Bonafos, Menahem Ben Abraham (Called Also Bonafoux, Abraham Of Perpignan)

French philosopher; flourished at the end of the fourteenth century and at the beginning of the fifteenth. He was the author of a work entitled "Sefer ha-Gedarim" (Book of the Definitions), or, as it is also called, "Miklal Yofi" (Perfection of Beauty), a dictionary of technical expressions in Hebrew works on philosophy, ethics, and medicine, especially the terms found in the "Guide of Perplexed." The author aimed rather to give a clear explanation of the terms than their etymology, though drawing sometimes upon Arabic and Greek for help in his explanations. The work was published with some notes by Isaac  (probably "Arroyo") at Salonica in 1567, and at Berlin in 1798, with a Hebrew commentary by Isaac Satanow.

Bibliography:

  * De Rossi, Dizionario Storico, p. 75;
  * Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1719;
  * Gross, Gallia Judaica, p. 476.



K.I. Br.