Gersonides).1 Marcaria prefaced the
The Cross-Staff Gersonides spent many nocturnal hours exploring the heavens, created, he believed... more The Cross-Staff Gersonides spent many nocturnal hours exploring the heavens, created, he believed, by a benevolent God Who designed them in the most perfect way. This belief, together with the epistemological realism it implied, led him to reject many of Ptolemy's mathematical accounts and to propose others that better described, he thought, the heavenly realm as it really is.1 However, as Bernard R. Goldstein has shown, Gersonides' original and bold astronomy had no noticeable effect on posterity.2 One item in Gersonides' astronomical legacy did have a long and rich afterlife, however: the instrument he invented in the 1330s to measure angular stellar distances and which he called מ ג ל ה ע מ ו ק ו ת (= revealer of profundities, after Job 12:22) or simply מ ק ל (= rod, staff).3 His account of the instrument, including the mathematical theory underlying it, embedded in his Astronomy, was translated into Latin in 1342 as a separate treatise, De sinibus, cordis et arcubus, item instrumento revelatore secretorum, dedicated to Pope Clement VI (who resided in Avignon). The dedication referred to the instrument as baculus Iacob, and this became one of the instrument's common designations. For approximately a century thereafter we have no news of it; but from the second half of the fifteenth century until the end of the seventeenth (and even later) the Jacob's staff was used intensively on land (geodesy), on water (navigation), and for gazing at the skies. There is a substantial body of literature on the history of the crossstaff, unanimous in seeing Gersonides as its inventor.4
scholars in Montpellier. Doeg's corpus of translations is a significant index to the medical text... more scholars in Montpellier. Doeg's corpus of translations is a significant index to the medical texts valued in Montpellier and sheds light on both Hebrew and Latin intellectual history. Comparisons of Hebrew passages from Doeg's translations with their Latin Vorlagen allow us to conclude that for the most part Doeg translated literally, although at times reverting to paraphrases or shortening his texts. We argue that, whereas in the domains of philosophy and science most translations in the Midi were made from Arabic, in medicine Latin-into-Hebrew translations were fairly frequent already in the thirteenth century. Doeg's story points to the causes of this difference: the medical field was one, comprising Jewish and gentile doctors and patients, with the ensuing collaborations or competition over patients compelling Jewish doctors to avail themselves of the best available knowledge. Keywords Judah Ibn Tibbon-Samuel Ibn Tibbon-Doeg the Edomite-Latin-into-Hebrew translations-Arabic-into-Hebrew translations-Salerno medical school-history of medicine-twelfth century-ars medicine-articella-Montpellier-cultural transfer-Galenism-medical education-converts-Latin language (study by Jews)-Jewish medicine-leʿazim.
This impressive tome is a considerable scholarly achievement. In it Ram Ben-Shalom, who for many ... more This impressive tome is a considerable scholarly achievement. In it Ram Ben-Shalom, who for many years was associated with the Open University of Israel and is now a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, surveys the history of the Jews in the Midi (Provence and Languedoc) in great detail. The book has two parts. Part I (7 chapters) describes the early history of the Jews in the Midi; their institutions; the place of women in the community; the ups and downs in the relationships between the Jews and the Church, including the religious polemics; and, finally, the last expulsion of the Jews from Provence (1498). Part II (11 chapters) is devoted to intellectual history, or, as Ben-Shalom puts it, "the cultural renaissance of the Jews in Provence." Ben-Shalom devotes one relatively short chapter to the traditional religious studies in the yeshivot and to religious currents and is clearly interested mainly in the extrahalakhic intellectual pursuits: poetry, the translation movement, the reception of rationalist philosophy and the controversies that surrounded it, the Kabbalah, and ideas about messianism and redemption. The 100-page bibliography bears witness to Ben-Shalom's very wide reading over many years. Particularly praiseworthy is the fact that he draws on a wide range of original documents in many literary genres, including poetry. As a consequence, many developments are described in minute detail with a stunning wealth of information. For the foreseeable future, this book will be the point of departure for all research and teaching on the Jews in the Midi. Unsurprisingly, the book has no overarching narrative of the kind that many historians offered in the past century, except perhaps for the implicit but consequent over-emphasis of purported intense intellectual contacts, exchanges, and convergence of agendas between Jews and Christians in the period surveyed. Past generations of historians adopted what came to be called the "lachrymose conception of Jewish history," which unduly stressed the antagonism between Jews and Gentiles. Today, it seems, the pendulum is swinging to the other extreme, and Ben-Shalom (as no few others) is intent on seeing a half-full glass where others see one that is half empty, creating what may be dubbed a "rosy conception of Jewish history." This was also the tendency of his Medieval Jews
Samuel ibn Tibbon, the illustrious translator of Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed in 1204, was ... more Samuel ibn Tibbon, the illustrious translator of Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed in 1204, was one of the most radical medieval Jewish thinkers. He is also one of the few true Avicennians in the history of medieval Jewish thought. This concomitance is not accidental. 1 Samuel ibn Tibbon's intellectual audacity comes to the fore in the very first pages of his major work: Maʾamar Yiqqawu ha-mayim (A Treatise on 'Let the Water Gather'), completed in 1231. Ibn Tibbon there reconstructs the evolution of his research during the last two decades of his life:
This paper argues that as a result of the competition over patients between Jewish and Christian ... more This paper argues that as a result of the competition over patients between Jewish and Christian doctors in the Midi (twelfth-fourteenth centuries) Jewish doctors were more prone than other Jewish intellectuals to acquaint themselves with Christian culture (and also to convert). In this respect, the massive Latin-into-Hebrew cultural transfer in medicine contrasts with the slight Latin-into-Hebrew cultural transfer in philosophy (until the end of the fourteenth century). Jewish doctors were able to keep up with Latin medicine, even at times of rapid change, often through Latin-into-Hebrew translations.
