zeldes2014 christians, jews, and hebrew books in fifteenth-century sicily_between dialogue and...

8/19/2019 Zeldes2014 Christians, Jews, And Hebrew Books in Fifteenth-Century Sicily_Between Dialogue and Dispute

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Nadia Zeldes*

I Christian anti-Jewish polemical literature can be viewed as a precursor oearly modern Hebraism,1 the converse is also true: Renaissance Hebraism was more ofen than not a rened acet o Christian anti-Jewish polemicAs Reuven Bonl has aptly noted: ‘Te Christians expected […] that they [the Jews] would supply them with arguments or the de ence o Christian tru[…] Tey were ar rom having given up the idea o exploiting the occasionthe intellectual encounter to add urther Jewish conversions to the ultimate tri-umph o Christianity.’2 Tis observation is particularly applicable to feenth-century Sicily, where many humanists and men o letters were Dominicans annot laymen, as was the case elsewhere in Italy. Consequently, Hebraism in Sicibelonged mainly to the religious domain. But with respect to the relationshipbetween purely scholarly interest in Hebrew books and Jewish tradition and

anti-Jewish polemic in Renaissance Sicily, it is no easy task to unravel theinterwoven strands.

* Tis research was supported by the I-CORE Program (Te Israel Science Foundation),Center or the Study o Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters (no 1754/12).

1 Limor and Yuval, ‘Skepticism and Conversion’.2 Bonl, Jewish Li e in Renaissance Italy, pp. 172–175; on Italian Hebraists: Fubini,

‘L’ebraismo nei riessi della cultura umanistica’; Garin, ‘L’umanesimo italiano e la cultura eb

ica’; Simonsohn, ‘Giovanni Pico della Mirandola on Jews and Judaism’.Nadia Zeldes ([email protected]) is a research ellow at he Center or the Study oConversion and Inter-Religious Encounters at BGU, and the Hebrew University.

Conict and Religious Conversation in Latin Christendom: Studies in Honour o Ora L,ed. by Israel Jacob Yuval and Ram Ben-Shalom, pp. 191–220( urnhout: Brepols, 2014) BREPOLS PUBLISHERS 10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.1.102015


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In his history o the Jews o Sicily, Henri Bresc denied the possibilityChristian–Jewish polemics, arguing that the weakness o theological an philosophical education in Sicily was the reason or ‘lack o contacts betwscholars, as in disputations’.3 Tis view ails to take into account the act thatmany Sicilian intellectuals studied and taught at Italian universities and asconsequence were inuenced by ashions and ideas o the Renaissance. TDominican Pietro Ranzano (1428–1492), one o the protagonists o th present article, attended various universities and studied under several weknown humanists: Pietro Aretino in Florence, ommaso Pontano in PerugiaVitaliano Borromeo and Pietro Candido Decembrio in Milan and Pavia.Between 1449 and 1453 Ranzano taught in Rome and in Naples.4 AnotherSicilian Dominican, Giovanni Gatto (1420–1484), Bishop o Ce alù, was well-known humanist and member o the circle o scholars surrounding t

amous Byzantine exile, Cardinal Bessarion. He was interested in the writino the Eastern church and spent some time in Chios in order to learn GreekGatto studied and taught between 1451 and 1466 in Florence, Ferrara, andBologna. In 1466 he accompanied the humanist Galeotto Marzi to the court oHungary.5 During the 1470s he was in Sicily.

Another actor that should be taken into account is the role played by th

Dominican school o Palermo in the ormation o the island’s intellectual eTe school, ounded in 1345, became by mid-feenth century a centre or theological and humanistic studies in Palermo, perhaps to counterbalance the newestablished university in Catania (1445). Although it could not con er academtitles, the college produced a number o notable men o letters who were, in the rst Sicilian humanists. But rather than broadening the minds o students anteachers, the prevailing atmosphere at the college was one o intolerance towa Jews and other marginal groups. Several Sicilian inquisitors studied there durtheir ormative years. One o them, the Dominican inquisitor Salvo Casset was one o the prime movers in the blasphemy process conducted against

3 ‘La aiblesse apparente des études philosophiques et théologiques dans la Sicile chtienne explique sans doute l’absence de contacts entre savants, comme de polémiques’, Bre Arabes de langue, Jui s de religion, p. 54.

4 On Renaissance culture in Sicily: Bruni, ‘La cultura e la prosa volgare nel ‘300 e n‘400’; Catalano irrito, L’istruzione pubblica in Sicilia nel Rinascimento. On Ranzano’s peregri-nations: Figliuolo, La cultura a Napoli nel secondo Quattrocento, pp. 95–99. See also: Rodolico,‘Siciliani nello Studio di Bologna’; Lombardo Radice, ‘I Siciliani nello studio di Pisa n1600’; Marletta, ‘Siciliani nello Studio di Padova’.

5 Gatto’s biography: Giordano, ‘Gatti (Gatto), Giovanni’.


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Jews o Sicily in 1474 that triggered the widespread riots o that year (see beloGiovanni Naso, a teacher o Latin at the college and one o the most promineSicilian humanists, composed a rhymed poem that ridiculed the Jews who joinein the estivities held in Palermo in honour o the victory o King Juan II Aragon against rebellious Barcelona (1472).6 Another Palermitan scholar o this period, the Dominican ommaso Scalanzio, became amous towards the end othe feenth century or his widely attended sermons and his sarcastic portrayao the language spoken by ‘Ethiopian’ slaves and the Jews.7

One can thus discern an increased concern regarding Jewish presence inhumanist circles in Sicily. o some extent, interest in Jewish writings and theHebrew language simply echoed the Italian Renaissance Hebraist movementbut it also led to various attempts to deal with the reality o a local Jewish poplation. On the one hand, there were attempts to incorporate Jewish traditionsand the very existence o a Jewish population into the island’s history; on thother hand, this period witnessed repeated efforts to bring about the conver-sion o the Jews and thus eliminate their presence in Sicily altogether.

Te present article seeks to examine both trends, ocusing on intellectualencounters in order to illuminate Christian–Jewish relations in feenth-cen-tury Sicily.

Dialogue: A Dominican and a Jew in Quest or Historical EvidencBy the feenth century both Jews and Christians were becoming increasinglyaware o the long history o Jewish presence in Sicily, the ormer stressing an attempt to prove they had strong roots there, and the latter seeking the Jews

or having presumably retained knowledge o secrets concerning the island

6 ‘ Nec Iudeus abest. Qui quamquam semper ineptus […] ac de orme movere […].ad ncorpus fondosa veste virere’ (Not even the Jew is missing, although he is always ungainly […]moving crookedly […] his body sprouting many layers o rilly dress), Naso, ‘Ioannis NasoSiculi Panhormis’. My translation ollows the gurative rather than the literal meaning o ‘ rdosa’, lea y in classical Latin, but also understood as rilly or overly ornamented in the late Lused in feenth-century Italy. See under ‘‘ rondoso (g.)’ — sovraccarico di ornamenti’, iZingarelli,Vocabolario della lingua italiana.

7 Schi aldo, De viris illustribus ordinis predicatorum, ed. by Cozzucli, p. 88; BevilacquaKrasner, ‘Re, regine, rancescani, domenicani ed ebrei in Sicilia’. Te ‘Ethiopians’ here are a geeral term or all types o black slaves. Sicily was in this period an important slave markethe Mediterranean: Verlinden, ‘L’Esclavage en Sicile au bas moyen-âge’, esp. pp. 71–88. For t provenance o slaves brought to Sicily, see: Backman,Te Decline and Fall o Medieval Sicily, pp. 249–68; Bresc,Un monde méditerranéen, , 439–70.


