Hillel who submitted these questions to him, was alike distinguished as a great physician, and profound philosopher, as we have already shown.

We would again refer to passages of the correspondence of Serachia to prove how eminent this doctor was in critical literature. As regards his medical knowledge, the voice of eulogy is unanimous.

§ LIII.

HIS WORKS.

The obscurity which prevails in reference to the productions of our physician, induces us to give here a complete list of his writings, which have come down to us embracing all his original works, as well as his translations from the Arabic into Hebrew.

1st. Treatise on the faculties of the Mind, by Abou-Nazar AlFarabi, translated from the Arabic into Hebrew; the Royal Library of Paris* possesses one copy of this work.

2d. The Canon of Abou Ali Ebn Sena, translated into Hebrew for the physician Isaac ha-Levi, as he himself informs us at the beginning of the second book of this work, which is preserved in MSS. in the same Library.†

3d. Sefer ha-Tob ha-Gamur; a treatise on the summum bonum or sovereign good, translated from the Arabic for the Rabbi Schabtai ben-Solomon.

4th. Explanations on some passages of the book of Moreh Nebouchim, composed for the learned Jehudeh ben-Solomon, MSS. at Paris.‡

5th. Letters to the physician Hillel, of Lombardy, upon some difficulties in the same book of Moreh.§

6th. A Philosophical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon, quoted by the author in the first letter to Hillel ben Samuël. 7th. The Metaphysics of Aristotle, translated into Hebrew at Rome, in the year 1284.

* Ancien fonds, No. 255.

† Ibid. No. 375.

Biblioth. Royale, fonds orat. No. 100. § MSS. Ibidem, and in our Cabinet, 193.

8th. The Physics of Aristotle, translated into Hebrew, as likewise the succeeding treatise at Rome, in 1284.

9th. Sefer Schamaim ve ha-Olam, of the heavens and the earth. These three last works are found in MSS. in the Library of Turin.

10th. Commentary of Ebn-Roschid on the Metaphysics of Aristotle, translated from the Arabic, a MSS. in the same Library. 11th. Commentary of Ebn Roschid on the Physics of Aristotle, translated into Hebrew for Rabbi Jachya ben Zidkia, found in MSS. in the same collection.

12th. A Treatise on the medicine of Maimonides, composed for the king of Egypt, a MSS. in the Royal Library of Paris.*/ This is the same treatise composed by Maimonides for the king Alafdhal. Another copy of the same work, is found in the Library of de Rossi,‡ under the erroneous title of the Book of Aliments.

§ LIV.

THE KARAITES.

If we pass from the Italian physicians, whom we have just enumerated, to the masters of the healing art, who are the most celebrated in Greece, we find in the first rank Ahron ben Josef, who was at the same time a sound grammarian, commentator and poet. Ahron was generally considered the oracle of the Karaites, of which sect, he was the chief at Constantinople in the reign of Manuel II, Paleologus.§

Mardochée ben Nesim represents him as a man deeply versed in the intelligence of the law, in the study of nature, and even in the learning of the Rabbis. But if he really applied himself to this last study, it appears, that it was only that he might the better combat it. His ability and capacity have gained for him the reputation of one of the best writers that the sect of the Karaites

* Ancien fonds, No. 206. There is an error of the copyist, which it is proper to correct; Secharia ben Ishak ben Schaelthiel Chen de Marseille, in place of Barcelona. MSS. cod. Book i. p. 99.

† See above section xxxv.

§ Dod. Mordochaï, chap. xi; de Boissi Dissert. Critique, No. xi.

has produced. The following comprehends a list of his works, the most of which are unpublished.

1st. Sefer ha-Mubchar, the select work, a commentary on the Pentateuch, which he composed in the 5054th year of the world, and the 1294th of the common era. The author applies himself principally to a literal commentary on the text of the Scriptures; according to the method of the Karaites, who drew all their explanations from it, without having any respect to those that the Rabbis authorise by their version. He made frequent grammatical observations, by the aid of which he determined. the proper meaning of each word, and cleared up a great many of the difficulties which arise, from various readings of the Holy Scripture. He quotes the celebrated grammarians of the Rabbinical party, such as Jonah ben Ganach, Kimchi and others. In general, Ahron freely adheres to those among the Rabbis, whose interpretations are judicious, and in his preface he recommends those of his own sect, to study carefully the books of the doctors of the version. This commentary which is found in MSS. in the Royal Library of Paris* has been printed.

