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Lehrstuhlinhaber

Prof. Dr. Michael Engel

Michael Engel
Michael Engel

Lehrstuhlinhaber für Philosophie und Geistesgeschichte

Prof. Dr. Michael Engel 

+49 0 62 21 54 192 - 23 

michael.engel(at)hfjs.eu

Scholar Google

Bloomsbury

Education (2004 - 2015)

   
April 2015 - October 2010 Ph.D. University of Cambridge, Faculty of Divinity PhD thesis title: “Elijah Del Medigo’s Theory of Human Intellect.” PhD thesis supervisors: Prof. John Marenbon (Cambridge) and Dr. Daniel Weiss (Cambridge). PhD thesis external examiners: Prof. Dag Hasse (Würzburg) and Prof. Resianne Smidt van Gelder-Fontaine (Amsterdam). PhD theses from Cambridge University are not given a grade.
October 2010 - October 2007 M.A. Tel Aviv University, Department of Philosophy MA thesis title: “A critical analysis of Gersonides' theory of immortality.” MA thesis supervisor: Prof. Sara Klein-Braslavy. Thesis grade 94/100. magna cum laude.
October 2007 - October 2004 B.A. Tel Aviv University, Department of Philosophy and Department of Literature, Double Major magna cum laude.

Academic Positions (2008 - present)

Current position  
1 April 2025 Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg Professor / Lehrstuhl für Jüdische Philosophie und Geistesgeschichte
Previous positions  
1 October 2023 - 31 March 2024 Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg Vertretungsprofessor / Lehrstuhl für Jüdische Philosophie und Geistesgeschichte
1 June 2015 - 31 March 2025 Universität Hamburg, Institut für Jüdische Philosophie und Religion Research associate and academic coordinator at the DFG- sponsored project “PESHAT in context.” (PI Prof. Giuseppe Veltri, Universität Hamburg)
1-31 May 2015 University of London, Warburg Institute Frances Yates short-term postdoctoral fellowship
31 June 2015 - 1 October 2014 University of Cambridge, Faculty of Divinity Affiliated lecturer
31 June 2015 - 1 October 2014 University of Cambridge, Clare Hall Postdoctoral Member
1 March 2010 - 1 October 2008 Tel Aviv University, Department of Philosophy Junior Teaching Assistant

Grants, Scholarships, and Awards

   
2023 Universität Hamburg Open Access Fund to support publication of an online critical edition (10,000€)
2020 Universität Hamburg Risikofond Grant to support establishment of an online database (9,000€)
2015 Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe 12 month postdoctoral fellowship grant to support research at Sapienza Università di Roma, working with Prof. Mauro Zonta (✝) [declined]
2012 Erasmus Scholarship PhD Scholarship
2012 Memorial Foundation for Jewish Studies PhD Scholarship
2011-2012 Spalding Trust PhD Scholarship
2011 Cambridge Overseas Trust PhD Scholarship
2011 Wolfson College, Cambridge PhD Scholarship
2011 Burney Fund PhD Scholarship
2011 Schapiro Fund PhD Scholarship
2011 Ian Karten Fund PhD Scholarship

Publications

Monographs and critical editions

  • Elijah Del Medigo’s Two Psychological Treatises of 1482: A Critical Edition, Leiden: Brill [Aristoteles Semitico-Latinus series], under contract with Brill, forthcoming, 2025.
  • Elijah Del Medigo’s Commentary on Averroes’ De substantia orbis: Critical Edition of the Hebrew and Latin Text, Notes and Introduction (co-authored with Giovanni Licata), under contract with De Gruyter, forthcoming, 2025.
  • Elijah Del Medigo and Paduan Aristotelianism: Investigating the Human Intellect, London: Bloomsbury [Bloomsbury Studies in the Aristotelian Tradition], 2017.

