LEO GRECH/YEHUDAH MOSCONI: HEBREW

HISTORIOGRAPHY AND COLLECTIONISM IN

THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

ELEAZAR GUTWIRTH
Tel Aviv University

ABSTRACT
Leo Grech/Yehudah Mosconi is famous for the sale of his
library and for his Introduction to the medieval Hebrew chronicle
known as Yosippon. The paper recreates his background in
Mallorca in the second half of the fourteenth century. It argues that
an examination of the Introduction he authored may help to
understand the Jewish attitudes to -and perceptions of- history
writing at the time. Similarly, his remarks on the acquisition of
books differ from more conventional descriptions in terms of
progeny. They provide evidence of the thought and ideals of
collectionism of Hebrew books in medieval Spain.
Keywords: Leo Grech/Yehudah Mosconi. Hebrew book
collectionism. Hebrew Historiography.

RESUMEN
Leo Grech / Yehudah Mosconi es famoso por la venta de su
biblioteca y por su Introducción a la crónica hebrea medieval
conocida como Yosipon. El articulo reconstruye su contexto en
222 Eleazar Gutwirth

Mallorca en la segunda mitad del siglo XIV. Argumenta que un

examen de la Introducción que compuso puede ayudar a
comprender las actitudes judías hacia la composicion de obras de
historia y las percepciones de la misma en esa epoca. Asimismo,
sus comentarios sobre la adquisición de libros difieren de
descripciones más convencionales en términos de progenie.
Proporcionan evidencia acerca del pensamiento y los ideales del
coleccionismo de libros hebreos en la España medieval.
Palabras clave: Leo Grech/Yehudah Mosconi. Coleccionismo
medieval de libros hebreos. Historiografia hebrea medieval.

Leo Grech/Yehudah b. Moses Mosconi, is famous for his

library and for his Introduction1 to an edition of the medieval
Hebrew chronicle Yosippon. ʺFamousʺ is, perhaps, an
overstatement, as it is possible to find cited some treatments 2
which ascribe him to the thirteenth century, although he was
born in 1328 and died before October 1377.The aim of the
following lines is to link these two vectors of his activities while
analyzing the Prologue.
On a first encounter with his biography, his birth in the
Byzantine empire [in Ohrid, in todayʹs North Macedonia]
might seem a key to his thought and attitudes. Nevertheless,
even those who tend to focus intently on birth will have to
agree that the Byzantine component of his biography is mostly
undocumented [e.g. in the usual sense of dated, precise

1 J. Mosconi, ʺHaqdamah le-Yosippon,ʺ Ed A. Berliner from a Roman MS

in Ozar Tob (supplement to Magazin fiir die Wissenschaft des Judenthums), Berlin,
1877-78, pp. 17 ff. [Henceforward Haqdamah] Reprinted in Sefer Yosippon, ed. H.
Hominer, Jerusalem, 1965, p. 37.
2 Y. H. Yerushalmi, Zakhor Seattle: Univ of Washington, 1982 p 35. A.
Neubauer, ʺPseudo-Josephus, Joseph ben Gorionʺ JQR vol 11 (1899) pp. 355-364.
 Leo Grech/Yehudah Mosconi: Hebrew Historiography… 223

archival documents] especially in contrast to the multiple

archival documents on his life in Spain/Mallorca.3
Nor is this component seen as crucial by Mosconi himself.
On the contrary, he himself emphasizes his will to travel
outside Byzantium and leave the place of his birth. He thanks
Divine Providence for helping him to leave Byzantium. His
undoubted interest in, and creativity on, grammar or on
Abraham Ibn Ezraʹs commentary4 is not entirely or directly
relevant to his work [1368-1370?] on Yosippon.
There are more recent developments which may help to
enhance and amplify our understanding of his projects of
historiography and collectionism. Firstly, there is the
reconstruction of a Mediterranean society and culture in
fourteenth century Majorca. The cosmopolitan character of its
ports, shipping and international trade is part of this. Without
taking this into account, we cannot understand the innovation,
the burgherly merchantʹs protagonism, the effect of realism
[down to mentions of specific buildings] or the Genoese
presence in the 1286 Majorca Disputation, for example.5

