LETTER XVII.

An EPISTLE to CHARLES CHRISTOPHER PLUER, chargé des Affaires from the Court of DENMARK to that of MADRID, written originally in Latin by Don GREGORY MAYANS, and containing the prefent State of the HEBREW and ARABIC Learning in SPAIN, and where the principal MSS. in those Branches are to be found.

Τ HE ARABIC and HEBREW languages have always greatly THE flourished in SPAIN; nor is this extraordinary, for the HEBREW contains the SCRIPTURES, and has interpreters, though for the most part very trifling, yet highly skilful in that language. Add to this, that the wealth of SPAIN ever attracted the avarice of the JEWS, whofe numbers increased fo much, that their sons were even admitted to holy orders, until they were forbid by some statutes, particularly that of TOLEDO, in 1547. This statute became neceffary, for there were found in one fingle town, of the diocese of TOLEDO, fourteen clergy, all Jews but one; and in many other places a fimilar discovery was made of their increase. There is no doubt, but that thefe Jews not only studied and improved their own language, the HEBREW; but even the most learned CHRISTIANS learnt eagerly that language, in order to convert the Jews, efpecially after the Council held at VIENNA, in the year 1311, as we may gather from the first CLEMENTINE, title De Magiftris, where it was ordained, that in the Universities of PARIS, OXFORD, BOLOGNA, and SALAMANCA, which

were

were then the most famed Univerfities, the Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldic tongues fhould be taught.

THIS was done with fo much fpirit at SALAMANCA, that from thence, as from the TROJAN Horfe, mere Princes went forth; men who understood all the Oriental Tongues incomparably well. Nevertheless in the time of FERDINANDUS NONIUS, the parent of Greek learning in this country, Chaldee and Arabic profeffors were wanting at SALAMANCA, as you may fee in N. CLEUARD'S Epiftles, p. 235.

As to the Hebrew, it is well known what hatred and averfion hath always fubfifted between the Jews and us CATHOLICS; from whence it happened, that this hatred, which fhould have been confined only to the perfidy of that people, hath been abfurdly exerted against the innocent Hebrew tongue itself, and its

learned Profeffors.

How much prejudice the study of the HEBREW created against ANTO. of LEBRIXA, a man of moft eminent learning, you may learn from his Apologia, which is a fcarce book; you may fee fome extracts of it in my Specimen of a Library, P. 33. The Letters of LEWIS VIVES will alfo tell you the ill treatment JOHN VERGERA, and other eminent Hebræans, met with here on account of their knowledge of the Hebrew. Read the complaints only of B. A. MONTANUS upon this fubject, in his Commentary de Varia Hebr. Lib. Scriptione et Lectione, where he is treating of the difcordance or agreement of different verfions.

WHEREFORE, although Cardinal XIMENES first fet the example, and roused the minds of the Spaniards to the study of the, Eaftern Languages, and particularly of the Hebrew, yet as par trons and rewards for it failed after his death, and the prejudice. ran against it, that most useful study began to be looked upon, as a mark of infamy.

UPON this account, in the beginning of the feventeenth cen-. tury, it was warmly difputed among the Spaniards, whether or

no

no the Rabbinical Writings ought to be read at all: This question was warmly debated and fully explained by JOHN MARIANA, in his Defence of the Vulgate; there he tells us, ch. 26, that scarce thirty scholars could be found in all SPAIN, to whom the Rabbinical Writers could be of any use; and he adds, that his countrymen were not then fo much addicted to the dry study of the Languages, as to stand in need of prohibitions, but rather of incitements. It is remarkable too, to obferve what he wrote in his tract De Rebus Societatis, ch. 6.

THE fame MARIANA, being confulted by the Inquifitor General concerning the Rabbinical Writers, anfwered, that he thought that the THALMUD, with its Gloffes, ought to be forbidden to be read, as it had been already forbidden; and that RABBI MENAHEM, a Recanate upon the Pentateuch, ought to be prohibited alfo; and likewife the book ZOHAR, written by S1MEON BEN-JOCHAI, which book the Jews vulgarly imagine was written before the time of CHRIST. MARIANA adds, that he believes, that there are many other Rabbinical Writings which he had never seen or heard of, the reading of which ought not to be permitted even to the learned: And he then gives us a list of fuch Rabbinical Writings, as wife men might read with the permiffion of the Inquifition.

