Sepharadim/conversos and premodern Global Hispanism

Sepharadim participated in the Hispanic vernacular culture of the Iberian Peninsula. Even in the time of al-Andalus many spoke Hispano-Romance, and even their Hebrew literature belies a deep familiarity with and love of their native Hispano-Romance languages. However, since the early sixteenth century the vast majority of Sepharadim have never lived in the Hispanic world. Sepharadim lived not in Spanish colonies defined by Spanish conquest, but in a network of Mediterranean Jewish communities defined by diasporic values and institutions. By contrast, the conversos, those Sepharadim who converted to Catholicism, whether in Spain or later in Portugal, Italy, or the New World, lived mostly in Spanish Imperial lands, were officially Catholic, and spoke normative Castilian. Their connections, both real and imagined, with Sephardic cultural practice put them at risk of social marginalization, incarceration, even death. Some were devout Catholics whose heritage and family history doomed them to these outcomes. Not surprisingly, many Spanish and Portugese conversos sought refuge in lands outside of Spanish control where they might live openly as Jews. This exodus (1600s) from the lands formerly known as Sefarad led to a parallel Sephardic community of what conversos who re-embraced Judaism in Amsterdam and Italy by a generation of conversos trained in Spanish universities. The Sephardic/Converso cultural complex exceeds the boundaries of Spanish imperial geography, confuses Spanish, Portuguese, Catholic, and Jewish subjectivities, and defies traditional categories practiced in Hispanic studies, and are a unique example of the Global Hispanophone

The Beginnings of Ladino Literature Moses Almosnino and His Readers

With careful historical work, Borovaya establishes a new framework for thinking about Ladino language and literature and the early history of European print culture.Cover -- The Beginnings of Ladino Literature -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- NOTE ON TRANSLATIONS, TRANSCRIPTIONS, TITLES, AND PROPER NAMES -- Introduction -- Prologue: Jewish Vernacular Culture in Fifteenth-Century Iberia -- 1 Ladino in the Sixteenth Century: The Emergence of a New Vernacular Literature -- 2 Almosnino's Epistles: A New Genre for a New Audience -- 3 Almosnino's Chronicles: The Ottoman Empire through the Eyes of Court Jews -- 4 The First Ladino Travelogue: Almosnino's Treatise on the Extremes of Constantinople -- 5 Rabbis and Merchants: New Readers, New Educational Projects -- Epilogue: Moses Almosnino, a Renaissance Man? -- APPENDIX: [The Extremes of Constantinople] -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEXWith careful historical work, Borovaya establishes a new framework for thinking about Ladino language and literature and the early history of European print culture.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries