Derech Emunah [philosophy].

BIBAGO, ABRAHAM BEN SHEM-TOV.

n.p.

Constantinople

1521

FIRST EDITION. A wide-margined copy. Few marginal notes.

Vinograd, Const. 127; Mehlman 1193; Deinard, Atikoth Yehudah p. 16.

As the title suggests, Derech Emunah is a presentation of the Jewish religion whose ultimate goal leads to the highest understanding of God, and ultimately, eternal happiness. Many Biblical and rabbinic passages are explained here, yet the author also takes note of Christian and Mohammedan theology. He quotes Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras, also Euclid and Ptolemeus, Galen and Themistius, as well as Arabic thinkers: Averroes, Avicenna, Alfarabi and Gazzali and even the fable-book “Kalila we-Dimna.” Of Jewish writers he often quotes not only rationalists like Maimonides, Nachmanides, and other such philosophers, but also many Kabbalistic works (JE). Abraham Bibago was born in the Spanish province of Aragon and resided in Huesca and Saragossa. He likely died just prior to the Expulsion of Jews from Spain. According to Isaac Arama, Bibago was “one of the most important scholars and philosophers of our people” (Akeidath Yitzchak, gate 80). See A. Lazaroff, The Theology of Abraham Bibagio: A Defence of the Divine Will, Knowledge and Providence in Fifteenth Century Spanish-Jewish Philosophy (1981).