Refereed journal articles and book chapters

  • A Documented Feud Regarding Creation in the Margins of Paris Ms. hebr. 968 (forthcoming)
  • “Jedaiah Bedersi’s Employment of Alfarabi’s Political Regime in his Treatise on Particular Forms” Revue des Études Juives, forthcoming, 2025.
  • “Amending the Text Across Cultural Zones: The Trajectory of Glosses from Provence to Italy in the Hebrew Translation of Averroes’ Middle Commentary on the De generatione et corruptione,” in Michael Engel and Margherita Mantovani, Translating Ibn Rushd Into Hebrew,” Officina Philosophica Hebraica series, forthcoming, 2025.
  • “Ideo theologice respondeatis: Pietro Pomponazzi and the Boundaries of Theological Discourse in his Paduan Lectures (1503-04)” in Amos Edelheit (ed.), Renaissance Scholasticisms: Fighting Back, Leiden: Brill [Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Traditions], 2025, 264–279.
  • “Jacob Mantino and the Alleged Second Translation of the long commentary on the De anima III.5 and III.36” in Racheli Haliva, Daniel Davies, and Yoav Meyrav (eds.) Averroes and Averroism in Medieval Jewish Thought, Leiden: Brill [Maimonides Library for Philosophy and Religion] (2024), 420-437.
  • “Hervaeus Natalis and Chrysostomus Javelli on Averroes’ account of creation: a Thomist controversy concerning Metaphysics” in Luca Burzelli and Tomasso de Robertis (eds.), Chrysostomus Javelli: Pagan Philosophy and Christian Thought in the Renaissance, Springer (2023), 105 - 121.
  • “A Reexamination of the Textual Tradition of the Hebrew Translation of Isaac Israeli’s Book of Elements (Sefer ha-Yesodot)” Henoch: Historical and Textual Studies in Ancient and Medieval Judaism and Christianity, 44/1 (2022), pp. 135 - 170.
  • “17th Century Reflections on Scholastic Terminology: Johannes Cottunius and the Subject Matter of Natural Philosophy,” Medioevo 47 (2022), pp. 171 - 188.
  • “The Two Hebrew-into-Latin Translations of Averroes's Commentary on Plato's Republic: Method, Motivation, and Context" in Alexander Orwin (ed.), Plato's Republic in the Islamic Context: New Perspectives on Averroes's Commentary, Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press [Rochester Studies in Medieval Political Thought], (2022), pp. 297-319.
  • “Reconstructing Averroes’s Theory of Conjunction and Immortality in 15th-Century Padua: A Possible Source for Pico’s 900 Theses” in Giovanni Licata and Pasquale Terracciano (eds.), La lama del sapiente. Saggi sulla filosofia di Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, (2022), pp. 179-216.
  • “The roots ח.ג.ש and ר.מ.ש in the Works of Samuel Ibn Tibbon: a Terminological Shift” in Reimund Leicht and Giuseppe Veltri (eds.), Studies in the Formation of Medieval Hebrew Philosophical Terminology, Leiden: Brill [Officina Philosophica Hebraica] (2020), pp. 49-63.
  • “The Academic Reception of Beḥinat ha-Dat: Criticizing Jewish Historiography” in Chiara Adorisio and Lorella Bosco (eds.), Zwischen Orient und Europa: Orientalismus in der deutsch-jüdischen Kultur im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Narr Francke Attempto Verlag (2019), pp. 53-61.
  • “The Relation between Philosophy and Religion in the Works of Elijah Del Medigo: A Study of Three Models” in Giovanni Licata and Omero Proietti (eds.), Uriel Da Costa, Sources, Themes, Traditions, Macerata: EUM (2016), pp. 105-120.
  • “Elijah Del Medigo and Agostino Nifo on Intelligible Species” Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale 26 (2015), pp. 495-517.
  • “Elijah Del Medigo's Critique of the Paduan Thomists” Medioevo 38 (2013), pp. 295-318.


Reviews and short publications

  • “A Reply to Racheli Haliva’s `Abner’s Double Standard Approach towards the Jewish Rabbis`“ in Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies (2017), 228-229.


Encyclopedia entries

  • "Elijah Delmedigo", in Edward N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 Edition), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/delmedigo/>.
  • “Hebrew into Latin Translations in Renaissance Italy” In, Marco Sgarbi (ed), Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_1187-1.
  • “Elijah Del Medigo” in Yoav Meyrav (ed.), Encyclopedia of Scepticism and Jewish Tradition (forthcoming).


Edited volumes

  • With Margherita Mantovani, “Translating Ibn Rushd Into Hebrew,” Officina Philosophica Hebraica series, under contract with Brill, forthcoming, 2024.