3. On the different spellings of 'Laguiri' see Glasner, The Hebrew Version o/De Celo et Mundo, p.... more 3. On the different spellings of 'Laguiri' see Glasner, The Hebrew Version o/De Celo et Mundo, p. 94, n. 31.1 follow Glasner's choice of spelling. 4. Hi; §152, 153 (pp. 283-284). §512 (p-822). .{mTO n'a .3 ;!?ts nw.« iQ'pVn':») o-n^K n's
The history of Jewish philosophy is the story of the receptions of foreign bodies of knowledge.
Freudenthal recent studies, which I had the pleasure to co-author, have shed some new light on th... more Freudenthal recent studies, which I had the pleasure to co-author, have shed some new light on the history of the text.5 The present publication is based on these studies. 1 Nicomachus' Introduction to Arithmetic reached the Arabic world twice: a first version was made from a Syriac one; this version will be discussed below. Subsequently, the work was translated into Arabic a second time, now directly from the Greek, by the noted mathematician Thābit Ibn Qurra (d. 901); this version will not concern us here.6 The Hebrew work is entitled Sefer ha-'aritmatiqa' ("The book of arithmetic") and the name of the author is given, following the Arabic, as Nīqūmākhūs al-gaharshīnī. The name of the translator, Qalonymos b. Qalonymos of Arles, appears in the colophons of two manuscripts (out of eight) of the text. In these colophons, the well-known translator indicates that he completed his work on 5 Nissan [50]77, i.e., March 19, 1317, when he was 30 years old. Sefer ha-'aritmatiqa' , the Hebrew version of the Introduction to Arithmetic, opens with a Prologue, which is not part of the Greek original of the work and which sheds important light on the history of the text. Its anonymous author addresses an unnamed personality, apparently of high rank; I will call that person the Addressee. From the Prologue we understand that the Addressee had already studied in part the Introduction to Arithmetic (the "famous work"), in a version that the author of the Prologue had "corrected" or "revised" "under the authority of our master, the noble Yaʿqūb ibn 'Isḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī" (515.3-5).7 I will therefore call the author of the Prologue the Revisor. Al-Kindī was much interested in mathematics,8 and so it is not surprising that he was interested in Nicomachus' work, to the point of "reading" it with his students while also "revising" the text. Certain works of al-Kindī indeed contain identifiable traces of his study of the Introduction to Arithmetic.9 It should be noted, 5 Freudenthal and Lévy 2004. (This publication includes a critical edition of the Hebrew text of the first part of the work, accompanied by an annotated French translation.
