ALTECABOTECA. - Corrupted form of 'Al tēhl ha-'abhōtēhā (“Do not be like your fathers”): the opening words by which the anti-Christian work written around 1396 by the Jew of the Duran family, Jishāq ben Mošeh, better known by the names Profeit (incorrectly Profiat) Duran, surnamed Efodi, is usually cited. Born in Cordova, he apparently converted to Christianity in 1391, then went to Palestine where, having returned to Judaism, he launched the 'Igghēret 'el Bonetto, an epistle to a certain Bonetto, a Jew who had become a Christian, beginning with those words, often repeated in the course of the work.
The author pretends to confirm a friend in the Christian faith he has embraced, but in reality it is a virulent satire against baptized Jews. The irony, however, is so subtle that the work was considered by many to be a defence of Christianity against Judaism, and was often cited as such. It belongs to the abundant anti-Christian production of Spanish Jews in the second half of the 14th century: Sostegno della fede (1374) by Mošeh Cohen, rabbi of Avila; the Pietra di paragone by Semtob ben Jishāq Šaprut; Paolo di Burgos (v.) by Josūa ben Josef; Crescas (v.). The epistle A. was published at Constantinople in 1554; Bartolocci knew of a manuscript in the Vatican Library.