Relatos de los disturbios antijudíos de Valencia, julio de 1391

11 pages, English and Spanish translation availableThis unit contains a brief introduction and four accounts of the anti-Jewish riot that took place in Valencia on July 9, 1391. During this riot, one of many across Spain in the summer of 1391, a mob attacked the Jewish community of Valencia, killing at least a hundred people and forcibly converting most of the rest. These attacks destroyed the Jewish communities of Valencia and many other cities in Spain, making 1391 a crucial turning point in both Spanish and Jewish history. The Valencian attack is particularly well recorded, with surviving accounts from multiple independent sources, all newly translated into English from the original Catalan and Valencian. These four accounts are from three different perspectives: the king’s brother, Prince Martí, senior royal official on the scene; that of the jurats, senior municipal officials in Valencia; and that of Juceff Abraim, a Valencian Jew who was forcibly converted during the assault. Each of these accounts reflects the different pressures the witnesses faced in constructing a narrative of the events. The unit is published in two versions: one with introduction and notes in Spanish, with the primary texts in the original medieval Valencian with modern Spanish translation, and another with the introduction and notes in English, and primary texts in original medieval Valencian and English translation. The original text was edited and translated into English by Abigail Agresta, then into Spanish by Sol Miguel-Prendes. The introduction and notes were written by Abigail Agresta and translated into Spanish by Sol Miguel-Prendes. Types of courses where the text might be useful: History (medieval, Jewish, Iberian), Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, Sephardic Studies. It is also a useful case study on bias in historical sources

Pablo Tac, Conversión de los Saluiseños de la Alta California (Roma, ca. 1840)

11 pages (English), 7 pages (Spanish), English and Spanish translation availableConversión de los Saluiseños de la Alta California (Conversion of the Saluiseños of Alta California) (c. 1840) by Pablo Tac is the only published document written by an indigenous Californian during the Spanish-Mexican period. Born at Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, north of San Diego, California in 1820, Tac wrote the manuscript while studying to be a Catholic priest at a seminary in Rome. Conversión de los Saluiseños is Tac’s attempt to present the history and customs of his people, the Quechnajuichom, (Luiseños) to a readership unfamiliar with Native American life. While part of the work deals with the encounter of the Tac's ancestors with Spanish missionaries and soldiers that ultimately led to the founding of Mission San Luis Rey, the bulk of Conversión de los Saluiseños paints a portrait of life at the mission through the eyes of a native person. Tac portrays the mission as a native community under Spanish dominion, which strives to preserve its traditional ways while adapting to a new political and cultural order. As an indigenous ethnographer addressing a European audience, Tac is perhaps the final representative of a group that includes personalities such as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Huaman Poma de Ayala and Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. This is a pedagogical edition of a selection of the "Conversion of the Saluiseños of Alta California" with a short general introduction, notes, and brief bibliography. The edition and translation are by Damian Bacich (2020)

Cantigas de Santa Maria: “Como Santa Maria ajudou a Emperadriz de Roma”/ “How the Virgen Mary Helped the Empress of Rome”

Alfonso X was king of “Castilla, León, Sevilla, Córdoba, Murcia, Jaén, and el Algarbe.” As evidenced by his title, he came to have possession of various kingdoms in Iberia. He was born in Toledo in 1221 and died in Seville in 1284, at 63 years of age. He is called the Learned King because he was an author, poet, musician, and historian, and because he supported artists and translators. Furthermore, he employed Christians, Jews, and Muslims in his translation workshop in Toledo. His Cantigas de Santa Maria is a repertoire of songs compiled in four manuscripts between 1257 and 1283. The Cantigas consist of 420 narrative songs that focus on the Virgen Mary and the miracles that she performs across Christendom. Originally, the text was written in Galician-Portuguese, from the northeast region of Iberia. Galicia is the site of Santiago de Compostela, the final destination of the pilgrimage route known as the Camino de Santiago (Saint James’s Way). Each story is comprised of text, images, and music. The combination of texts and images portrays day-to-day life and, often, the less-documented common peoples of the Middle Ages in Europe. This unit, edited by Diane Burke Moneypenny and Allison Carberry Gottlieb, contains the original text in Galician-Portuguese of Cantiga 5, “How the Virgin Mary helped the Empress of Rome.," with an English introduction, notes, and translation

Las excelencias de los hebreos (Amsterdam 1679)

This is a pedagogical edition of a selection of Las excelencias de los hebreos (Amsterdam 1679), in .pdf format with an English-language introduction and notes, with the original text in both the original Castilian and English translation. Las excelencias de los hebreos (Amsterdam 1679) is a treatise describing the positive characteristics (excelencias) of the Jewish people and a containing a refutation of common anti-Jewish calumnies (calunias) written by Isaac Cardoso (b. Fernando Cardoso, Trancoso, Portugal 1603 - d. Verona, Italy 1683). Excelencias is an apology or pro-Jewish treatise meant to educate its readers on Jewish history and practice, and to combat typical anti-Jewish ideas that were very widespread in Europe since the Middle Ages, and that persist to this day. In this excerpt, the tenth and last of the calumnies leveled at leveled at Jews that he addresses in the work, Cardoso refutes the blood libel often aimed at aimed at Jewish communities living in majority Christian societies from the Middle ages to the present day. This is the accusation that Jews murder Christian children and use their blood to make the unleavened bread that is eaten ritually on the holiday of Pesach, or Passover. As Cardoso explains in this text, these accusations are in contradiction to Jewish law, which forbids the consumption of blood of any sort, and condemns murder and human sacrifice in no uncertain terms. It is also worth pointing out that the accusation of drinking the blood and eating the flesh of a human sacrifice is structurally similar to the sacrament of communion, in which believing Catholics drink wine that according to the doctrine of transubstantiation has become the blood of Christ, and eat a wafer that according to the same doctrine has become his flesh. No such parallel is to be found, however, in Jewish ritual

