Moses Almosnino (ca. 1515 - ca. 1580), Salonika, mid-16th century
This important codex, written in Sephardic semi-cursive script, consists of two unpublished texts: a commentary to the Beit Elohim, the Hebrew translation of Sacrobosco's De sphaera mundi, and a commentary to the Sha'ar ha-Shamayim, the Hebrew translation of Georg Peuerbach's Novae theoricae planetarum. The colophon of the first text indicates that it was written in Salonika for Peretz ben Yehuda Mintz Ashkenazi by Hayyim Luzio in 1551; the colophon of the second states that it was composed by Moses Almosnino in 1546 and was also copied by Luzio. It is possible that both texts were written under the supervision of their author.
Almosnino was a well-known rabbi and preacher in sixteenth-century Salonika who was learned in philosophy and science. In these works, he cites Euclid, Aristotle, Archimedes, Ptolemy, Pythagoras, Avicenna, Averroes, and Albertus Magnus, among others. The texts chosen for commentary were two of the most important sources for late medieval cosmography and astronomy. Beyond these, Almosnino presents a geography of the world, including a detailed, seven-page description of America. In fact, he is one of the few Jewish writers of the period to have commented on the New World.
Paper, 162 leaves, 268 x 187 mm, 40 lines, in Hebrew, written in a semi-cursive script.