The 1866 Leipzig Edition of Milḥamot ha-Shem and Its Anonymous "Revisor" "Rabbi Abraham who?" the... more The 1866 Leipzig Edition of Milḥamot ha-Shem and Its Anonymous "Revisor" "Rabbi Abraham who?" the reader of the title may well wonder, rubbing his or her eyes in incredulity. And for good reason. Hardly anyone, myself (until most recently) included, has ever come across the name "Abraham Nager." Below, however, I will argue that it is practically certain that the young Nager, an ordained rabbi in search of a position and the holder of a doctorate in Oriental languages from the University of Jena, is the person who, in 1866, oversaw the Leipzig edition of Gersonides' Milḥamot ha-Shem (The Wars of the Lord), still the most commonly used today. I will submit, however, that the initiative for this undertaking was not Nager's own; rather, the endeavor was launched by the well-known liberal Jewish intellectual Ludwig Philippson, who hired Nager for the task. The process of gathering relevant evidence will take us through the cultural and academic landscape of Jewish and Oriental studies in midnineteenth-century Germany and will throw some light on the early phases of the scholarly study of Jewish philosophy and on issues related to the history of publishing. As is well known, the printing history of Gersonides' Milḥamot ha-Shem begins in 1560, when Jacob Marcaria (d. 1562) brought out the work in Riva di Trento (along with two other works by Gersonides).1 Marcaria prefaced the
The Cross-Staff Gersonides spent many nocturnal hours exploring the heavens, created, he believed... more The Cross-Staff Gersonides spent many nocturnal hours exploring the heavens, created, he believed, by a benevolent God Who designed them in the most perfect way. This belief, together with the epistemological realism it implied, led him to reject many of Ptolemy's mathematical accounts and to propose others that better described, he thought, the heavenly realm as it really is.1 However, as Bernard R. Goldstein has shown, Gersonides' original and bold astronomy had no noticeable effect on posterity.2 One item in Gersonides' astronomical legacy did have a long and rich afterlife, however: the instrument he invented in the 1330s to measure angular stellar distances and which he called מ ג ל ה ע מ ו ק ו ת (= revealer of profundities, after Job 12:22) or simply מ ק ל (= rod, staff).3 His account of the instrument, including the mathematical theory underlying it, embedded in his Astronomy, was translated into Latin in 1342 as a separate treatise, De sinibus, cordis et arcubus, item instrumento revelatore secretorum, dedicated to Pope Clement VI (who resided in Avignon). The dedication referred to the instrument as baculus Iacob, and this became one of the instrument's common designations. For approximately a century thereafter we have no news of it; but from the second half of the fifteenth century until the end of the seventeenth (and even later) the Jacob's staff was used intensively on land (geodesy), on water (navigation), and for gazing at the skies. There is a substantial body of literature on the history of the crossstaff, unanimous in seeing Gersonides as its inventor.4
scholars in Montpellier. Doeg's corpus of translations is a significant index to the medical text... more scholars in Montpellier. Doeg's corpus of translations is a significant index to the medical texts valued in Montpellier and sheds light on both Hebrew and Latin intellectual history. Comparisons of Hebrew passages from Doeg's translations with their Latin Vorlagen allow us to conclude that for the most part Doeg translated literally, although at times reverting to paraphrases or shortening his texts. We argue that, whereas in the domains of philosophy and science most translations in the Midi were made from Arabic, in medicine Latin-into-Hebrew translations were fairly frequent already in the thirteenth century. Doeg's story points to the causes of this difference: the medical field was one, comprising Jewish and gentile doctors and patients, with the ensuing collaborations or competition over patients compelling Jewish doctors to avail themselves of the best available knowledge. Keywords Judah Ibn Tibbon-Samuel Ibn Tibbon-Doeg the Edomite-Latin-into-Hebrew translations-Arabic-into-Hebrew translations-Salerno medical school-history of medicine-twelfth century-ars medicine-articella-Montpellier-cultural transfer-Galenism-medical education-converts-Latin language (study by Jews)-Jewish medicine-leʿazim.
This impressive tome is a considerable scholarly achievement. In it Ram Ben-Shalom, who for many ... more This impressive tome is a considerable scholarly achievement. In it Ram Ben-Shalom, who for many years was associated with the Open University of Israel and is now a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, surveys the history of the Jews in the Midi (Provence and Languedoc) in great detail. The book has two parts. Part I (7 chapters) describes the early history of the Jews in the Midi; their institutions; the place of women in the community; the ups and downs in the relationships between the Jews and the Church, including the religious polemics; and, finally, the last expulsion of the Jews from Provence (1498). Part II (11 chapters) is devoted to intellectual history, or, as Ben-Shalom puts it, "the cultural renaissance of the Jews in Provence." Ben-Shalom devotes one relatively short chapter to the traditional religious studies in the yeshivot and to religious currents and is clearly interested mainly in the extrahalakhic intellectual pursuits: poetry, the translation movement, the reception of rationalist philosophy and the controversies that surrounded it, the Kabbalah, and