3 See for example A. Pons, ʺLos judios del reino de Majorca durante los
siglos XIII-XIV,ʺ Hispania, XVI (1956), pp. 224-231, and Apendice documental, nos.
38: maestre Leo Metge (a. 1357), and 56: maestre Leo Mosconi, metge. On his early
teacher, Shemarya of Negroponte and his Spanish phase, see, e.g. E.Gutwirth,
“ʹAcutissima patriaʹ: Locating texts before and after the expulsions,” Hispania
Judaica Bulletin, vol. 8 (2011): 19-38.
4 Howard Kreisel, R. Judah Leon ben Moses Moskoni Eben Ha-‘Ezer
Supercommentary on Ibn Ezra's Torah Commentary, Beer Sheva: Univ., 2021, notes
that Mosconiʹs is the largest known supercommentary and that it cites various lost
previous ones. This could be understood as reinforcing our view of the
significance of collectionism for his outlook. On the genre of the
Supercommentaries see, for example, Eleazar Gutwirth, “Fourteenth Century
Supercommentaries on Abraham Ibn Ezra,” in Fernando Díaz Esteban, ed.,
Abraham Ibn Ezra and His Age, Madrid: AEO, 1990, 147-154.

5 Ora Limor, The Disputation of Majorca 1286 A critical edition and Introduction,
Jerusalem: Univ, 1985.
224 Eleazar Gutwirth

This is an age of flourishing intellectual, scientific and

artistic activity despite the island/kingdomʹs political problems
and the possible economic/fiscal decadence of the aljama [if we
take the earlier stages of the Reconquista as measuring rod].6
This flourishing would not surprise those who are aware of the
coeval monumental architectural enterprises [e.g. the
cathedral] and the presence of scientists. It is also understood
now that there was a noteworthy Jewish culture at that time
and place.7 The weight of Jewish culture is also expressed in
the surviving Hebrew MS codices completed in Majorca; in the
high prices fetched by the sale of Mosconiʹs library (1375); in
the existence of an exclusive group of cognoscenti which
constituted the buyers of his library. Various members of this
group would reappear in the responsa of Isaac bar Sheshet and
Simeon b. Zemah Duran. Alchemy was cultivated8 as was
rabbinical culture. But although it is usually represented by
S.b.Zemah Duran, it should be remembered that his responsa
begin to be composed after his move to N Africa, following the
events of 1391. The Rabbiʹs father, Astruc/Zemah Duran had
been entrusted with the curatorship of Mosconiʹs library for its
sale. Various other local Jewish scholars were of interest to the
royal courts of the Crown of Aragon. In 1359, for example, R.
Isaac Nifoci, an astronomer, was chosen as the familiar of the

6 For the economic and fiscal situation of the Jews in fourteenth century
Majorca see the first chapter of Natalie Oeltjen, ʺCrisis and Regeneration: The
Conversos of Majorca, 1391-1416ʺ Thesis, University of Toronto 2012, and its
bibliograhy.
7 J. Hillgarth and B.Narkiss, “A List of Hebrew Books (1330) and a Contract
to Illuminate Manuscripts (1335) from Majorca,” Revue des Études Juives, 3rd Series,
3 (1961): 304-320.
8 E. Gutwirth, ʺAlchemy and Armaments: On an aljamiado Fragment in a
Houghton MSʺ Sefarad; Vol 81, No 1 (2021). págs. 69-88.
 Leo Grech/Yehudah Mosconi: Hebrew Historiography… 225

king of Aragon.9 To a broader public, however, it is the school

of cartographers which is probably best known. 10
It is impossible today to forget Flusser11 in serious
Yosippon studies. This is the case even if we were to attend
only to his history of MS transmissions and printed editions of
that chronicle which of necessity includes Mosconi. Two
additional developments may affect our readings today. The
first is the result of a number of contributions by Sela who
based herself on a corpus of ca. 160 pages of Arabic Yosippon
MS fragments. At an early stage, Yosippon was translated into
Arabic. Indeed, Sela maintained that attention to the Arabic
version would help in the comprehension of the complex or
garbled narratives of the standard Hebrew Yosippon. It would
reveal nothing less than the “Origin and Development of the
Yosipppon Narrative”.12 Whether Mosconi had any contact
with this corpus has not yet been investigated. The second
major development is that of the identification of the
(previously misidentified) MS of the romance translation of
Yosippon. So far there has been no systematic confrontation of
the romance translation of the MS at the Biblioteca Menéndez y
Pelayo with the Cairene Geniza MSS of Yosippon. Studies of
the Biblioteca Menéndez y Pelayo MS tend to concentrate on
paleography and codicology rather than the cultural, literary
challenges.13

