 According to Del Medigo, his role model in composing Beḥinat ha-Dat was Maimonides, who inspired him in defining the relation between philosophical speculation and religious belief. While the influence of Averroes’ Decisive Treatise is apparent, Del Medigo never mentions the latter in Beḥinat ha-Dat. This is in sharp contrast to the Italian works, where Averroes was the ultimate philosophical authority (besides Aristotle) and Maimonides is rarely mentioned. The discrepancy between Del Medigo’s philosophical and meta-philosophical works is therefore manifested also in the authorities on which he relies. While Averroes was a leading philosophical authority among Scholastic circles in fifteenth century Padua, Maimonides’ position concerning the function of philosophical discourse within the religious realm had a profound impact on Jewish sages all throughout the middle ages, and Maimonides therefore serves Del Medigo in Beḥinat ha-Dat as his chief authoritative source (see Ross 1984: 11).