Elijah del Medigo’s Commentary on Averroes’ de Substantia Orbis: A Critical Edition of Latin and Hebrew Versions with English Translation

This book provides the first critical edition of an unpublished work by Elijah Del Medigo (c. 1455-c. 1493), which has survived in both Latin and Hebrew. Del Medigo, a Cretan-born Jewish philosopher who spent most of his professional life in northern Italy, translated several of Averroes’s works from Hebrew into Latin and wrote quaestiones and commentaries concerning difficult aspects of his philosophy. Thanks to growing research activity in recent years, Del Medigo is now recognised as one of the leading protagonists of the ＂second revelation＂ of Averroes in the Renaissance: an all-round philosopher whose contribution lies well beyond the confines of his better known ＂theological＂ treatise Beḥinat ha-dat (Examination of Religion). The commentary on De substantia orbis (On the Essence of the Celestial Sphere) was written at the request of his humanist patron Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Del Medigo started composing the Latin version of his commentary in 1485 and decided to translate it into Hebrew soon afterwards. This commentary on Averroes’s celebrated cosmological treatise concerns the nature and properties of the heavens according to the principles of Aristotelian cosmology, and it constitutes one of Del Medigo’s most significant achievements. It attempts to tackle Averroes’s difficult text and complex arguments, engaging with crucial philosophical problems such as the incorruptibility of the heavens, divine causality, the essence of prime matter, the nature of divine providence, and heavenly influences on human beings. Del Medigo’s commentary stands out for the clarity of his language and thought, the intelligent manner in which he weaves together different sections of Averroes’s text, and its unique employment of both Hebrew and Latin sources in the course of the discussion. In fact, Del Medigo’s commentary was among the first in a long line of Renaissance commentaries on De substantia orbis by authors such as Pietro Pomponazzi and Agostino Nifo, and the edition may help to identify possible influences of Del Medigo on these renowned philosophers. The critical edition of both extant versions--Latin and Hebrew--will thus deepen our understanding of the reception of Averroes in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, shedding new light on a neglected chapter of Italian philosophical and scientific thought.
The volume includes a facing-page bilingual critical edition of the Latin and Hebrew texts, a detailed introduction including a philological analysis of the manuscript sources, and a comprehensive English commentary concerning the philosophical doctrines embedded in Del Medigo’s work. It will be of interest to scholars working on medieval and Renaissance philosophy and Jewish philosophy, to those studying the history of cosmology, astrology, and science, and generally to those studying the reception of Islamic thought in the Renaissance.

Michael Engel, University of Hamburg, Germany and Giovanni Licata, Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento, Florence, Italy.