9 I. Epstein,The Responsa of Rabbi Simon b. Zemah Duran as a Source of th.

History of the Jews in North Africa. (London 1930), 101; F. Baer, Die juden im
Christlischen Spanien, Berlin 1929, Index, sv.
10 Katrin Kogman-Appel, Catalan Maps and Jewish Books: The Intellectual
Profile of Elisha ben Abraham Cresques (1325-1387). Turnhout: Brepols. 2020.
11 David Flusser, Sefer Yosipon. Jerusalem: Mosad Byaliḳ, 1978.
12 S. Sela,ʺOrigin and Development of the Josippon Narrativeʺ (Hebrew),
Tarbiz 64 (1994): 51–63. Shulamit Sela, The Arabic Josippon, Jerusalem, 2009, 2 vols.
13 M. Sueiro Pena, ‘Las dos lecturas de Josefo en la España medieval: la
Guerra judaica de Alfonso de Palencia y el Yosifón en romance’, in Actas del VIII
Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Hispánica de Literatura Medieval (Santander 22–
226 Eleazar Gutwirth

Other advances may be less specific and require some

argument. According to Frenkel, in what she terms her
programmatic article, it is necessary to discuss books produced
and consumed by the religious minorities that were an
indispensable part of society. For her, the book lists found in
the Cairo Geniza have a potential as significant tools for
developing a better understanding of the cultural and social
history of the medieval Islamicate world.14 It might possibly be
argued that they could be of interest for the study of other
Mediterranean societies and cultures as well. There are
numerous [more than 86?] Yosippon fragments in the Geniza.
Given this articleʹs Sephardi interest, it may be noted that
amongst the Geniza fragments at the T-S collection in the CUL
there are two bifolia of a printed edition of Yosippon, ch. 59ff.,
in Ladino.15 The call mark- CUL T-S Misc 17.66- leads us to
think that the early twentieth century Geniza scholars at
Cambridge, who engaged in the activity informally termed
ʺsortingʺ by Schechter [we would call it scholarly or informed
classification] could identify -and were aware of the
significance of- Yosippon MSS and prints in various languages
[Ladino, Hebrew, Arabic] and thus made modern research
possible by placing them in certain spaces or discrete files [e.g.

26 de septiembre de 1999), ed. M. Freixas and S. Iriso, II, Barcelona, 2000, pp. 1677–
91 (at 1682). For the codicology see G. Avenoza, ‘Datos sobre el códice M-54 de la
Biblioteca de Menéndez Pelayo de Santander: el Yosifón en romance’, Boletín de la
Biblioteca Menéndez Pelayo, 75, (1999), pp. 393–401. Estanislau de K. Aguiló i Aguiló
et al., ʺInventari de la heretat y llibreria del metje juheu Jahuda o Lleó Mosconi
(1375)", Boletín de la Sociedad Arqueológica Luliana, 10 (1903-1904), 80-91.
14 Miriam Frenkel,“Book Lists from the Cairo Geniza: a Window on the
Production of Texts in the Middle Ages.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies, vol. 80, no. 2, (2017), pp. 233–52.
15 Contrast Sefer Ben Gurion (Yosipon). First Ladino Translation by Abraham
Asa (1753). A Critical Edition, Lazar, Moshe (Editor) technical editor, Francisco J.
Pueyo Mena,.Lancaster, Calif. : Labyrinthos, 2000.
 Leo Grech/Yehudah Mosconi: Hebrew Historiography… 227

