MOSKONI (Mashkoni), JUDAH LEON BEN MOSES

MOSKONI (Mashkoni ), JUDAH LEON BEN MOSES (b. 1328), medieval philosopher and scholar from Ocrida in Bulgaria. As a result of disturbances caused by war Moskoni left his native town in 1360 and traveled extensively through many countries. While at Negropont he became a pupil of *Shemariah b. Elijah b. Jacob. During his travels he formed close ties with the great Jewish scholars of Egypt, Morocco, Italy, and southern France. Moskoni was well acquainted with the Hebrew and Arabic philosophic literature of his time and stressed the importance of studying grammar for an understanding of the Bible. His main work is a supercommentary to the commentaries of Abraham Ibn Ezra on the Pentateuch under the title Even ha-Ezer, which he wrote in 1362, but he also wrote other works in the fields of Hebrew grammar, biblical exegesis, and philosophy. The year of his death is not known. Some fragments of his commentary to Genesis (1:1–2) were published by N. Ben-Menahem; and to Exodus (some chapters) by A. Berliner and D. Hoffmann (see bibliography). Special importance is attached to Moskoni because of his edition of the Hebrew *Josippon. He had at his disposal a number of versions of the book but in the end selected the long adaptation of it, divided it into chapters, and added an interesting and detailed introduction. His edition has been preserved in two manuscripts and is the basis of the Constantinople edition of Josippon, where his introduction appears in an abbreviated and adapted form. All the standard editions of Josippon are merely reprints of this version. His introduction to Josippon was published by A. Berliner and D. Hoffmann.

bibliography:

Vogelstein-Rieger, 1 (1896), 186, 450; hb, 9 (1869), 16; A. Berliner and D. Hoffmann (eds.), Oẓar Tov, 1 (1878), 1–10, 17–25, 41–42; N. Ben-Menahem, in: Oẓar Yehudel Sefarad, 2 (1959), 43–54; idem, in: Aresheth, 3 (1961), 74.

[David Flusser]