Science in medieval Jewish cultures / edited by Gad Freudenthal.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Freudenthal, Gad, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jewish scientists--History--To 1500.

Jewish scientists.

Science, Medieval.

Judaism and science--History--To 1500.

Judaism and science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 547 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Science in Medieval Jewish Cultures provides the first comprehensive overview by world-renowned experts of what we know today of medieval Jews' engagement with the sciences. Many medieval Jews, whether living in Islamic or Christian civilizations, joined Maimonides in accepting the rationalist philosophical-scientific tradition and appropriated extensive bodies of scientific knowledge in various disciplines: astronomy, astrology, mathematics, logic, physics, meteorology, biology, psychology, science of language and medicine. The appropriated texts - in the original or in Hebrew translation - were the starting points for Jews' own contributions to medieval science and also informed other literary genres: religious-philosophical works, biblical commentaries and even Halakhic (legal) discussions. This volume's essays will provide readers with background knowledge of medieval scientific thought necessary to properly understand canonical Jewish scientific texts. Its breadth reflects the number and diversity of Jewish cultures in the Middle Ages and the necessity of considering the fortunes of science in each within its specific context.

Contents:

Introduction: the history of science in medieval Jewish cultures: toward a definition of the agenda / Gad Freudenthal

Part I. The Greek-Arabic Scientific Tradition and its Appropriation, Adaptation, and Development in Medieval Jewish Cultures, East and West: 1. The assimilation of Greco-Arabic learning by medieval Jewish cultures: a brief bibliographic introduction / Gad Freudenthal; 2. Medieval Hebrew translations of philosophical and scientific texts: a chronological table / Mauro Zonta; 3. Arabic and Latin cultures as resources for the Hebrew Translation Movement: comparative considerations, both quantitative and qualitative / Gad Freudenthal; 4. The production of Hebrew scientific books according to dated medieval manuscripts / Malachi Beit-Arié

Part II. Individual Sciences as Studied and Practiced by Medieval Jews: 5. Logic in medieval Jewish culture / Charles H. Manekin; 6. Astronomy among Jews in the Middle Ages / Bernard R. Goldstein; 7. Interactions between Jewish and Christian Astronomers in the Iberian Peninsula / José Chabás; 8. The Hebrew mathematics culture (twelfth-sixteenth centuries) / Tony Lévy; 9. Mathematical and physical optics in medieval Jewish scientific thought / Eyal Meiron; 10. The evolution of the genre of philosophical-scientific commentary: Hebrew supercommentaries on Aristotle's Physics / Ruth Glasner; 11. Latin scholastic influences on late medieval Hebrew physics: the state of the art / Mauro Zonta; 12. Meteorology and zoology in medieval Hebrew science / Resianne Fontaine; 13. The mental faculties and the psychology of sleep and dreams / Hagar Kahana-Smilansky; 14. Toward a history of Hebrew astrological literature: a bibliographical survey / Reimund Leicht; 15. Astrology in medieval Jewish thought (twelfth-fourteenth centuries) / Shlomo Sela; 16. Astral magic and specific properties (Segullot) in medieval Jewish thought: non-Aristotelian science and theology / Dov Schwartz; 17. Medicine among medieval Jews; the science, the art, and the practice / Carmen Caballero-Navas; 18. Medieval alchemy in medieval Jewish cultures: a noted absence / Gad Freudenthal; 19. The science of language among medieval Jews / Judith Olszowy-Schlanger

Part III. Scientific Knowledge in Context: 20. Medieval Karaism and science / Daniel J. Lasker; 21. Science in the Jewish communities of the Byzantine cultural orbit: new perspectives / Y. Tzvi Langermann; 22. Philosophy and science in medieval Jewish commentaries on the Bible / James T. Robinson; 23. Kabbalah and science in the Middle Ages: preliminary remarks / Hava Tirosh-Samuelson; 24. History, language, and the sciences in medieval Spain / Eleazar Gutwirth.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

1-316-08847-2

1-139-06357-X

1-280-77587-4

1-139-07591-8

9786613686268

0-511-97657-7

1-139-08047-4

1-139-07818-6

1-139-07017-7

1-139-08274-4

OCLC:

784881789