10k or Misc 17] rather than spread across 140. 000 or more
items.
Understanding Mosconiʹs library of 198 volumes, like any
medieval Jewish book list or inventory, requires some
awareness of Geniza book lists to achieve a sense of proportion
and a perspective. The study of these lists [despite
appearances] is not some contemporary innovation of today
and it could be traced back to the age of Ernest James Worman
[d.1909] or Wilhelm Bacher [d.1913], but has changed with the
publication of Alloniʹs studies.16 Thus, when we look at two
or three Jewish book lists from 14th century Majorca or even
the 6 Majorcan Jewish libraries found by Hillgarth, we might
recall that Alloni studies 114 medieval Jewish libraries/book
lists. Nor should we forget the list of ca. 139 volumes of Moshe
Almateri [1362] who died in Mallorca.17We must also take into
account the various studies of medieval Spanish Hebrew book
lists in inventories, testaments and other testimonies.18
Narkiss-Hillgarth have surmised that the Majorcan notaries
were not particularly careful or precise in their transcriptions
of Hebrew/Aramaic book titles. Steinschneider had referred to
the titles in the list of Mosconiʹs books as maltraitées19. In
general, it is known that medieval notaries transcribed from
Hebrew ʺby earʺ not only in Majorca. Similar problems
concerning titles-and therefore identification of the books-, for
different reasons, occur in the Cairene counterpart. Frenkel

16 Nehemiah Allony, The Jewish Library in the Middle Ages — Book Lists from
the Cairo Geniza, Edited by Miriam Frenkel and Haggai Ben-Shammai, with the
participation of Moshe Sokolow., Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2006.
17 J. Riera i Sans ʺCent trenta-nou volums de llibres d’un jueu mercader i
talmudista: Mossé Almaterí (1362)ʺ Sefarad Vol. 68 Núm. 1 (2008) - 15-35.
18 Eduard Feliu, ʺBibliografia sobre inventaris, testaments, llistes I notícies
de llibres hebreus medievalsʺ, Tamid 2 (1998-1999), pàgs. 228-240.
19 J.N. Hillgarth and B. Narkis, ʺA List of Hebrew Books (1330) and a
Contract to Illuminate Manuscripts (1335) from Majorcaʺ REJ, 120 (1961), 297–320.
228 Eleazar Gutwirth

mentions Ta`anit as an example. Whether their ʺbooksʺ are

books or parts of books [quires] is yet another practical
question which might apply to both, Egyptian and Spanish
lists. In some cases, the Jewish book lists from medieval Spain
refer specifically to pecias, a system of manuscript production
used mainly in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and to some extent,
fifteenth centuries, at the universities. The pecias are not entire
books but only pieces or sections. The pecias in Jewish book
lists are evidently less well known to the public at large and
less frequently studied than the university-related pecias.20.
The system seems to have existed at Salamanca in Spain
(1254).21 The Studium at Lleida, in 1302, possessed pecias
which needed to be completed.22
Mosconiʹs great library, once thought to be the largest
individual Jewish library in the medieval West, no longer
appears as an isolated phenomenon. In Majorca itself, in the
years 1229-1550, there were numerous libraries including
Jewish [and converso] ones as we now know thanks to the
archival research of J. N. Hillgarth.23 The Mosconi sale lists -
with some irregularities- mention one copy of Yosippon,
although in the Prologue, Mosconi refers to about five MSS he

20 E. Gutwirth,“Notarial List of Jewish Books Delivered to the Justicia in

Jaca 1415.” in Biblias de Sefarad, ed Esperanza Alfonso, Javier del Barco, et al
Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura, 2012, pp.376-378.
21 Paloma Cuenca Muñoz, ʺEl libro en el siglo xiii: la peciaʺ In: I Jornadas
sobre Documentación jurídico-administrativa, económico-financiera y judicial,
Madrid:UCM, 2002, pp231-243.
22 Cecil Roth,. “The Qualification of Jewish Physicians in the Middle Ages.”
Speculum, vol. 28, no. 4, (1953), pp. 834–43.
23 J. N. Hillgarth, Readers and Books in Majorca. 1229-1550, I. Aubervilliers:
Institut de Recherche et dʹHistoire des Textes (IRHT), 1991. (Documents, études et
répertoires de lʹInstitut de Recherche et dʹHistoire des Textes, 45); idem ʺMajorcan
Jews and conversos as Owners and Artisans of Booksʺ Exilio y diáspora, Avraham
Grossman; Yosef Kaplan; Aaron Mirsky eds. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi and University:
Madrid: CSIC, 1991, 125-30.
 Leo Grech/Yehudah Mosconi: Hebrew Historiography… 229

