Studies on Steinschneider

The present volume of studies on the life and work of Moritz (Moshe) Steinschneider (1816-1907) seeks to modify the traditional view of Steinschneider as a “mere bibliographer” by revealing other dimensions of his scientific personality. Together, the articles show that Steinschneider’s manifold scholarly activities were rooted in a well-defined scientific agenda, which modern readers do not easily recognize but which deserves to be recovered. This volume represents a first attempt to sketch Steinschneider’s intellectual biography and highlights the continued significance of his work for Jewish studies. It is an important contribution to our understanding of the project of nineteenth-century Wissenschaft des Judentums and its lasting impact on contemporary scholarly practice.

Reimund Leicht is Senior Lecturer in Jewish Thought and Philosophy and History of Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has published extensively on philosophy, science, astrology, and magic in ancient and medieval Judaism, and on the Christian Hebraist and Kabbalist Johannes Reuchlin. He is the author of Astrologumena Judaica: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der astrologischen Literatur der Juden (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006).

Gad Freudenthal is Senior Research Fellow Emeritus at the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) in Paris, France and, since 2010, a professor at the University of Geneva. He has written on the history of science in Antiquity and in the Middle Ages, especially in Jewish cultures. His books include: Aristotle's Theory of Material Substance. Form and Soul, Heat and Pneuma (Oxford, 1995), Science in the Medieval Hebrew and Arabic Traditions (Aldershot, 2005) and the edited volumes: Studies on Gersonides - A Fourteenth-Century Jewish Philosopher-Scientist (Leiden, 1992); (with S. Kottek), Mélanges d'histoire de la médecine hébraïque. Études choisies de la Revue de l'histoire de la médecine hébraïque, 1948-1985 (Leiden, 2003); Science in Medieval Jewish Cultures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). He also is the editor of Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism.