The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy

In January 1998 leading scholars from Europe, the United States, and Israel in the fields of medieval encyclopedias (Arabic, Latin and Hebrew) and medieval Jewish philosophy and science gathered together at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel, for an international conference on medieval Hebrew encyclopedias of science and philosophy. The primary purpose of the conference was to explore and define the structure, sources, nature, and characteristics of the medieval Hebrew encyclopedias of science and philosophy. This book, the first to devote itself to the medieval Hebrew encyclopedias of science and philosophy, contains revised versions of the papers that were prepared for this conference. This volume also includes an annotated translation of Moritz Steinschneider's groundbreaking discussion of this subject in his Die hebraeischen Übersetzungen .
The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy will be of particular interest to students of medieval philosophy and science, Jewish intellectual history, the history of ideas, and pre-modern Western encyclopedias.

Résumé

From the reviews:

`...the present volume...contribute[s] greatly to our knowledge of a special genre of medieval Hebrew literature. The authors themselves demonstrate almost encyclopedic knowledge of their subjects, and they write with authoritative voices. The editor is to be commended for his judicious choice of experts and his distribution of topics for them to discuss. The present book is a pioneering study and major contribution to the scholarly discourse concerning the medieval Hebrew encyclopedias, and it deserves wide distribution.'
The Jewish Quarterly Review, 2003:3-4

"The volume offers a comprehensive and sustained examination of a particularly literary genre - the encyclopedia of science and philosophy - as developed in medieval Hebrew literature. It contains articles by some twenty authors, but an obvious preparatory and editorial effort has turned them into a joint work. True to the requirements of its topic, this volume is duly provided with ... an index of books, and indices of names (classical, medieval, and modern) and of contemporary authors." (Sarah Stroumsa, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 123 (2), 2003)

Contenu
One: The Medieval Latin Encyclopedias.- 1. Purpose and Audience: Perspectives on the Thirteenth-Century Encyclopedias of Alexander Neckam, Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Thomas of Cantimpré and Vincent of Beauvais.- 2. The Organization of Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum maius and of Some Other Latin Encyclopedias Excursus: Aristotle and Other Greek and Arabic Scientific Sources in Three Thirteenth-Century Latin Encyclopedias.- Two: The Encyclopedia of Science and Philosophy in the Medieval Islamic World.- 3. Medieval Arabic Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy.- 4. In What Sense Is Averroes an Encyclopedist?.- Three: Early Hebrew Encyclopedias.- 5. Reflections on the Place of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah in the Tradition of the Medieval Encyclopedia.- 6. The First Hebrew Encyclopedia of Science: Abraham Bar Hiyya's Yesodei ha-Tevunah u-Migdal ha-Emunah.- 7. Encyclopedic Aspects of Abraham ibn Ezra's Scientific Corpus.- 8. Levi ben Abraham of Villefranche's Controversial Encyclopedia.- Four: Structure and Sources of the Major Thirteenth-Century Hebrew Encyclopedias.- 9. Judah ben Solomon ha-Cohen's Midrash ha-Hokhmah: Its Sources and Use of Sources.- 10. Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera's De'ot ha-Filosofim: Its Sources and Use of Sources.- 11. Gershom ben Solomon of Aries' Sha'ar ha-Shamayim: Its Sources and Use of Sources.- Five: Topics in the Thirteenth-Century Hebrew Encyclopedias.- 12. The Logic of the Hebrew Encyclopedias.- 13. Mathematics in the Midrash ha-?okhmah of Judah ben Solomon ha-Cohen.- 14. The Question of Celestial Matter in the Hebrew Encyclopedias.- 15. Providence, Astrology, and Celestial Influences on the Sublunar World in Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera's De'ot ha-Filosofim.- 16. Some Remarks on Judah ben Solomon ha-Cohen and His Encyclopedia,Midrash ha-?okhmah.- 17. The Soul of the Hebrew Encyclopedists.- 18. The Place of Aristotelian Metaphysics in the Thirteenth-Century Encyclopedias.- Six: Later Hebrew Encyclopedias.- 19. Ahavah ba-Ta'anugim: A Fourteenth-Century Encyclopedia of Science and Theology.- 20. The Hebrew Encyclopedias of the Renaissance.- Addendum. Steinschneider on the Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias: An Annotated Translation from Die hebraeischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters.- Index of Passages.- Index of Books.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.