had examined and gives the impression of having handled

more. It raises the question of whether the inventory really
reflects the entire library of Leo or even all the more significant
books or only the ones deemed suitable by Astruc Duran.
Rubio i Lluch24 found a document dated 22/4/1378 where King
Pere expresses his interest in Mosconiʹs library and orders the
Governor of Majorca to send the books to the King. Whether
the order was executed or viable or not25, what needs to be
observed is that the letter distinguishes between the books of
Mosconi that were sold and those which had been loaned
[incidentally documenting one of the ways book circulated in
that community] and those which had been given away. That
is to say that the inventory may not contain the entire library.
The one copy of Yosippon was bought at the sale of his books
by one of the Najar brothers, Maymon Najar26. This may be no
coincidence. Recent work has emphasized the antiquarian
facet in Najarʹs thought. His correspondence with Duran
certainly includes a letter which concerns a material object
from antiquity: the shewbread27. The objects of the Jerusalem
Temple are a theme which is not foreign to Yosipponʹs
interests.
The opening of Mosconi’s Prologue to the Sefer Yosippon
would, at first sight, seem to support a certain view of
medieval Jewish historiography. That is that motivations for
reading Jewish history come only from messianism, from

24 Antonio Rubió i Lluch, Documents per l’història de la cultura catalana mig-

eval, Barcelona, 1907-21, number 294.
25 It is unrealistic to speculate that the King was able to understand or read
the technical Aramaic/Hebrew of the ancient and medieval books in Mosconiʹs
library. More realistic would be envisioning court Jews close to him who are
interested in such texts.
26 Kayserling, loc. cit. p.196 bis. For other matters relating to Najar, see
Epstein, op. cit. pp. 94-96.
27 Exodus, 25; 35; etc.
230 Eleazar Gutwirth

anguish about the present. Leo presents himself as being in the

midst of the troubles which affect the Jews “in this diaspora”.
He invokes the end, the history [toldot] of future days, the
redemption and salvation: ʺWhen we justify our souls before
Him then He will act with us benevolently.ʺ He inveighs
against the imaginary false teachings “ha-horaot ha- bduiot”.
There are those who do not listen to the voice of the teachers
who observe the marvels of Godʹs Torah. That is why the end
is not comprehended. The enlightened find consolation by
believing that the poor, tossed nation will be saved by God and
at the end knowledge will increase. These are all reasons for
reading history, i.e. for reading Yosippon.
This view of reading history as an auxiliary to religious [in
this case messianic] thought is not new nor is it privative of
Mosconi. A concrete example would be the case of the
similarity in this with his Tudelan contemporary, Joshua ibn
Shoaib, [d. ca.1340] who, in his Homilies/ Drashot [on the
pericope Miqetz28] refers to Yosippon as a witness to the
miracles wrought at the time of the Hasmoneans, a topical
subject at the Hanuka season. Similar results would be
obtained by observing Ezra Melamed’s list (however
incomplete) of citations of Yosippon in medieval Hebrew bible
exegesis. 29
Mosconi believes that God created a remedy to the
blow/injury [makah] of the diaspora “in which we find
ourselves today” because he granted ʺus the great prince the
authority of priestdom and wisdom and royalty: Joseph the
priest son of Gurion the priest”. Mosconi, without apparent
break in the rhetoric of encomium to ʺJoseph ben Gurionʺ -i.e.

