ḤABILLO (XABILLO), ELIJAH BEN JOSEPH (MAESTRO MANOEL):

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By: Richard Gottheil, Isaac Broydé

Spanish philosopher; lived at Monzon, Aragon, in the second half of the fifteenth century. He was an admirer of the Christian scholastics, and studied Latin in order to translate into Hebrew some of their works, especially those dealing with psychology. The works which he partly translated and partly adapted (some bearing his name; others, though anonymous, known to be his) were the following of Thomas Aquinas: "Quæstiones Disputatæ, Quæstio de Anima" (Steinschneider, "Cat. Hamburg," No. 267); "De Animæ Facultatibus" (Hebr. title, "Ma'amar be-Koḥot ha-Nefesh"), published by Jellinek in "Philosophie und Kabbala," Leipsic, 1854; and "De Universalibus" (Steinschneider, l.c. No. 267); "She'elot Ma'amar be-Nimẓa ube-Mahut," questions on Thomas Aquinas' treatise on being and quality (Neubauer, "Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS." No. 2453⁸). He furthermore translated: three treatises of Occam's (or Okam's), entitled "Summa Totius Logices," to which he added an appendix (MSS. Parma, No. 457); "Quæstiones Philosophicæ," by the same author (ib. No. 201); "De Causa," thirty-two premises, with their explanations, by Aristotle (ib. No. 457). According to Jellinek and Steinschneider, Ḥabillo also translated, anonymously, Vincenz of Beauvais' "De Universalibus," under the title "Ma'amar Nikbad bi-Kelal" (ib. No. 457⁷).

G. I. Br.