BONFILS, JOSEPH B. SAMUEL – French Talmudist, Bible commentator, and "payyeṭan"; lived in the middle of the eleventh century. Of his life nothing is known but that he came from Narbonne, and was rabbi of Limoges in the province of Anjou (see Jacob Tam's...
BONGODAS CASLARI – See Caslari.
BONGODAS COHEN – Provençal physician; flourished in 1353. No details of his life can be ascertained. He was the author of a Latin work on obstetrics, still extant in a Turin manuscript (Pasini, cod. 80, 3). If Steinschneider is right, and...
BONGODAS, MEÏR BEN SOLOMON – Provençal poet; lived at the end of the thirteenth century. He is quoted in the diwan of Abraham Bedersi, who was chosen arbitrator between Bongodas and Don Solomon in a controversy on the value of their Aramaic poems. According...
BONGORON – Astronomer; lived at Perpignan in the middle of the fourteenth century. The name "Bongorn" or "Bonjorn" is the Provençal equivalent of the Hebrew name "Yom-Ṭob," the Provençal Jews often prefixing to their own names those of...
BONIFACE VIII. (BENEDICT GAETAN) – One hundred and ninety-eighth pope; born at Anagni, Italy; elected pope Dec. 24, 1294; died 1303. He succeeded Celestin V., who resigned six months after his election. Boniface cherished kindly feelings toward the Jews, and gave...
BONIFACE IX. (PIETRO TOMACELLI) – Two hundred and eighth pope; born at Naples; elected pope Nov. 2, 1389; died at Rome in 1404. His pontificate was very favorable for the Jews in general and for the Roman Jews in particular. At the request of the latter,...
BONIHOMINIS, ALPHONSUS – See Alfonsus Bonihominis.
BONIRAC, SOLOMON – Spanish translator; lived at Barcelona in the middle of the fourteenth century. He translated from the Arabic into Hebrew Galen's medical work on the crisis, under the title, "Sefer Buḥran" (Book on Vapors). The translator...
BONN – City in Rhenish Prussia. It had a Jewish community at an early date. Ephraim ben Jacob of Bonn (b. 1133), as a boy of thirteen, was among the Jews who, in September, 1146, sought refuge from the Crusaders in the fortress...
BONN, JONAS BEN MOSES – Physician; lived in Frankfort-on-the-Main in the seventeenth century. Though not in the employ of the community, his name is subscribed to the articles of agreement drawn up in 1656 between the congregation of Frankfort and its...
BONNET – See Costume.
BONOSUS – See Antioch.
BONSENIOR GRACIAN – See Gracian.
BONSENIOR, SOLOMON – See Jekuthiel B. Solomon.
BONSENIOR, IBN YAḤYA – Chess expert. No details of his life can be obtained. The name is probably Provençal, and he lived certainly not later than the fifteenth century. Bonsenior was the author of an interesting work on chess, entitled "Melizat Seḥoḳ...
BONSENYOR, ASTRUC – From 1259, if not earlier, dragoman and Arabic secretary to Jaime I. of Aragon; died 1280. He was a native of Barcelona. He accompanied the king on his campaigns, acting as interpreter, and in that capacity rendered valuable...
BONSENYOR, ASTRUC – Grandson of Astruc Bonsenyor, the dragoman of Jaime I. of Aragon; father of Judah Bonsenyor. He was a physician in Barcelona, and in the year 1334 was accorded the privileges which had been enjoyed by his grandfather.G. M....
BONSENYOR, ISAAC – Son or grandson of Judah Bonsenyor; lived in Barcelona; in 1391 became a Christian, and took the name Ferrario Gracia de Gualbis.G. M. K.
BONSENYOR, JUDAH (Jaffuda) – Notary-general of Aragon, and translator from the Arabic; son of the elder Astruc, and, like his father, interpreter, first to Alfonso III. and then to Jaime II.; died about 1334. In 1287 he accompanied Alfonso III. on his war...
BONVIVA – French Tosafist; flourished probably early in the thirteenth century at Château-Thierry. He and his father are mentioned in the manuscript Tosafot to the treatise Beẓah 6a, owned by R. N. Rabbinovicz. Since these Tosafot are...
BOOK-CLASPS – See Binding.
BOOK-COLLECTORS – The ideal of learning being so characteristically Jewish, it is natural that many Jews should have collected materials of learning for their own and others' use. The Talmud interprets Ps. cxii. 3 as applying to those who buy...
BOOK OF LIFE – Traditional View: The book, or muster-roll, of God in which all the worthy are recorded for life. God has such a book, and to be blotted out of it signifies death (Ex. xxxii. 32, 33).It is with reference to the Book of Life that...
BOOK-PLATES (Ex-Libris) – Labels with emblematic designs, with references to the names of the owners of the books in which they are inserted. Bookplates came in almost as soon as the art of printing, but one of the earliest known instances of their...