28 Joshua ibn Shuaib, Drashot, Constantinople: Nahmias, 1523

29 Ezra Melamed, Mefarshe ha-Miḳra: darkhehem ṿe-shiṭotehem,Jerusalem:
Magnes, 1978.
 Leo Grech/Yehudah Mosconi: Hebrew Historiography… 231

to the book he is prefacing -offers a frame or historical

background to the life of the historian. That is to say, that
according to his view about reading history, it is not enough to
learn the events; it is necessary to focus on the historian and his
background:
...who lived in the days of the success of Israel in the land of
Judah and Jerusalem …and he lived a long life and his
intelligence rose above the storm …towards heaven ...with
Godʹs help he admonished the Israel of his days…and
counselled them well…in the second exile when the house of
God was destroyed and in mourning...in those days the
aforementioned priest was a priest anointed for war a teacher
of righteousness…and in Jerusalem there were two families
one was Gorion and the other Gurinion.[Prologue]
He uses the book itself, i.e. internal evidence, to reconstruct
a biography of the putative ancient historian. He is not
impervious to rhetoric. In an aside, he describes a lamentation
on Jerusalem as wonderful- nifla'ah. In this paragraph, he lists
about eight passages which may be used as sources for the
biography of the historian, noting the number of the chapter
where the references to the life may be found.
He then formulates rhetorically/poetically his view of the
ideas of the historian. His was the time when God awakened
the historianʹs spirit and he wrote the book to describe the evil
of the destruction of the house of God and his people. The
historian admonished his people as did others of his time. He
wrote this in his book entitled the Wars of the Lord/ Milhamot
Hashem. To some extent, Leoʹs references to tokhaha, [tokhahot
Yosef ben Gurion ha-tovot] ʺthe good admonishments of Yosef
ben Gurionʺ, imply his perception of the affinities of history
with the Hebrew genre of musar, moral and ethical
admonishment, so richly cultivated by medieval Jews. 30

30 J. Dan, Sifrut ha musar we-ha-drush Jerusalem: Keter, 1975. Isaiah Tishby

and J Dan Mivhar sifrut ha musar, Jerusalem: Newman, 1971.
232 Eleazar Gutwirth

The historian offers another ʺutilityʺ, namely that Joseph

reveals to the reader the secrets of reality, the stories from
Adam to his own day which he knew. These are valuable
because, says Mosconi, we have no other witness except for the
bible which is read by all. A minority understands what is
hidden in them. And he wrote the book and gave it a general
name, that is, Yosippon, the name which he bore then, when
he was anointed for war. He was elevated in dignity, they
magnified him in honour by calling him Yosippon rather than
simply Joseph. The suffix /on/ is explained by analogy to the
ancient case of Amnon- Aminon. While he says that the
diminutive is a sign of humility, for him, the suffix /on/ is not
diminishing or insulting, but, rather magnifying the name of
the historian. We might bear in mind that Leo Grechʹs [and his
fatherʹs] own name, Mosconi, contains the suffix- /on[i]/.
Such detailed interest in the author of a book in a prologue
bears affinities with an item of the Christian medieval accessus,
which began as the formal introduction to a grammatical
commentary on a classical author, such as e.g. Ovid.31 It later
developed in a broader direction which was neither in Latin,
nor did it concern grammar nor the classics. More precisely,
the reminiscence here, -in the attempts to reconstruct a
biography of Yosiponʹs author in a prologue about the book-,
is to the item in the accessus known as vita auctoris. Today there
is little hesitation in seeing the accessus as a possible element
when dealing with texts of Hispano-Jewish authors such as
Lorqi or Abravanel. Nevertheless we feel that Mosconi
transcends it. Mosconi brings as his witness The Book of the Wars
of the Lord which -he writes- is the sixth part of Yosippon, ch
153.

31 Stephen M. Wheeler, Accessus ad auctores: Medieval Introductions to the

Authors (Codex latinus monacensis 19475).. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute
Publications, 2015.
 Leo Grech/Yehudah Mosconi: Hebrew Historiography… 233

