- Gerson ben Solomon Catalan
Gerson ben Solomon Catalan was a Jewish author who lived at
Arles , France in the middle of the thirteenth century. He died, possibly atPerpignan , toward the end of the thirteenth century. According toAbraham Zacuto and others, he was the father of Levi ben Gerson (Gersonides).Catalan compiled, about 1280, an encyclopedia entitled "Sha'ar ha-Shamayim" (Door of Heaven), which contains many quotations and even whole treatises from previous translations of works written in Arabic. Following
Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera , he divided his work into three parts, dealing respectively with: (1) physics, including a chapter on dreams; (2) astronomy, taken chiefly fromAl-Fergani ; and (3) theology or metaphysics, which part, as Catalan expressly says, contains nothing new, but is a copy ofMaimonides ' "Book of the Soul". The Greek authors cited areAlexander of Aphrodisias ,Aristotle ,Empedocles ,Galen ,Hippocrates ,Homer ,Plato ,Ptolemy ,Pythagoras ,Themistius , andTheophrastus ; the Arabic:Ali ibn Abbas al-Magusi ,Ali ibn Ridwan ,Averroes ,Avicenna ,Costa ibn Lucca ,Al-Farabi , Al-Fergani,Chonain ,Isaac Israeli ,Ibn Tufail , andIbn Zuhr . The work was published in Venice in 1547 andRödelheim in 1801.Bibliography
*Steinschneider, Moritz, "Catalogus Librorum Hebræorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana", col. 1014
*—, "Hebräische Übersetzungen", pp. 9 "et seq."
*Gross, Henri, in "Monatsschrift", xxx 20 "et seq."
*—, "Gallia Judaica". Paris: Libraire Léopold Cerf, 1897
*Senior Sachs , "Kerem Chemed", viii 153 "et seq."
*Rossi, Giovanni Bernardo de and Hamberger, C.H., "Historisches Wörterbuch der Jüdischen Schriftsteller", p. 69
*"Revue des Études Juives ", v. 278, xvi, 186A number of citations are to be found in
David Kaufmann , "Die Sinne". (See index.)----
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