Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T10:30:51.131Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Jewish Contribution to the Transmission of the Classical Legacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2012

Lola Ferre
Affiliation:
Departamento de Estudios Semíticos, Área de Estudios Hebreos y Arameos, Universidad de Granada, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Campus Universitario de Cartuja, Granada, E-18071 Spain. Email: dferre@ugr.es

Abstract

The transmission and acquisition of the wisdom of the ancients throughout the Middle Ages is a fascinating phenomenon in which languages served as the primary vehicles for this journey of classical culture. The main route – but not the only one – was located on the Mediterranean coasts and incorporated Asia, Europe and Africa. It was a multidirectional journey.

Type
Focus: Classical Medicine in the Middle Ages
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References and Notes

1.Gutas, D. (1998) Greek Thought, Arabic Culture. The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th Centuries) (London: Routledge).Google Scholar
2. Masarjawayh also wrote his own works on medicine based on Greek works. Dietrich, A. (2010) Māsardjawayh. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs (Brill). Brill Online.Google Scholar
3.Samsó, J. (2010) ‘Māshā' Allāh b. Atharī or b. Sāriya. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs (Brill). Brill Online.Google Scholar
4. This work was translated from Sanskrit into Persian, from Persian into Syriac, from Syriac into Arabic and from Arabic into Latin and the other European languages. It is a good example of the transmission of classical values and culture from the East to the West. Brockelmann, C. (2010) ‘Kalīla Wa-dimna.’ Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs (Brill). Brill Online.Google Scholar
5. His medical works, especially The Garden of Wisdom, introduce aspects of Hindu medicine. His other medical works concerned diet, the treatment of health, amulets and magic. See Friedenwald, H. (1994) The Jews and Medicine (Essays) (1967), reprint (The Johns Hopkins University Press), 3 vols. Vol I, p. 173.Google Scholar
6. The history of the move from East to West of the cultural and religious leadership among the Jews was told by Abraham ibn Daud (c.110–1180) in the form of a legend. ibn Daud, A. (1967) Book of Tradition (Sefer ha-Qabbalah), edited and translated by G.D. Cohen (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul), pp. 6368.Google Scholar
7. A. Saénz-Badillos and J. Targarona Borrás (1988) Diccionario de autores judíos (Sefarad. Siglos X-XV) (Córdoba:Ediciones El Almendro), pp. 50–51.Google Scholar
8.Sangrador Gil, J. (1997) La escuela de Traductores de Toledo durante la Edad Media, Pensamiento y circulación de las ideas en el Mediterráneo: el papel de la traducción, (Cuenca: Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha), pp. 2538.Google Scholar
9. It is difficult to identify Yohanan ibn Daud because he signs with different names that refer to his baptismal name, his patronymic, Abendana, Avendaut or his name referring to his home: Toledano or Hispano. Work with Domingo Gundisalvo, J. Sangrador Gil (1997) La escuela de Traductores de Toledo durante la Edad Media, Pensamiento y circulación de las ideas en el Mediterráneo: el papel de la traducción (Cuenca: de la Universidad de Castilla), p. 38.Google Scholar
10. See Faulhaber, Ch.B. (2004) Semitica iberica: Translations from Hebrew into the Medieval Romance Vernaculars of the Iberian Peninsula. Bulletin of Spanish Studies, LXXXI (78).Google Scholar
11. In addition to the penalties suffered because of the ruling anti-Semitism and continuous persecutions, it is possible to cite more specific questions that tried to impede access to knowledge, such as the prohibition of studying in Montpellier and the prohibition on selling books. García-Ballester, L., Ferre, L., and Feliu, E. (1990) The Jewish rationalist attitude towards fourteenth-century scholastic medicine. Osiris. Second series, 6, pp. 85107. L. Ferre (1998–99) Hebrew translations from medical treatises of Montpellier. Korot, 13, pp. 21–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12. There are a lot of preserved manuscripts of the Hebrew translation but a Latin translation did not exist. Orfali, M. (1997) Biblioteca de autores lógicos hispano judíos (Siglos XI-XV) (Granada: Universidad de Granada), pp. 3540.Google Scholar
13.Ferre, L. and Veit, R. (2009) The textual traditions of Isaac Israeli's Book on Fevers in Arabic, Latin, Hebrew, and Spanish. Aleph, 9(1), pp. 143168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14. See Maimonides (2004) Medical Aphorisms. Treatises 1–5, edited and translated by B. Gerrit (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press), p. 2.Google Scholar
15.Ferre, L. (2009) Dissemination of Maimonides’ medical writings in Middle Ages. Traditions of Maimonideanism, edited by C. Fraenkel (Leiden, Boston: Brill), pp. 1731.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Sangrador (1997) La escuela de Traductores de Toledo durante la Edad Media, Pensamiento y circulación de las ideas en el Mediterráneo: el papel de la traducción (Cuenca: de la Universidad de Castilla), p. 38.Google Scholar
17.Bos, G., Burnette, C. and Langermann, Tz. (Eds) (2005) Hebrew Medical Astrology: David Ben Yom Tov, Kelal Katan: Original Hebrew Text, Medieval Latin Translation, Modern English Translation (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society).Google Scholar
18.Millás Vallicrosa, J.M. (1960) El magisterio astronómico de Abraham ibn Ezra en la Europa Latina. Nuevos Estudios sobre Historia de la Ciencia Española, 2 vols, vol. II, pp. 289347.Google Scholar
19.Shatzmiller, J. (1994) Jews, Medicine and Medieval Society (Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press), pp. 26–27.Google Scholar
20. Regarding this author, see also E. Renan (with the collaboration of A. Neubauer) (1877) Les Rabbin français du commencement du quatorzième siècle (Paris, Imp. Nationale), 599 et seq.; H. Gross (1877) Gallia Judaïca, [s.l.], 332.I. Br. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/Google Scholar
21.Astruc, J. (1767) Mémoires pour Servir à l'Histoire de la Faculté de Médecine de Montpellier (Paris: A.Çh. Lorry), p. 168.Google Scholar
22.Ferre, L. (1998–99) Hebrew translations from medical treatises of Montpellier. Korot, 13.Google ScholarPubMed
23. See Santoja, P. (2001) La influencia del pensamiento judío en la obra de Arnau de Vilanova, médico y escritor spiritual. Helmantica L11 no. 157.Google Scholar
24.Ross, J. (2008) Elijah Delmedigo. In: E.N. Zalta (Ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition). URL: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/delmedigo/Google Scholar
25.Hughes, A. (2008) Judah Abrabanel. In: E.N. Zalta (Ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition). URL: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/abrabanel/Google Scholar