Notes on some recent work in the medieval Catalano-Occitan field (1994-2011)

Abstract

These concise notes offer an overview of my recent contributions on Jews in the medieval Catalano-Occitan world. After revisiting the content of my first contribution (Affinités historiques et interférences culturelles chez les communautés juives de l’espace occitano-catalan, Mossé ben Nahman Symposium, 1994) to the work of the marvellous Catalan school, mention is made of my participation in the panel that assessed Manuel Forcano’s thesis (La lletra apologètica de R. Iedaia ha-Penini) at the University of Barcelona in 1999, and of the opportunity I was afforded —thanks to the sorely missed Eduard Feliu— to examine the books confiscated in Girona following the Disputation of Tortosa and to attempt to draw a comparison with the manuscripts in circulation in Provence in the same period (Materia giudaica, 2001). I have been able to contribute to the as-yet unpublished proceedings of the 3rd and the 4th Conference for the Study of Jews in Catalan-speaking Territories (Perpignan and Barcelona, 2007; and Barcelona and Valencia, 2010) by providing new prosopographical material on the Abigdors of Arles, a renowned family of physicians and translators, and by adding 80 new names to the list of Juifs aragonais et castillans en transit, installés ou convertis à Marseille. Documents inédits (1488-1508). This brief review ends with a reference to A History of Jewish Catalonia (2009), an interesting publication that by no means overlooks Languedoc.

Keywords: Catalonia, Languedoc, Béziers, Girona, Disputation of Tortosa, Abigdors of Arles, Iberian exiles, Marseilles.