Maimonides on Coitus: A New Parallel Arabic-English Edition and Translation

253 Pages·2018·7.765 MB·English

by  Charles Burnett, Gerrit Bos

Maimonides’OnCoitus
The Medical Works
of Moses Maimonides
SeriesEditor
GerritBos(Cologne)
volume 11
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/mwmm
Thisseries,nowpublishedbyBrill,usedtobepartofthe
Middle Eastern Texts Initiative
FoundingEditor
DanielC.Peterson
Director
D.MorganDavis
∵
The Medical Works of Moses Maimonides
AcademicBoard
GerritBos(UniversityofCologne),generaleditor
LawrenceI.Conrad(UniversityofHamburg)
AlfredI.Ivry(NewYorkUniversity)
Y.TzviLangermann(BarIlanUniversity,Israel)
MichaelR.McVaugh(UniversityofNorthCarolina,ChapelHill)
∵
NEAL A. MAXWELL INSTITUTE
FOR RELIGIOUS SCHOLARSHIP
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

Maimonides’ On Coitus
ANewParallelArabic-EnglishEditionandTranslation
By
GerritBos
withEditionsof
MedievalHebrewTranslationsby
GerritBos
MedievalLatinTranslationsby
CharlesBurnett
andaSlavonicTranslationby
W.F.Ryan
MosheTaube
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Coverillustration:MSParis,BN,héb.1103,fol.45v,thebeginningofMaimonides’TalkhīṣKitābḤīlatal-burʾ
(SummaryofGalen’s“DeMethodoMedendi”).TheilluminationhailsfromtheworkshopofFerrerandArnau
BassainBarcelona.Cf.M.Garel,D’unemainforte:Manuscritshébreuxdescollectionsfrançaises,Paris1991,
no.48.ThecoverdesignisacopyoftheoriginaldesignbyBrighamYoungUniversityPress.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Maimonides,Moses,1135-1204,author.|Bos,Gerrit,1948-translator.|
Burnett,Charles(CharlesS.F.),translator.|Ryan,W.F.(WilliamFrancis),
translator.|Taube,Moshe,translator.|Maimonides,Moses,1135-1204.Kitābfi
al-jimā‘.|Maimonides,Moses,1135-1204.Kitābfial-jimā‘.English.
Title:Maimonides'Oncoitus/anewparallelArabic-Englisheditionand
translationbyGerritBos;withMedievalLatintranslationsbyCharlesBurnett;
SlavonictranslationsbyWillRyan,MosheTaube.
Description:Leiden;Boston:Brill,[2018]|Series:ThemedicalworksofMoses
Maimonides,ISSN2589-6946;volume11|Includesbibliographicalreferences
andindexes.
Identifiers:LCCN2018039969(print)|LCCN2018049040(ebook)|
ISBN9789004380080((e-book))|ISBN9789004380066(hardback:alk.paper)
Subjects:LCSH:Sexualhealth–Earlyworksto1800.|Sexualintercourse–Early
worksto1800.|Medicine,Arab.
Classification:LCC RA788(ebook)|LCC RA788 .M322018(print)|
DDC613.9/6–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2018039969
TypefacefortheLatin,Greek,andCyrillicscripts:“Brill”.Seeanddownload:brill.com/brill‑typeface.
ISSN2589-6946
ISBN978-90-04-38006-6(hardback)
ISBN978-90-04-38008-0(e-book)
Copyright2019byKoninklijkeBrillNV,Leiden,TheNetherlands.
KoninklijkeBrillNVincorporatestheimprintsBrill,BrillHes&DeGraaf,BrillNijhoff,BrillRodopi,
BrillSense,HoteiPublishing,mentisVerlag,VerlagFerdinandSchöninghandWilhelmFinkVerlag.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,translated,storedinaretrievalsystem,
ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise,
withoutpriorwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher.
AuthorizationtophotocopyitemsforinternalorpersonaluseisgrantedbyKoninklijkeBrillNVprovided
thattheappropriatefeesarepaiddirectlytoTheCopyrightClearanceCenter,222RosewoodDrive,
Suite910,Danvers,MA01923,USA.Feesaresubjecttochange.
Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaperandproducedinasustainablemanner.
Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
SiglaandAbbreviations 21
Part 1
ArabicTextandTranslation
OnCoitus:ArabicTextwithEnglishTranslation 26
Part 2
