Alfonsus, Bonihominis
ALFONSUS, BONIHOMINIS
Also known as de Buenhombre. Spanish Dominican Hebraist and Arabist; b. Cuenca or Toledo; d. before Aug. 12, 1353. He is known chiefly for his Latin translation of two Arabic works of a Jewish Rabbi converted to Christianity: Tractatus Rabbi Samuelis ad Rabbi Isaac per quem probatur adventus Christi, translated while he was in Paris in 1339 (many eds.; Bibl. vet. Patrum 18:518); and Disputatio Abutalib Saraceni et Samuelis Judaei quae fides praecellat (uned. MS Madrid Nac. 4402 f. 103–110), translated while he was bishop of Marrakech in Morocco (1344 to death). Both are Christian apologies in dialogue form. His other translations from Arabic into Latin are Historia Joseph (uned.), done probably in Egypt (1336) and the Legenda S. Antonii abbatis Thebaidis (ed. Bibl. vet. Patrum 18).
Bibliography: j. quÉtif and j. Échard, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum 1:594–595. s. ruiz, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques 9: 1135–36. m. h. laurent, ibid. 10:1061. f. stegmÜller, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 2 1:334.
[m. j. finnegan]