Alfonsus Bonihominis

The name taken by the Latin translator or adapter of an anti-Jewish pamphlet, originally written in Arabic by Samuel abu Naṣr ibn Abbas, better known as Samuel Maroccanus (of Morocco). The first edition bears the title, "Epistola ad R. Isaacum Contra Errores Judæorum, ex Arab. Latine per Alfonsum Bonihominis." Nothing is known about the translator; and Steinschneider is probably right in suspecting that he is none other than Paul of Burgos. The translation was made during the first half of the fourteenth century. Alfonsus Bonihominis is said to have also translated from the Arabic into Latin a "Disputatio Abutalib Saracẹni et Samuelis Judei" (Discussion between Abutalib, a Saracen, and Samuel, a Jew), which is still in manuscript (see Abbas, Samuel abu Naṣr ibn; Abner of Burgos).

Bibliography:

  * Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. Nos. 4407, 7055.



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