Art. V.—The Book of the Apple, ascribed to Aristotle

A pseudo-Aristotelian treatise called de pomo et morte incliti principis philosophorum Aristotelis has been printed several times in Europe, the earliest editions being without place or date. This work is a Latin translation of a Hebrew tract bearing the name “The Book of the Apple,” the translator being Manfred, King of Sicily (ob. 1266), or, as Steinschneider suggests, a Jew employed by him. The Hebrew text professes to be a translation from the Arabic made by R. Abraham B. Hisdai, an author who flourished at the end of the thirteenth century. There are MSS. of B. Hisdai's work in the Vatican and at Oxford, and it has been repeatedly printed, first at Venice, 1519. It was republished with a new Latin translation and a copious but irrelevant commentary by J. J. Losius, at Giessen, in 1706

Arabic · Art · Hebrew · Holy See · Linguistics · Literature · Theology · Classics · Linguistics and language evolution · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy

• Fragmenta graeca in litteris arabicis

  Open Access•Richard Walzer•Journal of the Royal Asiatic…•1939

  Add to list