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past. Tus, in a dispute with the urban administration, the Jewish communityo Catania claimed that ‘the Jews have been paying their tax separately rthe [Christian] commune or a thousand years already’.8 Jews had indeed livedin Sicilian cities or hundreds o years and enjoyed the status o citizens.9 Tey were an integral part o urban li e, sometimes even joining orces withChristian community in complaints and petitions to the king or the viceroyA predominant eature o urban politics in this period was the erce rivabetween the Sicilian cities, principally Messina and Palermo. Foundation leends played an important part in the competition between cities or achieving the distinction o being the most ancient.10 When the Dominican PietroRanzano calculated the age o Palermo, he concluded with satis action that city had existed even be ore the destruction o roy. Such preoccupations wnot conned to Sicily; they were common in the whole o Western Europin this period.11 ypical o Renaissance culture was also the interest in relicsruins, and writings that had survived rom antiquity. Tese trends affected th Jews too. Myths o the ancient origins o Jewish settlements in Western Eurofen served to justi y demands or rights and privileges, as was the case Catania (cited above).12 Spanish Jews ‘discovered’ ancient tombstones men-tioning biblical gures in order to prove that their settlement in the Iberian

peninsula preceded the destruction o the temple and the crucixion o Jesu13

8 ‘Ki li judei […] da milli anni izà hanu pagatu la loru collecta particulata et divisa dauniversitati […]’, Gaudioso, La comunità ebraica di Catania, p. 7.

9 On the legal status o Sicilian Jews under Arab and Norman rule, see: Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, (1997), pp. 23–41, 47–49. Here and throughout the present article I re er todocuments published in this series which supplants the older Lagumina and Lagumina,Codicediplomatico dei Giudei di Sicilia. In the later Middle Ages, up to their expulsion in 1492, Sicilian Jews who lived in cities o the royal demesne were considered to be citizens o those cbut they ormed a separate commune —universitas iudeorum: Zeldes,Te Former Jews o this Kingdom, pp. 84–85. See also: Bresc, Arabes de langue, Jui s de religion, pp. 31–37.

10 Burke,Te Renaissance Sense o the Past , pp. 7–13. For Sicily, see: Rodolico, ‘Il municipalismo nella storiograa siciliana’. On the attempts to create mythical ancient histories, sBietenholz, Historia and Fabula, pp. 189–219.

11 Pietro Ranzano, Delle origini e vicende di Palermo di Pietro Ransano, ed. by di Marzo, pp. 62–65 (see n. 14 below).

12 On the Jews’ attempts to prove the antiquity o their residence in other European countries: Shatzmiller, ‘Politics and Myths o Origins’.

13 Beinart, ‘When had the Jews Arrived in Spain?’; Beinart, ‘Cuándo llegaron los Judíoa España?’; Ben-Shalom, ‘Myth and Classical Mythology in the Historical ConsciousnessMedieval Spanish Jewry’.


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Te Jewish community o Palermo was probably no less aware o its ancienroots and some o its members had no compunction in claiming to trace themback to biblical times.

Te attempt to reconstruct the history o Palermo rom ancient inscriptions,stories told by the local Jews and Hebrew writings, is related by the DominicaPietro Ranzano in his De auctore, primordiis et progressu urbis Panormi. Teoriginal text was written in Latin in 1470 but shortly aferwards the authorhimsel translated his work into the vernacular under the title o Delle origini evicende di Palermo.14

By that time Ranzano had had an illustrious career as provincial o theDominican order in Sicily, apostolic legate and diplomat to the court oHungary.15 In 1455 Ranzano supervised the process o beati ication oSt Vicente Ferrer, the Dominican riar whose sermons played a crucial role ithe conversion o the Jews o Aragon, Castile, and Provence at the beginningthe feenth century.16 Ranzano’s admiration or Vicente Ferrer and his effortsto encourage his cult in Sicily and in south Italy,17 may indicate that his con-tacts with the Jews were at least in part motivated by his wish to convert themto Christianity.

A considerable part o the History is devoted to the author’s efforts to deci

pher an ancient inscription that he discovered in his youth on a crumbling towerin Palermo. Believing the inscription had been written in Chaldean, Ranzanoquestioned some Jews o Palermo, who conrmed that they had indeed learneChaldean (Aramaic) rom their ancestors and could there ore read the textAccording to Ranzano, they claimed that the inscription mentioned Se o,son o Eliphaz, son o Esau, son o Isaac (Genesis 36. 4–10, and Chron

14 Te Latin version was part o a larger work: Annales omnium temporum, parts o which are today lost. Te vernacular version was published in the nineteenth century as PietroRanzano, Delle origini e vicende di Palermo di Pietro Ransano, ed. by di Marzo All the ollowingquotations re er to this edition.

15 For Ranzano’s biography, see: Figliuolo, La cultura a Napoli nel secondo Quattrocento, pp. 95–99.

16 Coniglione, La provincia domenicana di Sicilia, pp. 30–34. Te preaching o FrayVicente Ferrer in Spain: Baer, A History o the Jews in Christian Spain, , 169–99, 170–243.And more recently: Ben-Shalom, ‘Te Disputation o ortosa’; Nirenberg, ‘Enmity andAssimilation’.

17 On the spread o the cult o St Vicente Ferrer in Sicily see: Coniglione, La provinciadomenicana di Sicilia, pp. 30–34. In Italy: Rusconi, ‘Anti-Jewish Preaching in the FifeenthCentury’.


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1. 36) as the commander o the ancient tower. Ranzano concluded that boththe inscription and the tower dated rom biblical times. It was in act an Arainscription rom the tenth century (at a time when Sicily was under Muslimrule), but this came to light only much later, in the eighteenth century.18

Te Jews also told Ranzano that they knew o an ancient Hebrew book stilin existence that contained a story similar to that o the purported text o thinscription. Te earliest version o the legend o Se o that identies him as

ounder o Rome is related inSe er Josippon, a historical narrative written inHebrew in south Italy in the tenth century, and attributed to Joseph Gorionides(believed to be an alias or Josephus Flavius). Te book enjoyed considerab popularity among the Jews during the Middle Ages, though it seems that iSicily it was rather rare.19 Nevertheless, it could be that at the time there cir-culated a version oSe er Josippon that attributed the ounding o Palermo toSe o.20 As Ranzano was not yet convinced, he sought additional proo or th Jews’ reading o the inscription. His next step was a visit to Isaac Guglielm Jew o Pisan origins, who lived in Palermo and apparently had in his possessa copy oSe er Josippon and perhaps other Hebrew books.

Te encounter with Isaac Guglielmo might be dismissed as totally ctitious were it not or the act that there was a Jew by that name in Palermo during

rst hal o the feenth century. Te historical Isaac de Guglielmo was a leado the Palermo community who, together with another Jew, Chaim Balbu, wappointed as ambassador o the Jews o Sicily to the pontical court in RomHowever, he is nowhere described as a Pisan. As this Isaac de Guglielmo died

18 Morso, Descrizione di Palermo antico, p. 57; Zeldes, ‘Te Last Multi-cultural Encounterin Medieval Sicily’ (discussion o inscription: pp. 167–68).

19 Flusser, ‘Josippon’;Se er Josippon, ed. by Flusser. As regards Sicily, see: Zeldes, ‘TeDiffusion oSe er Yosippon’.20 Tis curious re erence to Se o as ounder o Palermo appears in Don Isaac Abravan

commentaries to the Bible: ‘ […] and he [Se o] was the rst king who reigned in Italy […].aPalermo, the principal city o Sicily, it is written that he had ounded it.’ Abravanel,Commentaryon the Later Prophets, p. 171. According toSe er Josippon, Se o was the commander o the armieso Agneas (Aeneas) in the conquest o Italy, but all the extant versions o this book menthe conquest o the island o Sardinia, rather than Sicily. Tis detail bothered Flusser whremarked that according to Virgil’s Aeneid , Aeneas came to Sicily, not Sardinia:Se er Josippon,ed. by Flusser, , 11, notes to ll. 27–28. (Compare: Virgil, Aeneid , trans. by Fairclough, Book ,ll. 551–715, Book , ll. 700–02). On the Aeneid as a source orSe er Josippon: oaff, ‘La storia diZephò e la guerra tra Angias e urno nello Josephon’;Cronaca ebraica del Sepher Yosephon, ed.and trans. by oaff ).


