Hebrew manuscript contains unacknowledged excerpts from the work of Thomas Aquinas

What is it about?

This article discusses a hitherto unidentified set of commented Hebrew excerpts from the commentary on Aristotle’s book On the soul written by Thomas Aquinas. The excerpts do not follow the structure of Aquinas’s commentary and seem to have been summarized and rearranged by the translator to highlight topics that reflected his own interests rooted in the study of Jewish philosophical texts. Aquinas is nowhere mentioned and the excerpts are attributed to a certain Israel ben Abraham. It is possible, but by no means certain, that they reflect the activity of a Christian convert to Judaism who had some knowledge of scholastic philosophy.

Featured Image

Photo by Tanner Mardis on Unsplash

Photo by Tanner Mardis on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The excerpts illustrate how Jews interested in philosophy in the fifteenth century interacted with Latin philosophical texts and how they integrated them into their curriculum, using them to elucidate subjects familiar to them from Jewish philosophical works. The excerpts also shed light on the social and intellectual setting in which such interactions took place.