Reimund Leicht gives an introduction to central aspects of the history of Hebrew astrological literature in antiquity and the Middle Ages. He provides a comprehensive description of the rich astrological literary tradition of Judaism, which had previously only been available mainly in handwritten manuscripts.

In these five studies, Reimund Leicht gives an introduction to central aspects of the history of Hebrew astrological literature in antiquity and the Middle Ages. He also provides the most comprehensive description which has been given up to now of the rich astrological literary tradition of Judaism, which had previously only been available mainly in handwritten manuscripts. He reconstructs the beginnings of Jewish astrological literature during Hellenism and presents a corpus of astrological texts in Hebrew and Aramaic which were previously completely unknown. The author studies the way this astrological legacy endured and developed in medieval Judaism in Europe and in the Orient and looks into the origins of the Jewish astro-magic of the Sefer Raziel . In conclusion, he discusses the Hebrew astromagical translation literature.

Autorentext
is a Senior Lecturer in the Department for Jewish Thought and in the Program for the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Klappentext
Reimund Leicht führt in zentrale Aspekte der Geschichte der hebräischen astrologischen Literatur der Antike und des Mittelalters ein. Er bietet zugleich die bislang umfassendste Darstellung der reichen astrologischen Literaturtradition des Judentums, die bisher überwiegend nur in Handschriften zugänglich war. Er rekonstruiert die Anfänge der astrologischen Literatur der Juden in der Epoche des Hellenismus und stellt ein bislang völlig unbekanntes Korpus von astrologischen Texten in hebräischer und aramäischer Sprache vor. Der Autor untersucht das Fortleben und die Weiterentwicklung dieses astrologischen Erbes im jüdischen Mittelalter in Europa und im Orient und fragt nach der Entstehung der jüdischen Astromagie des Sefer Raziel. Abschließend diskutiert er die hebräische astromagische Übersetzungsliteratur.