I began my study of Ibn Ezra’s astrological corpus more than ten years ago. To date I have published the results of my research in five volumes, which contain critical editions, with English translation and commentary, of Ibn Ezra’s astrological writings in Hebrew, broken down according to the several branches of Greek and Arabic astrology addressed by him. These five volumes, however, do not fully cover Ibn Ezra’s astrological writings. As a result of Ibn Ezra’s increasing popularity after his death, collections of his Hebrew astrological treatises were translated in repeated waves into Latin and the emerging European vernaculars. Some of these Latin texts are translations of treatises whose Hebrew originals have been lost; their study affords us a golden opportunity to shed light on a significant missing link in our knowledge of Ibn Ezra’s astrological oeuvre. They also illustrate how Abraham Ibn Ezra was “reborn” in the Latin West and how his astrological lore was received there.

The present volume, the sixth installment of Ibn Ezra’s complete works on astrology, offers the first critical edition, accompanied by an English translation, a commentary, and an introductory study, of two astrological treatises in Latin that were written by Abraham Ibn Ezra or attributed to him, and whose Hebrew source-text or archetype has not survived. Because the allocation of texts to the volumes of this series was done thematically, by astrological genre, the two Latin texts selected for the current volume address the doctrine of nativities, or genethlialogy, whose fundamental principle is that a newborn’s destiny is determined by the configuration of the stars at the instant of birth and may be learned by the analysis of the natal horoscope. Despite the common genre, the contrast between these two Latin astrological treatises could not be greater, however.

The Liber nativitatum (Book of Nativities), the latest datable astrological treatise by Ibn Ezra, is undoubtedly an anonymous Latin translation of the second version of Ibn Ezra’s Sefer ha-moladot (Book of Nativities), whose Hebrew source text is otherwise lost. The study of Liber nativitatum undertaken in this volume reveals that it is replete with Hebraisms and literal Latin renderings of Ibn Ezra’s idiosyncratic Hebrew idioms and neologisms, incorporates frequent references to other parts of Ibn Ezra’s astrological corpus. It also shows that the second version of Sefer ha-moladot had a lengthy introduction divided into ten “chapters”—actually a treatise within a treatise. In this introduction Ibn Ezra propounded distinctive and idiosyncratic ideas about astrology that went beyond the limited scope of the doctrine of nativities and stand in contrast with the essentially technical and pedagogical character of the rest of the work.

The second Latin text in this volume is the Liber Abraham Iudei de nativitatibus (Book on Nativities by Abraham the Jew), the most mysterious specimen among the Latin works attributed to Ibn Ezra that have no extant Hebrew counterpart. Although this Latin text bears striking resemblances to Ibn Ezra’s Hebrew work on nativities, its affiliation with Ibn Ezra is unclear. In brief, the question is whether Liber Abraham Iudei de nativitatibus is a translation of a lost Hebrew text by Ibn Ezra, a later elaboration based on Latin translations of carefully selected fragments from his Hebrew astrological treatises, or a Latin treatise on nativities composed during Ibn Ezra’s lifetime with his active participation. The Liber Abraham Iudei de nativitatibus has been known to modern scholarship almost exclusively through the first print edition, produced by Erhard Ratdolt in Venice in 1485. The present volume sheds new light on our knowledge of this Latin work by taking account of all the available manuscripts of this text, as well as other previously unknown sources. In a nutshell, the present volume shows not only that the Liber Abraham Iudei de nativitatibus underwent a significant metamorphosis over time and was transmitted in four significantly different versions, but also that its date of composition is not that previously accepted by modern scholarship.

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to a number of people who have contributed toward the realization of this volume. Carlos Steel carefully read the Latin texts, was very helpful regarding their edition, and contributed stimulating ideas regarding their meaning. David Juste provided me with kind access to manuscript copies of Abraham Iudei de nativitatibus as well as with insights about the transmission of this text. Jean-Patrice Boudet was very helpful regarding the edition of the Old French words or phrases embedded in the Latin text. Charles Burnett made helpful suggestions about the transmission and interpretation of the Latin texts. Lenn Schramm revised the translations and the English sections of this book; he also made helpful suggestions about the translation of the Latin texts. Renate Smithuis, many years ago, placed at my disposal photographs of the two manuscripts of Liber nativitatum and a tentative transcription of its text. The Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 289/17) and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture provided generous grants. My warmest thanks to all of them.

Sh. S.

December 2018