(Moses Nachmanides). Iggereth HaRav R. Moshe bar Nachman.

(MAIMONIDES).

Vilna

1821

First Separate Edition.

Vinograd, Vilna 150.

A defense by Nachmanides of Maimonides’ Moreh Nevuchim and Sepher HaMada. First published in Ta’alumoth Chachmah by Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (Basle, 1629) and thereafter together with other works. This is the first separate edition. Addressed to the Rabbis of France, Nachmanides explains that they do not have the facility to pass judgment on Maimonides, for being so far removed from Spain, they are unfamiliar with the particularly unique intellectual culture of the Jews there. Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed had a troubled history, heavily influenced as it was by Greek - specifically Aristotelian philosophy, it was thought by some to conflict with Judaic tradition. See D. J. Silver, Maimonidean Criticism and the Maimonidean Controversy, 1180-1240 (1965).