Jacob Anatoli

Jacob ben Abba Mari ben Simson

Early life and invitation to Naples

Born in southern France, perhaps in Marseille, Anatoli had an interest in literary activity that was stimulated early by his learned associates and relations at Narbonne and Béziers. He so distinguished himself that the emperor Frederick II, the most genial and enlightened monarch of the time, invited him to come to Naples. Under the emperor's patronage, Antatoli was enabled to devote himself to his studies. He translated scientific Arabic literature into the more accessible Hebrew language. Anatoli produced his most important literary and scientific translations while in Naples, and his works were copied under his name.

References Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography:'The Malmad ha-Talmidim yields a great deal of information concerning the life and the time of its author. Consult particularly the preface, which is freely drawn upon in this article. Further, Abba Mari, Minḥat Ḳenaot, Letter 68; Azulai, Shem ha-Gedolim, ii. 149; Zunz, Zur Gesch. und Lit. Berlin, 1845, p. 482; Senior Sachs, in Ha-Yonah, 1851, viii. 31, note; Neubauer, in Geiger's Jüd. Zeitschrift, x. 225; Giulio Bartolocci, Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica'', i. 5, iii. 867; De Rossi, Dizionario Storico, German trans., p. 44; Grätz, Gesch. d. Juden, 2d ed., vii. 95; Renan-Neubauer, Les Rabbins Français, in Histoire littéraire de la France, xxvii. 580-589, and Les Écrivains Juifs Français, ib., xxxi., index; Güdemann, Gesch. des Erziehungswesens und der Cultur der Abendländischen Juden, ii. 161, 226 et seq.; Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch. d. Juden in Rom, i. 398; Perles, R. Salomo b. Abraham b. Adereth, pp. 68 et seq.; Berliner, Persönliche Beziehungen zwischen Juden und Christen, p. 10; Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibl. vii. 63, xvii. 124; Cat. Bodl. col. 1180 et seq.; Die Hebr. Uebers. des Mittelalters, pp. 47, 51, 58, 523, 547, 555, and (for a complete bibliography of the subject) 990.