ALBO, JOSEF. - Spanish Jewish apologist and theologian. He successively lived in Daroca (province of Saragozza) and in Soria (Castile); d. 1444. He took part in the disputation promoted by the antipope Benedict XIII at Tortosa and San Mateo, where in 1414 he defended the Talmud against the attacks of Geronimo da Santa Fé (before his conversion: Josué Lorki).
His work, completed in 1425, *Sfer ha-l'aggirim* (“Book of Principles”), of an apologetic character, presents the “principles or dogmas,” the “roots,” and the “branches.” The first two contain the fundamental truths and others deduced from them (revealed doctrine) that constitute the basis of every divine religion: the unity of God, His incorporeality, His independence from time, and His supreme perfection; from which derive God’s omniscience, the truth of prophecy, and the legitimacy of God’s messenger. “Branches,” i.e., general theses whose negation does not imply the sin of heresy, are: creation from nothing, Moses as the supreme prophet, faith in the coming of the Messiah, and the conviction that the fulfillment of a single precept suffices to ensure participation in the future life. All of this is inspired by the principle that in different religions, legal dispositions may vary, but not dogmas. Therefore, the dogmas proper to Christianity (e.g., the Trinitarian concept of God) cannot represent an absolute religious truth. In this polemic, the author is also inspired, even in terminology, by al-Ghazali. His anti-Christian tendency was highlighted by Gilberto Genebrado (1566) and by G. Bern. De Rossi, *Dizionario storico*, Parma 1802, pp. 43-44; and *Bibliotheca Iudaica antichristiana*, Parma 1800, p. 14 ff. Jewish authors, from I. Abravanel onward, noted his—albeit apparent—indifferentism regarding the messianic question.