Twilight of a Golden Age

Leon J. Weinberger, Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra

Weinberger presents for the first time in an English translation a broad range of the sacred and secular poetry of Abraham Ibn Ezra, an important Medieval Jewish poet and scholar and the last of an illustrious quintet of Hispanic "Golden Age" poets that included Samuel Ibn Nagrela, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Moses Ibn Ezra, and Judah Halevi. Abraham Ibn Ezra was one of the best-known and admired Jewish figures in the West. In Victorian England, Ibn Ezra was the model for Robert Browning's "Rabbi Ben Ezra," whose philosophy reflected "robust hope and cheerfulness." Author of more than 100 books on medicine, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, poetry, linguistics, and extensive commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud, he was the model itinerant sage - teaching and writing in his native Spain as well as in North Africa, Italy, Provence, Northern France, and England.