Under evaluation

  • From Benevento to Pisa: The Hebrew Translation of Averroes’ Long Commentary on the De anima
     

Work in Progress

  • The Hebrew version of the De anima and its relation to the Arabic version
  • Nissim of Pisa on the Human Soul
  • Yedaiah Bedersi’s Reading of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed

Refereeing for Peer Reviewed Journals and Presses (Articles in English, Hebrew, Italian and German)

Acted as peer-reviewer for the following journals and presses

  • Speculum
  • Bulletin de philosophie médiévale
  • European Journal of Jewish Studies
  • Aither
  • Mediterranea
  • Bar Ilan University Press
  • Bar-Ilan University’s e-journal of Jewish Studies
  • British Journal for the History of Philosophy
  • Brill
  • Brepols
  • Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale

Talks and Presentations (Selected)

[Lectures given as invited speaker are marked with an asterisk]

  1. What is Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages?*, 7 March 2025, Moses Mendelsohn Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
  2. Philosophical Glosses, Critical Readership and Terminological Challenges: The Case of BnF Ms. hebr. 968*, 19 June 2024, Research colloquium, University of Siegen, Germany.
  3. Response to Omri Bohm’s Reading of Spinoza*, June 4 2024, One day workshop on the thought of Baruch Spinoza, Hochschule für Jüdische Studien and the Philosophy Faculty at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
  4. Jewish Renaissance? That is so Medieval! Revisiting Cecil Roth's The Jews in the Renaissance (1959)*, 03 June 2024, Research Colloquium, Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg, Germany.
  5. The Hebrew Version of Averroes’ Middle Commentary on the Physics: A Reassessment of the Manuscript Tradition*, 15-16 May 2024, Manuscripts of Natural Philosophy: two day workshop at Universität Hamburg, Germany.
  6. Creative Minds: On the Role of Creation in Jewish Philosophical Accounts*, 09 May 2024, Departmental Seminar on Jewish Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, Sapienza University, Italy.
  7. What is Jewish Philosophy?*, 05 December 2023, Ringvorlesung, Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg, Germany.
  8. Yeḥi’el Nissim of Pisa and Aristotle’s De anima: Sources, Context, and Engagement, 20 July 2023, The 12th Congress of the European Association of Jewish Studies, Frankfurt, Germany.
  9. New Insights on The Textual Tradition of Averroes’ Paraphrase of the Metaphysics: Arabic-Hebrew- Latin (with Yoav Meyrav)*, 30 May 2023, International Research Seminar on Jacob Mantino, Sapienza University, Italy.
  10. The Hebrew Sources of the Multiple Hebrew-into-Latin Translations of Averroes’ Long Commentary on the Posterior Analytics*, 5 May 2023, Medieval Manuscripts of Logic as Objects of Study, International Workshop, Universität Hamburg, Germany.
  11. "Ens or Corpus? I'll Have Both!" Johannes Cottunius Lax Attitude towards Terminological Distinctions*, 5 December 2022, Meeting of the UK Medieval Philosophy Network, Warburg Institute, UK.
  12. Jewish Contribution to the Translation and Circulation of Averroes’ Commentaries on Natural Philosophy in and around the University of Padua (15th-16th Centuries)*, Scientific Cosmopolitanism in the University Culture of Early Modern Padua, 12 October 2022, Università degli Studi di Padova and Ca Foscari, Italy.
  13. Presentation of an online tool for the Study of Commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics*, 28 September 2022, Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities, Ca Foscari, Italy.
  14. Philosophische Bildung im jüdischen Mittelalter*, 20 June 2022, Ringvorlesung, Universität Hamburg, Germany (In German).
  15. From the Commentary to the Source and Back Again: a Digital Structuring of the Paduan Commentary Tradition on Aristotle's Physics*, 9 June 2022, Digital Humanities Center at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.
  16. Early Modern Paduan Aristotelianism: Joannes Cottunius’ Categorization of Views Concerning the Subject Matter of Natural Philosophy*, 10 March 2022, Philosophy in Padua from the origins of the University to Galileo", on the occasion of the eighth centenary of the foundation of the University (1222- 2022) (lecture series), Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy.
  17. Provençal Literary Activity as Reflected in the Provençal Manuscripts of Isaac Israel's Sefer Ha-Yesodot, 22 February, 2022, Universität Hamburg, Germany.
  18. Jacob Mantino’s Translations of Averroes and Jewish Philosophy in Sixteenth-Century Italy*, 6 October 2021, The Many Faces of Early Modern Italian Jewry (International Conference), Universität Potsdam, Germany.
