The Impact of Hagin le Juif's French Translations on Subsequent Latin Translations of Abraham Ibn Ezra's Astrological Writings

Abstract

From the Middle Ages until the present, the development of astrology among Jews has been associated with Abraham Ibn Ezra (ca. 1089–ca. 1161). He created the first comprehensive set of Hebrew astrological textbooks, which addressed the main systems of Arabic astrology and provided Hebrew readers with access to the subject. Some of his works became known to Christian scholars during his years in the Latin West and shortly after his death. However, Ibn Ezra's astrological writings remained outside the mainstream of Latin astrological literature until the last decades of the thirteenth century. An Ibn Ezra renaissance took place in the Latin West, thanks to a number of almost simultaneous translation projects. This essay aims to shed light on a limited but fundamental facet of the Ibn Ezra renaissance in the Latin West: the impact of the earliest datable translation project—Hagin le Juif's French translations, carried out in 1273—on subsequent Latin translations of Ibn Ezra's Hebrew astrological writings. The current study examines all of Hagin's French translations and all the relevant Latin translations of Ibn Ezra's astrological writings. In addition, the current study presents hitherto unknown biographical information about Hagin le Juif and attempts to explain the cultural context of his French translations.