Abraham Ibn Ezra: The Book of Reasons, A Parallel Hebrew-English Critical Edition of the Two Versions of the Text

摘要

Abraham Ibn Ezra (c. 1089-c. 1161) was a leading intellectual of the twelfth century, who spent his formative years in Spain and, after the age of 50, travelled extensively in Italy, France, and England. He is well known for his Biblical commentaries and Hebrew poetry, but it is his scientific corpus, composed during these travels, that is the focus of attention here. Ibn Ezra contributed to mathematics, astronomy, and astrology and his treatises were very influential on readers of these works in Hebrew as well as in Latin and vernacular versions. For the most part he transmitted Islamic science as it was practised in al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) to communities north of the Pyrenees where access to Arabic sources was limited or non-existent.