Vidal of Tolosa

Who is Vidal of Tolosa?

Vidal of Tolosa was a Spanish rabbi and scholar of the latter half of the fourteenth century.

Vidal resided in Catalonia, where he prepared his most important work, Maggid Mishneh, a commentary on Maimonides' Mishneh Torah. This work covered the entire contents of the Mishneh Torah, but by 1906 only those parts were extant which cover the following books: iii., iv., v., xi., xii., and xiii. Before the twentieth century, the commentary was never published separately, but only together with the Mishneh Torah. Vidal's second work was a commentary in Arabic on a work by Al-Ghazali that is known in Hebrew as To'elet ha-Higgayon. This commentary was translated into Hebrew by Moses ben Joshua of Narbonne, and as of 1906 was extant in manuscript in the Library of the Vatican. From Joseph Caro's preface to his Kesef Mishneh it appears that Vidal was a personal friend of Nissim of Gerona.

Vidal's son Isaac was also a prominent scholar. He lived in Alcala and corresponded with Isaac ben Sheshet, according to Isaac's responsa number 473.