The Golden Path: Maimonides Across Eight Centuries - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 180207788X ISBN 13: 9781802077889

Publisher: Liverpool University Press, 2023

Synopsis

Among the intellectual luminaries dotting the millennia of Jewish history, none shines brighter than Maimonides (1138-1204). He was a rabbi, jurist, Talmudist, philosopher, physician, astronomer, and communal leader, and produced a myriad of writings on halakhah, theology, medicine, and philosophy that have attained near-canonical status. We have more source material from or about Maimonides than possibly any other Jewish figure in the medieval period, and more has been written about him than perhaps any other Jew in history. Epithets like the ‘Great Eagle’ and the ‘Western Light’ – and the glorifying statement ‘From Moses to Moses, none arose like Moses’ – reflect centuries of authority, influence, and fascination.

The Golden Path traces the impact and reception of Maimonides and his thought through a study of materiality, specifically the production and dissemination of textual objects. It consists of two sections: a descriptive catalogue of an exceptional private collection of manuscripts and rare books; and essays from leading scholars on aspects of Maimonides's cultural context, influence, and appropriation through disparate eras and geopolitical spheres. Combining intellectual, reception, and book historical research, the heavily illustrated volume explores his effects in assorted social and political circumstances, across diverse intellectual and cultural environments.

About this title

About the Author

David Sclar is a historian and educator based in New York.

Edition details

• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 180207788X
• ISBN 13: 9781802077889
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Sclar David