Description
[1] 303 leaves = 304 leaves, 8 x 6 inches; 203 x 152 mm, written in in various Sephardic semi-cursive scripts in brown and black-brown ink, with emendations and notes in later black ink, text renewed in black ink on fol. 34, initial blank with overslip; fols. 1, 10-11, and 289 remargined, early repairs to long tears on fols. 152-153 affecting approximately 12 lines of text, fols. 130 and 303 partially detached, inner margins strengthened or repaired throughout, dampstaining throughout but most pronounced in fols. 1-46 and 390-303. Black library buckram; joints split.
Provenance
Leopold Zunz ms. 20 (owner’s note, verso of front flyleaf) — Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 431)
Literature
Hirschfeld (ms. no. 296); see M. Steinschneider, Hebraeische Uebersetzungen, (1893), pp. 485–486
Catalogue Note
This manuscript is a complete, unique, and unpublished Hebrew translation of Thomas Aquinas’ commentary on Aristotle’s metaphysics. The text was translated into Hebrew by Abraham ben Joseph ibn Nahmias (fol. 1v and 2r). Abraham was probably related to the Ibn Nahmias family in Portugal, whose members were the pioneers of Hebrew printing in Constantinople after the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. He recommends studying the philosophy of the Christians and states that he learned their language so that he would be able to collect the pearls from their commentaries. Steinschneider gives a summary of Abraham’s flowery introduction, which praises Thomas Aquinas as a philosopher who “does not deviate from the correct path.”
On fol. 303r there is a colophon in which the copyist states that the work was finished in the city of Ocana, in the year 1490/1491. Steinschneider assumes that this date refers to the year in which the work was completed as well as to the date of its copying. The original names of the patron and scribe have been covered by other names, rendering both sets illegible. Before the colophon, the scribe asks for blessings for the translator and has a pious wish for himself that begins: ve-li ani avdo ha-mesayyem … (and as for me the one who completes it … )
