Science in the Medieval Jewish Culture of Southern France

Merton Robert K. , “Science and the social order” (1938), reprinted in his The sociology of science: Theoretical and empirical perspectives, ed. and with an introduction by Storer Norman W. (Chicago, 1973), 254–66, p. 254.

Ben-David Joseph , “Puritanism and modern science: A study in the continuity and coherence of sociological research”, in Comparative social dynamics: Essays in honor of S. N. Eisenstadt , ed. by Cohen E. Lissak M. Almagor U. (Boulder, Col. and London, 1985), 207–23, reprinted in his Scientific growth: Selected essays on the social organization and ethos of science, ed. by Freudenthal Gad (Berkeley, 1991), 343–60.

A particularly extreme example for this approach is provided by Klein-Franke Felix , Vorlesungen über die Medizin im Islam (Sudhoffs Archiv, Beiheft 23; Wiesbaden , 1982). Cf. my review in History and philosophy of the life sciences, ix (1987), 119–22.

“Höret nicht auf ihre [the physicists'] Worte, sondern haltet Euch an ihre Taten”, Einstein Albert , “Zur Methode der theoretischen Physik”, in his Mein Weltbild (Amsterdam, 1934), 176–87, p. 176; English translation: On the method of theoretical physics (The Herbert Spencer Lecture delivered at Oxford 10 June 1933; Oxford, 1933), 5 (translation modified).

Heyd Michael , “The emergence of modern science as an autonomous world of knowledge in the Protestant tradition of the seventeenth century”, in Cultural traditions and worlds of knowledge: Explorations in the sociology of knowledge , ed. by Eisenstadt S. N. Silber I. Friedrich (Knowledge and society: Studies in the sociology of culture past and present, vii; Greenwich, Con. and London, 1988), 165–79.

Heyd refers to a situation where science has positive relevance to central cultural and religious concerns as one in which science possesses ‘positive autonomy’; ‘negative autonomy’, by contrast, means simply that science is not subjected to doctrinal control. Cf. ibid., 166, 171, 173.

Isadore Twersky holds that Talmudism is the Jewish intellectual activity par excellence and states that the “hallmark of Judaism is halakhocentrism”. See his “Religion and law”, in Religion in a religious age , ed. by Goitein S. D. (Cambridge, Mass., 1974), 69–82; reprinted in Twersky , Studies in Jewish law and philosophy (New York, 1982), 203–16. Halakhah is the Jewish Law, and the term ‘halakhocentrism’ is intended to capture a double-faceted state of affairs: (i) the behaviour of Jews until the onset of the modern period was regulated by the halakhah; and (ii) in some communities, the intellectual activity of scholars consisted mainly in the interpretation and elaboration of the Talmud and the Law. Twersky's characterization certainly holds of medieval Judaism in e.g. northern Europe (ashkenaz), but it is more problematic with respect to Spain and southern France, which is the region at the centre of our interest in this paper.

Much source material can be found in Rafal Dov , Shevea^c ha-ḥokhmot: Ha-wikuaḥ^cal limudey ḥol ba-yahadut (Jerusalem, 1990).

She'elot u-teshuvot le-ha-rav Rabenu Asher z.l. (Jerusalem, 1981), §55, p. 53^va.

My concern here is with those instances and periods in which science was accepted within Judaism and the above remarks must by no means be understood as an attempt to establish a typology of attitudes towards science within Judaism. Between the extremes — A full acceptance and an outright rejection — There are many intermediary positions. One of them, that of the outstanding thirteenth-century thinker and kabbalist Naḥmanides, has been sensitively analysed in: Langermann Y. Tzvi , “Acceptance and devaluation: Nahmanides's attitude toward science”, Jewish thought and philosophy, i (1992), 223–45.

Cf. Halkin Abraham S. , “The Judeo-Islamic age”, in Great ages and ideas of the Jewish people , ed. by Schwarz L. W. (New York, 1956), 213–63; idem, “Judeo-Arabic literature”, Encyclopedia Judaica (16 vols, Jerusalem, 1972), x, 410–23.

For the notion of appropriation cf. Sabra A. I. , “The appropriation and subsequent naturalization of Greek science in medieval Islam: A preliminary statement”, History of science, xxv (1987), 223–43; Rashed Roshdi , “Problems of the transmission of Greek scientific thought into Arabic: Examples from mathematics and optics”, History of science, xxvii (1989), 199–209.

