THE JEWISH EXCYCLOPEDLV.
377
liavc r(f<T<-iiee to religious rites. Some Arabic rcspoiisji of Alfasi are to be fouuil in Harka vy. " Studieii mill Mittiihingen." vols. iv.. ..v.. ami iu S. A. Wert•• liriiiii Kolielet Shelonioli." Jerusalem, 1899; com pare " .Mouatsschrift." xliv. 144. 1-
Bini.innRArnY: R. Atirahain Ibn Daud (Rabad), SeferhaKahlKtlah Azulaf, Sttem ha-GcdiiUm, s.v. ; (iriltz, Oetich. d. jmkti,. "« ft xeq.; Stelnscbnelder, Cat. ItinU. col. 1(187; Wf i.ss. Dor^ iv. 2»1 t'f seq. (.'azes, Xotin llil'litufraiitiiifttcs
fUtr la
Littcraturc Jitivc Tunisii^nne^
Tunl.-^. IS'W.
F.
-M.
AXFASI, ISAAC BEN JOSEPH:
Descend-
"Maskit ha-Orot u Pardes ha-Nizzanim " (The liamber of Light and the Garden of Flowers). This work is still e.xtJiiil in uianuseript in the Bodleian Library. Bibliography Dukes, Oair Xrhmad, il. IKi Fucnn. Kcnaict title, (
I'fdiaf). p. SitJ
xxU
SlelnscliiiPldcr,' H<7/r. Uclicnt. n.
75
IM.'i;
Idem,
Kaufmunn, Die Spuren Al-liailaJuM's
intter JlUlisdtin licliyi'tnutiliilonitpliic^ 18H0,
p.
ALFASI, ISAAC BEN REUBEN
Br.
Sometimes
staled to be a giamlsou of Is;uu- .Vllasi. He is frequently eited as the author of " Sha'are Shebu'ot," a work in twenty chapters on oaths, iisuallv printed with Alfasi's ••"Halakot" (Filrst, "Bibl. Jiid." i. 3«; I!enjaeob,Oz.arha-Sefariin." p. 60,5). It is probable, however, that the actual author was Isjiac ben Heubi-n of Barcelona or an otherwise unknown Isaac ben Heuben, especially as he quotes the Kif without claiming relationship. BiBI.ioiiRAPIIY: Steinsclinelder, Cat. Bniil. cuI. 1U8; Weiss, fjiir, Iv. ;^1. A Souii '»/ Liivf by Isaac ben Reut)**!i has been Iranslated Into En^llsli by .Nina Davis In ,/> ic, yiwrf. I{iv. in.s:. I).
ALFASI, MASA'UD
RAPHAEL
Rabbi
in
the end of the eiglileiiil li ceiitiiry: died He is the author of ".Mishlia di-Hubuta" in ITTti. (Oil of . ointing), a work containing notes on .loseph
Tunis
al
('aid's "Shulhan "Arnk" (Leghorn, lHOo). He was assisted by his two learned sons, Solomon (d. IWl) and llayyim (d. 178;?), the former beinir the author of a similar work," Kerub .Mimshali " (The Anointed Cherub), Leghorn, 1859, fol. M. F.
ALFONSI, PETRUS
(called before baptism Spaniard"): A controversiali>l and pbysieian in ordinary to King .Vlfonso T. of Castile; born at Iluesea, Aragon, in lOfi"', and died in He embniced Cliris11 10 at the age of forty-eight. lianily and was baptized at Hueseaon St. Peter's day, June 29. llOfi, in his forty-lifth year. In honor of the saint and of his royal patron ami godfather hi> took Ihenameof Pet rus.lfonsi(. Vlfonso s Peter). Like all the apostates of his time, he sought to show his zeal for the new faith by attacking Judaism and defend-
Moses Sephardi.
"
ilir
He composed
ing the truths of a series of twelve dialogues against the .lews, the the Christian faith.
supposed ilispulants being .Moseand Pedro (= .Moses Si phardi and Petrus .lfonsi, or, in otlnT wonls, Though the liiiiiself before and after conversion). ork is overpraised by lijtymund Martin, in his " I'ugio Kidei," and others equally l>iase<l. il is but
known today and. as Sleinschiieider observes ("Hebr. I'elHTS." p. 9;!;(), fully mi'rits the oblivion into which il has fallen. The " Dialoiri in qiiibus opiniones confiilanlur." iiiipiie .liidieorum till' full title of which is given in Wolf. " liibliolheca llebraa" (i. 971) ami Fl'irst. " Ililil. .lud." (i. Sti). ap little
.
pi-ared at
Cologne
Pntrum"(.ii. 858,
.
.
.
in LVlll
x.i.
i-d.
and
.
