Introduction.

In his fundamental work, Researches on the Ancient Latin Translations of Aristotle original: "Recherches sur les anciennes traductions latines d'Aristote", Amable Jourdain occasionally inserted the remark: "It is quite singular that none of the historians of philosophy have spoken in detail about the 'Book of Causes' original: 'Liber de causis' and the 'Fountain of Life' original: 'Fons uitae'. However, I repeat, one will surely only understand the philosophy of the thirteenth century when these works have been analyzed." original: "Il est assez singulier qu'aucun des historiens de la philosophie n'ait parlé avec détail du ‘Liber de causis’ et du ‘Fons uitae’. Cependant, je le répète, on ne connaîtra sûrement la philosophie du treizième siècle que lorsqu'on aura analysé ces ouvrages." 1

It was one of those statements that, born from the insight gained through comprehensive study of sources, suffers no loss in its right to serve as a starting point for later research and to indicate the immediate goals, despite the exuberance of the expression.

Recalling Jourdain's words, S. Munk provided evidence as early as 1846 that Avicebron, whom the scholastics designated as the author of the Fountain of Life original: "Fons uitae" and whom H. Ritter still called "the enigmatic Avicebron," 2 was "none other than the famous Jewish poet and philosopher Solomon Ibn Gabirol from Malaga, who flourished in the second half of the eleventh century." 3

Ten years later, Munk published the "Source of Life" original: "Lebensquelle" in extensive excerpts, which the Jewish philosopher Shem-Tob ben Falaquera had extracted around the middle of the thirteenth century from the Arabic original, which seems to have been lost—

1 In the second edition (Paris 1843), p. 197, note.
2 History of Philosophy, Part VIII (Hamburg 1845), p. 94. In the treatise "On our Knowledge of Arabic Philosophy and especially on the Philosophy of the Orthodox Arabic Dogmatists" (Göttingen 1844, 4to), p. 10, note 2, Ritter stated that "the deepest darkness" was spread over Avicebron's name and person.
3 Literature Sheet of the Orient original: "Literaturblatt des Orients" from the year 1846, No. 46, columns 721—727.