Cf. however the material gathered in Friedenwald Harry , The Jews and medicine: Essays (Baltimore, 1944). One looks forward to the publication of Shatzmiller's Joseph Jewish doctors in the Middle Ages (Berkeley, forthcoming).

For reasons of space, the following factual account is reduced to a minimum, as are also the references to primary sources and to the secondary literature. Much of the information missing here can be found in my paper, “Les sciences dans les communautés juives médiévales de Provence: Leur appropriation, leur rôle”, Revue des études juives, clii (1993), 29–136. The present paper largely draws on it for the facts, but goes beyond it in their interpretation.

Cf. Benedict B. Z. , “Caractères originaux de la science rabbinique en Languedoc”, in Juifs et judaïsme de Languedoc , ed. by Vicaire M.-H. Blumenkranz B. (Toulouse, 1977), 159–72; idem, Merkaz ha-torah bi-Provans (Jerusalem, 1985).

The best account is still Moritz Steinschneider's monumental Die hebraeischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters und die Juden als Dolmetscher (Berlin, 1893).

Twersky Isadore , “Aspects of the social and cultural history of Provençal Jewry”, Journal of world history, xi (1968), 185–207, reprinted in Twersky , Studies (ref. 7), 180–202; Shatzmiller Joseph , “Rationalisme et orthodoxie religieuse chez les Juifs provençaux au commencement du XIV^e siècle”, Provence historique, xxii (1972), 261–86.

For an overview and bibliography cf. Ben-Sasson H. H. , “Maimonidean controversy”, Encyclopedia Judaica (ref. 11), xi, 745–54.

Cf. Wolfson Harry A. , “Plan for the publication of a Corpus commentariorum Averrois in Aristotelem”, Speculum , xxxvi (1961), 88–104, reprinted in his Studies in the history of philosophy and religion, ed. by Twersky I. Williams G. H. (Cambridge, Mass., 1973), i, 430–44.

Cf. Lulofs H. J. Drossaart Poortman E. L. J. (eds and transl.), Nicolaus Damascenus, De plantis. Five translations (Amsterdam, 1989), 347–463.

Sirat Colette , “Les manuscrits en caractères hébraïques. Réalités d'hier et histoire d'aujourd'hui”, Scrittura e civiltà, x (1986), 239–88. Madame Sirat (ibid., 263–72) surmises that the ratio of the number of Hebrew manuscripts that have existed to that of the manuscripts that are extant today is about 5:100.

For an exhaustive overview cf. Rosenberg S. , “Logic and ontology in Jewish philosophy in the 14th century” (Ph.D. dissertation, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1973; in Hebrew).

Goldstein Bernard R. , “The medieval Hebrew tradition in astronomy”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, lxxxv (1965), 145–8; idem, “The role of science in the Jewish community in fourteenth-century France”, in Machaut's world: Science and art in the fourteenth century , ed. by Cosman M. Pelner Chandler B. (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, xxxiv; New York, 1978), 39–49; idem, “Scientific traditions in late medieval Jewish communities”, in Les juifs au regard de l'histoire: Mélanges en l'honneur de Bernard Blumenkranz , ed. by Dahan G. (Paris, 1985), 235–47; idem, “Descriptions of astronomical instruments in Hebrew”, in From deferent to equant: A volume of studies in the history of science in the ancient and medieval Near East in honor of E. S. Kennedy , ed. by King David A. Saliba George (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1; New York, 1987), 105–41.

For the literature cf. Steinschneider Moritz , Mathematik bei den Juden , ed. by Goldberg Adeline (Hildesheim, 1964); Sarfatti Gad B. , Mathematical terminology in Hebrew scientific literature of the Middle Ages (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem, 1968).

All Hebrew texts relating to music have been collected in Adler I. , Hebrew writings concerning music in manuscripts and printed books from the geonic times up to 1800 (International inventory of musical sources / Répertoire international des sources musicales , vol. B IX²; Munich, 1975). Cf. also Sendrey A. , Bibliography of Jewish music (New York, 1951), 56–62. Gersonides is again an exception to this generalization.

Cf. however Fritz Zimmermann's conjecture in his “Philoponus' impetus theory in the Arabic tradition”, in Philoponus and the rejection of Aristotelian science , ed. by Sorabji Richard (London, 1987), 121–9, pp. 128–9.