Francisco Núñez Muley, Memorial (Granada, 1566)

Núñez-Muley abstract The Edict of 1567, or Anti-Morisco Edict, was promulgated by Spanish King Philip II on January 1, after being approved in Madrid on November 17, 1566. Its purpose was to eliminate specific Morisco customs, such as their language, dress, and dances. Núñez Muley’s Petition is an attempt to persuade Christian authorities to delay enforcing the 1567 Edict. The author lists each of the prohibitions and refutes their effectiveness. He compares Morisco customs to those of other Christian and Muslim communities in the Mediterranean and argues that the prohibitions will not eradicate any putative Islamic practices but instead erase Morisco cultural identity. Moriscos, he claims, are sincere Christians and loyal subjects who support the king’s decisions. This unit contains a Spanish-language introduction and notes by Lisette Balabarca Fataccioli, and the original Spanish text, followed by a short bibliography of suggested readings

Cantar de Mio Cid

Edition and Translation of el Cantar de Mio Cid, a 12th/13th-century epic poem from Castile, Spain. Edition and translation by Matthew Bailey, 2019. This is a pedagogical edition/translation with a short general introduction, notes, and a bibliography of relatively accessible chapters and books. This unit is part of Open Iberia/américa, an online, open-access teaching anthology of texts from the premodern Hispanic world. https://openiberiaamerica.hcommons.org/ This file is the .pdf formatted English version, with introduction and notes in English, and the text in facing medieval Castilian/English translation

Francisco Núñez Muley, Petition (Granada, 1566)

The Edict of 1567, or Anti-Morisco Edict, was promulgated by Spanish King Philip II on January 1, after being approved in Madrid on November 17, 1566. Its purpose was to eliminate specific Morisco customs, such as their language, dress, and dances. Núñez Muley’s Petition is an attempt to persuade Christian authorities to delay enforcing the 1567 Edict. The author lists each of the prohibitions and refutes their effectiveness. He compares Morisco customs to those of other Christian and Muslim communities in the Mediterranean and argues that the prohibitions will not eradicate any putative Islamic practices but instead erase Morisco cultural identity. Moriscos, he claims, are sincere Christians and loyal subjects who support the king’s decisions. This unit contains an English language introduction and notes by Lisette Balabarca Fataccioli, the original Spanish text with facing English translation, and a short suggested bibliography for further reading

Otra frontera de la ficción sentimental, la "Consolatio Philosophiae" de Boecio

Este trabajo examina la influencia indirecta ejercida por la "Consolatio Philosophiae" en la ficción sentimental. Explora el origen del género en un grupo de visiones que se inspiran en la obra de Boecio y las agrupa bajo el nombre de ficciones penitenciales para subrayar sus lazos con las prácticas tanto confesionales como narrativasThis paper examines "Consolatio Philosophiae"’s indirect influence on sentimental fiction. It explores the origin of the genre in a group of dream visions that draw on Boethius’s work and calls them penitential fictions to stress their links to both confessional and narrative practice

Pablo Tac, Conversión de los Saluiseños de la Alta California (Roma, ca. 1840)

Conversión de los Saluiseños de la Alta California (c. 1840) by Pablo Tac is the only published document written by an indigenous Californian during the Spanish-Mexican period. Born at Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, north of San Diego, California in 1820, Tac wrote the manuscript while studying to be a Catholic priest at a seminary in Rome. Conversión de los Saluiseños is Tac’s attempt to present the history and customs of his people, the Quechnajuichom, (Luiseños) to a readership unfamiliar with Native American life. While part of the work deals with the encounter of the Tac's ancestors with Spanish missionaries and soldiers that ultimately led to the founding of Mission San Luis Rey, the bulk of Conversión de los Saluiseños paints a portrait of life at the mission through the eyes of a native person. Tac portrays the mission as a native community under Spanish dominion, which strives to preserve its traditional ways while adapting to a new political and cultural order. As an indigenous ethnographer addressing a European audience, Tac is perhaps the final representative of a group that includes personalities such as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Huaman Poma de Ayala and Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. This is a Spanish-language pedagogical edition of a selection of the "Conversión de los Saluiseños de la Alta California " with a short general introduction, notes, and brief bibliography in Spanish. The edition, introduction, notes, and bibliography are by Damian Bacich (2020). The modernization of the Spanish text is by Sol Miguel-Prendes (2020)