Gerrit Bos, Charles Burnett, Tzvi Langermann,
"Hebrew Medical Astrology:
David Ben Yom Tov,
Kelal Qatan:
Original Hebrew Text, Medieval Latin Translation, Modern English Translation"
Am.n Phil.sophical Society /2006 /ISBN: 0871699559 /121 pages /PDF /11,9 MB
Introduction; Original Hebrew Text; The Latin Text; Modern English Translation; Glossary; & Bibliography. Color & black & white illustrations.
It is our great pleasure to offer to the reader this edition of the original Hebrew text, medieval Latin translation and modern English trans lation of the Kelal Qatan (Concise Summary) composed by David Ben Yom Tov, a Hebrew scholar who lived in the first half of the fourteenth century. This text is the most detailed and extensive original Hebrew treatise on astrological medicine surviving in Hebrew literature. While all three authors have read, criticized, and otherwise contributed to the entire endeavor, Gerrit Bos takes primary responsibility for the Hebrew text and English translation, Tzvi Langermann for the Intro duction and Charles Burnett for the Latin text. On this occasion we thank Jos? Chab?s for obtaining a copy of the Latin manuscript and for interpreting Catalan words, Benjamin Richler for help with Hebrew manuscripts, and the libraries of Barcelona, Oxford, and Paris for the manuscripts we consulted.
We present the reader here with a study of Kelal Qatan by David Ben Yom Tov, known in Latin simply as David Iudaeus. This is a text on medical astrology, dealing primarily with the astrologi cal indications pertaining especially to fevers. Our introduction is made up of several parts. We shall first sketch a history of this branch of medical astrology from antiquity up to and including Sefer ha-Me'orot (The Book of the Luminaries), written by Abraham Ibn Ezra and the most important source for Kelal Qatan. Following that, we review the scant existing biographical information concerning David and information about the manuscripts (Hebrew and Latin) used for our edition and give a concise recap of the contents of Kelal Qatan. Next we survey all the other medieval Hebrew texts related to medical astrology that have come to our attention. This inspec tion leads us to conclude that astrology was an interesting feature, but not at all a prominent element, in the corpus of Hebrew and Ju daeo-Arabic medical writings. Finally, a short postscript discusses an entirely different tradition in medical astrology, which was also present in Hebrew literature, namely, the supposed correlation be tween certain asterisms and diseases of the eyes. Our edition and translation are final products, meeting rigor ous academic standards. Similarly, the survey of Hebrew texts in the second part of the introduction is intended to be exhaustive. Not so, however, the conspectus that begins in the next paragraph. In the course of preparing it, we have encountered several highly interesting texts, all of them unpublished and unstudied even in a preliminary fashion. They appear to be of crucial importance for our subject, they warrant independent study, and, in fact, we hope to turn our attention to at least some of them in the future. The picture that begins to emerge from our admittedly hurried study is that a critical reappraisal of the relationship between medicine and astrology took place in that murky suture between the end of classical antiquity and the beginning of Islamic civilization. The re appraisal was critical in both senses of the word: it was of momen tous import in directing subsequent developments; and it involved a reassessment of ancient authorities from a stance that was not entirely submissive. We believe that the story that we are about to embark upon is a plausible account in terms of the current state of research; it certainly points to some very promising avenues for future research.
