Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Introductions to Astrology

Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Introductions to Astrology
Author: Shlomo Sela
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 836
Release: 2017-05-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004342281

The present volume offers a critical edition of the Hebrew texts, accompanied by English translation and commentary of Reshit Ḥokhmah (Beginning of Wisdom) and Mishpeṭei ha-Mazzalot (Judgments of the Zodiacal Signs) by Abraham Ibn Ezra (ca. 1089–ca. 1161). The first, the summa and by far the longest of his astrological works, the target of the most cross-references from the rest of that corpus and the most influential, enjoyed the widest circulation among Jews in the Middle Ages and after. The second, by contrast, is the most obscure. It is never referred to elsewhere by its author and is the only work for which Ibn Ezra’s authorship must be substantiated. Reshit Ḥokhmah and Mishpeṭei ha-Mazzalot were written in order to explain concepts common to the various branches of astrology that Ibn Ezra addressed elsewhere and to elucidate the worldview that underlies astrology. These two treatises are the richest and most varied with regard to the astrological information they present. Reshit Ḥokhmah and Mishpeṭei ha-Mazzalot also exemplify the close collaboration between astronomy and astrology in medieval science and are the two components of Ibn Ezra’s astrological corpus with the most extensive, comprehensive, and significant astronomical content. "A critical edition with English translation of Reshit Ḥokhmah was published in 1998 by Epstein. Sela has not only aspired to improve it but also supplied a commentary to render the text more comprehensible. Sela’s mission is successfully accomplished for both treatises. This multifarious book is another important contribution to a deeper understanding of the life and work of one of the most important medieval Jewish polymaths." - Ilana Wartenberg, Universität Bern, in: Journal for the History of Astronomy 50.1 (2019)

Abraham Ibn Ezra Latinus on Nativities

Abraham Ibn Ezra Latinus on Nativities
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 578
Release: 2019-03-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004392351

Abraham Ibn Ezra was “reborn” in the Latin West in the last decades of the thirteenth century thanks to a plethora of authored and anonymous Latin translations of his astrological writings. The present volume offers the first critical edition, accompanied by an English translation, a commentary, and an introductory study, of Liber nativitatum (Book of Nativities) and Liber Abraham Iudei de nativitatibus (Book on Nativities by Abraham the Jew), two astrological treatises in Latin that were written by Abraham Ibn Ezra or attributed to him, and whose Hebrew source-text or archetype has not survived. The first is undoubtedly an anonymous Latin translation of the second version of Ibn Ezra’s Sefer ha-moladot (Book of Nativities), whose Hebrew source text is otherwise lost. The second is the most mysterious specimen among the Latin works attributed to Ibn Ezra that have no extant Hebrew counterpart. The present volume shows not only that the Liber Abraham Iudei de nativitatibus underwent a significant metamorphosis over time and was transmitted in four significantly different versions, but also that its date of composition is not that previously accepted by modern scholarship. "These volumes represent a major achievement in the history of medieval astrology and it is no wonder that they have already become classics, often referred to by specialists in the field, including by this reviewer." -David Juste, Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus, Munich, Journal for the History of Astronomy 51 (I) (2020)

The Beginning of Wisdom

The Beginning of Wisdom
Author: Abraham ben Meïr Ibn Ezra
Publisher: Arhat Publications
Total Pages: 158
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780966226645

Originally written in Hebrew by Ibn Ezra, "The Beginning of Wisdom" is one of the most important of the basic medieval texts of astrology. It serves as the backbone to an extensive textbook of astrology by Ibn Ezra, which also included "The Book of Reasons, The Book of Nativities," and others.

Abraham Ibn Ezra and the Rise of Medieval Hebrew Science

Abraham Ibn Ezra and the Rise of Medieval Hebrew Science
Author: Shlomo Sela
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2003-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789004129733

This book studies Abraham Ibn Ezra's (1089-1167) scientific thought. His life and oeuvre are viewed as the very embodiment of 'the rise of medieval Hebrew science', a process in which Jewish scholars gradually adopted the holy tongue as a vehicle to express scientific ideas.

Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism

Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism
Author: Jeremy P. Brown
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2022-01-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004460942

Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism explores the discursive formation of the commandments as a generative matrix of Jewish thought and life in the posttalmudic period, correlating the diverse domains of jurisprudence, philosophy, ethics, pietism, and kabbalah.

Deconstructing the Bible

Deconstructing the Bible
Author: Irene Lancaster
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2003-09-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1135790175

Includes a new translation of Ibn Ezra's introduction to the Torah Multi-disciplinary: Ibn Ezra is an important figure in Jewish studies, medieval studies, philosophy, linguistics and theology

Abraham Ibn Ezra on Elections, Interrogations, and Medical Astrology

Abraham Ibn Ezra on Elections, Interrogations, and Medical Astrology
Author: Abraham ben Meïr Ibn Ezra
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 670
Release: 2011-09-09
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9004212205

This volume offers the first critical edition, with English translation and commentary, of seven astrological treatises by Abraham Ibn Ezra: the Book of Elections (3 versions); the Book of Interrogations (3 versions); and the Book of the Luminaries.

Abraham Ibn Ezra

Abraham Ibn Ezra
Author: Shlomo Sela
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2007
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004157646

From the Middle Ages until the present, the development of astrology among Jews was associated mainly with the name of Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089-1167). His scientific corpus deals with mathematics, astronomy, scientific instruments and tools, and the Jewish calendar; but especially with astrology. This volume is the first product of a larger enterprise-a scientific edition of all twelve Ibn Ezra's astrological treatises-and offers a critical Hebrew text of the two versions of Ibn Ezra's "Sefer ha-Te'amim," the Book of Reasons, accompanied by an annotated translation and commentary. The two treatises presented here were designed by Ibn Ezra to offer "reasons," "explanations," or "meanings" of the raw astrological concepts formulated in the introduction to astrology that Ibn Ezra entitled "Reshit Hokhmah" (Beginning of Wisdom).

Abraham Ibn Ezra Latinus on Elections and Interrogations

Abraham Ibn Ezra Latinus on Elections and Interrogations
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 653
Release: 2020-05-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004431446

The present volume offers the first critical edition, accompanied by an English translation, a commentary, and an introductory study, of the Liber electionum, the Liber interrogationum, and the Tractatus particulares, written by or attributed to Abraham Ibn Ezra.