Overview
Ibn Gabirol’s philosophical dialogue Fons Vitae examines universal matter and form, the structure of created reality, divine will, and the soul’s return toward its source. Originally written in Arabic, it circulated most influentially through a Latin translation attributed to an author called Avicebron. Medieval Christian philosophers debated the work without realizing that Avicebron was the Jewish poet Solomon ibn Gabirol. Scholars established the connection much later through a surviving Hebrew summary. The book demonstrates how a Sephardic philosophical text could cross linguistic and religious boundaries while becoming separated from its author’s Jewish identity.
