Kalonymus Ben-kalonymus

Kalonymus Ben-Kalonymus, a Jewish writer of some note, was born in Italy in 1287, but lived for some time in Southern France, and was there picked up by king Robert of Naples. He returned with the latter to his native land, and filled some important offices in his service. Kalonymus was an accomplished scholar, translated into Hebrew medical, astronomical, and philosophical works of the Arabians, wrote a number of satirical treatises on the low moral state of his contemporaries, and labored in this and other ways to ameliorate the miserable condition of his countrymen. He died about 1337. The best of his later works is אבן בחן, or The Stone of Weeping (Naples, 1489; translated into Jewish German, Frkft. 1746). He also edited with great ability a part of the Arabian Encyclopaedia of the Sciences (known as "Treatises of the Honest Brethren") for the use of the Italian Jews. See Grattz, Gesch. d. Juden; 7:305 sq.; Zunz, in Geiger's Zeitschrift, ii, 313; 4:200 sq.; Fligel, Zeitschrift der deutsch. Morgenland, Gesellsch. 1859. (J. H.W.)