The Glossary of Jacob Mantino and Johannes Leo Africanus (Madrid, Escorial, Ms arabe 598)

In 1523, an Arabic-Hebrew-Latin glossary was drafted in Bologna in the house of the Jewish physician Jacob Mantino (Madrid, Escorial, Ms árabe 598). The Arabic list of terms – totalizing around 5500 entries – was accomplished by a unique scribe: “the humble servant, Yuhanna al Assad from Granada”, as recorded at the end of the manuscript in the Arabic colophon (fol. 117v). The Hebrew and Latin translation (including respectively 173 and 473 terms) remains uncomplete and anonymous, even if the handwriting of Jacob Mantino is recognizable in the Hebrew entries. This essay offers a short description of the Escorial manuscript and a first transcription, translation and commentary of the trilingual section (fols. 2r-6r). By making hypothesis on the context of production and use of the glossary, our contribution considers aspects of the contents, the terminology and the technique of translation of the lemmas from Arabic into Hebrew and Latin.