ALBO, JOSEPH

Spanish-Jewish philosopher, theologian, and polemicist; b. c. 1380; d. c. 1440. Not much is known of his life. He lived for a while at Daroca (province of Saragossa) and later at Soria (province of Castile). One of his teachers was Hasdai crescas. At the celebrated theological Disputation of Tortosa (1413–14), which had been convoked by the antipope benedict xiii during his self-imposed exile in Spain, Albo was one of the leading spokesmen in defense of Judaism against the attacks on it by the convert from Judaism, Gerónimo de Santa Fe (called before his conversion Joshua ben Joseph ibn Vives de Lorca and commonly known as Lorki).

As a result of the debate, Albo, recognizing the need for a good theological work for the defense of Judaism, composed his best-known book, the Sefer ha-Ikkarim (Book of Principles), completed in 1425. It soon became one of the most popular works on Jewish theology. It was first printed at Soncino in 1485, and later editions with commentaries were published at Fribourg (1584) and at Venice (1618). In this work Albo attempted to determine precisely the essential beliefs of Judaism. Four tractates make up the work. The first, which serves as a general introduction, discusses the bases of all true religion, which are Albo's three "principles": the existence of God, divine revelation, and reward and punishment. In the three following tractates the author studies in detail each of these three basic principles and their consequences. In this way he sets forth a complete system of Jewish theology, sometimes following maimonides and sometimes Crescas and borrowing much from his contemporary Simeon ben Tzemah Duran. Like Crescas, he detached himself from the pure intellectualism of the earlier Jewish philosophers and placed the goal of human life not only in intellectual but also in religious and moral perfection. Jewish writers, e.g., Isaac abrabanel, have noted Albo's seeming indifference toward the Jewish belief in a coming Messiah.

See Also: jewish philosophy.

Bibliography: j. albo, Sefer ha-Ikkarim, tr. i. husik, 5 v. in 4 (Philadelphia 1929–30), a critical ed. of the Hebrew text with Eng. tr. i. husik, A History of Medieval Jewish Philosophy (2d ed. New York 1930; pa. 1958); "Joseph Albo: The Last of the Jewish Mediaeval Philosophers," Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 1 (1928–30). g. vajda, Introduction à la pensée juive du moyen âge (Paris 1947) 186–89, 286. a. tÄnzer, Die Regionsphilosophie des Joseph Albo (Frankfurt 1896).

[a. brunot]