  19. Was There Really a Hebrew-into-Latin Translation of Averroes’ Long Commentary on the De anima III.5 and III.36?*, 12 April 2021, Medieval Jewish Thought and the Italian Renaissance (International Conference), Warburg Institute, UK.
  20. A Comparative Analysis of the Two Latin Versions of Averroes’s Long Commentary on the De anima, III.5, 7 February, 2020, De intellectu: Greek, Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew Texts and Their Influence on Medieval Philosophy (International Conference), Universidade do Porto, Portugal.
  21. Maimonides’ Latin Translation in Albert’s and Thomas’ Commentaries of the Sentences*, 18 November 2019, The Guide of the Perplexed and its Multilingual Transmission: A Synchronic Approach Towards Critical Editions (International Conference), Tel Aviv University, Israel.
  22. The Hebrew and Latin Translations of the Middle Commentary on the De generatione et corruptione and their Arabic Source: a Comparative Analysis of Terminology and Structure*, 14 February 2019, Jewish Averroism and its Impact on the Development of Philosophical and Scientific Hebrew Language in the Later Middle Ages (International Conference), Universität Hamburg, Germany.
  23. Averroes’ Long Commentary on the Posterior Analytics and Its Impact on Jewish and Latin Averroism during the Italian Renaissance*, 12-14 November 2018, Scepticism and Anti-Scepticism in Jewish Averroism (International Conference), Universität Hamburg, Germany.
  24. Logic and Epistemology in Averroes’ Paraphrase of Aristotle’s De anima*, 12 October 2018 Aristotle and his Legacy (International Conference), Palacky University, Czech Republic.
  25. Mauro Zonta and the Study of Italian Jewish Philosophy of the Middle Ages, 18 July 2018, The 11th Congress of the European Association of Jewish Studies, Krakow, Poland.
  26. The Accessibility of Aristotelian Materials to Cretan Jews during the 15th Century*, 20 February 2018, Seminar für Judaistik, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
  27. Hebrew and Latin Cross Pollinations in the Renaissance: The Case of the De substantia orbis, 23 March 2018, Renaissance Society of America annual conference, New Orleans, USA.
  28. The Contribution of Jewish Thinkers to the Formation of the Averroist Tradition in the Veneto during the Italian Renaissance*, 15 December 2017, Rinascimento Europeo e Rinascimento Veneto (International Conference), Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy.
  29. The Impact of Averroes’ Paraphrase of the Republic on Medieval Jewish Philosophy, 16 June 2017, The 15th World Congress of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, Olomouc, Czech Republic.
  30. Elia del Medigo, filosofo ebreo-cretese-veneziano del quindicesimo secolo* [in Italian], 17 March 2017, Palermo, Italy.
  31. Terminological issues in Ibn Tibbon’s Letter on Providence and translation to the Guide of the Perplexed*, 4 April 2016, Themes, Terminology, and Translation procedure in 12th century Jewish Philosophy (International Conference), Universität Hamburg, Germany.
  32. 19th Century Attempts to Establish Wissenschaft des Judentums as Integral Part of the European Curriculum: The Unfortunate Case of Beḥinat ha-Dat*, 5 November 2016, Zwischen Orient und Europa. Orientalismus in der deutsch-jüdischen Kultur im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Istituto Italiano di Studi Germanici a Roma, Italy.
  33. Elijah Del Medigo and Agostino Nifo on Averroes' Incoherence of the Incoherence, 28 March 2016, The Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, Berlin, Germany.
  34. Different Approaches to Aristotelian Philosophy in the Jewish Middle Ages: Aristotle's De anima as a Test Case*, 31 March 2015, University of Warsaw, Poland.
  35. Agency and Creation in the Thought of Averroes and Aquinas*, 25 November 2014, Maynooth University, Ireland.
  36. Aristotle's Theory of Intellect in the Jewish Medieval Tradition*, 19 June 2013 Colloquium Dedicated to Aristotle's Theory of Intellect from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Period, Tel Aviv University, Israel (In Hebrew).
  37. Scholastic Influences on Jewish Philosophy in Renaissance Italy, 14 June 2013, Colloquium on Renaissance Philosophy, University of London, London, UK.
  38. Elijah Del Medigo's critique of Gersonides' philosophy, 28 July 2013, The 16th World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, Israel.
  39. Elijah Del Medigo’s and his Theory of Intellect*, 13 April 2012, Scuola Galileiana, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy .

