Y. Tzvi Langermann – författare

The chief argument of this book, first published in 1990, is that Ibn al-Haytham''s On the Configuration of the World is a non-technical expose of basic astronomical teachings: it was written in particular for those whose main interests were in the areas of philosophy and natural science and who, accordingly, had an interest in relating the mathematical devices employed by professional astronomers to the heavenly bodies mentioned in the philosophical literature. However, the primary reason for this publication is not the advancement of this thesis, but rather the presentation of the medieval texts themselves, normally so inaccessible to scholars and students alike.

 This book deals with medieval Jewish authors who wrote in Arabic, such as Moses Maimonides, Judah Halevi, and Solomon Ibn Gabirol, as well as the Hebrew translations and commentaries of Judaeo-Arabic philosophy. It brings up to date a part of Moritz Steinschneider’s monumental Die hebraeischen Uebersetzungen des Mittelalters und die Juden als Dolmetscher (The Hebrew Translations of the Middle Ages and the Jews as Transmitters), which was first published in 1893 and remains to this day the authoritative account of the transmission and development of Arabic and Latin, and, by way of those languages, Greek culture to medieval and renaissance Jews. 

In the work presented here, Steinschneider’s bibliography has been updated, some of his scholarly judgments have been judiciously revised and an exhaustive listing of pertinent Hebrew manuscripts and their whereabouts has been provided. The volume opens with a long essay that describes the origin and genesis of Die Hebraeischen Übersetzungen, and with Steinschneider’s prefaces to the French and German versions of his work. 

This publication is the first in a projected series that translates, updates and, where necessary, revises parts of Steinschneider’s bio-bibliographical classic. Historians of medieval culture and philosophy, and also scholars of the transmission of classical culture to Muslims, Christians, and Jews, will find this volume indispensable.