Hebrew translation of Aristotle’s ethics by Isaac Satanow. There are some who describe it as the pseudo-Aristotelian Ethics. Nevertheless, The Ethics of Aristotle occupies an important place in the history of Jewish literature, although attention was directed to it comparatively late. Possessing their own religious writings an abundance, Aristotle’s only received attention when his whole philosophical system came to be studied. The Nicomachean Ethics, which alone of all Aristotle's ethical writings was known to the Middle Ages, was first translated into Hebrew from a Latin version in the beginning of the fifteenth century. The translator, Don Meïr Alguadez, expresses the opinion in his preface that Aristotle's ethical writings contain an explanation of certain precepts of the Torah. R. Moses Almosnino wrote a commentary upon this translation in 1584. The ethical aphorisms quoted by Hunain ibn Ishak in his work already mentioned found their way into many specimens of popular literature. Aristotle's relations with Alexander the Great are frequently mentioned in this literature as exemplary in their way, and Jews eagerly accepted the legendary accounts of the conversion of Aristotle to the true faith, and of the repudiation by him of his theory of Creation. But Immanuel ben Solomon (about 1320), in his imitation of the "Divina Commedia," nevertheless locates Aristotle in the infernal regions, because he taught the existence of the world from eternity. Gedaliah ibn Yahyah (sixteenth century) claimed to have found a book in which Aristotle recanted all his errors. People were easily persuaded to believe that "the wisest of the wise" had given in his allegiance to the doctrines of the Torah; that Simon the Just, whose acquaintance he is said to have made upon the occasion of Alexander's visit to Jerusalem, had convinced him of his errors.

Isaac Satanow (1732–1804), Hebrew writer, born in Satanov, Podolia. Satonow settled in Berlin in 1771 or 1772, where he served as the director of the printing press of the Hevrat Hinnukh Ne'arim ("Society for the Education of the Youth"). Among the most prolific of the early Haskalah writers, he did not restrict himself to any particular literary field, but wrote in most of those genres used by the later Haskalah writers. Satanow demonstrated a wealth of knowledge of the Hebrew language, ranking as a model stylist throughout the Haskalah period. He ascribed several of his works to earlier writers, and consequently used fictitious names for the authors of the recommendations for his own books and of their forewords.

Hebrew Description

..מפורש ושום שכל על יד ר’ איצק סטנאב ... חלק א-ב. ‬