Berechiah ben Naṭronai ha-Naqdan’s Dodi ve-Neḵdi and the Transfer of Scientific Knowledge from Latin to Hebrew in the Twelfth Century

It is argued that Berechiah ben Naṭronai ha-Naqdan moved from northern France to Provence during the 1160s, where he was connected to the circle of Meshullam ben Jacob of Lunel and wrote some of his works. It is likely that Berechiah later returned to the north and composed his last works there. Berechiah wrote Dodi ve-neḵdi, a Hebrew paraphrase of Adelard of Bath’s Questiones naturales, in northern France before his sojourn in Provence. A comparison of the Hebrew text with the Latin original shows that Berechiah’s main goal was the transfer of scientific knowledge, not a precise rendering of Adelard’s text.