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THE ETHICS OF MAIMONIDES

through their ignorance of the Arabic constructions, at times introduced errors into their manuscripts.[1]

In order, however, to equalize the text and render it as smooth as possible, wherever one source has a reading which in minor details is more correct grammatically than that of another, though perhaps better manuscript or edition, the former reading is preferred without mention in the notes, although the looser rendering may go back to Ibn Tibbon. This is especially true as regards the agreement of suffixes and pronouns with their nouns. Thus, בהם, מהם, etc., of So are often retained in preference to בהן, מהן, etc., of Br or Ma, although the latter are more authoritative sources.[2]

Emendations of the text have been avoided unless supported by good authority, and always by that of the original Arabic, as, for instance, in Chapter VIII,[3] where all the Hebrew sources are at fault, the manuscripts and editions reading, ואמרו, אמתתו, ומתוך, or אמתתו ואמרו. The Arabic פהלכוא points plainly to an original ומתו.

Glosses which can be traced to Ibn Tibbon are printed in small type. All other glosses are put in the notes.

The reader can generally tell the source on which a given part of the text is based by the absence of the sign of that source from the notes. In Chapters I to VI, for instance, the sign Br is seldom present in the notes, which indicates that the text follows that manuscript very closely. The character of the notes in this regard should, however, be taken into consideration. Thus, Chapters VII and VIII are based mainly on Ma, but that sign appears often in the notes because of minor errors and omissions in its text. Variants occurring in Mi are noted only when they differ from those in So.

  1. ↑ See Hebrew text, c. V, p. 32, n. 28.
  2. ↑ I.T. was conscious of such errors in his translations. See his Preface to the Moreh, in which he refers to his father's (Jehudah's) Preface to his translation of Baḥya ibn Pakuda's חובות הלבבות, where Jehudah dwells upon the difficulties in translating from Arabic into Hebrew. Cf. HUb., p. 374.
  3. ↑ See Hebrew text, p. 54, n. 37.
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