Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/426

378 Alfonso Algazi In piUil

THE

III.

what

lanc>iajrc tlic

TIr'

is doiilitful.

nriijriiial

in uuconipliniontai y tcinis;

and

wcro

coni-

irfcrs to

Jews

tallies

Ijitiii iiortioii

not

tln'irfori'

is

it

likely to bo the work of Ibn Siil, who is, besides, known as a translator from Arabic- into iSpaiiisIi of other astmnoinieal works. Tiie tables were supposed by Humboldt in his "Cosmos" to have been com-

piled at a congress of Christian, Jewish, and Mohamespecially assembled for that ]nnpo.se by Alfonso. This inylli has been exploded by Steinselineider. wliotnieeil he tradition to Zaeiito. iStranfie to sjiy. the Alfonsine Tal)les proper were for the lirst time tran.slaled from the Latin into Hebrew liy Mo.ses ln-n Abraham of Nimes, at Aviirnon, as late as 1400; though this translation was of little conse(luence to tlu' history of science. There are, besides, several Hebrew manuseni)ts conlainiiic; commentaries and e.planalions for the use of the Alfonsine Tables, giving the canons or ruling principles on

medan astronomers,

I

which they were compiled. The Alfonsine Tables must not be confounded with earlier astronomical tables composed at Toledo between 1001 and 10^^0 by Abu Ishak ibn Al-Zarkali of Cordova, which were translated into Spanish at the recpiest of Alfonso X. by Don Abraham Facpjin about 1277. This translation has been published by Uico in "Libros del Saber de Astrononiia," Madrid, lsO.->.

another set of astronomical tables was comPedro IV. of Aragou, about 1307, l)y Jacob ben Isaac Carsono. These tables were translated into Hebrew, and still exist in manuscript at Parma and at Rome. David Gans, author of "Zemab David," mistook them for the Alfonsine Tables. See also Is.AC ihn Sid. Still

piled in Spain for

BIBLIOORAPHT ti;^. y7.">;

Steinsohnelder, Hchr. Uclicrs. pp. BIfi-628, 638. i&em^JHdi.'*che Litiratur in Ersch and Gruber. Eii:

CjiMiHx'I'lie. x.xvil.

i'.i'X

44ii.

J.

ALFONSO III. OF PORTUGAL. ALFONSO V. OF PORTUGAL.

378

.IKWISII ENCVC'LOI'KHIA

Sie Pi>i(TU-

languages for several years at the I'niversity of Salamanca. His pure Hebrew style leads Xeubaucr to suppose that he attended a Jewish school befoie going lo the university. Owing to this proficiency. Cardinal Ximenes employed him for over fifteen years in the preparation ot the Com]>lutcnsian Polyglot, to which he contributed largely. He wrote a number of gnuninatieid and lexicogra|)hical works, and com|>osed in Hebrew and Latin, interlined, an epistle to the Jews in Kome. wherein he seeks lo ailmonish them and convert them to the Christian faith. The letterenlitled "A Letter from the Kingdom of Spain to the Jews in the Homan Commu" (.Meala de Henares. l.')20) does not seem to have nity disturbed the Homan Jews; in fact. Kieger questions whether Ihev ever received it ("Geseh. d. Judcn in Horn," ii. 47", Berlin. 189,")). Among his writings, enumerated in the subjoined references, may be mentioned two Hebrew vocabulariis, published in l.")l.j; an introduction to Hebrew (Jrannnar (" Introducliones ArtisGrammaticic Hebraica'," 1520), now very rare (second cd.. Alcalilde Henares) translations of and commentaries on portions of the Bible (Jeremiah. Lsjiiah. etc.); an introduction to the Targum, l.");52; a polemic entitled " Libro de la Sabiduria de Dios" (manuscript in Escurial, sec Kayserling. " 15il)l. Esii.-Porl. Jud." ]i. 118); and letters and miscellaneous correspondence preserved in manuscript at Leyden (Codex Warner. 6.")). In a letter, dated March lit), l.")44, he states that he was seventy years old and still professor of Hebrew at

the L'niversity of Salamanca (Steinschneidcr, "LeyIn one place he also calls himp. 281). self teacher of Hebrew at the University of AlealA

den Cat."