Migne, t. 157, p. 535). Gther books are ascribed to him, and he is sometimes confounded with Petrus Hispaniis of the thirteenth century. See Steinschneider (/.'•. p. 470. 557, note 208), who regards S is-.' p. im, him as the probable translatorof the " Canones Tabularum " (" Cod. Corp. Clir." 283, 13 f. 141i) from the Arabic. It is ascribed to one Petrus Anfulsus, who is very likely identical with Alfonsi (st'e Steinschneider, "llebr. Bibl." 1883, xxi. 38; "llebr. L'ebers." pp.
f;
Another controversial tract, described a.s a dialogue "Inter Petrum Christianum et Moysem Hiereticum" (Codex .Merton, 17.5*, f. 281 in Coxes "Cat." p. 09), is said to have been written by Petrus Alphonsi (compare "Hebr. Bibl." xxi. 38). In Cambridge University, England, there is a manuscript of the fifteenth century bearing the title: " De Conversione Petri Alfonsi Quondam Judai et Libro Ejus in Juda'os et Saracenos," which is mentioned in Steinsehneider's " Polemisehe und ApologetLsche Literatur," 1877, p. 224 (compare p. 235, No. 5, s.v. Epis;
tola).
'J2.
I.
Alfonsine Tables
985, 98(j, S 589).
ant of a Spanisb family; llourislieil in Ailriauople iu the si.xteentb century. He translated Glia/.zali's work. ".Mishkat al-Anwar." into Hebrew, under the
Hclir. liihl.
Alfasi
.
later in " Bililioteca
Lugdiinensis, p. 172; ed.
Alfonsi's fame rests chiefly on a collection of thirlythree tales, composed in Latin. This collection has enjoj-ed a most remarkable popularity, and is, on that account, an interesting subject of study in coin|)aiiitive literature. It isentitled "Disciplina Clericalis," or "A Training-school for the Clergy," and was often used by clergymen in their discourses, notwithstanding the questionable moral tone of .some of the stories. The work is important as throwing light on the migration of fables, and is almost indispensjible to the student of medieval folk-lore. Tnuislations of it into French. Spanish, and German are extant and Josejih Jacobs has recently iliscovercd some of the stories at the end of Caxton's translation of the fables of .Esop. where thirteen apologues of " Alfoiice" arc taken from the " Disciplina Clericalis." .Vn outline of the tales, by Douce, is preti.xed to Nearly Ellis' "Early English .Metrical Homances." all the stories are adopted in the "Gesta liomanonmi." Chapters ii. and iii. were done into Hebrew
and i.ssued under the
title
l^n IDD." BiH)k of Enoch,"
Venice, 1544 and 1605. An French translation of this Hebrew extract
Constantinople,
151t>;
early was" made |>rior to
1I)!I8
by
Piipies, and August Piin Paris, 1838.
chard published another version
BiHI.ioiiRAriiv The whole lllenituro is put Intn-ther and dl»(•us.sed In Stelnscbneider's Hrlir. I'tluiv. ipp. IWt-'.UI). MenUnii slii.tulil t>e iiuide of the .'iebolarly eilltlon of F. W. V. Schmidt, B»Tlln, IKL'7, (<iwhi>seii"Ies sicliiM-hnelder offers very valuable emendations and iMtnillels fn>iii (irii-utul and W**stem folk-Ion'. Slelnwlinilder, .U.miKi, 1S47, |>|i. l(t', IH: Idem,
{'<l(.
- )ih((. cols. '(11.
.Vill.
7:£1.
~H; ldem../<idWi
i^i(< ruttirf. p.
174: the anlboritles mentloneil Id 11. I'llekJ's arllele, /Vilrti Met'llnbik and Slronu's ("i;iloiif<l(<i, vll. t*H,S(S5; W. A. Clouston, yuntrrn fr"iiia I'l mtan tiartir it, p. lui. l.ond(»n, Islto; Jaccdis, Jriris/i /Wcdtj*, l-*^*!. pp. UI-U:i. lays slmw on .lfonsrs lm(>orIance lus one of the Intermedtahes i-'twi-cn ftutteni and Western folk-loR-, and quuU-s one of Caxton's Alfiiiinii, In
Dtorli-s
from "AUnncc."
0. A. K.
ALFONSINE TABLES: A scriesof a.stronoming llie exact hours for the rising of the planets and lixed stars: compiled at Toledo at the request of Alfonso X. of Castile alwnit the year I'.'52, the date given in the Latin eilitioiis In-ing the year They are of considenildc iniportaace to the rj5l. historyofa-slronomyandeven tothat of geognn>hical disc'overy. since it was by trusting to a revision of them by .Vbnihani Ziictilo that Columbus was enabled li> rcaih the New World. According toZaciito, the chief compiler of the tables wa.s Isaac ibn Sid. n haZan or cantor of the city of Toledo; and astroiioiuical observations of his. dating fnim tlu' years 1211300, were 8wn bv Isaac Isnieli, ical tallies gi
