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 (http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83220162)
• 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 (bound manuscripts)
• 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

  To the extent possible under law, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Manuscripts has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this metadata about Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Oversize LJS 453: Commentaries on Aristotle.. This work is published from: United States. For a summary of CC0, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/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