The Supercommentaries of Gersonides and His Students on Averroes’s Epitomes of the Physics and the Meteorology

The focus of our study is on Gersonides as a supercommentator—in particular, as a commentator on Averroes’s epitomes of Aristotle’s writings on natural science—and on two other contemporary authors of such supercommentaries. We will examine sections of Gersonides’ supercommentaries, completed in 1321, on Moses Ibn Tibbon’s Hebrew translation of Averroes’s Epitome of the Physics and on his Epitome of the Meteorology, and compare these two works with undated supercommentaries by two members of his school or circle: Sh. Ha-Levi’s commentary on Averroes’s Epitome of the Physics and Solomon of Urgul’s commentary on Averroes’s Epitome of the Meteorology.1 Why did these students of Gersonides write commentaries on the same epitomes their master had already explicated? What is the nature and purpose of these commentaries? And how do they differ from the nature and purpose of Gersonides’ commentaries? Most scholars today recognize the importance of Gersonides’ supercommentaries, although until rather recently they were mostly ignored.2 In the past decade or so, three of Gersonides’ supercommentaries have been edited in part or in full, and other editions of his supercommentaries are currently being prepared.3 Ruth Glasner has studied all of Gersonides’ supercommentaries on the books of Aristotelian natural science, as well as the other lesser known Hebrew supercommentaries on them. Our study builds upon hers and we hope to reinforce her theories, as well as to offer additional light on the structure and aim of each of these supercommentaries