Premodern Philosophic and Scientific Hebrew Terminology: Studies on its Emergence and the Creation of an Internet-Based Historical Lexicon
Final Report Abstract
The French-German project PESHAT (Premodern Philosophic and Scientific Hebrew Terminology) created a free online lexicon of Hebrew philosophic terminology between the 10th and 16th centuries and its rendition in contemporary Arabic and Latin translations and source texts. Historical works in this field are exceeded by PESHAT in quality, structure, language and comprehensiveness. The project started out from existing lexica and studies on terminology and broadened the focus on the Hebrew vocabulary of various medieval scientific disciplines. This required a thorough re-evaluation of existing and the creation of entirely new definitions, as well as the compilation of numerous quotations in the previously mentioned languages. The database illustrates a term's usage and meaning in original and translated works. Users can also browse information on works, authors/translators and grammatical details. The project achieved to create a valuable tool for scholars of philosophy, Hebrew and Jewish studies, Arabic and Islamic studies, linguistics, cultural history etc. Furthermore, it is open to future external contributions. We created the biobibliographical data sets for each and every author/translator, his works, and the editions used. The work mechanisms and responsibilities set up during the first stage have proven to be highly efficient. Several researchers, who used a source less represented in Klatzkin's Thesaurus, also scrutinized it for other letters' terms, and thus extended the database.