HebrewTranslationsandSupplements
OnCoitus:FirstHebrewTranslation(Anonymous) 61
OnCoitus:SecondHebrewTranslation(Anonymous) 74
OnCoitus:ThirdHebrewTranslation(ZeraḥyahBenIsaacBenSheʾaltiel
Ḥen) 81
Supplement1:CriticalComparisonoftheArabicTextwiththeMedieval
HebrewTranslationsandtheModernTranslationsintoEnglish 89
Supplement2:NotestotheAnonymousHebrewTranslationIand
Zeraḥyah’sHebrewTranslation(=Z) 92
Part 3
LatinTranslations
IntroductiontotheLatinTranslationsofMaimonides’OnCoitus
(OnSexualIntercourse) 97
CharlesBurnett
OnCoitus:TwoLatinTranslations 104
viii contents
Part 4
SlavonicTranslation
IntroductiontotheEastSlavonicTranslationofMaimonidesOn
Coitus 129
W.F.RyanandMosheTaube
OnCoitus:EastSlavonicTextwithEnglishTranslation 134
Glossary 152
Bibliography 200
IndexoftheFirstHebrewTranslation(Anonymous) 210
IndexoftheSecondHebrewTranslation(Anonymous) 216
IndexoftheThirdHebrewTranslation(ZeraḥyahBenIsaacBenSheʾaltiel
Ḥen) 221
IndexoftheLatinTranslations 227
IndexofthetheSlavonicTranslation 234
IndexofTechnicalTermsandMateriaMedica 238
Preface
Itismyprivilegetooffertothereaderthisnewcriticaleditionandtranslation
ofMaimonides’OnCoitus.TheeditioncontainstheoriginalArabictext,three
medievalHebrewtranslations—twoofthemanonymousandonepreparedby
ZeraḥyahBenIsaacBenSheʾaltielḤen,twoLatinversionsfromthesametrans-
lation,andaSlavonictranslation.OnCoituswascomposedattherequestofan
unknownhighrankingofficial,whoismerelyindicatedas“themosthonored
Lord—mayGodperpetuatehisglory”,andwhoaskedforaregimenthatwould
beeasytoadhereto,andthatwouldincreasehissexualpotency,ashehada
largenumberofslavegirls.Althoughthisconsiliumbelongstoagenrethatwas
quitepopularinmedievalArabicmedicalliterature—asitwaspractisedbya
numberofphysicians—itdiffersinthewayitstressestheimpactofpsycholog-
icalfactors,ofthedifferentstatesofmindonthesexualvigour.Whencoitusis
desired,manexperiencesaperfecterection,whereasintheoppositecasethe
malememberisweakanddry.Althoughsuchaninfluencehadalreadybeen
recognizedbytheancientphysiciansandalsofeaturesinmedievaltreatiseson
coitus, Maimonides’ discussion is unique in the prominentplace it occupies
inthetreatise,andinthedetailedandlengthyexposition.Thispreoccupation
with“theartof love”hardlyleftanytraceinWesterntextsof theperiod.On
Coitus was popular in Jewish and non-Jewish circles, as it survives in several
manuscripts,bothinArabicandJudaeo-Arabic,andwasaprimarysourcefor
severalrecipesfeaturinginK.rujūʿal-shaykhilāṣibāhfīl-quwāʿalāl-bāh(The
OldManYoungAgain),composedbytheEgytianscholaral-Tifāshī.Nexttothe
threeHebrewtranslations,Maimonides’OnCoituswastranslatedintoLatinby
JohnofCapua,possiblyfromtheHebrewtranslationbyZeraḥyah.TheArabic
TextofOnCoitushasbeenpublishedinthepastbytheGermanphysicianHer-
mannKroneronthebasisofMSGranada,BibliotecadelSacroMonte.However,
aneweditionhasbecomenecessary,asKroner’seditionsuffersfrommistakes
andincorrectreadings,whichcanbepartlyexplainedfromthedefectivestate
of themanuscript,andbecausewenowhavemoremanuscriptsthanKroner
had access to. A new edition of one of the anonymous Hebrew translations
editedbyMuntnerandKronerwasanurgentdesideratumsinceMuntner’sedi-
tionisuncritical,eclecticandcontainsseveralmistakes,andKroner’sedition
isunreliablesinceitwasdoneonthebasisof onemanuscriptonly,andalso
suffersfromeditorialmistakes.AneweditionoftheHebrewtranslationbyZer-
aḥyahhadbecomenecessary,asKroner’seditionisfaultyinseveralcases.The
secondanonymousHebrewtranslationwhichwasdiscoveredbyBeit-Ariéhad
not been edited before.The two Latin versions have been edited by Charles