PARSI, JOSEPH:
Mathematician; flourished toward the end of the fifteenth century. All that isknown of him is that he was the author of a work (unpublished) entitled "Keli Faz," a manual showing how to construct mathematical instruments. Steinschneider thinks that Parsi may be identical with Joseph the physician, cosmographer, and astronomer of Lisbon, who advised (1480) King John of Portugal to employ the astrolabe at sea, and who was a member of the commission to which the project of Columbus was submitted for examination (Zunz, "G. S." i. 177). But the name "Parsi" shows that the author of the "Keli Faz" was a Persian.
Bibliography:
- Steinschneider, Jewish Literature, p. 187.
