Joseph ibn Shem-Tov

To be distinguished from Joseph Albo (1380-1435)

Joseph ben Shem-Tov ibn Shem-Tov (died 1480) was a prolific Judæo-Spanish writer born in Castile. He lived in various cities of Spain: Medina del Campo de León (1441); Alcalá de Henares (1451); and Segovia (1454).

He held a position at court which brought him in contact with Christian scholars. According to the custom of the time. In the preface to his commentary on Profiat Duran's Al-Tehi ka-Aboteka, he recounts a disputation with a Christian scholar concerning the doctrine of the Trinity. In 1452 he was sent by the Prince of Asturia, Don Enrique, to Segovia to prevent an outbreak of popular rage against the Jews at Easter. He speaks occasionally in his writings of great sufferings which drove him from place to place, and of passing through a severe illness. Graetz (Gesch. viii. 422) said, based a quotation in Joseph Jaabez's Or ha-Ḥayyim, that Ibn Shem-Ṭob died a martyr. He died in 1480.

Ibn Shem-Ṭob's numerous writings, a list of which was compiled by Munk and supplemented by Beer and Steinschneider, are divisible into (a) independent works and (b) commentaries.