Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The anthropology of Yohanan Alemanno: Sources and influences

  • Published:
Topoi Aims and scope Submit manuscript

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. Die Spuren al-Batalyawsis in der Juedischen Religionsgeschichte, [Leipzig, 1880].

  2. See “Ibn al-Sid de Badajoz y su “Libro de los cercos” [Kitab al-\(\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{H}\)ida'iq]”Al-Andalus,5 [1940], 45–154.

  3. The full translation of R. Moses ibn Tibbon and the partial one of R. Samuel ibn Motot were edited by Kaufmann. In the following we shall refer to the Hebrew translation of ibn Tibbon, which is the most widespread one, and which influenced Alemanno. Georges Vajda identified a third, anonymous, translation which he described in his note, “Une version hebraique inconnue des “Cercles Imaginaires” de Batalyawsi”,Semitic Studies in Memory of Immanuel Loew, [Budapest, 1947], 202–204. For a proposal of the identity of the translator see Benjamin Richler, “The Identification of the Anonymous Translator of the Book of the Imaginary Circles”,Qiriat Sefer,53 [1978], 577. [Hebrew]

  4. See Kaufmann,passim; Alexander Altmann, “The Ladder of Ascension”,Studies in Mysticism and Religion Presented to Gershom G. Scholem [Jerusalem, 1967], 6–17, 23–24; M. Idel, “The Ladder of Ascension — The Reverberations of a Medieval Motif in the Renaissance”,Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature, ed. I. Twersky, [Cambridge, Mass. 1984], 83–88. See also note 18 below.

  5. Kaufmann, German part p. 10, assumed that al-Batalyawsi flourished in the 11th century, whereas Hartwig Derenbourg corrected his datation; seeRevue des Ètudes Juives,7 [1883], 274–279.

  6. Beriyato; literally this term means “his creation” but in the translation of Moses ibn Tibbon the significance of this recurring term is “nature”. See J. Klatzkin,Thesaurus philosophicus linguae hebraicae, [Lipsiae, 1928], vol. I, 95.

  7. Kaufmann, Hebrew part, p. 27.

  8. ibidem, 27–28. It should be mentioned that in both the Arab original and the Hebrew translation the beginning of this passage is attributed to the “sons of Israel”, an issue to be analyzed elsewhere in detail.

  9. On Avicenna's conception of contingency, see e.g. Parviz Morewedge,The Metaphysics of Avicenna, [New York, 1973], 204, 251.

  10. ha-Lua \(\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{h} \), in ArabicLaw \(\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{h} \) ma \(\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{h} \) fuz, is a concept that has macrocosmic connotations. On the “Guarded Table” as an allegory of man's soul, see M. Idel,Language, Torah and Hermeneutics in Abraham Abulafia, [Albany, 1988], 170, notes 86–87.

  11. Kaufmann, Hebrew part, pp. 26–27.

  12. See Rudolf Allers, “Microcosmus, From Anaximandros to Paracelsus”,Traditio,2 [1944], 390.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kaufmann, Hebrew part, p. 26.

  14. See Ernst Cassirer,Individuum und Cosmos in der Philosophie der Renaissance, [Leipzig/Berlin, 1927], 320; August Buch, “Die Rangstellung des Menschen in der Renaissance: dignitas et miseria hominis”,Archiv fuer Kulturgeschichte,42 [1960], 68–69.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Kaufmann, Hebrew part, p. 36.

  16. The term occurs already in Salomon ibn Gabirol'sFons Vitae; I hope to deal with this issue in a separate study.

  17. On this author, see the discussions found in the articles mentioned in notes 4, 18, 26, 27, 29, 52.

  18. See Moshe Idel, “The Sources of the Circle Images inDialoghi d'Amore”,Iyyun,28 [1978], 162–166. [Hebrew]

    Google Scholar 

  19. Idel, “The Ladder of Ascension”, [note 4 above], 84–88.

  20. Alemanno hints at Moses and the Torah. Cf. Numbers 12, 7.

  21. Ms. Paris BN 849, fol. 20a.

  22. Compare a similar view expressed by R. Moses ben Yo'av, a Florentine author who flourished in the middle of the 15th century; cf. the text printed by Umberto Cassuto, “Un Rabbino Fiorentino del Secolo XV”,Rivista Israelitica,4 [1907] 229. This author's work in manuscript was also influenced by al-Batalyawsi, as I shall demonstrate in a separate study. Consequently, al-Batalyawsi's book was known in Florence long before the arrival of Alemanno to this city.