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1455, he could have been Ranzano’s interlocutor but only i the encounter didindeed take place in the Dominican’s youth.21

According to the narrator, Isaac Guglielmo willingly invited him to hishome more than once and showed him a Hebrew book in which, he claimed, was written the whole story o the inscription. On a di erent visit IsaaGuglielmo told Ranzano a story that seemed to conrm the latter’s theory thatChaldeans, Damascenes, and Phoenicians ounded Palermo, but it was notthe legend o Se o. Tis time Isaac Guglielmo told the story o a Jew nameAbraham, a physician born in Damascus who came to Palermo during the reigno William II o Sicily (1166–89) and ound there an ancient inscription whiche translated into Hebrew. Te second story may have been inspired by the Itinerary o Benjamin o udela who did indeed visit Palermo in those years.22 Henri Bresc, discussing Ranzano’s narrative in his Arabes de langue, Jui s de religion, accused the Jew o intentionally misleading the Dominican,23 which was probably true. On the other hand, did Isaac Guglielmo have any alternative?Ranzano was very insistent, and it could have been that he orced himsel upthe Jew leaving him no other option but resort to a literary swindle. Tis in itsel presented no real difficulty. Ranzano did not know enough Hebrew to readand understand the text he was shown; he there ore needed Isaac Guglielmo t

translate the text rom the Hebrew original into the vernacular.24

In a recently published article, Michael Signer distinguished between ‘lexical’ and ‘culturChristian Hebraists. he distinction between these two terms depends on whether the Christian scholar had independent access to Hebrew texts, or was

21 Documents regarding Isaac Guglielmo o Palermo: Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, ,Nos 2739, 3163, 3247.

22

‘In lo octavo anno delo aureo regno di Guglielmo secundo Re di Sichilia, eu AbraamIudeo phisico, nato in la cità di Damasco et per octo anni pratico in la cita di Palermo, lesscerti licteri li quali usavano antiquamenti li Damasceni et li Phenichi, sculpiti in uno antiquissimo saxo. Et tucto quillo chi si esprimia per tali licteri eu lu trans erivi et expressi in parlahebrayco’, Pietro Ranzano, Delle origini e vicende di Palermo di Pietro Ransano, ed. by di Marzo, pp. 65–66; On Benjamin o udela’s description o Palermo in the reign o William II, seBenjamin o udela,Te Itinerary, ed. and trans. by Adler, pp. 70–71.

23 ‘Il y a plus que de l’escroquerie dans ce savoir ainsi manipulé’, Bresc, Arabes de langue, Jui s de religion, p. 67.

24 ‘quando lo dicto Ysaac mi amostrao lo libro hebraico, non essendo yo tanto perito inquilla lingua chi eu potissi interpretari quillo chi apena eu sapia legiri, volczi chi ipsu mi inte petrassi la continencia di lo hebraico in vulgari lingua’, Pietro Ranzano, Delle origini e vicende di Palermo di Pietro Ransano, ed. by di Marzo, p. 65.


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dependent upon his Jewish interlocutor.25 Apparently, no feenth-centurySicilian scholar (unless he was a Jewish convert to Christianity) was a true ‘lecal Hebraist’, and that includes Ranzano. Te latter, despite his slight knowl-edge o Hebrew, belonged to the second category. Cultural Hebraism needecontacts with living Jews in order to interpret Hebrew texts, whether they werscripture, rabbinic literature or, as in this case, historical works. Te requenmeetings and discussions with Isaac Guglielmo imply a direct and even riendialogue. But was it? How willingly did the Jew receive his Dominican gueRanzano remained doubt ul o the Jew’s interpretation o the inscription aonly the conrmation o the story by a seemingly objective individual, ‘a ctain Syrian, expert in Chaldean letters’ convinced him o the veracity o ttext. Even seen through the prism o Ranzano’s narrative, one gets the eelthat Isaac Guglielmo was trying very hard to satis y his interlocutor.

o conclude, Ranzano’s interest in Hebrew books was not exceptional othis period. Such pursuits ormed an almost integral part o Renaissance cture in Italy. Humanists like Gianozzo Manetti, Giovanni Pico della Mirandol Johannes Reuchlin, Egidio da Viterbo (to name just a ew), studied Jewi writings in an attempt to discover the ‘ ruth o the Jews’ ( Hebraica veritas).Manetti, who knew Hebrew, ordered a copy oSe er Josippon rom a Jewish

copyist.26

Ranzano’s dialogue with the Jews seems relatively benign but it cannot be ruled out that his account, which enjoyed considerable ame, inspireothers to examine Hebrew texts or entirely different purposes.

Dispute and Controversy: ‘Tat Abominable Book’ Sicily, despite its particularity and semi-independent status, did not escapthe prevailing mood o religious ervour and anti-Jewish propaganda spreby mendicant riars all over Europe. Beginning his career as a charisma preacher in the kingdom o Aragon during the 1420s, Fra Matteo Guimarra Sicilian Franciscan born to a amily o Catalan origins, gained the supporKing Al onso the Magnanimous. In 1428 the king ordered the viceroy o SicNicolò Speciale, to aid Fra Matteo and allow him to preach to the Jews. Te Jews succeeded in revoking these orders only two years later.27 A considerably

25 Signer, ‘Polemics and Exegesis’, p. 22. Although Signer ocused on the twelfh centuthe distinction is relevant or a later period as well.

26 On Italian Hebraists, see note 2 above. Manetti’s copy o Josippon: BAV, MS ebr. 408mentioned inSe er Josippon, ed. by Flusser, , 16.

27 Amore, ‘La predicazione del B. Matteo d’Agrigento’ (esp. p. 275); Amore, ‘Nuovi doc


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more energetic preacher, the Dominican Fra Giovanni da Pistoia modelled hisconversionist sermons upon the success ul campaign o Vicente Ferrer. In 146he asked Pietro Ranzano or a copy o hisVita S. Vincentii, written shortly aferthe beatication o Ferrer. Ranzano sent along with the book a personal letteaccompanied by verses to help Giovanni da Pistoia memorize the story o thsaint’s li e.28 Tese efforts met with the approval o the viceroy and in 1467 thelatter ordered all Sicilian Jews to attend the sermons o Giovanni da Pistoiathreatening to punish severely those who disobeyed.29

Orders to attend conversionist sermons, and the Jews’ attempts to revokethem, became a constant eature o Jewish li e in Sicily during the feenth cetury.30 One o the more success ul preachers in this period was a certain ‘mag-ister Paulus’, a convert, described as an expert in the Hebrew language, to whomI shall return presently. Te involvement o Jewish converts to Christianityintroduced a new actor into the controversy. Armed with their knowledge o Jewish polemical works and anti-Christian sayings, they could present the Jewas deliberate actors in the Christian–Jewish conict, rather than merely offer-ing passive resistance to the attempts to convert them.

In 1474 Sicilian Jews were accused o having in their possession an ‘abomnable’ Hebrew book (or books) containing de amatory sayings against th

Christian aith. An investigation conducted by the Inquisition and the locallay authorities revealed that the offending writings were circulating amongthe Sicilian Jewish communities. Several communities are mentioned specically: ermini, Sciacca, Caltabellotta, Palermo, and Castroreale.31 In Palermo

menti’; Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , No. 2262.28 Coniglione, La provincia domenicana di Sicilia, pp. 30–34; Bevilacqua Krasner, ‘Re,

regine, rancescani, domenicani ed ebrei in Sicilia’.29

Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , No. 3713.30 Compulsory sermons: Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , Nos 2262, 2328, 2550, 2569,2570; Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , Nos 3026, 3035, 3051, 3062, 3078; Simonsohn,Te Jewsin Sicily, , Nos 3700, 3713, 4026, 4112. Attempts by the Jews to prevent compulsory sermonsSimonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , No. 2769a (an official letter rom 1444, citing a papal bull in

avour o the Jews) and Nos 3048, 3062 (letters rom 1453 mentioning two embassies sent the Jews to King Al onso V o Aragon against preachers); on the activities o preachers in Ssee also: Bresc,Un monde méditerranéen, , 635–37.

