Sepher Ha’emunoth [“Book of Beliefs”]

AUCTION 7 | Tuesday, June 22nd, 1999 at 1:00

Fine Judaica: Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art The Property of Various Owners

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Lot 569

SHEM TOV IBN SHEM TOV

Sepher Ha’emunoth [“Book of Beliefs”]

FIRST EDITION. Title within woodcut architectural border. Woodcut printer’s device on title and at end ff.116. Title heavily stained and laid down, scattered dampstaining. Modern calf. Sm.4to Vinograd, Ferrara 37; not in Adams

Ferrara: Abraham ibn Usque 1556

Est: $1,000 - $1,500

PRICE REALIZED $1,100

A work that opposes the philosophy of Jewish rationalists such as Abraham ibn Ezra, Levi b. Gershom (RaLBa’G) and Isaac Albalag - but especially that of Maimonidies. A witness to the persecutions and conversions of late 14th- and early 15th-century Spain, Shem Tov believed that the philosophical approach was fundamentally incompatible with religious tradition. He viewed Maimonidean intellectualism to be responsible for facilitating apostacy. This anti-Maimonidean polemic was vehemently attacked by Moses Alashkar in his work Hassagoth (see Lot *** ). See EJ, VIII, col.1198 and Carmilly-Weinberger, p.44