Publisher's Synopsis
The aim of this volume is to explore Jewish participation in the scientific enterprise of the Middle Ages. This is seen not only in terms of the contribution made by particular Jewish scholars, but of how Jews saw science and scientific knowledge (including matters of medicine and philosophy) in relation to their own religion and structure of belief. The opening essay, one of three specially prepared for this volume, presents such a study of science in the Jewish communities of the Iberian peninsula. The following section contains papers on particular thinkers, extending from Abbasid Baghdad to the medieval heritage of 16th-century Cracow; the final one focuses on texts and manuscripts, covering astronomy, mathematics and medicine.
