Euclid's Elements in Hebrew Garb - (Études Sur Le Judaïsme Médiéval) by Ofer Elior (Hardcover)

About the Book

The book presents a critical edition of two Arabic-Hebrew translations of Euclid's Elements, Books III-VI, by Moses Ibn Tibbon and by "Rabbi Jacob". It also includes a study of the edited texts and a glossary of the technical terms.

Book Synopsis

Euclid's Elements is one of the canonical texts that shaped our cultural heritage. It was translated from Greek to Arabic and from Arabic into Hebrew and Latin. There is little agreement about the textual history of the Arabic translations. The present book offers for the first time a critical edition of two Hebrew translations of Books III-VI, by Moses Ibn Tibbon and by "Rabbi Jacob". A serious attempt is made to learn from the Hebrew translations also on the history of the Arabic text. The edition of Ibn Tibbon's translation is accompanied by an Arabic text which was probably its source. Rabbi Jacob's translation is compared to an Arabic preserved in ms. BULAC Ara. 606, and very close to one of the translation's primary sources.

About the Author

Ofer Elior, Ph.D. (2010), specializes in the reception of science and philosophy among Jews in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period. He is currently a research fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Taking part in the research project "Studies in the History of Medieval Mathematics in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic", he studies the medieval reception of Euclid's Elements. The first volume of his Euclid's Elements in Hebrew Garb was published by Brill in 2021.