ideas about messianism and redemption. The 100-page bibliography bears witness to Ben-Shalom's very wide reading over many years. Particularly praiseworthy is the fact that he draws on a wide range of original documents in many literary genres, including poetry. As a consequence, many developments are described in minute detail with a stunning wealth of information. For the foreseeable future, this book will be the point of departure for all research and teaching on the Jews in the Midi. Unsurprisingly, the book has no overarching narrative of the kind that many historians offered in the past century, except perhaps for the implicit but consequent over-emphasis of purported intense intellectual contacts, exchanges, and convergence of agendas between Jews and Christians in the period surveyed. Past generations of historians adopted what came to be called the "lachrymose conception of Jewish history," which unduly stressed the antagonism between Jews and Gentiles. Today, it seems, the pendulum is swinging to the other extreme, and Ben-Shalom (as no few others) is intent on seeing a half-full glass where others see one that is half empty, creating what may be dubbed a "rosy conception of Jewish history." This was also the tendency of his Medieval Jews
Samuel ibn Tibbon, the illustrious translator of Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed in 1204, was ... more Samuel ibn Tibbon, the illustrious translator of Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed in 1204, was one of the most radical medieval Jewish thinkers. He is also one of the few true Avicennians in the history of medieval Jewish thought. This concomitance is not accidental. 1 Samuel ibn Tibbon's intellectual audacity comes to the fore in the very first pages of his major work: Maʾamar Yiqqawu ha-mayim (A Treatise on 'Let the Water Gather'), completed in 1231. Ibn Tibbon there reconstructs the evolution of his research during the last two decades of his life:
This paper argues that as a result of the competition over patients between Jewish and Christian ... more This paper argues that as a result of the competition over patients between Jewish and Christian doctors in the Midi (twelfth-fourteenth centuries) Jewish doctors were more prone than other Jewish intellectuals to acquaint themselves with Christian culture (and also to convert). In this respect, the massive Latin-into-Hebrew cultural transfer in medicine contrasts with the slight Latin-into-Hebrew cultural transfer in philosophy (until the end of the fourteenth century). Jewish doctors were able to keep up with Latin medicine, even at times of rapid change, often through Latin-into-Hebrew translations.
Latin-into-Hebrew: texts and studies / edited by Resianne Fontaine, Gad Freudenthal. Volumes cm.-... more Latin-into-Hebrew: texts and studies / edited by Resianne Fontaine, Gad Freudenthal. Volumes cm.-(Studies in Jewish history and culture; 39-40) Includes index.
Studies on Steinschneider : Moritz Steinschneider and the emergence of the science of Judaism in ... more Studies on Steinschneider : Moritz Steinschneider and the emergence of the science of Judaism in nineteenth-century Germany / edited by Reimund Leicht and Gad Freudenthal. p. cm.-(Studies in Jewish history and culture ; vol. 33) "Most of the contributions included in this volume are expanded and revised versions of papers delivered at the conference: "Moritz Steinschneider (1816-1907) : bibliography and the study of cultural transfer. A Centennial Conference", held on 20-22 November 2007 at the Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin" Includes bibliographical references.
Preface and Acknowledgments xi Introduction: The History of Science in Medieval Jewish Cultures: ... more Preface and Acknowledgments xi Introduction: The History of Science in Medieval Jewish Cultures: Toward a Definition of the Agenda 1 Gad Freudenthal part i the greek-arabic scientific tradition and its appropriation, adaptation, and development in medieval jewish cultures, east and west 1 The Assimilation of Greco-Arabic Learning by Medieval Jewish Cultures: A Brief Bibliographic Introduction 13 Gad Freudenthal 2 Medieval Hebrew Translations of Philosophical and Scientific Texts: A Chronological Table 17 Mauro Zonta 3 Arabic and Latin Cultures as Resources for the Hebrew Translation Movement: Comparative Considerations, Both Quantitative and Qualitative 74 Gad Freudenthal 4 The Production of Hebrew Scientific Books According to Dated Medieval Manuscripts Malachi Beit-Arié part ii individual sciences as studied and practiced by medieval jews 5 Logic in Medieval Jewish Culture
![Research paper thumbnail of *Science and Philosophy in Ashkenazi Culture: Rejection, Toleration, and Accommodation* [=Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook, no. 8], ed. Gad Freudenthal (Leipzig: Simon Dubnow Institute, 2009)](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/105631083/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Pu... more Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet iiber http;//dnb.d-nb.de abnifbar.
Contents XIV L'h^ritage de la physique stoi'cienne dans la pens^e juive medidvale (Saadia Gaon, l... more Contents XIV L'h^ritage de la physique stoi'cienne dans la pens^e juive medidvale (Saadia Gaon, les d6vots rhenans, Sefer ha-Maskil) Revue de metaphysique et de morale.
Ben-Oavid, Joseph. Scientific grovirth : essays on the social organi zation and ethos of science ... more Ben-Oavid, Joseph. Scientific grovirth : essays on the social organi zation and ethos of science / Joseph Ben-David ; edited and with an introduction by Gad Freudenthal. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0-520-06925-0 (cloth) 1.
