{"_index":"bib","_type":"_doc","_id":"895","_score":null,"_source":{"id":895,"authors_free":[{"id":1062,"entry_id":895,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":1,"person_id":401,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Mauro Zonta","free_first_name":"Mauro","free_last_name":"Zonta","norm_person":{"id":401,"first_name":"Mauro","last_name":"Zonta","full_name":"Mauro Zonta","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":0,"dnb_url":"http:\/\/d-nb.info\/gnd\/1068186860","viaf_url":"http:\/\/viaf.org\/viaf\/51773741","db_url":"NULL","from_claudius":0,"link":"bib?authors[]=Mauro Zonta"}}],"entry_title":"Mineralogy, Botany and Zoology in Medieval Encyclopaedias. 'Descriptive' and 'Theoretical' Approaches to Arabic Sources","title_transcript":null,"title_translation":null,"main_title":{"title":"Mineralogy, Botany and Zoology in Medieval Encyclopaedias. 'Descriptive' and 'Theoretical' Approaches to Arabic Sources"},"abstract":"There are three principal philosophical-scientific encyclopaedias written in Hebrew during the Middle Ages: Yehudah ha-Cohen's Midrash ha-\u1e24okmah (1245\u20131247), Shem Tov ibn Falaquera's De'ot ha-Filosofim (ca. 1270) and Gershon ben Shlomoh's Sha'ar ha-Shamayin (end of the 13th century). All three include detailed treatments of zoology, and the last two of botany and mineralogy as well. The principal feature of their treatments is their \u201ctheoretical\u201d - not merely \u201cdescriptive\u201d - approach: these encyclopaedias do not contain only lists of stones, plants and animals (such as other Arabic and Latin Medieval encyclopaedias), but also attempts at systematization and philosophical arrangement of the various available theories in the fields of mineralogy, botany and zoology qua sciences. An examination of the doctrines and the sources of these texts shows that, while the treatment of zoology relies upon Aristotle's zoological works and, above all, their Compendia by Averroes, the treatment of mineralogy and botany reflects the non-Aristotelian theories of the Brethren of Purity (I\u1e2bw\u0101n al-\u1e62af\u0101'), rather than such texts as pseudo-Aristotle's De lapidibus and Nicolaus Damascenus' De plantis. In particular, Falaquera's encyclopaedia represents the most convincing effort to provide a truly scientific discussion of mineralogy and botany, comparable to that of his contemporary Albert the Great, and based upon the Brethren, Avicenna and, maybe, some lost works by Averroes.","btype":3,"date":"1996","language":"English","online_url":null,"doi_url":null,"ti_url":null,"categories":[{"id":43,"category_name":"Tradition and Reception","link":"bib?categories[]=Tradition and Reception"}],"authors":[{"id":401,"full_name":"Mauro Zonta","role":1}],"works":[],"republication_of":null,"translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"book":null,"booksection":null,"article":{"id":895,"journal_id":null,"journal_name":"Arabic Sciences and Philosophy","volume":"6","issue":null,"pages":"263\u2013315"}},"sort":["Mineralogy, Botany and Zoology in Medieval Encyclopaedias. 'Descriptive' and 'Theoretical' Approaches to Arabic Sources"]}