Jacob ben Machir ibn Tibbon

Jacob ben Machir ibn Tibbon(Hebrew:יעקב בן מכיר ׳ן תיבון), of theIbn Tibbonfamily, also known asProphatius,was a Jewishastronomer;born, probably atMarseilles,about 1236; died atMontpellierabout 1304. He was agrandsonofSamuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon.HisProvençalname wasDon Profiat Tibbon;theLatinwriters called himProfatius Judæus.Jacob occupies a considerable place in thehistory of astronomyin theMiddle Ages.His works, translated intoLatin,were quoted byCopernicus,Reinhold,andClavius.He was also highly reputed as a physician, and, according toJean Astruc( "Mémoires pour Servir à l'Histoire de la Faculté de Médecine de Montpellier," p. 168), Ibn Tibbon wasregentof the faculty of medicine of Montpellier.

In thecontroversybetween theMaimonistsand the anti-Maimonists, Jacob defended science against the attacks ofAbba Mariand his party; the energetic attitude of the community of Montpellier on that occasion was due to his influence.

Works

Jacob became known by a series ofHebrewtranslations ofArabicscientific and philosophical works, and above all by two original works onastronomy.His translations are:

• theElementsofEuclid,divided into fifteen chapters
• the treatise ofQusta ibn Luqaon thearmillary sphere,in sixty-five chapters
• Sefer ha-Mattanot,theDataof Euclid
• Autolycus'On the Moving Sphere
• Theodosius'Spherics
• Menelaus'Spherics
• Ma'amar bi-Tekunah,orSefer 'al Tekunah,in forty-four chapters
• a treatise on the use of theastrolabe
• compendium of theAlmagestofPtolemy
• Iggeret ha-Ma'aseh be-Luaḥ ha-Niḳra Sofiḥah
• preface toAbraham bar Ḥiyya's astronomical work
• an extract from theAlmageston the arc of a circle
• "Ḳiẓẓur mi-Kol Meleket Higgayon,"Averroes' compendium of theOrganon(Riva di Trento, 1559)
• Averroes' paraphrase of books xi–xix ofAristotle's history of animals
• Mozene ha-'Iyyunim,falsely attributedtoGhazali,including also a large part deriving from theEncyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity(Rasā’il Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’)

The two original works of Jacob are:

• a description of the astronomical instrument called the quadrant (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, MS. No. 1054), in sixteen chapters, the last of which shows how to construct this instrument. This was translated several times into Latin (once byArmengaud Blaise)
• astronomical tables, beginning with 1 March 1300 (Munich MS. No. 343, 26). These tables were translated into Latin and enjoyed great repute.

See also

• Hachmei Provence
• Ibn Tibbon,a family list
• Jacob's staff

References

• O'Connor, John J.;Robertson, Edmund F.,"Jacob ben Machir ibn Tibbon",MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive,University of St Andrews
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Max Schloessinger,Isaac BroydéandRichard Gottheil(1901–1906)."Ibn Tibbon".InSinger, Isidore;et al. (eds.).The Jewish Encyclopedia.New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

External links

• Mercier, Raymond (2007)."Jacob ben Makhir ibn Tibbon".In Thomas Hockey; et al. (eds.).The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers.New York: Springer. p. 538.ISBN978-0-387-31022-0.(PDF version)