person · P0241
The Ran ר"ן
Last of the great Spanish rishonim of the Barcelona school: physician, head of its yeshiva, author of the standard commentary on the Rif and on Nedarim (printed where Rashi would be), and of the philosophical Derashot HaRan. Teacher of R' Yitzchak bar Sheshet (Rivash) and R' Chasdai Crescas. No reception edge is drawn: his teachers are not clearly attested — he seems to have studied mainly under his father R' Reuven and possibly R' Peretz HaKohen, neither in the atlas.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- ר"ן
- Also known as
- Nissim ben Reuven of Girona, Nissim Gerondi
- Era
- rishonim
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 5080–5136 AM
- Academic
- c. 1320–1376 CE
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈56 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Barcelona, Girona
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| His commentary on Nedarim became the tractate's standard companion — the Ran is studied there in place of Rashi — and his commentary on the Rif's Halachot carried the Rif–Ramban school's analysis to every student of halakha. | rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| His own formation is obscure: no teacher of his is securely attested (his father R' Reuven and R' Peretz HaKohen are the usual conjectures), a rare documented-output/undocumented-input case among the rishonim — so the atlas draws no upstream edge.
Deliberate no-edge decision; see the chain-honesty rule. |
reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ | |
| Nissim ben Reuven of Girona, active at Barcelona; died 9 Shevat 1376 CE.
Birth year is genuinely unsettled — sources give c. 1290 and c. 1320. Carry both.
|
tradition | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Practised as a physician and served in that capacity at the royal court; he also had competence in astronomy. | external | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Wrote a Sefer Torah in 1336 for his own use which became celebrated as a model scroll; it was moved repeatedly and was preserved at Tiberias into modern times.
A rare physical-artifact fact for a Rishon; the Tiberias provenance chain is reported by EJ and would be worth independent tracing.
|
external tradition | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Was denounced to the government by members of his own community and imprisoned with several other Jewish notables for about five months before being cleared.
The event is solid; the DATE IS NOT. Published accounts give 1367, 1370 and 1378, and Encyclopaedia Judaica states outright that the date and cause are uncertain. Record the event undated with the variants listed — do not let a single year into the atlas.
|
rabbinic external | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Headed the yeshiva at Barcelona and received halachic queries from as far afield as Eretz Yisrael and Syria; he also sat on the committee that drafted the Spanish communities' joint petition to the king.
Correspondence-network fact. Whether he ever held a formal rabbinic title at Barcelona is unclear.
|
external | ★★★☆☆ |