31 Sicilian communities that were involved in the affair: a special messenger was sent to invetigate the Jews o ermini (today ermini Immerese, on the northern shore o Sicily); some Jeo Sciacca (a port city in south-west Sicily) were arrested and put to trial or crimes olese divinemaiestatis; the count o Caltabellotta (a mountain town near Sciacca) arrested certain Jews ‘ omatters concerning the aith’: Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , Nos 4037, 4044, 4048, 4049.


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the authorities arrested several Jews or teaching and saying alsehoods aga Jesus and Mary; they con essed under torture and were executed by burning32 Te accusations created a climate o hatred and violence against the Jews anduring the summer o 1474 riots broke out all over Sicily, hitting particularhard the communities in the county o Modica, in the south.33

It has been suggested that the ‘abominable’ book that circulated amongSicilian Jews was some version or other ooledot Yeshu, a medieval parodyon the gospels; there has been also a suggestion that the accusations re errin act to the almud.34 Be ore attempting to identi y the offending writings,I propose to reconstruct the events that led to the accusation and name the protagonists.

Te earliest notice that an investigation was taking place comes rom a letter o the Aragonese viceroy o Sicily, Lopez Ximénez De Urrea, dated 4 J1474. Te letter ordered a high official o the royal treasury to go to the city

ermini (on the northern coast o Sicily) and make inquiries in order to nout whether the local Jews had books containing matters against the Christia

aith.35 Te letter also mentioned that the offending books had already been

In February 1475 the Jews o Castroreale (a town in north-eastern Sicily) were pardoned various offences excepting ‘the abominable book’: Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , No. 4106.

32 Accusations against the Jews o Palermo: ‘quod ex eorum ore spurcissimo contra IesuChristum […] nec non contra gloriosam et intemeratam Mariam virginem eius matrem quedaobscena et prava ac diabolica gmenta alsissimis dogmatibus suis ac libellis amosis quaffirmare, dicere et docere presumpserunt […] contra ipsos Iudeos inquiri mandavimus, aliquos ad torturas positos convintos et con essos comburi ecimus, et mori et aliqui tortusubiectis.’ Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , No. 4049.

33 Te riots o 1474: Modica-Scala, Le comunità ebraiche nella contea di Modica, pp. 215–27; Palermo, ‘New Evidence about the Slaughter o the Jews’; Bresc, Arabes de langue,

Jui s de religion, pp. 317–27.34 On oledot Yeshu and Jewish polemics against Christianity there is a vast literature andthe ollowing re erences do not presume to cover all o it. I have listed several works relevthe present discussion, see: Krauss, Das Leben Jesu nach jüdischen Quellen; Deutsch, ‘“ oledotYeshu” viewed by Christians’; Lasker, Jewish Philosophical Polemics against Christianity; Laskerand Stroumsa,Te Polemic o Nestor the Priest ; Limor and Yuval, ‘Skepticism and Conversion’.In Sicily: Bresc, Arabes de langue, Jui s de religion, pp. 317–27. Identication o the offending writings as the almud: Palermo, ‘New Evidence about the Slaughter o the Jews’, pp. 254–5

35 ‘Como sapiti per honuri ac zelu di la divina maiestati et sua virginissima matri havimattu inqueriri contra li Iudei di quista chitati per certi alsi libri et scripturi li quali in putir

alcuni Iudei si sunnu truvati, compillati contra la di Cristiana.[…] Et secundu simo in ormalcuni Iudei di la Iudeca di la erra di ermini su in eodem crimine, havimu provisto […] comictimo et comandamo chi con erendovi personaliter in la dicta terra di ermini digiati inve


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discovered in Palermo. Te beginning o the investigation can there ore besa ely dated earlier than June 1474. Further proo or an earlier date com

rom a letter o Pope Sixtus IV dated 12 June which gave Salvo CassettInquisitor o Sicily, a mandate to proceed against Sicilian Jews accused o comitting offences against the Christian aith. According to the pontical letterthe blasphemous books had already been brought to Rome to be examined.36 Given the time needed to bring the books rom Sicily to Rome, the ponticaletter rom 12 June must have been re erring to events that occurred at leastmonth earlier.

Un ortunately, no surviving document explains how these books or writ-ings were discovered and brought to the attention o the lay and ecclesiastical authorities in Sicily. Some o the studies that mention this affair suggethat the Sicilian inquisitor, Salvo Cassetta, may have played a crucial role.37 TeDominican Salvo Cassetta (1413–1483) was appointed inquisitor o Sicily in1466 and held his post until 1476 (though according to some sources he hadlef Sicily in November 1474).38 Like many Sicilian intellectuals o that age,Cassetta studied theology abroad, at the convent o Santa Maria Novella inFlorence. He received his degree as doctor o theology in 1448 and returned tSicily. For some time he taught at the Dominican college o Palermo. Howeve

there is no indication that Cassetta ever studied Hebrew or had su icienknowledge o the language to permit him to examine the books on his owninitiative. It is there ore unlikely that Cassetta was the instigator o the invesgation; he probably became involved in the affair only afer the books had beenbrought to his attention.

It is more reasonable to suppose that the original accusation was brought bya Jewish convert to Christianity rather than a Sicilian Dominican, as none othe Sicilian humanists were ‘lexical’ Hebraists. Te accuser would have had to b well in ormed on books and writings to be ound in Jewish libraries, and wou

tigari palam et occulte contra li dicti Iudei di la dicta Iudeca’, Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, ,No. 4037.

36 ‘ac libellos quosdam suos, continentes errores, blas emias et contumelias plurimas iDeum et sanctos suos, qui ad conspectum usque nostrum delati sunt’, Simonsohn,Te ApostolicSee and the Jews, , No. 972; Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , No. 4040.

37 Palermo, ‘New Evidence about the Slaughter o the Jews’, pp. 254–55; BevilacquaKrasner, ‘Re, regine, rancescani, domenicani ed ebrei in Sicilia’, pp. 83–87.

38 For biographical details: Foa, ‘Cassetta (Casseta, Caseta), Salvo’; However, according ta Sicilian manuscript quoted by Giuseppe Palermo, Cassetta had already lef Sicily or good November 1474: Palermo, ‘New Evidence about the Slaughter o the Jews’, p. 255.


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He had the skills, the knowledge, and the opportunity to examine books oundin Jewish libraries in Sicily. But there is no evidence or his having initiatethe investigation. Moreover, it is unclear whether he was in Sicily at the timeIn June 1474 a papal bull accorded Moncada, who had already nished hisstudies at the University o Naples, a yearly benece o 200 ducats. Possibly, was still in Naples. Between 1474 and 1475 Moncada stayed or some time Catalonia at the court o King Juan II o Aragon. He returned to Sicily in 147and remained there or several years;44 but an earlier return cannot be excluded.In November 1474 Pope Sixtus IV issued a bull in Moncada’s avour, re errito him as ‘clericus messanensis’ (cleric o Messina), indicating that he may hareturned to Sicily or a period o time. In the same document the pope approveMoncada’s petition to annul the dispositions o Salomone Anello, a wealthySicilian Jewish merchant who bequeathed a sum o money in order to establisa Jewish school in Agrigento. Te reason given or the annulment is the in amous book ‘quemdam libellum hebraicis licteris scriptum’ (that booklet written in Hebrew letters’).45 Te book is again mentioned in 1476 in a privilegegranted to Moncada by King Juan II o Aragon (and Sicily). Te king agreedto implement Moncada’s request to be granted the legacy o Salomone Anelland the reason given is ‘libellum quemdam amosum ebraicis scriptum’ (tha

amous booklet written in Hebrew) which had been ound in the Jews’ libraies.46 Moncada’s insistence on this matter, taken together with the repeatedmention o the offending book, would suggest that he was promised the moneas a reward or his role in the discovery and suppression o this book.