Honorary Events

Author Meets Critics Roundtable: Elijah Del Medigo and Paduan Aristotelianism (Bloomsbury 2017) Organized by Sean Erwin (Barry University, Florida), sponsored by the Society of Medieval and Renaissance Studies (SMRP). The event took place virtually as part of the annual meeting of the Renaissance Society of America (RSA), 2 April 2021.

Third Party Funds (As Principle Investigator)

DFG Sachbeihilfe, 1.10.2025-1.10.2028, €366,584

(GZ: EN 1469/1-1) „"Im gelobten Land der Provence": Die Migration des Wissens von der Provence nach Italien und die hebräisch-jüdische Philosophietradition, ca.1400-1600“

Academic Organizational Skills (Selected)

   
June 2024 One day workshop on the thought of Baruch Spinoza, Hochschule für Jüdische Studien and the Philosophy Faculty at the University of Heidelberg, Germany (in collaboration with Prof. Julia Peters)
August 2023 Two-day workshop at the Universität Hamburg, “The Interplay between Faith, Scepticism and Rational Optimism in the Dialogical quaestio Culture of the European Universities, ca. 1500-1700.”
April - July 2022 Lecture series (Ringvorlesung), Universität Hamburg, “Philosophische Bildung im jüdischen Mittelalter,” organized with Prof. Zeev Strauss)
February 2022 Supervised as academic coordinator the organization of the international conference at the Universität Hamburg, “Jewish Scholarship, Arabic Heritage and Christian Culture: The Study of Philosophy and Science among Jews in 14th- and Early 15th-Century Provence and the Development of the Hebrew Language.”
February 2019 Supervised as academic coordinator the organization of the international conference at the Universität Hamburg, “Jewish Averroism and its Impact on the Development of Philosophical and Scientific Hebrew Language in the Later Middle Ages.”
February 2019 Initiated a one-day meeting among PIs and programmers from Digital Humanities projects relating to medieval philosophy in German Universities. The meeting was attended by Dag Hasse and Andreas Büttner (University of Würzburg, The Arabic Latin Glossary) and by David Wirmer and Rafael Nájera (University of Cologne, The Averroes Project).
July 2018 Supervised as academic coordinator the organization of EAJS panel in Krakow, “In Memoriam Mauro Zonta I: Mauro Zonta’s Contribution to the Study of Jewish Philosophy and Hebrew Philosophical Terminology.”
April 2018 Organized a Graduate Workshop on Neoplatonic Terminology at the Universität Hamburg (in collaboration with Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität)
April 2016 Was among the organizers of the international conference at the Universität Hamburg, “Themes, Terminology, and Translation procedure in 12th century Jewish Philosophy.”
June 2013 Co-organized with Dr. Yoav Meyrav a one day colloquium at the Tel Aviv University, Aristotle’s Theory of Intellect in the Jewish, Muslim and Christian Traditions
June 2013 Co-organized with Dr. John Sellars a one Day Colloquium on Renaissance Philosophy at the University of London. Secured funding from the British Society for the History of Philosophy and the University of London
Diversity Training  
March 2024 Workshop "Unconscious Bias in Academia" (Led by Dr. Sabine Blackmore)
Media and Public Outreach  
November 2023 Opening talk at the book launch (Heidelberg, in German) Buchvorstellung und Vortrag von Richard C. Schneider: Die Sache mit Israel - und nun? https://heidelberg.deutscher- koordinierungsrat.de/
August 2020 Announcement of the Risikofond grant reception at the Universität Hamburg homepage: Neue Forschung zu Aristoteles, Nahrungspflanzen und menschlichem Prognoseverhalten: https://www.uni-hamburg.de/newsroom/exzellenzstrategie/2020/0804-ideen-risikofonds- beispiele.html
Languages  
Native Modern Hebrew
Like Native English
Ancient Hebrew (Biblical, Medieval), Latin (Annual courses at the Tel Aviv University, Beginners course: grade 97/100; Advanced course: grade 93/100), Arabic, Judeo- Arabic, Greek
Modern German, Italian, Hungarian, French (reading only), Spanish (reading only)