From my Notebooks: A Compendium of Renaissance Science: Taʿalumot Ḥoḵmah by Moses Galeano

Taʿalumot ḥoḵmah ("Puzzles of Wisdom"), a compendium of Renais-sance knowledge composed by Moses ben Judah Galeano around the year 1500, is one of the most idiosyncratic and historically interesting specimens of Hebrew scientific literature. The author was a physician, astronomer, and translator, active at the court of Bayazid II, who spent some time in Italy and Crete as well. Ostensibly a catalogue of errors, in which Galeano reviews mistakes of reasoning on scientific and other issues, his book is a rich repository of information. Various items in the fields of astronomy, mathematics, alchemy, and ethics are examined in depth. The most exciting of these is a discussion of astronomical models in which the author includes the system of Ibn al-ShāÔir, which displays a strong resemblance to Copernicus' models. Taʿalumot ḥoḵmah offers the first evidence that someone who knew Ibn al-ShāÔir well was present in Italy.