The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy: Proceedings of the Bar-Ilan University Conference.

• Author: Stroumsa, Sarah
• Position: Reviews of Books - Book Review

The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy: Proceedings of the Bar-Ilan University Conference. Edited by STEVEN HARVEY. Amsterdam Studies in Jewish Thought, no. 7. Dordrecht: KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS, 2000. Pp. 547.

It should perhaps be said from the outset that, although the articles assembled in this volume were first presented as lectures in a conference, this volume does not suffer from the haphazardness that often plagues conference proceedings. The volume offers a comprehensive and sustained examination of a particular literary genre--the encyclopedia of science and philosophy--as developed in medieval Hebrew literature. It contains articles by some twenty authors, but an obvious preparatory and editorial effort has turned them into a joint work. As a result, this volume is indeed a comprehensive book, which not only examines various aspects of the genre, but also allows for an overall view of its place in medieval culture.

The conference to which the subtitle refers was held at Bar-Ilan University (Ramat-Gan, Israel) in January 1998. The revised papers reflect the conference as well as the ongoing discussion between its participants. Steven Harvey, who convened the conference and edited the volume, defines the medieval Western encyclopedia as "a well-ordered, easy-to-use, comprehensive account of already existing information" (p. 5). But, he confesses, no consensus was reached among the participants as to the basic question of what is a medieval encyclopedia of science or philosophy, nor more precisely: "how original it may be, how comprehensive it ought to be, and how introductory it must be" (p. 9).

In the discussion of the medieval compositions, the term "encyclopedia" designates, first and foremost, a literary genre, and like any other genre it can be, and indeed has been, manipulated and harnessed to serve various purposes. Charles E. Butterworth argues (p. 102) that "to focus on the way [the medieval authors] adhere to that genre, is to risk missing their particular intention." But in fact, the contrary may be true: without a correct identification of the particular genre of a composition, it may be impossible to understand fully the author's techniques as well as his intentions.

A case in point is Butterworth's article, "In What Sense is Averroes an Encyclopedist?" (pp. 99-119). Butterworth answers the question in the negative, because he believes the didactic, propadeutic element to be essential to the encyclopedia. He highlights the fact that Averroes' declared intention in...