Abstract
This essay aims to refine our understanding of the place and character of physiognomy in the world of Medieval Hebrew knowledge. It starts with a survey of sources, primary and secondary, which suggest that Greco-Roman learned physiognomy became increasingly non-mantic and was thought to be largely detached from the divinatory arts and practices. It then moves on to look at the long story of the pre-modern Hebrew physiognomic tradition, which has been systematically analysed as part of the divinatory arts and practices. Finally, it looks briefly at three textual foci: the codicological evidence, which suggests a clear link between physiognomic manuals and practical texts of medical prognosis among Medieval Jewry; the integration of physiognomic knowledge into literature, which suggests its more general integration into broader spheres of life as early as the second half of the twelfth century; and the infiltration of physiognomic thinking into encyclopedias in the fourteenth century.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Unveiling the Hidden – Anticipating the Future |
Subtitle of host publication | Divinatory Practices among Jews between Qumran and the Modern Period |
Editors | J. Rodríguez Arribas, D. Gieseler Greenbaum |
Place of Publication | Leiden, The Netherlands |
Publisher | Brill |
Chapter | 9 |
Pages | 286-310 |
Number of pages | 25 |
ISBN (Print) | 9789004445703 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2021 |