Physical Description  

Only edition. [4 ff.], [iii]-xxxxiv, 388 [i.e. 688] pp. 216:135 mm., light age and damp staining, stamps, wide margins. A very good copy bound in later cloth over boards, rubbed.

Rare - no copy major collections.  The R. Immanuel Loew copy with his plate on final.

Detailed Description   

The page opposite the title page reads: Historische Einleitung in R. Jos. Albo's Buche Ikkarim nebst kritischen, vergleichenden, historischen, und philosophischen Anmerkungen von Dr. Ludwig Schlesinger. [Historical introduction to R. Jos. Albo's Sefer Ikkarim together with critical, comparative, historical, and philosophical notes of Dr. Ludwig Schlesinger.

The text is based on R. Dr. W. Schlessinger's translation into German of R. Albo's Sefer Ikkarim. Sefer ha-Ikkarim is one of the representative Jewish books of his period. It reflects his troubled reaction to the wavering of faith among his fellow Jews which stemmed from the discussions of religious dogma. He keenly felt the need to restore the morale of his people by offering them a reasoned presentation of Judaism and by showing that the basic teachings of the Jewish religion bore the essential character of a "divine law." He brought to his task a wide knowledge of both rabbinic literature and Jewish philosophy. He was also at home in Islamic philosophy (probably through Hebrew versions) and in Latin Christian scholasticism, notably Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica. In addition, he was versed in mathematics and medicine. He was not, however, an original thinker but prone to eclecticism and homiletical prolixity. The charge of plagiarism which was leveled against him by Jacob b. Habib (Ein Ya'akov on Megillah, 2–3) has been renewed in modern times. It has been suggested that Albo took his main ideas without acknowledgment from his teacher, Hasdai Crescas and from Simeon b. Zemah Duran . He was defended by A. Taenzer at an early stage of the discussion. Crescas' Or Adonai, which was completed in 1410, was known to Albo when he wrote the first part of his work which contains his fundamental outline of Jewish dogmatics; and it is probable that he knew Simeon b. Zemah Duran's formulation of the principles of the Jewish faith in the latter's commentary on Job (Ohev Mishpat printed in the rabbinic Bible edition Kehillat Moshe, 4 (Amsterdam, 1727)) written in 1405.

Hebrew Description   

Reference

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