Nathan Ben Samuel

Spanish physician; flourished, as far as is known, at the beginning of the fourteenth century. He is designated in some manuscripts by the abbreviation  which some render "Nathan ben Samuel Tibbon," and others, more correctly perhaps, "May his soul rest in the shadow of the Most High" ("Nafsho be-ẓel Shaddai titlonen"). He left a commentary on the Pentateuch, entitled "Zikkaron Ṭob," which he wrote about 1307, and of which an abridged version is extant under the title "Mibḥar ha-Ma'amarim" (Leghorn, 1840). Nathan ben Samuel must not be confounded with his namesake Nathan the physician, who lived at Montpellier toward the close of the thirteenth century, and whom Steinschneider ("Hebr. Bibl." xvii. 61, xx. 17) identifies with the physician Nathan ben Joel Falaquera, author of "Ẓori ha-Guf."

Bibliography:

  * Gross, Gallia Judaica, p. 328;
  * Renan-Neubauer, Les Rabbins Français, pp. 550, 748;
  * Schiller-Szinessy, Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts Preserved in the University Library, Cambridge, pp. 185, 194, 199;
  * Steinschneider, in Berliner's Magazin, iii. 145.



E. C. S. K.