On Asthma ― Critical Editions of Hebrew and Latin Translations

Maimonides, one of the most celebrated rabbis in the history of Judaism, was a prolific author of influential Arabic philosophical and medical treatises as well as two of the most important works on Jewish law. Presented here as a companion to the English translation and Arabic text of the first volume, On Asthma, Volume Two offers Gerrit Bos’s critical editions of all three surviving medieval Hebrew translations of Maimonides’ work: one allegedly prepared by the fourteenth-century physician Samuel Benveniste, who served Don Manuel, brother of King Pedro IV of Aragon; a second by Joshua Shatibi from Jativa (Xativa) between the years 1379 and 1390, for the referendary Fernan Diaz of Toledo at the court of King Juan II of Castile; and a third by an anonymous translator, perhaps in the thirteenth century. The volume also contains critical editions by Michael R. McVaugh of the two medieval Latin translations of Maimonides’ treatise, one probably made by Giovanni da Capua at Rome c. 1300 and the other begun by Armengaud Blaise in Montpellier in 1294 but completed eight years later. It concludes with a section of addenda and corrigenda to the first volume.