Una sentència arbitral sobre qüestions de l'aljama dels jueus de Cervera (1446)

Abstract

An arbitration ruling on matters related to Cervera?s Jewish aljama (1446). The article discusses and transcribes two documents from the Segarra Regional Archive in Cervera. Dated 1446, the documents provide information on an arbitration ruling issued in the same year by four Jews from Cervera?s aljama (a Spanish term of Arabic origin used in old official documents to designate self-governing communities of Moors and Jews living under Spanish rule) to resolve various matters related to the aljama itself. The ruling, which was read out by a Christian notary public at the school or synagogue in Cervera?s upper Jewish quarter before the members of the aljama, each of whom had taken up their seat, refers to the taxes to be imposed and the proportional payments to be made by the members of the community. Said taxes and payments were needed to cover various expenses, such as the messages that had recently been sent to the city of Valencia, the annual election of secretaries and the subsequent election of councillors, and other expenses that had been incurred previously. On the basis of the transcribed documents, it can be deduced that Cervera?s aljama comprised around 47 families at the time in question. A list of the heads of those families appears at the end of the article.