WHEREFORE When the reading of the Rabbinical Writings was thus forbidden, it is no wonder that their MSS. difappeared fo totally, as not to be found in private libraries.- Nay even the printed Rabbinical Works were not to be had in the Bookfellers fhops: In fo much, that only a few of them are to be feen in the Library of the ESCURIAL, in that of the church of TOLEDO, and in that of the College of SAN ILDEPHONSO at ALCALA DE HE

NARES.

THERE are however in fome of our Univerfities the profeffors chairs ftill remaining, in order to fulfill nominally the academic conftitutions. In my time I remember two inftances, when a Profeffor's chair in one of them was to be filled up, that not one of three candidates was able to read a chapter of the Hebrew

Bible off hand. And yet, in the Universities of SALAMANCA, and VALENTIA, we have public Profeffors of Hebrew; but these have no pupils; for how can that be learnt which is not taught.

-This therefore is the true ftate of the case, the study of Hebrew in SPAIN was revived by XIMENES, and died with the difciples of the great MONTANUS.

As to the ARABIC language in this country, I will be fomewhat more diffuse upon that fubject, because there are more monuments and MSS. of it remaining, but which remain fo, as to be almost hidden treasures. The MoORS extended their Arabic language in proportion as they enlarged their conquests in SPAIN, as you may fee in ALDRETI's Origin of the Caftilian Language, chap. 22.

It is no wonder therefore, that there were many in SPAIN who were not only ambitious of glory in arms, but in letters; efpecially during the fierce contentions of fo many petty rival Kings, and in a country the most fruitful of great geniuses. The ARABS in SPAIN chiefly ftudied Philofophy, Mathematicks, and Phyfick: In the first, principally Logic and Metaphyfics; in the fecond, Arithmetic and Geometry; in the third, Botany and Chemistry.

ABU-NAZAR, AL-PHATAH, a native of HISPALIS, or SEVILLE, who wrote about the State of Learning in SPAIN, has told us how many, and what great men among these Arabs, have left works behind them in that language.

EBN ALKHALIB MAHOMAD, BEN ABDALLAH left likewife, in four large folio volumes, an Arabico-Spanish-Bibliotheque, containing the lives of the several Caliphs, Generals, Philofophers, Poets, and learned women, among the Arabs, who lived in SPAIN. These two laft mentioned excellent works, are both of them ftill existing in the Library of the ESCURIAL. See to this purpose, Nic. Antonii Bibliothec. Hifpan. num. 8, 9. the Preface to which work is a very learned performance.

AMONG

AMONG the Kings of SPAIN, ALPHONSUS THE WISE is almoft the only one who had any regard for the Arabic language: By his order ABRAHAM ABENZOHAR tranflated out of Arabic into the Spanish, HAZALQUI's book of Judicial Aftrology: And JUDAS, the fon of MUSCE, tranflated the entire book of HALI, the fon of ABENRAGEB, upon the fame subject, which was afterwards tranflated into Latin by ÆGIDIUS DE TEBALDIS. Befides, JUDAS, the fon of RABBI MOSES HACKEN, a canon of TOLEDO, tranflated into Latin, by the order of ALPHONSUS, the Aftronomical Works of AVICENA, from the Arabic: And the fame Prince ordered the book, concerning all kinds of Aftrolabes and their use, concerning the number and distances of the ftars, to be tranflated from the Chaldee into the Spanish tongue. This book that great man HONORETES JOHANNES ordered to be tranfcribed from the Library at ALCALA DE HENARES, and to be deposited in that of the ESCURIAL.

THE Univerfity of SALAMANCA contributed greatly to the increase of Arabic learning; for in that University there were eminent Profeffors of Phyfic, who ftudied and followed the fyftems of the Arabs: For the Arabs first raised that neceffary art into repute in EUROPE, when it was fallen to a very low ebb. These men first introduced the true practice of their art, by uniting the knowledge of the causes of distempers, with the prudent application of the propereft remedies.

BUT when things were come to that pafs, that the Chriftians began to apprehend that the Moors would fubdue their conquerors in their turn, they took all the precautions to be secure againft them, which fear naturally infpires. This was done many ways. It only belongs to my prefent fubject to fay, that the ufe of the Arabic tongue was forbidden to the Moors of GRANADA, as FERDINADO VALOR tells us in that eloquent fpeech, in which he complains with great addrefs, of the perfecutions of his countrymen. See Did. Hurt. de Mendoza, in kis Hift. of the War of Granada, Book 1. Sect. 7.