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The Secret Faith of Maestre Honoratus : Profayt Duran and Jewish Identity in Late Medieval Iberia / Maud Kozodoy.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: The Middle Ages SeriesPublisher: Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2015]Copyright date: ©2015Description: 1 online resource (320 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780812247480
  • 9780812291810
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 946/.004924 23
LOC classification:
  • DS135.S8 D875 2015
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part One. An Intellectual Portrait -- 1. Honoratus de Bonafide, olim vocatus Profayt Duran, judeus -- 2. Scientific Transmission Outside the University -- 3. Efodi: The Commentary on the Guide of the Perplexed -- 4. Philosophical Eclecticism -- Part Two. Science and Jewish Identity -- 5. Jewish Astronomy: Between Maimonides and Gersonides -- 6. A Jewish Cosmos: Number and Speech -- 7. Astronomy and Jewish Identity: Ḥeshev ha- Efod -- 8. Rationalist Polemics: Al tehi ka- avotekha -- 9. History and Religion: Kelimat ha- goyim -- Part Three. The Efod Atones for Idolatry -- 10. The Inner Life: Eulogy for Abraham ha- Levi of Girona -- 11. The True Wisdom of the Torah: Ma'aseh Efod -- 12. Sigil and Segulah: Magical Elements in Ma'aseh Efod -- Conclusion -- Appendix: The Extant Works of Profayt Duran -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments
Summary: Until the summer of 1391, when anti-Jewish riots spread across the Iberian peninsula, the person subsequently known as Honoratus de Bonafide, a Christian physician and astrologer at the court of King Joan I of Aragon, had been the Jew Profayt Duran of Perpignan. The precise details of Duran's conversion are lost to us. We do know, however, that like many other conversos, he began to conduct his professional and public life as a Christian even as he rejected that new identity in private. What is extraordinary in his case is that instead of quietly making his individual way, he began to write works in Hebrew-including anti-Christian polemics-that revealed his intense inner commitment to remaining a Jew.Forced to reconceptualize Judaism under the pressures of his life as a converso, Duran elevated the principle of inner "intention" above that of ritual observance as the test of Jewish identity, ultimately claiming that the end purposes of Judaism can be attained through the study, memorization, and contemplation of the Hebrew Bible.Duran also conceived of Judaism as a profoundly rational religion, with a proud heritage of scientific learning; the interplay between scientific knowledge and Jewish identity took on a central role in his works. Drawing on archival sources as well as published and unpublished manuscripts, Maud Kozodoy marshals rarely examined facts about the consumption and transmission of the sciences between the medieval and early modern periods to illuminate the thought-and the faith-of one of Jewish history's most enigmatic and fascinating figures.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780812291810

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part One. An Intellectual Portrait -- 1. Honoratus de Bonafide, olim vocatus Profayt Duran, judeus -- 2. Scientific Transmission Outside the University -- 3. Efodi: The Commentary on the Guide of the Perplexed -- 4. Philosophical Eclecticism -- Part Two. Science and Jewish Identity -- 5. Jewish Astronomy: Between Maimonides and Gersonides -- 6. A Jewish Cosmos: Number and Speech -- 7. Astronomy and Jewish Identity: Ḥeshev ha- Efod -- 8. Rationalist Polemics: Al tehi ka- avotekha -- 9. History and Religion: Kelimat ha- goyim -- Part Three. The Efod Atones for Idolatry -- 10. The Inner Life: Eulogy for Abraham ha- Levi of Girona -- 11. The True Wisdom of the Torah: Ma'aseh Efod -- 12. Sigil and Segulah: Magical Elements in Ma'aseh Efod -- Conclusion -- Appendix: The Extant Works of Profayt Duran -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Until the summer of 1391, when anti-Jewish riots spread across the Iberian peninsula, the person subsequently known as Honoratus de Bonafide, a Christian physician and astrologer at the court of King Joan I of Aragon, had been the Jew Profayt Duran of Perpignan. The precise details of Duran's conversion are lost to us. We do know, however, that like many other conversos, he began to conduct his professional and public life as a Christian even as he rejected that new identity in private. What is extraordinary in his case is that instead of quietly making his individual way, he began to write works in Hebrew-including anti-Christian polemics-that revealed his intense inner commitment to remaining a Jew.Forced to reconceptualize Judaism under the pressures of his life as a converso, Duran elevated the principle of inner "intention" above that of ritual observance as the test of Jewish identity, ultimately claiming that the end purposes of Judaism can be attained through the study, memorization, and contemplation of the Hebrew Bible.Duran also conceived of Judaism as a profoundly rational religion, with a proud heritage of scientific learning; the interplay between scientific knowledge and Jewish identity took on a central role in his works. Drawing on archival sources as well as published and unpublished manuscripts, Maud Kozodoy marshals rarely examined facts about the consumption and transmission of the sciences between the medieval and early modern periods to illuminate the thought-and the faith-of one of Jewish history's most enigmatic and fascinating figures.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)