Steinschneider , Die hebraeischen Übersetzungen (ref. 16), 273; Scholem Gerschom , “Alchemie und Kabbala”, Eranos Jahrbuch, xlvi (1977), 1–96 (replaces the article with the same title in Monatsschrift für Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums, lxix (1925), 13–30, 95–110, 371–4). Cf. also Suler B. , “Alchemy”, Encyclopedia Judaica (ref. 11), ii, 542–9.

Cf. S. D. Goitein's pertinent observations in his A Mediterranean society, ii: The community (Berkeley, 1971), 171–3 and 192–5, which apply to the Jewish communities in Europe too.

Rashed , “Problems of the transmission” (ref. 12).

Cf. Steinschneider , Die hebraeischen Übersetzungen (ref. 16), “Allgemeines”, p. XVI; Shatzmiller J. , “Livres médicaux et éducation médicale: A propos d'un contrat de Marseille en 1316”, Medieval studies, xlii (1980), 463–70, pp. 468–9.

Ravitzky Aviezer , “Aristotle's Meteorologica and the Maimonidean exegesis of creation” (in Hebrew), in Shlomo Pines jubilee volume on the occasion of his eightieth birthday , part II (Jerusalem studies in Jewish thought, ix; Jerusalem , 1990), 225–50.

Another fine study, which however is mostly biographical and contains few clues concerning the motivations of its object, is Berman Lawrence V. , “Greek into Hebrew: Samuel ben Judah of Marseilles, fourteenth-century philosopher and translator”, in Jewish medieval and Renaissance studies , ed. by Altmann A. (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), 289–320. Much information is contained also in Rothschild J.-P. , “Motivations et méthodes des traductions en hébreu du milieu du XII^e à la fin du XV^e siècle”, in Traduction et traducteurs au moyen âge , ed. by Contamine G. (Colloque international du CNRS, IRHT, 26–28 mai 1986; Paris, 1989), 279–302.

Davidson Herbert A. , “The study of philosophy as a religious obligation”, in Religion in a religious age (ref. 7), 53–68.

Maimonides Moses , Guide of the perplexed , I.34; quoted after the translation by Pines S. (Chicago, 1963), 75. In what follows, quotations from the Guide will be from Pines's translation and will be referred to by part, chapter, and page number in the translation.

The late Shlomo Pines has argued that between writing the Mishneh Torah and the Guide of the perplexed Maimonides read al-Fârâbî's (lost) Commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean ethics and thereupon dramatically changed his views on man's capacity to attain metaphysical knowledge and, hence, afterlife: After this “Copernican revolution”, Pines suggested, Maimonides ceased to believe that immortality of the intellect was possible and henceforth considered man's perfection to be political (only). Cf. Pines Shlomo , “Le discours théologico-philosophique dans les œuvres halachiques de Maïmonide comparé avec celui du Guide des égarés”, Délivrance et fidélité, Maïmonide: Textes du colloque tenu à l'Unesco en décembre 1985 à l'occasion du 850^e anniversaire du philosophe (Toulouse, 1986), 119–24. In the present context it is also of no bearing whether Maimonides held that intellectual perfection, inasmuch as it is possible, can be attained by anyone or only by those among the Jews who have accomplished legal (Talmudic) studies. For this view cf. Kellner Menachem , Maimonides on human perfection (Atlanta, 1990).

Maimonides , Eight chapters, Introduction. This dictum was often rehearsed by followers of Maimonides: cf. Twersky , “Aspects” (ref. 17), 190 (with n. 20); Shatzmiller , “Rationalisme” (ref. 17), 277; Jospe R. , What is Jewish philosophy? (Tel Aviv, 1988), 16–20. On Maimonides's attitude to ‘alien wisdom’ cf. also Twersky Isadore , Introduction to the Code of Maimonides (New Haven and London, 1980), 215–19.

Roth N. , “The ‘theft of philosophy’ by the Greeks from the Jews”, Classical folia, xxxii (1978), 53–67.

This idea was elaborated by Julius Guttmann mainly in his classical book Philosophie des Judentums (Munich, 1933); cf. notably pp. 9–11 (English translation: Philosophies of Judaism (Philadelphia, 1964), 3–5).

Ibid., 63 ff. (English translation: 55).

This has been also noted by the late Georges Vajda: “en dernière analyse”, he wrote, “la connaissance est tournée vers Dieu, la connaissance de la nature étant seulement un degré préparatoire de la connaissance métaphysique dont l'objet propre et suprême est la divinité”. Vajda Georges , Introduction à la pensée juive du moyen âge (Paris, 1947), 143.