And yet, there is another individual who could have played a crucial role inthe book affair. In an official document dated April 1474, or April 1475, the viceroy o Sicily gave permission to a Magister Paulus, described as ‘homugrandi virtuti et doctu specialiter in lingua ebrayca’ (a man o great virtue anmost learned in the Hebrew language) to preach against the Jews.Te preacher

Jews and Judaism’; Busi, and others, eds,Te Great Parchment : Introduction.44 Moncada lef Sicily in 1470 to study in Naples, and in 1472 he was still there. Bull dated

19 June 1474 in avour o Moncada: Starrabba, ‘Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada’, p. 51. Betw1474 and 1475 he spent some time in Aragon, perhaps a whole year: Starrabba, ‘GuglielmoRaimondo Moncada’, p. 30; Simonsohn, ‘Some Well-Known Jewish Converts’, p. 21. Return tSicily in 1477: Scandaliato, ‘Le radici amiliari e culturali di Guglielmo Raimondo Moncad pp. 463–64; Scandaliato, ‘Le radici siciliane di Flavio Mitridate’, pp. 5, 10.

45 Simonsohn,Te Apostolic See and the Jews, , No. 976, p. 1218; Simonsohn,Te Jews inSicily, , No. 4087.

46 Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , No. 4181.


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was to admonish them or their pertinaciousness, stubbornness, perdy, anunbelie , and to convince them by reason, example, and orce to convert to Catholic aith. Te same letter was sent to the governor o Syracuse, at the tima separate political unit belonging to the queen.47 On the margin o the letterto Syracuse is written ‘magister Paolo neophato’, thus revealing that the zealo preacher was a Jewish convert to Christianity.48 Tis easily explains his knowl-edge o Hebrew. Could this Magister Paulus be none other than the AragoneDominican Paulus de Heredia, one o the rst Christian Kabbalists? A kequestion is the date o Heredia’s conversion. It is an accepted act that Hereconverted in his old age around 1480 while in Rome, but what i both date a place are wrong?49

Paulus de Heredia described his visit to Sicily in his Ensis Pauli, a long polemical treatise nished in Rome in 1488. But when exactly was Heredin Sicily? In his Ensis Pauli he mentioned an encounter with a certain RabbiAbraham Papur o ‘Iacca’ who gave him a Kabbalistic book explaining secret o the etragrammaton.50 François Secret, who published parts o the Ensis Pauli, suggested that ‘Iacca’ was a locality in Sicily and there ore cocluded that the encounter took place in Sicily. Secret made no attempt toidenti y Rabbi Papur.51 Papur is not a Sicilian surname and it does not appear

in any o the documents pertaining to the Sicilian Jewries o this period;52

on

47 Te queen is Isabella o Castille who received the e o Syracuse in 1469 as dowryher marriage to Ferdinand, already king o Sicily.

48 Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , Nos 4026, 4112. According to Simosohn, the date othis document is April 1474. However, the indiction year is VIII, there ore it could be 1475.notarial act made out in Palermo in 1476 mentions a ‘venerabilem chericum magistrum Pauluneophatam’, acting in avour o one Franciscus de Urrea, a convert, in a dispute against a Palermo, Arch. di Stato, Notai De unti, Pietro aglanti reg. 1166, dated 8 October 1476. I oidentication o ‘Magister Paulus’ as Heredia is correct, it proves that in October 1476 he wstill in Sicily. Moreover, his description as ‘chericum’ (a cleric) reveals that by that time he already joined a religious order.

49 François Secret argued or Heredia’s conversion in his old age: Secret, ‘L’Ensis PauliPaulus de Heredia’. However, the biographical note there contradicts the in ormation given a previous article o Secret, based on the ‘Epistola de Secretis’: Secret, ‘Umanisti dimenticat

50 Excerpts rom this work have been published in Secret, ‘L’Ensis Pauli de Paulus Heredia’.

51 Secret, ‘L’Ensis Pauli de Paulus de Heredia’, p. 268.52 Most documents regarding the history o the Jews in Sicily were published in the seri

Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily. All volumes have a name index which acilitates searching. Manynotarial documents regarding the Jews o Sciacca and nearby localities have been studied in


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the other hand, members o the Papur amily appear in sources concerning th Jewish community o Jaca in Aragon.53 Moreover, a Rabbi Abram Avinpapur(Ibn Papur?) is mentioned in an inventory listing Hebrew books that belongedto Jews o Jaca. In the inventory, made in all likelihood during the reign oAl onso the Magnanimous (1416–58), Avinpapur appears as the owner othirty-eight Hebrew books, some o which can be probably identied as bookon Kabbalah ( or example:Glosa de los Secretos).54 Tus, there can be no doubtthat the Ensis Pauli describes an encounter that occurred in Jaca o Aragon inHeredia’s youth, at a time when he was still a Jew. Te identication o Herediateacher o Kabbalah throws some light on our protagonist’s background andeducation and perhaps urther inquiries in the archives o Huesca might revemore in ormation on the biography o this mysterious Aragoneseconverso.

Another work, the Epistola de Secretis, allows or a more precise dating oHeredia’s stay in Sicily and the circumstances leading to his conversion.Te Epistola de secretis is dedicated to Iñigo López de Mendoza, ambassador oFerdinand and Isabella to the Apostolic curia between 1486 and 1488. It wasthere ore, written close to this period o time. Te Epistolais purported to bea translation o a Kabbalistic work attributed to ‘Neumia lius Haccanae’ (th

anna Nehuniah ben Hakana). It is composed o two letters: the rst treats

eight questions concerning biblical secrets related to messianology and the second discusses the genealogy o Jesus and Mary.55 Te present article, however,does not concern itsel with the Kabbalistic work as such, only with the autobiographical and historical in ormation provided by Heredia.

last decade by Angela Scandaliato: Scandaliato, Judaica minora sicula. No rabbi named Papurappears in any o these publications.

53 Sento and his son Jeuda Papur are represented in various commercial transactions o the

Jews o Jaca during the second hal o the feenth century: Motis Dolader, La Aljama Judía de Jaca en el Siglo , pp. 307, 322, 327.54 Rabbi Abraham Avinpapur appears among the notables who participated in an assembly

that was convened in 1419 in the synagogue o Jaca: Motis Dolader, and Gutwirth, ‘La Aljam Judía de Jaca’ (R. Avinpapur: ibid., p. 234). Te document listing Jewish libraries is conserved ithe Archivo Historico Provincial de Huesca and belongs to the section on Jaca in that archiveGutwirth and Dolader, ‘ wenty-Six Jewish Libraries’. Te inventory o books belonging toAbram Avinpapur: ibid., pp. 50–51. For the dating o the document see the authors’ discussioo the historical background: ibid., pp. 28–31.

55 BAV, MS Lat. Vatican 2870, cited by François Secret: Secret, ‘Pico della Mirandola e glinizi della cabala cristiana’; Secret, ‘Umanisti dimenticati’, Appendix, pp. 225–26. Scholem, ‘TBeginnings o Christian Kabbalah’, pp. 17–51. In this article Scholem gives a detailed descrition o the contents o the Epistola, pointing out mistakes and obvious alsications.


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In a passage rom the second letter o the Epistola de secretis, Heredia re ersto his learned discussions with the Sicilian Dominican Giovanni Gatto (oGatti), Bishop o Ce alù: ‘congressus sum cum Cato presule Cephaludensi mihi respondit.’ Tis detail provides a clue as to the possible date o the encouter. Giovanni Gatto was appointed bishop o Ce alù in Sicily in June 1472 aheld the position until 1475, when Pope Sixtus IV appointed him bishop oCatania. Nominally he stayed in office as bishop o Catania until 1479, bKing Juan II o Aragon re used to conrm the appointment (he pre erreddifferent candidate) and in 1479 Gatto was offered again the see o Ce aHe re used to return to his ormer bishopric and chose instead to retire to thDominican convent o Messina.56 Since Gatto is described in the ‘ Epistola’ asbishop o Ce alù, the encounter described by Heredia probably took plabetween 1472 and 1475.

