The celebrated anti-Jewish writing called Epistola Samuelis Maroccani ('Epistle of Samuel the Moroccan'), which gives in twenty-seven chapters a refutation of Jewish objections to the Christian faith, is said to have been translated from Arabic or Hebrew into Latin by Alfonsus Bonihominis in 1329, under the title, Tractatulus multum utilis ad convincendum Judaeos de errore suo, quem habent de Messia adhuc venturo, et de observantia legis Mosaiae ('A very useful treatise to convince the Jews of their error, which they have about the Messiah yet to come, and about the observance of the Mosaic law').[4][5]
Including the first printed edition of 1475, this tract went through at least nine editions in Latin,[a] five in German,[b] and one in Italian.[c] In the Escurial there exists a Spanish translation in manuscript. A Russian version was issued in 1855 by the Kiev Pecherskaya Lavra (Monastery). An English version by Thomas Calvert appeared at York in 1649 under the title, The Blessed Jew of Morocco; or, the black Moor Made white. There exists also, in manuscript, a Disputatio Abutalib Saraceni et Samuelis Judæi, consisting of seven epistles, translated from Arabic into Latin by Alfonsus Bonihominis.[4][5]
Incipit of a MS. of the Epistola ad Rabbi Isaac (1480–84)
From another MS. of the Epistola contra Iudaeorum errores (c. 1479)
^Translated often since, and has been inserted in the Bibliotheca Patrum, xviii. (1519)
^Translated by W. Link (Altenburg, 1524), and inserted in Luther's works, v, 567–583; and often since; by E. Trautmann (Goslar, 1706); by F. G. Stieldorff (Trier, 1833)