Maimonides , Guide, III:51:619.

Maimonides , Guide, III:54:635.

Cf. Harvey Zev , “R. ḥasdai Crescas and his criticism of philosophical felicity” (in Hebrew), Proceedings of the Sixth World Congress of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem, 1977), iii, 143–9. As is well-known, Maimonides paradoxically claims that the separate entities, whose knowledge alone leads to perfection of the soul, are in fact unknowable. Cf. e.g. Pines S. , “The limitations of human knowledge according to Al-Farabi, Ibn Badja, and Maimonides”, in Studies in medieval Jewish history and literature , ed. by Twersky I. (Cambridge, Mass., 1979), 82–109, and n. 35 above. Cf. also Altmann Alexander , “Maimonides' ‘four perfections’”, reprinted in his Essays in Jewish intellectual history (Hanover and London, 1981), 65–76, and Kellner , Maimonides on human perfection (ref. 35).

Ḥovot ha-levavot, Introduction; translation (modified) quoted from: ben Joseph Bachya ibn Paquda R. , Duties of the heart, translated from the Arabic into Hebrew by ibn Tibbon R. Yehuda , with an English translation by Moses Hyamson (1925–1947) (Jerusalem and New York, 1970), i, 14–17.

Quoted from Davidson Herbert A. (transl.), Averroes, Middle commentary on Porphyry's ‘Isagoge’ (Cambridge, Mass., 1969), 3–4. This idea is repeated by later scholars, as e.g. Duran Profiat (known as “Efodi”); cf. Maase Efod, Einleitung in das Studium und Grammatik der hebräischen Sprache von Profiat Duran, ed. by Friedländer Jonathan Kohn Jakob (Vienna, 1865), Hebrew part, p. 15. Cf. also Lasker Daniel J. , Jewish philosophical polemics against Christianity in the Middle Ages (New York, 1977).

I acknowledge with gratitude numerous enlightening conversations with Goldstein Bernard R. (Pittsburgh) on the subject of the following paragraph. Needless to say, Professor Goldstein does not bear responsibility for the opinions expressed here.

Maimonides , Mishneh Tora, Hilkhot Sanhedrin 2:1.

Israeli Isaac , Sefer yesod olam, ed. by Goldberg B. (2 vols, Berlin, 1846, 1848), ii, 36a ff., reports a controversy he had in 1334 over the correct date of the Passover; his opponent was apparently the well-known convert Abner of Burgos (Alfonso of Valladolid).

This stance goes back to al-Fârâbî; cf. e.g. Wolfson Harry A. , “The classification of sciences in medieval Jewish philosophy” (1925), reprinted in his Studies (ref. 19), i, 493–545, esp. nn. 157, 160.

Ibn Daud R. Abraham , Emunah ramah, II, Introduction; text in: Das Buch Emunah Rama, ed. and transl. by Weil S. (Frankfurt, 1852), 45 (translation: 57 f.); The exalted faith, translated with commentary by Norbert M. Samuelson, [Hebrew] translation edited by Gershon Weiss (Cranbury, N.J. and Rutherford, 1986), 123a9 ff. It is noteworthy that much the same argument is ascribed by Ibn Khaldûn to the ninth-century physician Abû Bakr al-Râzî: “As for mathematics, I confess that I have only studied this subject to the extent that was absolutely indispensable, not wasting my time on tricks and refinements…. I make [my excuse] boldly on the grounds that what I have done is the right course, rather than the way chosen by the so-called ‘philosophers’ who devote their whole lives to indulging in geometrical superfluities.” Quoted (without reference) in Berggren J. L. , “Islamic acquisition of the foreign sciences: A cultural perspective”, The American journal of Islamic social science, ix (1992), 310–24, p. 315. (I am grateful to Prof. B. R. Goldstein for having brought this reference to my attention.).

Maimonides , Eight chapters, chap. 5.

Maimonides , Guide, I:73:210.

Cf. Freudenthal Gad , “Maimonides' Guide of the perplexed and the transmission of the mathematical tract ‘On two asymptotic lines’ in the Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew medieval traditions”, Vivarium, xxvi (1988), 113–40; Lévy Tony , “L'étude des sections coniques dans la tradition médiévale hébraïque: Ses relations avec les traditions arabe et latine”, Revue d'histoire des sciences, xlii (1989), 193–239.