In a different passage in the same part o the Epistola, Heredia re ers to his participation in a religious disputation: ‘Hoc ego argumentum, cum eram contrarius Christo benedicto, saepe numero eci eruditissimis sacrae theologimagistris’ (As I was against the Blessed Christ, I have repeatedly offered targument to the most learned masters o theology). Tis means, in my viewthat Heredia participated in the theological dispute as a Jew. Te encounterdescribed in the Epistola probably took place during his visit to Sicily, be orehis conversion to Christianity. I Heredia was indeed themagister Paulus men-tioned above, he must have converted be ore April 1474 or 1475.

One o the topics o the dispute described by Heredia was the genealoo Jesus, Joseph, and Mary according to the Gospels.57 A problem that hascon ronted Christian theology since its inception was the attempt to reconcile the virgin birth with the Davidic ancestry o Jesus through Joseph — other words, how could Joseph’s ancestry matter i Jesus was not really son? Another problem that preoccupied the theologians was the disagreemenbetween the genealogies o Joseph and Mary as given in Matthew (I. 1–17) ain Luke (III. 23–38). Gatto attempted to reconcile the differing versions oMatthew and Luke and argued that the Virgin hersel was o Davidic desceInterestingly, the bishop described a genealogy o Mary in which gure tnames o Pantera and Bar Pantera: ‘Levi secundum Lucam genuit Melchi Panteram. Pantera autem genuit Bar Panteram.’ (Levi, according to Luke, beg

56 Giordano, ‘Gatti (Gatto), Giovanni’, p. 574 (see n. 5 above).57 ‘Nonnulli sacre pagine pro essores mihi respondebant verum esse evangelium ipsu

narrare genealogiam Joseph […] Et quia Ioachim carebat lio: eiusque hereditas ad virginMariam liam perveniebat’, Secret, ‘Umanisti dimenticati’, Appendix, p. 225. Te quote re eto Paulus de Heredia’s discussions with Gatto and with other scholars.


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Melchi and Pantera. And Pantera begat Bar Pantera).58 he names Panteraand Bar Pantera do not appear in the Gospels, but they are part o an EasternChristian tradition that includes them in Mary’s genealogy. Tis tradition canbe traced to St Andrew o Crete (d.c . 740) and was accepted by St John oDamascus (d. 749).59 Te erudite Giovanni Gatto could have learned o thesetraditions as part o his interest in the Greek language and the Eastern churchAccording to Jewish tradition, however, Mary had an adulterous relation withone Pandera or Bar Pantera, sometimes portrayed as a Roman soldier. Panderais supposed to have been the real ather o Jesus in some versions o theoledotYeshu and in other Jewish polemical works against Christianity. Te namesPanthera, Ben Pandera and Ben Pantiri are also mentioned in the almud.60 Now, i Heredia indeed took part in this discussion o the genealogy o Marya Jew, he would have probably pointed out to Gatto and the other scholars thatthe Jews had different traditions concerning Pandera/Panthera. It is thus logicalto surmise that the disputation led to the discovery o what is described as ‘illinephandum libellum’ (that abominable booklet) that pro erred the Jewish version o the genealogy o Jesus. Te papal letter rom June 1474 instructing thinquisitor Salvo Cassetta to investigate the offending book described it as bein‘contra ipsum Dei […] et eiusque gloriosam semperque virginem genitricemMariam’.61 Sicilian documents also mention that it was particularly injurious to Jesus and his mother.62 Te book must have, there ore, contained some version

58 Secret, ‘Umanisti dimenticati’, p. 226.59 According to Andrew o Crete, Bar Panthera was the ather o Joachim, ather o Ma

Andreas Cretensis,Oratio V , col. 915. Panthera and Bar Panthera also appear in early Christian polemical literature, see: Origen Adamantius,Contra Celsum, ed. by Chadwick, p. 31, n. 3.

60 Panthera in Jewish tradition: Krauss,Te Jewish–Christian Controversy, esp. pp. 70–71,156; On the prevalence o Pandera in polemical writings (Christian and Jewish), see: Merchavi

Te Church versus almudic and Midrashic Literature, pp. 91, 274–76, 329–30; Schä er, Jesus inthe almud , pp. 97–102. See also: Maier,Gesù Cristo e il cristianesimo nella tradizione giudaica antica, pp. 225–33; Pandera is also mentioned in a sixteenth-century manuscript version o the polemical book o Nestor the Priest , but not in other surviving versions: ‘Tis man called Jesusson o Pandera was amamzer [the product o an adulterous union]’, Lasker and Stroumsa,Te Polemic o Nestor the Priest , pp. 121, 170. Although this could be a later interpolation, it mayalso represent some medieval version that did not survive.

61 Papal letter: Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , No. 4040.62 In February 1475 the Jews o Castroreale in Sicily were pardoned or all past offence

except the possession o the ‘abominable book’ which was against Jesus and His Most GlorioMother: ‘excepto tamen crimine detencionis et cuiuslibet usus illius nephandi libelli compositcontra dominum Iesum Christum eiusque gloriosissimam genitricem’, Simonsohn,Te Jews inSicily, , No. 4106.


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o the medieval Jewish polemics on the genealogy and birth o Jesus. In case, both the proximity in time and the topic o discussion suggest that themight have been a connection between the encounter o Gatto and Herediaand the accusations brought against the Jews in Sicily.

According to Heredia’s own testimony, he came to Sicily as a Jew and tourthe island. During his visit he looked or Hebrew Kabbalistic books and wshown a book on the etragrammaton. Tus he had the opportunity to learnabout the books that were ound in the libraries o Sicilian Jews.63 At some point Heredia met with Sicilian theologians, among them Giovanni GattoBishop o Ce alù. He could have joined in willingly, or perhaps he was coeto take part in a religious dispute concerning the genealogy o Jesus. I Heris indeed Magister Paulus, he must have converted shortly afer the encountertook place, sometime be ore April 1474 or 1475. Nevertheless, even i Here was responsible or the initial investigation, it does not completely preclude involvement o Moncada in the ‘abominable book’ affair. As he was in Roat the time, Moncada might have been invited to examine the books brough

rom Sicily and this would explain why he was the recipient o two privilthat re er to thenephandum libellum.

Te crisis ended in a compromise. Te Jews were orbidden to preach, read,

relate or quote rom the offending books, but their harassment ceased. Afer th payment o a large ne to the viceroy, the authorities agreed to proceed only aga‘those Jews o the realm who maintained or were maintaining the alse opinicontained in those books in the synagogues, or preached them in public’.64

63 Most in ormation regarding the contents o the libraries o Sicilian Jews comes rnotarial acts, wills, and property lists, see: Bresc, Livre et societé en Sicile, pp. 63–76. Bresc pub-lished twenty-eight lists o books belonging to Jews. Te lists contain portions o the Bib

almudic tractates, Halakhic works, glosses, Hebrew grammar, books o medicine, one or tcopies oSe er Josippon, and some works that are hard to identi y. No kabbalistic books appearin these lists and no polemical literature. More books appear in the notarial acts published iSimonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , pp. 6245, 6280. However, it is hardly likely that polemical works would come under the scrutiny o a Christian notary. A glimpse o the possible discancy between notarial lists and books actually ound in the libraries o Sicilian Jews is offerthe surviving texts o kabbalistic works copied in Sicily but never mentioned in Latin notaacts: amani, ‘Manoscritti ebraici copiati in Sicilia nei secoli – ’; Beit-Arié, ‘Additamto Giuliano amani’s Article on Hebrew’.

