PETER OF ALESSANDRIA (PETRUS DE ALEXANDRIA):

Italian monk of the fourteenth century; born at Alessandria, Italy. He translated about 1342, at the request of Pope Clement VI., the treatise of Levi ben Gershon on his astronomical instrument which subsequently had some influence on the discovery of America. He also translated Gersonides' unfinished prognostic on the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter.

Bibliography:
  • Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibl. vii. 83, ix. 162;
  • idem, in Zeit. für Hebr. Bibl. i. 88;
  • Renan-Neubauer, Les Ecrivains Juifs Français, pp. 277, 296, 344.
T. J.
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