In addition, Maimonides expressed an explicit negative attitude towards music, which presumably had an incidence on Jewish scholars' attitude towards the study of the theory of music. Cf. Farmer Henry George , “Maimonides listening to music”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , 1933, 867–84; Cohen Boaz , “The responsum of Maimonides concerning music”, Jewish music journal (New York), ii/2 (May-June 1935), 3–7. Maimonides allows however the use of music for therapeutic purposes. Cf. Marcus Shlomo , “Maimonides on music — In particular its medical use” (in Hebrew), Koroth, v (1972), 819–22 (English summary on pp. CXL–CXLI).

This concept has been put forward by Elkana Yehuda in his “A programmatic attempt at an anthropology of knowledge”, in Science and cultures , ed. by Mendelsohn E. Elkana Y. (The sociology of the sciences, v; Dordrecht, 1981), 1–76.

Maimonides , Guide, II:22:319.

Maimonides , “Letter to R. Shmuel Ibn Tibbon”, in Letters and essays of Moses Maimonides (in Hebrew), ed. and transl. by Shailat I. (Maaleh Adumim, 5748 [1988]), 553. Ibn Rushd goes even further than Maimonides in his veneration of Aristotle: cf. the passages cited in Munk S. , Mélanges de philosophie juive et arabe (Paris, 1859), 316, 440–41.

Maimonides , Guide, II, Introduction, 235.

Ibid. , II:24:326–7. On Maimonides's epistemological scepticism in general cf. Pines S. , “The limitations of human knowledge” (ref. 43); idem, “Maimonides, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon”, Dictionary of scientific biography , ix, 27–32. For a different view cf. Langermann Tzvi Y. , “The ‘true perplexity’: The Guide of the perplexed, part II, chapter 24”, in Perspectives on Maimonides: Philosophical and historical studies , ed. by Kraemer Joel L. (Oxford, 1991), 159–74.

For a different view cf. Kraemer Joel L. , “Maimonides on Aristotle and scientific method”, in Moses Maimonides and his time , ed. by Ormsby Eric L. (Washington, D.C., 1989), 53–88 [Hebrew translation in Shlomo Pines jubilee volume, part II (ref. 31), 193–224].

Cf. Kellner Menachem , “On the status of the astronomy and physics in Maimonides' Mishneh Torah and Guide of the perplexed: A chapter in the history of science”, The British journal for the history of science, xxiv (1991), 453–63.

Cf. Ravitzky , “Aristotle's Meteorologica” (ref. 31).

Patai R. , “Biblical figures as alchemists”, Hebrew Union College annual, liv (1983), 195–226. Cf. now also: Idem, The Jewish alchemists (Princeton, 1994). The wealth of material presented in this book confirms my claim concerning the virtual absence of interest in alchemy among medieval Jews.

This point has been well taken by Beaujouan M. Guy : “On oublie trop souvent que, par exemple, dans la célèbre décrétale de Jean XXII (généralement datée de 1317), l'hostilité à l'alchimie est d'abord liée au problème de la fausse monnaie. Dans les communautés juives, les courtiers en métaux précieux n'auraient sans doute guère apprécié les scandales imputables à des coreligionnaires alchimistes.” Cf. Beaujouan G. , “Les oriéntations de la science latine au début du XIV^e siècle”, in Studies on Gersonides — A fourteenth-century Jewish philosopher-scientist, ed. by Freudenthal Gad (Leiden, 1992), 71–80, p. 80.

Kitvey Rabenu Moshe ben Naḥman, ed. by Chavel Ḥaïm Dov (Jerusalem, 1963), i, 155f.

Wolfson Harry A. , Crescas' critique of Aristotle (Cambridge, Mass., 1929).

Crescas continues a long Andalusian tradition of opposition to science and philosophy on which cf. Septimus Bernard , Hispano-Jewish culture in tradition: The career and controversies of Ramah (Cambridge, Mass., 1982). It must be added that Crescas was influenced by scholastic philosophy on the one hand and by Kabbala on the other. Cf. Pines S. , Scholasticism after Thomas Aquinas and the teachings of Ḥasdai Crescas and his predecessors (Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities , i/10; Jerusalem, 1967) and Harvey W. Z. , “Kabbalistic elements in Crescas' Light of the Lord” (in Hebrew), Jerusalem studies in Jewish thought, ii/2 (1982/83), 75–109 (summary in English on pp. IX–XI).

