XO19 Ḳitsure Ibn Roshd: ʻal shemaʻ ṭivʻi le-Aristoteles ... / nidpas taḥat memshelet

Ibn Rushd [Averroes], Kitsure Ibn Roshd: ‘al shema’ tiv ‘i le-Aristoteles ... / nidpas tahat memshelet (Riva di Trento: Jacopo Marcaria and Giuseppe Ottolenghi, shenat 320 [1560])

Penn Libraries, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, E.F. Smith Collection, B485.A8.1560

This is a Hebrew translation of the Arabic commentary by Averroes (Ibn Rushd) on Aristotle’s Physics. Averroes (1126-1198) was considered the interpreter par excellence of the Aristotelian corpus, to the extent of being simply named, at times, the Commentator. He was largely used in Medieval Latin universities, despite some religious anxieties. These were the results of Averroes’s Muslim identity and of some of his most controversial readings of Aristotle. This edition was addressed to Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo (1512-1578), Bishop of Trent, and printed by the Jewish physician Jacopo Marcaria. Marcaria’s printing press was responsible for more philosophical books in Hebrew during its four years of activity. This is one of the first printed versions of Averroes in Hebrew.