Maimonides the Philosopher
"Guide for the Perplexed" and other philosophical texts. The manuscript was written in Rome in 1283. Currently preserved in the British Library in London.
The "Guide for the Perplexed," the philosophical treatise originally written by Maimonides in Arabic, was translated into Hebrew by Shmuel Ibn Tibbon under the supervision of Maimonides. Following the death of Maimonides, the poet, Yehuda Alharizi, translated the "Guide for the Perplexed" into a poetic dialect of Hebrew. Both translations were known throughout the Jewish world.
In 1283, almost eighty years after his death, one of the first illustrated manuscripts of Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed was copied and illustrated in Rome. Originally, the manuscript was part of a collection of twenty-three philosophical texts, most of them by Maimonides himself.
The manuscript was copied by copyist Avraham Ben Yom-Tov HaCohen and commissioned by a banker, Shabtai Ben Matityahu - both from Rome. The copyist illustrated part of the manuscript, whilst a workshop that specialized in illustration of Hebrew manuscripts painted them.
At the end of the 13th century, many Hebrew manuscripts were decorated with a special flowering pattern popular in Italy, and especially popular in Rome. Living evidence of this is found in this manuscript of the Guide for the Perplexed and other philosophical works of Maimonides that were created at the same time in Rome.