Mosconiʹs prologue lists four ʺutilitiesʺ of the history book,

Yosippon. The articulation of utilities in prologues is yet
another component of the accessus. It has been attended to in
recent research. It was shown to be one of the affinities between
Iberian Jewish and Iberian Christian historiography in the late
middle ages. Thus, it occurs in Iberian Christian works of
history and also in Iberian Jewish ones.32
This section of the prologue is the site of Mosconiʹs famous
sentence, where, citing Jeremiah 31:30, he asserts ʺFor we can
read in it the deeds of our ancestors because of whose sins our
city was destroyed...and they ate the sour grapes, but our teeth
are set on edge.ʺ. There is no doubt of the strong ʺfamilial
componentʺ in his justification of reading history and
Yosippon. But there are various other elements as well. These
serve to nuance his position. Thus, the first utility does not
concern ʺthe forefathersʺ as much as the ʺkingdoms of this
worldʺ. That is, that according to Leo, one can learn from
Yosippon, the chronicle, that the kingdoms of the nations are
powerful for a time and are transitory, if not ephemeral. So that
formally the object of interest is the history of the kingdoms.
He mentions judicial astrology and the systems /constellations
[ma`arakhot] which determine the fate of the nations. When
writing about Yosipponʹs sources, he mentions that Yosippon
used gentile sources. [ʺsifrei yeter he-`amimʺ]33
He is aware of Josephus circulating amongst the gentiles.34
He shows an interest in and gives space to -in the prologue that
he composed- the Josephus of the non-Jews. He mentions his
name in Greek and in Latin. He produces fragments of a kind

32 Eleazar Gutwirth, “The Historian’s Origins and Genealogies: The Sefer

Yuhasin,” Hispania Judaica Bulletin, vol. 6 (2008): 57-82
33 Haqdamah, p22
34 For the real circulation of Josephus [not Yosippon] see Jaume Riera i
Sans, ʺPresència de Josefus a les lletres catalanes medievalsʺ · In: Studia... M. de
Riquer, Barcelona: Quaderns Crema,1987. 179-220
234 Eleazar Gutwirth

of literary history of Josephus. According to him, Josephus was

translated from Hebrew into Greek by Strabo. Gregory, the
great bishop in the days of Emperor Sebastian [!] ʺwho lived
seven hundred years agoʺ35 translated Josephus into Latin.
Josippon is called Josephus minor. The book was translated by
Gregory from Hebrew into Latin. Ben Gorion also wrote
another book for the Romans in their language. There is a
difference between the two books. This bishop Gregory was,
according to Leo ʺa great friend of the Jewsʺ who ʺcaused many
salvationsʺ He claims that all this is written in the book called
ʺCanonicasʺ [a term whose morphology points to Moscatoʹs
hispanicity rather than to Greek]. What is interesting in his
section on Josephus is evidently not the issue of accuracy or
data in the fourteenth century, but the fact that these points
cannot be interpreted as exclusivist. The numerous items of
evidence collected above show a ʺmedievalizationʺ, i. e.
affinities with surrounding culture. His text contradicts efforts
to present him as an icon or showpiece of medieval Jewish
historiographic particularism and isolation.
His collectionism needs to be highlighted and ʺplacedʺ.
Some would argue that collectionism may be traced to
antiquity, as far back as the Museion of the Tolemides or the
Asyrian Empireʹs collections in Nineveh. Collectionism today
is used in a somewhat different sense. Pleasure, posession and
contemplation are prime criteria. Most significant for us is the
fact that in numerous book lists we have no evidence of self-
awareness as collectionists, no articulated statements as to the
motives for accumulating items. There is little that conveys a
collectorʹs personality, predilections or ideals. We are
conscious of the difference between a copyist/scribe/book
sellersʹ inventory or a professionalʹs tools [e.g of physicians or
astronomers] on the one hand and on the other hand, the

35 Haqdamah. p22
 Leo Grech/Yehudah Mosconi: Hebrew Historiography… 235

collection of an individual. Not every inventory is a sign of

collectionism.
The inventory of his library drawn for the sale has been
studied more than once36 since the early efforts of Aguiló,
Steinschneider, M. I. Levi, or M. Kayserling 37 Mosconi refers
not only to abstract ʺversionsʺ but to realistic descriptions of
his collecting activities. He feels necessary to add them to his
introduction. They occur in his description of the purchase of
the codices. He writes38 that, when he saw the great value of
the book, he aimed to possess it. And God, the true helper,
helped him to obtain it. He also tells us that he was very happy,
as if he had found a great treasure -using the words of
Ps.119:162 ʺ[I rejoice at thy word,] as one that findeth great
spoilʺ.That is to say that in his writing on the work of history
he pays attention not only to matters of variae lectiones.
Mosconi confronts different MSS of the same work. He
refers to various copies which he saw in different places
[meqomot mithalfim]. Even his own vorlage contained omissions
because -he says- the scribe made mistakes when he was not
paying attention. He observes their structure and asserts that
some are divided into parts and some are not. He characterizes

