Ya‘aqov Anatoli alchimista: verifica di una tradizione

In Michael Scott’s Ars Alchemie mention is made of a “magister Iacob” as an owner of a method useful for the tin dealbatio or bleaching. In this otherwise unknown fiure, it has been often recognized the philosopher and physician Ya‘aqov ben Abba Mari Anatoli (Marseille 1194-Naples? within 1247), who shared with Michael Scott some activity as a translator or mathematician at the court of emperor Frederick II. In this essay, it is discussed, among other things, the possible identifiation of the “magister Iacob” with a “Iacob alhartane iudeus” also known in sources of 12th-13th century. On the other hand, the reputation of Ya‘aqov Anatoli as an alchemist, which dates back at least to the 16th century, would be not without a reason, since in Anatoli’s main work, the Malmad ha-talmidim, there are frequently employed metaphors inspired by alchemistic procedures. At any rate, it is pointed out here, for the fist time, that at the court of Frederick II there lived in Naples also another “magister Iacob”, a Jewish physician, maybe from Germany, whom existence is known from a document of 1243.