Latin Philosophy into Hebrew: Intercultural Networks in 13th and 14th Century Europe.

The intercultural networks between Arabic, Christian and Jewish communities of learning during the Middle Ages have played a decisive role in the evolution of Western thought and have helped to shape the European identity. Until now, scholarly research has focused almost exclusively on the transmission of Arabic philosophy and science into Latin. The influence of Latin texts on Jewish thought has been largely neglected. The goal of this project is to study the reception of Latin-Christian texts written at Toledo in the Jewish tradition of the 13th and 14th centuries and to draw an intellectual topography of the intercultural and interreligious networks that extended across Europe. The work will involve the philosophical analysis of various texts and their translations and reception, showing how the networks between the different religious communities in the Mediterranean can be understood as an attempt to work on a shared philosophical tradition. This tradition provided a common and continuous medium for dialogue between the faiths, based upon a commitment to philosophical reason. This approach will be combined with historical and philological research on the conditions and methods of transmission and translation of Latin texts into Hebrew. In addition, the project aims at editing and translating some of the Hebrew texts of reference. The project is only possible in a trans-disciplinary research group, for it requires philosophical, historical and philological skills as well as a high degree of familiarity with the different traditions involved.