RaLBa”G). Milchamoth Hashem [“Wars of the Lord”: philosophy]

LEVI BEN GERSHON (GERSONIDES /

Jacob Marcaria

Riva di Trento

1560(-1561)

FIRST EDITION. Title within ornamental border and featuring Cardinal Madrucci’s device - patron of the printing enterprise (see Amram pp. 296-97; Yaari, Hebrew Printers’ Marks, no. 28, facsimile of title in EJ, Vol. XI, col. 93)

Vinograd, Riva di Trento 20; Adams L-606

Milchamoth Hashem is the classic work of Gersonides, whose philosophy is even more Aristotelian than that of his predecessor Maimonides. Levi ben Gershom (1288-1344), a native of Languedoc in the south of France, was a polymath, excelling in the fields of Biblical exegesis, philosophy, mathematics and astronomy and was likely the last distinguished Aristotelian not only in the Jewish world, but in all of Medieval Europe. For an analysis of Gersonides’ inquires in Milchamoth Hashem and critical comparison to Aristotle’s beliefs, see I. Zinberg, A History of Jewish Literature, Vol. III, pp.129-39; see also G. Freudenthal ed., Studies on Gersonides: A Fourteenth-Century Jewish Philosopher-Scientist (Brill)