Northern Catalonia and Southern Catalonia

Abstract

The Principality of Catalonia flourished on both sides of the eastern Pyrenees, under the shadow of the kingdoms of France and Spain, but lost some of its unity when it was divided into Northern Catalonia and Southern Catalonia. Southern Catalonia’s main Jewish community was in Barcelona, and it had only ocasional dealings with Spanish territories. That community was led for around 40 years by the renowned rabbi Solomon ben Adret (1235-1310), who left behind him a large number of responsa addressing different questions from the Jewish communities of Northern and Southern Catalonia. His contemporary Rabbi Menaḥem ben Solomon ha-Meïri (1249-1315; also known as Vidal Solomon) exercised his ministry in Perpignan, the de facto capital of Northern Catalonia. Some Jews found refuge in Northern Catalonia in 1492, but were soon expelled from there too. The Jews on both sides of the Pyrenees regarded themselves as part of a large Catalan territory and continued to use the Catalan language. The aim of this study is to draw on rabbinic literature to examine the relations between the two communities and the importance of the Barcelona-Perpignan axis, which also passed through Girona. It can be said that the Pyrenees never truly separated them.