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Sefer ha-Tappu'ah (Liber de Pomo), not written by Aristotle, but attributed to him, purporting to prove that Aristotle had changed his views in his old age. Maimonides rejected this view as spurious. Printed and bound with:
R. Isaac b. Solomon Abi Ibn Sahula, (b. 1244), Hebrew poet, scholar, and kabbalist. Sahula, who lived in the town of Guadalajara in Castile, was a disciple of the kabbalist R. Moses of Burgos and was acquainted with R. Moses b. Shem-Tov de Leon, his fellow townsman. His major work, Meshal ha-Kadmoni (1281), was expressly written to displace, with an original Hebrew work, such light literature as Kalila and Dimna and the Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, which were read extensively by Jews in the Middle Ages in Hebrew translations. Hence Sahula imitated these books in structure and in mode of presentation, and even added illustrations to his book, as was prevalent in non-Jewish literature. The manuscripts and all the printed editions of the work are embellished with extremely interesting miniatures or woodcuts. Divided into five chapters, Meshal ha-Kadmoni contains a large collection of parables, stories, and tales, all written in maqama form. The author's mastery of language and exceptional talent as a storyteller are revealed in this work, obscured however by the large amount of popular scientific material woven into the narrative. Meshal ha-Kadmoni enjoyed a wide circulation in the Middle Ages. It was reprinted six times, first by Soncino in Brescia (c. 1491), while the latest edition appeared in Tel Aviv in 1953 with a fully vocalized text and with the woodcut illustrations from the Venice edition (c. 1547). Its Yiddish version (1st, Frankfort on the Oder, 1693), the editions of which outnumbered the Hebrew (nine are known), also appeared with woodcuts. Meshal ha-Kadmoni also contains the earliest quotation from the Zohar (Midrash ha-Ne'lam). In addition, Sahula wrote a commentary on the Song of Songs in a kabbalistic vein. |