de Henares. BuiLioc.RAPMY: De Castro. BihUi'tcca Ratihinica Hispanicni'in, SSIO; De Rossi, Aiinnli-x Hrlir(rn.Tin>"tirniihici. I.'ini-K), 1. p. :J0: DelitZ!M*Ii. }yi.^'<ciisi-luift tt. Knnst ini Jiult'nihmii, pii. 289 et scq. ; Steinscliiu'lder. ( 'nt. ItoilL col. 7:t;t ; idem, Lrjiiirn Cat. pp. Sr!l-»<1 ; ideal, BUiluiiiniiJhisclie.i< HamllnuU, p. 4 : Neulmiier, in Jew. Qiutrt. Hev. lt«(5, vll. 398-417; Blau, iliiil.

ix. 471!.

G.I,.

G. A. K.

See Poktu-

c.i..

ALFONSO IX. OF LEON. Sec Sp.mn. ALFONSO: mathematician of uncertain date, .

author of a treatise on squaring the circle, extant in a manuscript in the Hritish .Museum (additional manviAlfonso claims in the [jrefatory scripts, 26,984). remarks to have found and demonstrated the possibility of constructing a plane tigure, ecpial not merely appro.ximately, but exactly to the area of a given circle. He professes to have put an end to all doubts on the subject, such as were entertained b}' Aristotle, and controverts the opinions of Ibn Roshd and Ibn Sina, who bad declared the demonstration to be impo.ssible. S. A. H.

—

—

ALFONSO DE ALCALA.

See

Alfonso de

Z.Mo[< A

ALFONSO BURGENSIS.

Sec

Abnek of

ALFONSUS BONIHOMINIS:



BiBLiO(RAriiv



Stelnschneider, Cat. Botll. Nos. 4407. 7055.

G.

]>ri!(.os.

ALFONSO COMPLUTENSIS.

See

Alfonso

See Spina,

Alfonso

m: ZMoi!A.

ALFONSO DE SPINA.

ALFUAL

r.l

See

Abneu

i;i.iis.

ALFONSO DE ZAMORA



Spanish Marano

of the sixteenth century; Hebraist and polemical writer; born in Zamora about 1474, and baiitized in the Catholic faith in l.'iOO. His father's name "vvas Juan de Zamora, and he likewise seems to have become a Christian. Alfonso was professor of Oriental

"Jew. Quart. Rev."

whom the following are known: Abraham Alfual Of Tortosa; lived

.'587),

ALFONSO OF VALLADOLID.

al-Fawwal, "The BeanThe family name of a number of Span(or, rallier,

Jlercliant ") ish Jews (Steinschneidcr,

DK.

OF

The name

taken by the Latin truiislatur or adapter of an antiJewish pamphlet, originally written in Arabic by Samui'l !ibu Xasr ibn Abbas, better known as Samuel Slaroccanus (of Morocco). The first edition bears the title. "Epistola ad K. Isaacum Contra P>rrores Juda-orum. ex Arab. Latine per Alfonsum Bonihominis." Nothing is known about (he translator; and Steinschneidcr is probably right in suspecting that he is none other than P;iul of Burgos. The translation was made during the first half of Alfonsus Bonihominis is the fourfeenlh century. said to have also Iranslateil from the Arabic into Latin a " Disputatio Abutalib Saraceni ct Sainindis Judei " (Discussion between Abutalib, a Saracen, and Samuel, a Jew), which is still in mantiscript (see Abbas, Samiel abi' Nask ibn Ab.neb of Bincos).

xi.

of



of the fciurleciith ii'utury. sponsa of Isaac l)(_'ii Sheshet.

He

is

at the end

cited in the re-

Hayyim ben Judah Alfual Of the eleventh centurv; mentioned in the responsa of Isaac ibn

Ml- -as;

Hayyim

A

ben Judah Alfual : rabbi on the island of Rhoili-s: lived in the sixteenth century.