SHEM TOV IBN SHEM TOV
AUCTION 30 |
Tuesday, September 20th,
2005 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Books and Manuscripts
Lot 302
SHEM TOV IBN SHEM TOV
Ferrara: Abraham ibn Usque 1556
Est: $2,000 - $3,000
PRICE REALIZED $2,800
The first work opposes the philosophy of Jewish rationalists such as Abraham ibn Ezra, Levi b. Gershom (RaLBa’G) and Isaac Albalag - but especially that of Maimonides. 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 apostasy.
This anti-Maimonidean polemic was vehemently attacked by Moses Alashkar in the attached work, Hassagoth, which demonstrably supported the philosophical views of both Levi b. Gershon (RaLBa’G) and Maimonides. See EJ, VIII, col.1198 and Carmilly-Weinberger, p.44