Monozigote · CC BY-SA 4.0

A fourteenth-century philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer working in southern France, Gersonides — Levi ben Gershon, known by the Hebrew acronym RaLBaG — wrote major commentaries on the Bible and Talmud alongside original work on logic, mathematics, and astronomy, including an early camera obscura-style instrument, the Jacob's staff, used for measuring the angular distance between celestial bodies. His willingness to let philosophy and astronomy shape his reading of scripture made him one of medieval Judaism's boldest rationalist thinkers.