Collection ID: 0001 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Commentaries on Aristotle.

Authors

• Averroës, 1126-1198
• Averroës, 1126-1198
• Averroës, 1126-1198
• Averroës, 1126-1198
• Aristotle
• Aristotle
• Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meïr, 1089-1164
• Maimonides, Moses, 1135-1204

Other related names

• Solomon ibn Ayub, translator
• Qalonymos ben Qalonymos ben Meʼir, 1286-, translator (http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n94113577)
• Ibn Tibbon, Jacob ben Machir, approximately 1236-, translator (http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n86041195)
• Solomon ben Moses, of Melgueil, active 13th century, translator
• Nahum, active 13th century, translator (http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2004065668)
• Judah ben Jacob, 15th century, scribe
• Itzig, Daniel, 1723-1799, former owner
• Hirschel, Solomon, 1761-1842, former owner
• Jews' College (London, England), former owner (http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50043083)
• Bet din tsedeḳ London ṿeha-medinah (Great Britain), former owner (http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr97024203)

Call number

Oversize LJS 453
(3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6206, University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9959504323503681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/842409173
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017.12/366278 https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3sj19r8g https://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0001/html/ljs453.html

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania

Language

Hebrew

Origin

Date

1446

Place

Germany?

Summary

15th-century copies of 13th- and 14th-century Hebrew translations of 12th-century commentaries by Averroës on scientific works attributed to Aristotle (De caelo, De mundo, De generatione et corruptione, Meteorologica) and a Hebrew translation of Aristotle's Book 9 of Historia animalium, with frequent marginal notes, some of which show signs of trimming (f. 182r). The end of the volume, with a different scribe and different readers, may have been bound with the rest at some later date; it includes a Hebrew translation of Aristotle's De somno et vigilia, Abraham ibn Ezra's commentary on the Song of Solomon, and a Hebrew translation of Maimonides' letter to the Jews of Yemen. The letter of Maimonides has marginal notes in Latin by a reader comparing a few leaves of the manuscript to a printed version of the text (f. 261r-263r) and a concluding note in a combination of Hebrew and Latin (f. 269v), by the same hand that converted dates in the main section of the manuscript to the Gregorian calendar (f. 84v, 162r, 250v).

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title supplied by cataloger.
   
• 1. f.1r-84v: [Hebrew translation of Averroës' Tafsīr al-Samāʼ wa-al-ʻālam (commentary on Aristotle's De caelo and De mundo) / Solomon ibn Ayub] -- 2. f.84v-118v: [Hebrew translation of Averroës' Kawn wa-al-fasād (commentary on Aristotle's De generatione et corruptione) / Kalonymos ben Kalonymos] -- 3. f.118v-162r: [Hebrew translation of Averroës' Jawāmiʻ Kitab al-Āthār al-ʻulwīyah (commentary on Aristotle's Meteorologica) / Kalonymos ben Kalonymos] -- 4. f.163r-250v: [Hebrew translation of Aristotle's Historia animalium, Book 9 / Jacob ben Machir Ibn Tibbon] -- 5. f.251r-259v: [Hebrew translation of Aristotle's De somno et vigilia / Solomon ben Moses of Melgueil or Avicenna] -- 6. f.259v-260v: [Perush Ibn ʻEzra ʻal Shir ha-shirim (commentary on the Song of Solomon) / Abraham ibn Ezra] -- 7. f.261r-269r: [Hebrew translation of Moses Maimonides' Igeret ha-Rambam (letter to the Jews of Yemen) / Nahum ha-Maʻaravi]
   

Extent

269 leaves : 303 x 201 (201 x 120) mm bound to 311 x 225 mm

Foliation

Paper, ii (modern) + 269 + ii (modern); [1-269], modern foliation in pencil; 1-97 foliated lower center recto, followed by foliation upper left recto on the leaves before and after the beginning and ending of component works (foliation for 162-176 all one higher than actual, with later foliation correct again). Catchwords on each leaf, lower left verso.

Support

Paper

Binding

Modern morocco.

Layout

Written in 28 long lines; ruled in lead with vertical bounding lines; running titles, top center recto (f. 1r-250v). End of manuscript written in 40 long lines (f. 251r-269r).

Decoration

Possible remnant of a marginal diagram in ink (f. 9v); marginal sketch of a face, perhaps a demon, in ink (f. 15r); manicules only in the works at the end written by a second hand (f. 252r-253r, 262r, 263r).

Script

Written in Ashkenazi semi-cursive script with headings in a larger script in the hand of Judah ben Jacob (f. 1r-250v, colophon f. 250v), with a second hand at the end of the volume (f. 251r-269r).

Provenance

• Formerly owned by Daniel Itzig, manuscript collector and court Jew in Prussia (ownership stamp, with Hebrew text and roman initials DI, f. 39r).
   
• Probably formerly owned by Solomon Hirschell, later chief rabbi of London, who bought many of Itzig's manuscripts (ownership label, with Hebrew text and number 126, f. 1r).
   
• Formerly held in the library of Jews' College (London; stamp, f. 1r).
   
• Formerly held in the library of the Bet din tsedeḳ London ṿeha-medinah (Ashkenazi rabbinical court, London), no. 41 (spine).
   
• Sold at auction at Christie, Manson & Woods as part of the collection of the Bet din tsedeḳ London ṿeha-medinah, 23 Jun. 1999, lot 15, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.
   
• Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 17 June 2003, lot 76, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.
   
• Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2015.
   

Subjects topical

• Aristotle--Criticism and interpretation--Early works to 1800
• Aristotle--De caelo--Early works to 1800
• Aristotle--De mundo--Early works to 1800
• Aristotle--De generatione et corruptione--Early works to 1800
• Aristotle--Meteorologica--Early works to 1800
• Aristotle
• Criticism and interpretation

Genres

• Codices
• Annotations
• Commentaries
• Translations (documents)
• Manuscripts, Hebrew--15th century
• Manuscripts, Renaissance

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Oversize LJS 453: Commentaries on Aristotle. are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  Metadata is © and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Decorations

• fol. 1r — Stamp, f. 1r
• fol. 9v — Diagram[?], f. 9v
• fol. 15r — Drawing, Face, f. 15r
• fol. 39r — Stamp, f. 39r
• fol. 252r — Manicule, f. 252r
• fol. 252v — Manicule, f. 252v
• fol. 253r — Manicule, f. 253r
• fol. 262r — Manicule, f. 262r
• fol. 263r — Manicule, f. 263r