Sepher Ha’Emunoth [“The Book of Beliefs.”]

SHEM TOV IBN SHEM TOV.

Abraham ibn Usque

Ferrara

1556

FIRST EDITION. Title set within woodcut architectural arch with the printer’s device of an armillary sphere resting on a scroll a verse from Psalm 130:5 (Yaari no. 22). Device repeated at end.

Vinograd, Ferrara 37.

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 Maimonides. A witness to the persecutions and conversions of late 14th- and early 15th-century Spain, the author 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 his work Hassagoth (1557, see lot 12). Sepher Ha’Emunoth is important for the study of early Kabbalah and Zohar. It contains explanations of many Kabbalistic concepts including the inner world of the Sephiroth. R. Shem Tov restores the phenomena of demons (Sheidim) after Maimonides denied their existence (Part V); he also puts forth (Part VII) the argument for reincarnation (Gilgul).