36 Joseph R. Hacker, ʺJewish Book Owners and their Libraries in the Iberian
Peninsula, Fourteenth–Fifteenth Centuriesʺ The Late Medieval Hebrew Book in the
Western Mediterranean. Hebrew Manuscripts and Incunabula in Context ed Javier del
Barco, Leiden- Boston:Brill, 2015, pp 70–104
37 Estanislau de K Aguilô, ʺ Inventari de la heretat y libreria del Metje jueu
Jahuda o Lleo Mosconi.ʺ BSAL, 10 (1903-04), 80-91; I. Levi, “L’inventaire du
mobilier et de la bibliothéque d’un médecin de Majorque au XIV siècle (Leone
Juda Mosconi)”, Revue des Etudes Juives, vol. XXXIX (1899), págs. 242-260; M.
Steinschneider, “La bibliothéque de Leon Mosconi. Notice bibliografique”, Revue
des Etudes Juives, vol. XL (1900), pp. 62-63, 168 - 187; M. Kayserling, “Nouvelle note
sur la bibliothèque de Leon Mosconi”, Revue de Etudes Juives, vol. XLI, 82 (1900),
págs. 250-265; idem,“Notes sur l’histoire des Juifs de Majorque”, Revue des Etudes
Juives, vol. XLIV, 88 (1902), págs. 297-300.
38 Haqdamah, p21
236 Eleazar Gutwirth

some as missing some of the stories. The cases of Ibn Dawdʹs

and Shmuel Ha-Nagidʹs copies are examples of such
ʺabridgementsʺ. But others, too, show these characteristics,
although they are not ascribed to known individuals. He
prefers one specimen which he pronounces more ʺcompleteʺ.
We witness, then, a beginning of attention to questions of
provenance in the study of discrete, individual MS codices.
Later authors [e.g.Profayt Duran] would follow suit.
And after this I put all my heart into seeking and observing the
books of the scholars who were famous for their wisdom in
order to assuage the soul which desires their words ...and I did
not rest till I bought them for costly prices for my poverty and
I dictated them and some I wrote myself at my soulʹs wish with
the tears of my heart. And Godʹs providence helped me and I
bought many books in every wisdom and some according to
my means/ability and circumstances and not according to my
wishes... [Prologue]
The passage reads like the memoirs of a collectionist,
expressions of his individual sensibility, desires, and ideals
rather than purely a literary history. Accordingly, his collection
of MSS could be said to reflect the collector [Mosconi] no less
than the author [Yosippon]. As is well known, most readings
of the prologue attend to the latter rather than the former. He
represents a collector whose financial possibilities are widely
different from those of institutions such as the Church, the
monarchy and nobility of his age and therefore less well
known. It is pertinent to note that he is not only cited in the
royal order referred to above, but also named physician to king
Pere III and that on 5/2/1365 he would be the recipient of a
letter of recomendation from the king of Tremcen [Pons reads
Tirimce39]. His status as a court Jew is then not in question. It
may be helpful to see him in the frame of that social type and

39 A. Pons, Los judios del reino de Majorca durante los siglos XIII y XIV, Madrid
1958, Volume 1, p333
 Leo Grech/Yehudah Mosconi: Hebrew Historiography… 237

its mind set even though his budgets were not those of
contemporary nobility and monarchy. Here it may be recalled
that royal and noble courts are the protagonists of early Iberian
collectionism as in the cases of the kings of the Trastamara
dynasty.40Nevertheless most studies of collectionism refer to a
somewhat later period than that of Leo Grech/Yehuda
Mosconi.

40 For other aspects and later evidence of collectionism see e.g. María Luisa
López-Vidriero Abelló ʺEdiciones hebreas en las colecciones privadas del Rey de
Españaʺ La Rassegna Mensile di Israel, Vol. 82, No. 2-3, SUPPLEMENTO: Il
collezionismo di libri ebraici tra XVII e XIX secolo: (2016), pp. 141-174. A prime
topic of late medieval royal and noble collectionism is that of the menageries.