Peter Alfonsi

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Peter Alfonsior Pedro Alfonso, known also as Moshe Sephardi (Huesca, Spain, 1062 - 1140) was a Jewish Spanish writer and astronomer.

He was the physician of Alfonso the Battler, and when he converted to the Christian faith was the same Alfonso the Battler that acted as godfather for his baptism, on Saint Peter's day, June 29, 1106; on this occasion he changed his name to Petrus Alfonsi (Alfonso's Peter).

Pedro Alfonso tells about his conversion in his book Dialogus contra iudaeos, written in Latin. Here he wrote a series of dialogues against the Jews, the dialogues are between Mose and Pedro (= Moses Sephardi and Petrus Alfonsi, that means, himself before and after conversion). In this same work he tells that he traveled to England as "magister" in liberal arts and in astronomy, having as pupil the prior of the monastery of Malvern, who learned with him the Arabic system of astronomical graduation.

His masterpiece is a collection of novels, thirty-three tales, composed in Latin: Disciplina Clericalis (A Training-school for the Clergy). It had been translated in French, Spanish, and German and it had been well-known all over Europe. This work is a collection of oriental tales of moralizing character, translated from Arabic, old Persian and Hindi.

He had a very important role as a cultural translator from the Eastern culture to the West and his Disciplina Clericalis had great influence stablishing some didactic models that would be followed by other medieval authors. Joseph Jacobs has discovered some of the stories at the end of Caxton's translation of the fables of Aesop, where thirteen apologues of "Alfonce" are taken from the "Disciplina Clericalis."

[edit] Works

Dialogus contra iudaeos
Disciplina clericalis
De dracone, in which he does a calculation of the movements of the stars
De Astronomia, contains an astronomical grid according to the Arab, Persian and Latin calendars. With them and the aid of an astrolab it was possible to find out, with accuracy, the ascending positions of the sun, moon, and the five known planets.
Carta a los peripatéticos franceses.