RaLBa”G). Milchamoth Hashem [philosophy]

LEVI BEN GERSHON (GERSONIDES/

Jacob Marcaria

Riva di Trento

1560

FIRST EDITION. Title within ornamental border and featuring Cardinal Madrucci’s device - patron of the printing enterprise (see Amram pp. 296-97). The Salman Schocken Copy

Vinograd, Riva di Trento 20; Adams L-606

THIS NOTE NOT USED IN CAT- BUT HERE FOR FILING FOR FUTURE USE: The last distinguished Aristotelian not only in the Jewish world, but in all of Medieval Europe, Gersonides was also the only one of among the Jewish disciples of Aristotle who accepted the entire Aristotelian system, including those particulars that contradict certain fundamental principles of the Jewish world view. As a philosopher, Gersonides was not satisfied with the solutions the Arabic and Jewish Aristotelians had presented to the problems that most disturbed medieval minds, namely; the immortality of the soul, the nature of prophecy, divine omniscience and providence, the nature of the heavenly spheres and the question of the eternity of matter. In Milchamoth Hashem; a work on which he laboured for twelve years, he attempts to provide his own answers to these problems. For a detailed analysis of Gersonides’ inquires in Milchamoth Hashem and critical comparison to Aristotles’ beliefs, see: I. Zinberg, A History of Jewish Literature, Vol. III, pp.129-39