On Gersonides's scientific work cf. the papers gathered in Studies on Gersonides (ref. 64). The volume includes an exhaustive bibliography compiled by Menachem Kellner.

The following thesis is developed in greater detail in Freudenthal Gad , “Rabbi Lewi ben Gerschom (Gersonides) und die Bedingungen wissenschaftlichen Fortschritts im Mittelalter: Astronomie, Physik, erkenntnistheoretischer Realismus und Heilslehre”, Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, lxxiv (1992), 158–79; idem, “Sauver son âme ou sauver les phénomènes: Sotériologie, épistémologie et astronomie chez Gersonide”, in Studies on Gersonides (ref. 64), 317–52. For a more general overview cf. idem, “Levi ben Gershom (Gersonides), 1288–1344”, in The Routledge history of Islamic philosophy, ed. by Nasr S. H. Leaman O. (London, forthcoming in 1995).

Pines S. , “Translator's introduction”, in Maimonides , op. cit., transl. by Pines (ref. 34), I, ciii f.

Heyd , “The emergence of modern science” (ref. 5), 172.

Cf. below at ref. 97.

Katz Jacob , Tradition and crisis: Jewish society at the end of the Middle Ages (New York, 1971), 3.

Qalonimos b. Qalonimos , Even boḥan, ed. by Habermann A. M. (Tel-Aviv, 1956), 44.

The customary characterization of the two sides as ‘rationalist’ and ‘anti-rationalist’ is certainly misleading. Rationality can be appreciated only with respect to accepted premises, and on this score the traditionalist students of the Talmud were no less rational than their adversaries. I use these terms here conventionally as designating proponents of a positive or a negative attitude to ‘Greek wisdom’.

An excellent concise overview of the history of the controversies discussed in the following paragraph is given in Ben-Sasson , “Maimonidean controversy” (ref. 18).

Quotation taken from Ben-Sasson , “Maimonidean controversy” (ref. 18), 752.

Cf. e.g. Halkin A. S. , “Why was Levi Ben Hayyim hounded?”, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, xxxiv (1966), 65–76.

Leon Joseph of Carcassonne, “Introduction” to his Hebrew translation of Gérard de Solo's Commentary on al-Râzî's Al-Mansourî, first printed in: Ernest Renan [ Neubauer A. ], Les écrivains juifs français du XIV^e siècle (Histoire littéraire de la France, xxxi; Paris, 1893), 771–5, p. 772; new text edition accompanied by an English translation in: Garcia-Ballester Luis Ferre Lola Feliu Eduard , “Jewish appreciation of fourteenth-century scholastic medicine”, Osiris, 2nd ser., vi (1990), 85–117, “Appendix D”, pp. 107–17; the passage is at lines 20–31. (This paper places the text and its author in their historical context; cf. pp. 93 ff.) See also Shatzmiller Joseph , “Étudiants juifs à la faculté de médecine de Montpellier, dernier quart du XIV^e siècle”, Jewish history, vi (1992), 243–55, where our passage is discussed on p. 250. The translation is my own, but in a few places I have adopted that of Garcia-Ballester Ferre Feliu , whose text I used in parallel with that of Renan-Neubauer.

Benedict , Merqaz ha-torah bi-Provans (ref. 15).

Shatzmiller Joseph has discovered contracts bearing on the tuition of medicine, concluded between a future teacher and a future student. Cf. Shatzmiller , “On becoming a Jewish doctor in the high Middle Ages”, Sefarad, xliii (1983), 239–49.

Abrahams Israel , Jewish ethical wills (Philadelphia, 1926; new edn 1976), 131 (translation slightly modified).

Cf. the very concise and clarifying analysis by Verger Jacques , “Condition de l'intellectuel aux XIII^e et XIV^e siècles”, in Philosophes médiévaux: Anthologie de textes philosophiques (XIII^e–XIV^e siècles), ed. by Imbach Ruedi Méléard Maryse-Hélène (Paris, 1986), 11–49. Also very perceptive and well-informed is Alain de Libera, “Le développement de nouveaux instruments conceptuels et leur utilisation dans la philosophie de la nature au XIV^e siècle”, in Knowledge and the sciences in medieval philosophy: Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Medieval Philosophy (S.I.E.P.M.), ed. by Asztalos Monika Murdoch John E. Niiniluoto Ilkka (Helsinki, 1990), i, 158–97. The great importance for the emergence of modern science of the discussions on the potentia Dei absoluta et ordinata and on the notion of what is possible secundum imaginationem is highlighted by Funkenstein Amos , Theology and the scientific imagination: From the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century (Princeton, 1986). For the particularly revealing case of the Oxford calculators, cf. Sylla E. , “The Oxford calculators”, in The Cambridge history of later medieval philosophy , ed. by Kretzman Norman Kenny A. Pinborg J. (Cambridge, 1982), 540–63; idem, “The Oxford calculators in context”, Science in context, i (1987), 257–79.

