IATROMATHEMATICS
Iatromathematics is a traditional term for medical astrology.
IBNEZRA, AVRAHAM
Rabbi Avraham Ben Meir Ibn Ezra was a renowned Jewish scholar born in eleventh-
century Spain. He was accomplished in many disciplines and his prolific writing
encompassed biblical exegeses; Hebrew grammar; personal, national, and liturgical
poetry; philosophy; mathematics; geometry; astronomy; and astrology. In mainstream
Judaism, he was known and loved mainly for his Bible commentary as well as his poet-
ry, whereas to the Christian European world he became known through his astrologi-
cal and mathematical writings. This was the golden era for the Jews in Spain, who
flourished economically, scientifically, and culturally, and who were also instrumental
in transmitting the Arabic sciences and philosophy to Christian Europe. These were
also the times of the Crusades and the wars between the Moslems and the Christians
in Spain, and the Jewish communities were caught in the middle, suffering persecu-
tions both in North Africa and Spain. All these circumstances left their mark in Ibn
Ezra’s life and work.
His LifeIbn Ezra was born in in 1089 in Tudela, Spain, but spent most of his life wandering
from one country to another, always restless, always seeking knowledge, writing his
books, teaching students, and always in great poverty, depending on people’s patron-
age. In one of his personal poems he ironically says that at his nativity the stars
changed their natural course to bring him misfortune, so much so that if he decided to
sell candles the Sun would never set, and if he decided to sell burial shrouds, no one
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