64 In an official letter dated 2 August 1474 the Jews were ordered to re rain rom preachor spreading the books’ contents: ‘predicanto, legendo ac instruendo, narrando et recitando […deliberavimus […] non procedere sed ab inquisicionibus punicionibus et processibus predicdesistere […] reservantes tamen nobis illos Iudeos per regnum habitantes qui libros dictarum


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Identi ying the BookAll in ormation we have on the ‘abominable’ book that unleashed the investigtion and its catastrophic consequences or Sicilian Jewry comes rom Christisources and no title is mentioned. Te rst re erence mentions ‘ alse books an writings […] against the Christian aith’.65 A more detailed description comes

rom the papal letter instructing the inquisitor Salvo Cassetta where the book icondemned or being ‘contra ipsum Dei unigenitum redemptorem nostrum eteiusque gloriosam semperque virginem genitricem Mariam’ (against God’s onson, our saviour, and his glorious, perpetual virgin mother, Mary).66 In a lettero Viceroy Lopez Ximénez De Urrea, granting pardon to the Jews in Palerm

accused o having this book in their possession, their offence is described asdia-bolica gmenta (diabolical inventions) and ‘ alsications against Jesus Christthe saviour and his glorious mother, Mary the virgin’.67 But which Jewish bookis most likely to have sparked the controversy?

Let us begin with the suggestion that the accusations may re er to the almudIndeed, the meaning o certain passages in the almud could be construed are erring to Jesus and Mary, and in act this topic had already been debateduring the trial o Paris in 1240. A more specic accusation was made by Po

Innocent IV in 1244 when he renewed the condemnation o the almud, addingthat ‘there are agrant blasphemies against God and his Christ and the blessedVirgin’. How central were these charges to the condemnation o the almud? Inhis Living Letters o the Law: Ideas o the Jew in Medieval Christianity, JeremyCohen argued that despite this accusation, Pope Innocent’s letter does not indi-cate that concern or blasphemy was at the core o the anti- almud proceedingthe emphasis was rather on the charge that the Jews had orsaken the Bible the almud.68 Nevertheless, accusations that the almud contained blasphe-mies against Jesus and Mary were repeated in 1270 in south Italy by the con vert Manu orte, and again the authorities conscated and examined the books.69

sarum et damnatarum opiniones tenebat et tenuerunt illos in sinagoga seu alias predicaverunt’Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , No. 4049.

65 Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , No. 4037.66 Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , No. 4040.67 Simonsohn,Te Jews in Sicily, , No. 4049.68 ‘Talamuth Ebraice nuncupantur et magnus liber est apud eos, excedens textum Biblie

in immensum, in quo sunt blasphemie in Deum et Christum eius ac beatam Virginem mani-este’, Simonsohn,Te Apostolic See and the Jews, , No. 171; Cohen, Letters o the Law, p. 325.

69 Cassuto, ‘Sulla storia degli ebrei nell’Italia meridionale’; Cassuto, ‘Te Destruction o the


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As or the Jews, in response to claims that the almud contained blasphemiagainst Jesus and Mary, they usually denied that these passages actually re eto Jesus or Christianity, and in act such identication is ar rom obvious.70 Butthis type o charge against the almud would have been no novelty by 1474 athere ore would not have necessitated a special investigation.

Te most compelling argument against the identication o the ‘abominablebook’ as the almud, is that the name ‘ almud’ is never mentioned in any othe documents pertaining to this affair. Now, even i the Sicilian authorities dnot possess the necessary expertise to identi y the writings in question as t

almud, the pontical letter o June 1474, or the one granting the privilege Moncada, would not have missed such an identication. All sources re errito the ‘abominable book’ describe it as alibellum (booklet) that is a small book,more likely a treatise. It is also emphasized that it was written in Hebrew lette(quedam libellum, Hebraicis licteris scriptum); this description precludes an polemical work written in Arabic script. It should be pointed out, however, th Judeo-Arabic (that is, Arabic written in Hebrew characters) was still used bSicilian Jews in the feenth century.71 Tus, the circulation o a Judeo-Arabic polemical work in Sicily such as ‘Te Account o the Disputation o the Prie(‘Qissat Mujadalat al-Usqu ’) cannot be excluded out o hand. Tis work di

cusses the genealogy o Jesus and Mary, stresses the human nature o Jesuschild, and re ers in extremely crude terms to Mary’s pregnancy.72 But i theSicilian booklet was in Judeo-Arabic it is less likely that Paulo de Heredia, Aragonese Jew, was involved in its disclosure. Such an identication o the b would make Moncada the central gure in the controversy since he knew JudeArabic very well. On the other hand, i it was indeed written in Hebrew, it couhave been any o the polemical works against Christianity that circulated amothe Jewish communities o Western Europe throughout the Middle Ages.

he contents o the book that were considered particularly o ensive Christianity are described in the pontical letter addressed to Salvo CassettaTe emphasis is on the injury to ‘God’s only son, our Saviour, and his glori

Jewish Academies’.70 Merchavia,Te Church versus almudic and Midrashic Literature, the Introduction, and

pp. 274–75. Jordan, ‘Marian Devotion’.71 Segments o Sicilian Jewry still read and produced documents in Judeo-Arabic du

ing the feenth century: Bresc and Goitein, ‘Un inventaire dotal de jui s siciliens (1479)Piemontese, ‘Codici giudeo-arabi di Sicilia’; Burgaretta, ‘Un documento giudeo-arabo siciliconservato a Siracusa’.

72 Lasker and Stroumsa,Te Polemic o Nestor the Priest , pp. 63–68.


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ous mother Mary, virgin in perpetuity’. Jewish polemics attacked various pointo Christian doctrine: the rinity, Incarnation, ransubstantiation, and theVirgin Birth.73 But the stress on perpetual virginity in the pontical letter hintsat the nature o the polemical treatise. Although certain versions o theoledotYeshu represent the most explicit and crude polemics directed against the doc-trine o the Virgin Birth, some medieval Jewish philosophical works also denit. A good example isSe er Milh ̣ amot ha-Shem (1170), where the author, Jacobben Reuven, re utes the dogma o perpetual virginity.74 Tis polemical work, written in southern France or in Spain, could have easily reached Sicily durinthe High Middle Ages via Jewish travellers or migrants.75 Tere is alsoSe er Nizzahon Yashan ( Nizzahon Vetus) which o ers a detailed criticism o thegenealogy o Jesus and Mary based on the Gospels. Te author argues:

Tus, they say that so-and-so begat so-and-so until ‘Mattan begat Jacob, and Jacobbegat Joseph the husband o Mary o whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ;[Matthew 1. 15–16]. Now, this is how we answer them: I she had not yet hadsexual relations, nor was she even married to her husband, then why is he called herhusband? Moreover, i they want to in orm us that he is rom a royal amily, why was his genealogy related to that o Joseph, who was not his ather and to whom hehad no blood relationship at all? Rather than telling us the genealogy o Joseph, heshould have told us that o Mary by saying that so-and-so begat so-and-so until ‘So-and-so begat Mary who gave birth to Jesus’. Te act that this was not done showsthat they did not know Mary’s genealogy and that she was not o royal descent.76

73 Lasker, Jewish Philosophical Polemics against Christianity. On the Virgin birth: ibid., pp. 153–59.

74 Ben Reuben, Jacob,Se er Milh ̣ amot ha-Shem, pp. 11–12.75 Jews rom these parts o Europe came to Sicily during the high and late Middle Age

either on their way to the eastern Mediterranean, or in order to settle there. Rabbi Anatoli o

Marseille came to Sicily in the late twelfh century and lived there or a ew years be ore settlinAlexandria (Egypt) where he served as Dayyan. On R. Anatoli, see: Frenkel,Te Compassionate and Benevolent , pp. 128–33. Jews rom Spain and Provence (such as R. Jacob Anatoli) livedat the court o Emperor Frederick II (1194–1250): Jacob Anatoli, Malmad Ha- almidim, inthe author’s introduction (see also a recent critical edition and translation o this work: JacobAnatoli, Il pugnolo dei discipoli, ed. by Pepi). On Emperor Frederick’s intellectual debates with Jews and Muslims, see: Abulaa, Frederick II , pp. 254–57. In the late ourteenth century re u-gees rom the massacres and orced conversions in the Iberian peninsula came to Sicily: Zeld‘Catalan Jews and Conversos in Sicily’. More to the point, a notarial act rom Palermo rothe mid-feenth century attests to the sale o Hebrew books brought to Sicily by a Jew romPerpignan: Bresc, Livre et societé en Sicile, No. 105.

