Catalan proper nouns and other Catalan words in the Hebrew account of the Barcelona disputation of 1263 between Friar Paul Christian and Rabbi Moses ben Nahman

Abstract

The Hebrew account of the Barcelona disputation of 1263 between the Dominican friar Paul Christian and the Jewish rabbi Moses ben Nahman has been published on the basis of very late manuscripts. The Catalan proper nouns and other Catalan words transcribed in Hebrew letters in the various editions are highly de formed, and some have even disappeared from the published text, with translations in other languages taking their place (as in the case of the word duc, replaced by the Hebrew translation נגיד naguid). Based on a new edition of the Hebrew text concerning the disputation, one that draws particularly on the three oldest manuscripts, which date from the late 13th century and the 14th century, we recover (conjecturally, in certain cases) all the aforementioned Catalan words, some of which are in Old Catalan forms no longer present in the modern language. In doing so, we deduce, among other things, that the Hebrew text on the disputation was written in Hebrew or translated from Catalan by a 13th-century Catalan Jew from the area of Girona, and there is nothing to suggest that the individual in question was not Nahmanides himself. We place special emphasis on analysing the old forms of the Catalan words in the text (such as Pol rather than Pau, Cervellon rather than Cervelló, clostres rather than claustres, and frare rather than fra).

Keywords: Catalan words, Catalan words in Hebrew texts, transcriptions, Catalan transcriptions in Hebrew texts, Catalan proper names, Barcelona disputation, Nahmanides, RaMBaN, Moses ben Nahman