  23. See Moshe Idel,Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah, [Albany, 1988], 18–19.

  24. Ms. Jerusalem, 8° 598, fol. 51a–51b.

  25. On this issue see Moshe Idel,Kabbalah: New Perspectives [New Haven - London], 173–199.

  26. On this gradation in Alemanno's thought, see Moshe Idel, “Magical Temples and Cities in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: A Passage of Mas'udi as a Possible Source for Yohanan Alemanno”,Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam,3 [1981/2], 187.

    Google Scholar 

  27. See Moshe Idel, “The Magical and Neoplatonic Interpretation of the Kabbalah in the Renaissance”, in ed. B. D. Cooperman,Jewish Thought in the Sixteenth Century, [Cambridge, Mass., 1983], 203, 207–208.

  28. See Idel,Kabbalah: New Perspectives, [note 25 above], 35–73.

  29. M. Idel, “The Study Program of R. Yohanan Alemanno”Tarbiz,48 [1979], 318–322. [Hebrew]

    Google Scholar 

  30. Printed inSha'ar ha- \(\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{H} \) esheq, [Halberstadt, 1860], fol. 32a.

  31. See below, note 49, the characterisation of Pico's view by Nathan Rotenstreich.

  32. Kaufmann, Hebrew part, p. 15.

  33. On Avicenna's theory of the two faces of the soul, see Louis Gardet,La pensée religieuse d'Avicenne, [Paris, 1951], 177.

  34. See P. O. Kristeller, “Ficino and Pomponazzi on the Place of Man in the Universe”, in hisRenaissance Thought, Vol. II [New York, 1965], 102–104, 107–108.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Opera, [Basle, 1592], 737.

  36. See the texts of Ficino collected by Henri de Lubac,Pic de la Mirandole, [Paris, 1974], 81.

  37. Heptaplus or the Discourse on the Seven Days of Creation, tr., with an introduction by Jessie Brewer McGaw, [New York, 1977], 87.

  38. ibidem. See also Charles Trinkaus, “In Our Image and Likeness” vol. II, [London, 1970], 523.

  39. Sha'ar ha- \(\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{H} \) esheq, fol. 30a–32b.

  40. To this issue I hope to devote a separate study in which I shall collect and print all the statements Alemanno has gathered from Pico.

  41. Collectanaea, Ms. Oxford, Bodeliana 2234 fol. 10a.

  42. ibidem.

  43. Heptaplus, [note 37 above], 93.

  44. Kaufmann, Hebrew part, p. 25.

  45. Printed by Kaufmann, German part, 57–58, note 5.

  46. See the texts quoted in Idel, “The Sources of the Circle Images” [note 18 above], 163.

  47. I have not identified the source referred to by Alemanno as al-Ghazzali.

  48. The first Hebrew word used by Alemanno in his quotation of the oral statement of Pico isNefesh, as in his own passage discussed here. However, he deleted this word and wrote the correct biblical form,Rua \(\underset{\raise0.3em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\cdot}$}}{h} \).

  49. Man and His Dignity, [Jerusalem, 1983], 53.

  50. Trinkaus, [note 38 above], 521.

  51. On the relatively naturalistic character of magic in Alemanno's thought, see M. Idel, “Jewish Magic from the Renaissance Period to the Early Hasidism”, [forthcoming].

  52. See e.g. Abraham Melammed, “La ‘dignitas Hominis’ nelle opere dei pensatori ebrei in Spagna e in Italia nel tardo Medioevo e nel Rinascimento”,Italia,3 no. 1–2 [1982], 39–88, especially 68, 70, 72. [Hebrew]

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Givat Ram, Israel

    Moshe Idel

Authors
  1. Moshe Idel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Idel, M. The anthropology of Yohanan Alemanno: Sources and influences. Topoi 7, 201–210 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02028420

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02028420

Keywords

Search

Navigation