76 Te Jewish-Christian Debate, ed. by Berger, pp. 167–68. Te English translation quotedabove is David Berger’s.


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Interestingly, this text is reminiscent o the debate presided over by GiovanGatto, but seen rom the Jewish side. Te Nizzahon Vetus also points out thediscrepancies between the Gospels o Matthew and Luke. aken in conjuncti with the dispute described by Heredia, this work seems a particularly apt Jewresponse to the theological arguments o Gatto. In act, in his introduction to tcritical edition o the Nizzahon Vetus, David Berger remarked that this work is ‘astriking example o Jewish disputation in its most aggressive orm […] presein an exceptionally vigorous style’.77 Te identity o the author o Nizzahon Vetus remains unknown, but most scholars agree that he was a German Jew. Internevidence suggests that this polemical work was written in the latter part o tthirteenth century or the early ourteenth. Te possibility that an Ashkenazi polemical work circulated in feenth-century Sicily should not be dismisseout o hand. Some Ashkenazi works ound their way to Sicily in this perian Ashkenazi prayer book is listed in an inventory rom Caltabellotta, anR. Jacob Landa’sSe er Agur is mentioned in a book list rom Palermo. In 1485an Ashkenazi Jew, one Elio Achimi, was selling Hebrew books in Palermo.78 But would an Ashkenazi work enjoy such a wide distribution in Sicily?

Se er Nestor Ha-Komer , the Hebrew version o Judeo-Arabic ‘Te Accounto the Disputation o the Priest’ might be a better candidate. Tis work com

ments on the genealogy o Jesus and Mary, cites the Gospels o Matthand Luke and points out the contradictions between the two genealogies.79 Moreover, it argues against the divinity o Jesus by describing the pregnancMary in extremely crude terms:

His mother carried him in the connement o the womb, in darkness, lth andmenstrual blood or nine months, as Matthew claimed […] Do you know thatNestor said: ‘I do not believe in a god who dwelt in the lth and menstrual bloodin the abdomen and womb’.80

Nestor is already mentioned in Jacob ben Reuven’s Milh ̣ amot Ha-Shem. It wasalso known to the authors o two medieval Ashkenazic polemical works:Se erYose Ha-Meqanneh and Nizzahon Yashan (cited above). Te Judeo-Arabic text

77 Te Jewish-Christian Debate, ed. by Berger, pp. 3–4.78 Bresc, Livre et societé en Sicile, p. 67, Nos 154, 224; a notarial contract made out in

Palermo in February 1484 (actually 1485) mentions ‘Elio Achimi judeo teutonico’ who so

several books to Abraham Fano: ASP N.D. Matteo Vermiglio reg. 1355 (no page numbers).79 Lasker and Stroumsa,Te Polemic o Nestor the Priest , p. 68.80 Lasker and Stroumsa,Te Polemic o Nestor the Priest , p. 67.


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originated in the Muslim Orient in the ninth century and gradually made its way westwards. Te editors o the modern critical edition, Daniel Lasker andSara Stroumsa, argue or a journey made rom the Muslim Orient to Spain, tthirteenth-century Ashkenaz and later to sixteenth-century Greece. But a con- vincing argument can also be made or a journey rom the Muslim Orient Western Europe by way o Sicily during the High Middle Ages. A good exa ple or such a journey is the diffusion o Maimonides’s Mishneh orah in thelate twelfh century. In his letter against astrology which was addressed to thecommunity o Montpellier in southern France, Maimonides wrote:

And it is sel -evident that this compilation that we have written regarding the ruleso the orah, which I have named

Mishneh orah, has not yet reached you, other-

wise you would have known my opinion […] and I suppose that it would reach yoube ore this responsum, since it has already spread to the island o Sicily as it hasspread in the east, and in the west, and in Yemen.81

Te Hebrew Se er Nestor is a translation and an adaptation o a Judeo-Arabic work, which in itsel brings it closer to the cultural world o Sicilian Jewry.the polemical book remains unnamed throughout the investigation we can sur-mise that it was not a well-known text, or at least, not one easily recognized b

the ecclesiastical authorities. Another argument in avour o identi ying Nestor as the ‘abominable book’ that circulated in Sicily is its spread to Greece in thsixteenth century.82 Te expulsion o the Jews rom the Spanish kingdomsin 1492 included Sicily, and many Sicilian re ugees settled in the islands oCyprus, Cor u, Zante, and Crete. A strong Sicilian community resided in thecity o Salonika, and smaller Sicilian communities were ounded in the BalkaTe re ugees brought with them books and manuscripts.83 Te diffusion o theexiles might explain how the book could have reached Greek-speaking territorin the sixteenth century.

81 ע‘ י ג ם ה ה, ש ר ו ה ת נ ש ו מ מ י ש ת ר ק ה ש ר ו ת י ה ט פ ש מ ו נ ר ח ר ש ו ח ם ה כ י ל ע י ג ל ה ע ש ו ד ר י ד ה וו, ה ז ו ש ם ת ד ם ק כ י ל ע י ג י י ש ה ל מ ד מ כ ם. . . ו ת ל ש ם ש י ר ד ן ה ת ו ל כ י ת ע ם ד י ע ד ו ם י ת י י ד ה י ם מ כ י לן מ י ת ר ו ע מ ח ו ר ז מ ט ש פ ו ש מ ה כ י ל י ק י י ס ט ש ר פ כ Letter on Astrology to the Sages o , ’שMontpellier, Moses Maimonides, Letters, ed. by Shilat, , No. 33, p. 478.

82 Lasker and Stroumsa,Te Polemic o Nestor the Priest (Se er Nestor ha-Komer ), pp. 32,35, 121, 170.

83 On the settlement o Sicilian Jews in the eastern Mediterranean, see: Palermo, ‘TePassage o Sicilian Jews to the Eastern Mediterranean afer the Expulsion’. For an overview the spread o the Sicilian diaspora based mainly on rabbinic Responsa, see: Schwartz uchs, ‘Sicilian Jewish Communities in the Ottoman Empire’. On books and manuscripts carried by theexiles: Zeldes ‘Diffusion o Sicilian Exiles’.


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Un ortunately, a certain identication o the ‘abominable book’ is not posible as yet, given the lack o in ormation. Nevertheless, we have tried herexclude some candidates while suggesting several alternatives that could t descriptions ound in contemporary sources.

ConclusionChristian–Jewish polemics is a neglected aspect o the cultural li e in feencentury Sicily. Te episodes described above, the dialogue with the Jews concerning the history o Palermo, and the controversy around the ‘abominablbook are opposite sides o the same coin, reecting the humanists’ interest Jewish culture. Both should be understood as attempts to delve into Jewis writings in order to unravel the past, local history, or the history o ChristianiTe strong identication o Sicilian humanism with the Dominican order gavea particular avour to Christian–Jewish encounters. Even the seemingly goonatured discussions between the Dominican Ranzano and the Jews o Palermshould be understood in terms o an unequal relationship, the Jews always psenting a de ensive attitude. Teir stress on the great antiquity o their sourc was probably intended to rein orce their status as a well-established populatthat possessed an age-old right to be in Sicily, echoing similar efforts madethe Jews in Spain.

Te spread o conversionist sermons in this period, the accusations againsHebrew writings and the outbursts o violent riots, were also signs o the weening position o the Jews in Sicily. heir presence was no longer as easaccepted as it had been be ore. In a way, the inquisition launched against t‘abominable book’ represented an attempt to censure and control the Jews ansuppress what was seen as their underground counter-culture. Te wide circula

tion o the ‘abominable book’ among Sicilian Jewish communities can be int preted as a Jewish response to conversionist pressures. By mocking the Gospand attacking the major tenets o Christianity the Jews were in all likelihooattempting to counter the arguments pro erred by the itinerant preachers they were orced to listen to.

Te ull story o the book controversy in Sicily may never be unravelleto our satis action, but perhaps urther study o the lives o those involveGiovanni Gatto, Salvo Casetta, Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada and Paulus dHeredia — would reveal hitherto unknown acts.


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