TORRE, ALFONSO DE LA

TORRE, ALFONSO DE LA (1421–1461), Spanish Converso author. Torre, a humanist, is known principally for his Vysyon Delectable de la Philosophia y artes liberales, a kind of universal encyclopedia presented in the form of a series of dialogues which he wrote c. 1450. It quoted maimonides extensively and was in its turn frequently cited by Solomon ibn Verga in his Shevet Yehudah. The sixth chapter of the work, dealing with arithmetic, includes a detailed discussion of the numerological aspects of the Kabbalah. The Vysyon has been termed a link between the Judeo-Arabic thinkers of the Middle Ages and spinoza , and it enjoyed great influence in its own day and for the subsequent two centuries. First published in Burgos in 1485, it was one of the few non-Hebrew books printed by abraham usque , who produced an Italian version in Ferrara in 1554. The Italian text was ultimately retranslated into Spanish by the Marrano Francisco (Joseph) de Caceres (Frankfurt, 16231, 16632), who was probably unaware that its original author was himself a Spaniard and a Converso. (Kenneth R. Scholberg)