The causes of the riot in Tàrrega in 1348

Abstract

Historical and literary documentation related to the riot that took place in Tàrrega’s Jewish quarter in 1348 immediately links that specific episode of extreme violence with the spread of the plague epidemic throughout Catalonia, based on the notion of the sinning Jew. By analysing such documentation, this article aims to highlight the other forces that, in this particular case, had been gathering for some time and which, with the plague’s arrival in the town having created just the right conditions, were unleashed in the attack on the Jewish quarter. The religious, economic, sociological, political and ideological factors involved paint a detailed picture of Tàrrega’s Christian and Jewish society in the first half of the 14th century, especially the 1330s and 1340s. Some of those elements emerged during the period in question, while others, already present, intensified. All of them would come to depict Jews as the “enemy”.

Keywords: history, epidemic, plague, riot, pogrom, aljama, Tàrrega, Late Middle Ages