I am referring to the theory of scientific growth elaborated by the late Ben-David Joseph ; cf. notably his “Scientific growth: A sociological view”, Minerva, iii (1964), 455–76, reprinted in his Scientific growth (ref. 2), 299–320, and his The scientist's role in society: A comparative study (2nd edn, Chicago, 1984).

Joseph Leon of Carcassonne, “Introduction” (ref. 79): Ed. by Renan-Neubauer , 772; ed. by Garcia-Ballester , Ferre and Feliu, lines 24–27.

Ibid., ed. by Renan-Neubauer , 773; ed. by Garcia-Ballester Ferre Feliu , lines 69–72.

Ibid., ed. by Renan-Neubauer , 773; ed. by Garcia-Ballester Ferre Feliu , lines 72–81.

The idea developed in the following paragraph was suggested to me by Dr Josef Stern (University of Chicago). I am very grateful to him for his advice.

For an authoritative concise overview cf. Dan Joseph , Ancient Hebrew mysticism (in Hebrew) (Tel-Aviv, 1990), 20 ff.

Maimonides , Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot yesodey Torah 4:11; cf. also ibid. 2:12 and Guide, Introduction.

Leon Joseph of Carcassonne, “Introduction” (ref. 79): Ed. by Renan-Neubauer , 772; ed. by Garcia-Ballester Ferre Feliu , lines 25–26.

In the Middle Ages the rigid social structures often prevented non-conformist scholars from residing for any long period at one place. Within Judaism, Abraham Ibn Ezra is a particularly remarkable example. For a highly interesting analysis of his case and of the whole social pattern cf. Graboïs Aryeh , “Le non-conformisme intellectuel au XII^e siècle: Pierre Abélard et Abraham Ibn Ezra”, in Modernité et non-conformisme en France à travers les âges , ed. by Yardeni M. (Studies in the history of Christian thought, xxviii; Leiden, 1983), 3–13. To what extent similar phenomena can be detected also in 13th- and 14th-century Provence needs investigation.

Alfonso , Meyashsher ^caqov , ed. and transl. by Gluskina G. M. (Moscow, 1983), 139 (= fol. 94^a, lines 4–8 of the manuscript [London, British Library, Add. 26984], which is reproduced in the book). On the identity of the author and the history of the research on this book cf. my “Two notes on Sefer meyashsher ^caqov by Alfonso, alias Abner of Burgos” (in Hebrew), Qiryat sefer, lxiii (1990–91), 984–6.

At this point one may wonder why these social constraints did not stop Gersonides from devoting himself to science and why his example and his interpretation of Maimonides's philosophy were not followed. To these queries I have no satisfactory answer. Little is known at present of contacts Gersonides may have had with other Jewish scholars or leaders, but perhaps further research will shed new light on the social and personal context within which he developed.

Sabra , “The appropriation and subsequent naturalization” (ref. 12).

Cf. notably Merton Robert K. , Science, technology and society in seventeenth-century England (1938; New York, 1970). Very important to the understanding of the thesis is Ben-David , “Puritanism and modern science” (ref. 2).

Ms Prague, University Library, no. VI 65, fol. 236^r. (I consulted the work in microfilm no. 46886 of the Institute for Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.) On the last folio of R. David Qimḥi's Sefer ha-shorashim, Gersonides (or his scribe) put down an inventory of his personal library; the Guide of the perplexed, “on parchment, in my own hand-writing”, is the first book in the section of “books of wisdom” (sifrey ha-ḥokhma). The entire inventory has recently been published: Weil Gérard E. , La bibliothèque de Gersonide d'après son catalogue autographe, édité par F. Chartrain avec la collaboration d'A.-M. Weil-Guény et J. Shatzmiller (Louvain, 1992).