Abraham Ibn Ezra's scientific corpus basic constituents and general characterization / Shlomo Sela

Notes bibliogr.

Abraham ibn Ezra's (ca 1089-ca 1167) scientific corpus represented an exceptional case: instead of the common Latin model embodied by the scholar coming from the Christian North to the Iberian Peninsula to initiate a translation enterprise, we have in Ibn Ezra the contrary case of an intellectual imbued with the Arabic culture, who abandons al-Andalus, roams around the Christian countries and delivers in his wandering through Italy, France and England, the scientific and cultural cargo that he amassed during his youth in al-Andalus. The main purpose of this article is to provide a picture of Ibn Ezra's scientific corpus as comprehensive and detailed as possible given the present state of research. The paper will fall into two main parts: (a) Ibn Ezra's scientific work will be broken up into three main genres: (1) Mathematics, Astronomy, Scientific Instruments and Tools; (2) The astrological encyclopaedia; (3) Translations from Arabic into Hebrew. (b) In the second part, Ibn Ezra's scientific corpus will be reassembled as a whole in order to provide a global characterization, trying to point out its general organization and shape, and to indicate its main aims and special traits revealing Ibn Ezra personal contribution