IBN BILIA, DAVID BEN YOM TOV

IBN BILIA, DAVID BEN YOM TOV (first half of 14^th century), Portuguese Hebrew scholar, translator, philosopher, exegete, and poet. Ibn Bilia wrote Me'or Enayim, a commentary on the Pentateuch quoted by Samuel Zarza, based upon his own research, with magical and astrological elements, of which only a fragment has been published. In his Ta'amei ha-Otiyyot he explains certain biblical letters in a philosophical-allegorical way. Ha-Shi'urim also has allegoric commentaries to the Bible beside philosophical sections and a philosophical poem. In addition, he wrote books on medicine, astrology, logic, polemics (Ma'amar Magen David), and theology. He translated from Latin a work on the skin of snakes by Johannes Paulinus. Of his works, only two have been printed: a treatise on the 13 principles of Judaism, called Yesodot ha-Maskil (in the anthology Divrei Ḥakhamim, edited by R. Eleazar Ashkenazi, Metz, 1849), and a composition, "Derekh La'asot Ḥaruzim," published by N. Allony, containing among other things, a list of Hebrew meters with illustrations taken chiefly from his own poems.

bibliography:

N. Allony, in: Aresheth (1943/44), 377–86; idem, in: Koveẓ 'al Yad, 6 (1966), 225–44; M. Steinschneider, Die hebraeischen Handschriften, Muenchen (1895²), 105; Steinschneider, Uebersetzungen, 499, 806. add. bibliography: C. del Valle, El Divan poético de Dunash ben Labrat (1988), 344–8; D. Schwartz, in: Kiryat Sefer, 63 (1990–91), 637–45 (Heb.); idem, in: Koveẓ al Yad, 12 (1994), 171–206 (Heb.); A. Ackerman, in: Kabbalah, 1 (1996), 73–80.