Falaquera, Nathan ben Joel

views updated

FALAQUERA, NATHAN BEN JOEL

FALAQUERA, NATHAN BEN JOEL (late 13th century), Spanish physician. He may be identical with Nathan of Montpellier, the teacher of the anonymous author of Sefer ha-Yashar. Falaquera is the author of a book on medicine, Ẓori ha-Guf ("Balm for the Body"), written in Hebrew; however, although he uses medical and botanic terms taken from talmudic literature, his sources are mainly Arabic. The opinions of Hippocrates, Galen, Averroes, Avicenna, and Maimonides are given. Three manuscripts of the book are still extant and it was quoted by Joseph b. Eliezer ha-Sephardi, author of Ohel Yosef on Abraham ibn Ezra's commentary on the Torah.

bibliography:

H. Friedenwald, Jews and Medicine (1944), 661; G. Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, 2 pt. 2 (1931), 1096–97.

[David Margalith]