9 - Mathematical and Physical Optics in Medieval Jewish Scientific Thought

Summary

Medieval Jewish scholars displayed relatively little interest in optical science, unlike their Muslim and Western Latin counterparts, and I am not aware of a single original treatise devoted primarily to optics by a medieval Jewish author. Nonetheless, other texts do indicate some knowledge of and interest in optical matters. That knowledge is surveyed in this chapter, with a focus on physical and mathematical optics and omission of its anatomical and physiological aspects (the inner structure of the eye, the pathology of sight, etc.), which belong to the medical tradition.

The texts in which medieval Jewish authors refer to optical science can be divided into two main groups:

1. Scientifically oriented literature: general overviews, commentaries on optical treatises, and attempts to apply optics to the solution of non-optical scientific problems;

2. Occasional references to optical topics or notions in nonscientific literature (e.g., biblical exegesis, halakhic texts) that, though of less importance, provide evidence of the extent to which basic optical notions were assimilated into the general scholarly discourse.