Nathan ben Eliezer ha-Me'ati was an Italian Jewish translator, the earliest known member of the Ha-Me'ati family that flourished at Rome in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. He was called the "Prince of Translators" and the "Italian Tibbonide".

Life

He lived in Rome from 1279 to 1283. His native place seems to have been

Cento The Middle East Treaty Organization (METO), also known as the Baghdad Pact and subsequently known as the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), was a military alliance of the Cold War. It was formed in 24 February 1955 by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turk ...

, hence his name "Me'ati," which is the Hebrew equivalent of "Cento" (= 100). After acquiring many languages during long wanderings, he settled at Rome, where he translated scientific and especially medical works from Arabic into Hebrew. This was to take the place, as he declared, of the medical literature of the Jews which had existed even at the time of Solomon but had been lost, and to silence the mockery of the Christians, who said that the Jews had no such literature.

Works

His translations are: * 'Ammar ben 'Ali al-Mausuli's "Al-Muntaḥib fi 'Ilaj al-'Ain," on the treatment of the eye *The ''Canon'' of

Avicenna Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic G ...

*The

aphorism An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...

s of

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of ...

with

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one of ...

's commentary Neubauer, "Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS." No. 1588. *The aphorisms of

Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...

*A selection from various authors, chiefly from Galen, published under the title ''Pirḳe Mosheh'', Lemberg, 1804. Many anonymous translations are attributed to Me'ati, among them: (1) Razi's treatise on bleeding, "Ma'amar be-Haḳḳazah"; (2) Zahrawi's '' Kitab al-Taṣrif'' (Hebrew title, "Ẓeruf"); (3)

Ibn Zuhr Abū Marwān ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr ( ar, أبو مروان عبد الملك بن زهر), traditionally known by his Latinization of names, Latinized name Avenzoar (; 1094–1162), was an Arab Islamic medicine, physician, surgeon, and poet ...

's "Kitab al-Aghdhiyah" (Hebrew title, "Sefer ha-Ṃezonot"); (4) an anonymous work on the causes of eclipses entitled "Ma'amar 'al Sibbot Liḳḳut ha-Me'orot."

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{{authority control 13th-century Italian Jews 13th-century Italian writers Italian translators Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown Writers from Rome