2d. Commentary on the book of Joshua, found in MSS. in the Library of Leyden.t

3d. Commentary on the book of Judges, MSS. in the same Library.

4th. Commentary on the book of Samuel, also found in the Library of Leyden.

5th. Commentary on the book of Kings, MSS. in same Library. 6th. Commentary on Isaiah, MSS. in same Library.

7th. Commentary on the Psalms, likewise found in MSS. in the Library of Leyden.

8th. Commentary on the book of Job, a work which is quoted in his Sefer ha-Mubchar, but which is little known.

9th. Khélil Jofi, an excellent Hebrew Grammar, printed at Constantinople 1581, 8vo.

10th. Seder Tefilot, order of prayer according to the rites of the Karaites. Venice, 1528 and 29, 2. vols. 8vo.

* Ancien fonds, No. 70; fonds Oratoire, No. 17.

+ Catalog. Biblioth. Lugd. Bat. p. 405.

§ LV.

COUNCILS AGAINST THE JEWISH PHYSICIANS.

The sway which the Israelites had obtained over the domain of medicine, which we have just seen, aroused the jealousy of the faculty of Paris, and caused them to revive against them the enactments of the canon law. In 1301, it published a decree prohibiting either man or woman of the religion of Moses, from practising medicine upon any person of the Catholic religion.

In Spain, the Christian priests also practising the art of healing, made use of force to defeat their rivals, whom they could not excel, and they prohibited Christians from employing Jewish physicians in the treatment of their diseases.*

Their example was followed in Provence, where the councils held at Avignon in 1326 and 1337;† and also the synodical statutes of Rouergue of 1336 † likewise prohibited the Christians from employing Hebrew physicians or surgeons. Happily the afflicted did not ratify the canons of these councils, and continued to employ these masters of the art.

At Montpelier many priests excommunicated the members of their flocks who employed Jewish physicians. They accused them of practising medicine without having passed an examination, or possessing the theory of their art. Their accusations so far prevailed that James, king of Majorca, Count of Roussilon and Sardinia, prohibited by letters patent, the Israelites from practising medicine within the limits of the faculty of Montpelier, without having been examined and duly licensed, which letter king Philip VI. confirmed in 1331.§

Notwithstanding this formal interdiction, we believe that the accusation of the priests of Montpelier was ill founded, for the Jews were then too well instructed, and too enlightened to devote themselves, without proper preparation, to the practice of medicine. On the contrary, it appears more probable, that it

* AGUIRE, Collect Maj. Concilior Hisp. book iii. p. 590.

† Concil. t. ii. p. 187.

Thesaur. Nov. t. iv. cul. 769. § Ordonn, t. ii. p. 71.

was their knowledge of the art which excited the jealousy of the priests against them, for at this period the Jews not only practised with great success, but they were also at the head of the faculty, as we shall see in a future paragraph.

S LVI.

PROFATIUS, REGENT OF THE FACULTY OF MONTPELIER.

The lively gratitude of the faculty of Montpelier towards its founders, and the continually advancing progress of the Jews in the Hippocratic art, induced them in the year 1300, to choose its regent from among them. The person selected was the learned Profatius, of the Jewish community of Marseilles. This distinguished favor conferred on the Jewish physician, soon aroused the jealousy of the faculty of Paris, who revived against the Jews, as we have already seen, the enactment of the canon law. But this did not prevent Profatius from either practising or teaching medicine. He also applied himself much to astronomy, and it appears that he made considerable progress in it. He composed moveable tables of the seconds-with the equations of the moon, and the mean movements of the head of the dragon, and a table of the longitude of many countries and cities, mostly in Asia and Africa.

Profatius also laid down the regulations in the Almanac, which he composed at Montpelier in 1302, but he gained the most reputation from the observation which he made in 1303, of the greatest declination of the sun which he found to be 23° 32'; this observation served to determine the theory of the movement of the earth, and the inclination of its axis, at least from that time; this observation is also honorably referred to by almost all the astronomers, such as Copernicus,* Reinhold,† Clavis,‡ Justinus,§ &c.

* Lib. iii. Cap. 2.

Sphæram, Jo de Sacrobosco, Cap. i. p. 252.

†Theoricis, p. 239. § Justin. Cop. 2.