Ibn Tibbon, Jacob Ben Machir, is known as Profeit in Romance languages and as Prophatius Judaeus in Latin. These names come from the translation of mehir (prophet) into the languages of Southern France.
Ibn Tibbon was probably born in Marseille ca. 1236. His family was originally from Granada and, for four generations, had been devoted to the translation of Arabic religious, philosophical, and scientific texts. Through these translations, Arabic learning and therefore Greek scientific traditions were made available to the scholars of medieval Europe. Ibn Tibbon studied medicine at Montpellier and probably lived in Gerona, Spain between AD 1266 and 1267. He spent most of his life in Lunel, where his great‐grandfather had established and practiced medicine at the beginning of the twelfth century, and Montpellier where he died in AD 1305.
Ibn Tibbon translated works by Autolycus of Pitane, Euclid, Menelaus of Alexandria, Qusṭā ibn Luqa, Ibn al‐Haytham, Ibn al‐Ṣaff īr, Ibn al‐Zarqāllu,...
References
Filius, L. S., ed. The Problemata Physica Attributed to Aristotle: the Arabic Version of Hunain ibn Ishaq and the Hebrew Version of Moses ibn Tibbon. Leiden: Brill, 1999.
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Ibn Tibbon. Il quadrante d'Israel. Ed. and Trans. Guiseppe Bofitto and C. Melzi d'Eril. Florence: Libreria Internazionale, 1922.
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Millās, José María. Tractat de l ‘assafea d'Azarquiel. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, 1933.
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Sarton, George. Introduction to the History of Science. Vol. 2.Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1931.
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Vernet, Juan. Ibn Tibbon. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 8. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976. 400–1.
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