Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This volume contains an edition and translation (with notes) of Joseph Ibn Kaspi’s Epitome of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and his commentaries on Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, written in Hebrew in the fourteenth century. The Epitome of the Ethics (a part of a work titled Terumat kesef) is based on a medieval Hebrew translation of Averroes’ Middle Commentary on the Ethics, with Ibn Kaspi’s omissions, additions, and paraphrases. His philosophical commentaries on Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs (constituting, along with two commentaries on Proverbs, a larger work titled Ḥaṣoṣerot kesef) treat the biblical books in question as intended to convey King Solomon’s views on a central topic in (proto-Aristotelian) ethical theory and on the conjunction of the human intellect with the active intellect (an idea going back to neo-Platonic interpretations of Aristotle’s De anima), respectively. The three works in question are mutually instructive, as Ibn Kaspi’s Epitome of the Ethics offers insight into his (mostly implicit) use of Aristotle’s theory for interpreting the biblical text, while the commentaries shed light on his reworking of Averroes’ commentary. This volume includes the first full edition of the Epitome of the Ethics, and the first English translation of the Epitome of the Ethics and the commentary on Ecclesiastes. The edition of all three texts, based on the extant Hebrew manuscripts, features a critical apparatus. The translation of these texts offers abundant notes, including cross-references to relevant sources, explanatory comments, and alternative translations. The volume concludes with a trilingual glossary.</jats:p>