Notes
1. Cheryl Tallen, “Opportunities for Medieval Northern European Jewish Widows in the Public and Domestic Spheres,” in Upon My Husband’s Death: Widows in the Literature and Histories of Medieval Europe, ed. Louise Mirrer (Ann Arbor, 1992), 116. Renée Levine Melammed, “Sephardi Women in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods,” in Jewish Women in Historical Perspective, ed. Judith R. Baskin (Detroit, 1991), 122–123. She also notes that to avoid the prohibition against wives inheriting “it was not uncommon for husbands in many periods of Jewish history to have recourse to non-Jewish systems in order to leave a greater part of their estates to their wives” (p. 132n.). In the same volume see Judith Baskin, “Jewish Women in the Middle Ages,” 94–114. On the rights and limitations of Jewish women “donors” or testators see Reuven Yaron, Gifts in Contemplation of Death in Jewish and Roman Law (Oxford, 1960), 138–140, and for the role of women as heirs/donees pp. 153–161; see also pp. 174–176 (widows) and 217–220 (dwelling rights). See too Enrique Cantera Montenegro, “Actividades socio-profesionales de la mujer judía en los reinos hispanocristianos de la baja edad media,” in El trabajo de las mujeres en la edad media hispana, ed. Angela Muñoz Fernánez and Cristina Segura Graiño (Madrid, 1988), 321–345; and ibid. for background Carme Batlle, “Noticias sobre la mujer catalana en el mundo de los negocios (siglo XIII),” 201–221. For wills of Jewish women in Aragon, see above, chap. 1, nn. 23–25. See also B. Z. Scherschewsky et al., “Widow,” Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 16, pp. 487–495, also published in The Principles of Jewish Law, ed. Menachem Elon (Jerusalem, 1975), cols. 399–403. The only study of widows in the area of the present book is Richard W. Emery, “Les veuves juifs de Perpignan,” Provence historique 37 (1987): 559–569, a sociological analysis from some 850 notarial codices of Perpignan and other towns of Roussillon over a broad time range. He can document 285 widows, 555 married women, and 1,400 male Jews, but only 24 widowers. He estimates the Jewish population as fluctuating between 150 to 200 families, with widows numbering between 30 and 50, and he addresses such questions as marriage age and remarriage.
2. Arch. Hist. Puigcerdá, protocols, Mateu d’Alb and Bernat Mauri, Liber testamentorum 1306–1307, fol. 12v (23 October 1306), transcribed below in appendix, doc. 35. Canceled by three vertical lines, indicating a copy made. Initial X signals the start of a new document. In the left margin center: “debet V solidos.” Cf. Richard W. Emery, The Jews of Perpignan in the Thirteenth Century: An Economic Study Based on Notarial Records (New York, 1959), name list on pp. 200–202 for comparisons.
3. Antonio Pons, Los judíos del reino de Mallorca durante los siglos XIII y XIV, 2 vols. (Palma de Mallorca, [1958–1960] 1984), vol. 2, p. 271, doc. 88 (8 August 1331), also in Fidel Fita and Gabriel Llabrés, “Privilegios de los hebreos mallorquines en el codice Pueyo,” Boletín de la Real academia de la historia 36 (1900): 200–203, doc. 47: “iudei scolam habere valeant vel domum aliquam sive propriam sive conductitiam ad orandum iuxta legem Mosaycam ritus et consuetudines iudeorum in civitate predicta, ubi sinagogam curiosam et valde formosam et domum ad orandum alias habuerunt.” The present scola is “potius antique reparatio et refectio, quam non sinagogam sed scolam aut domum ad orandum permittimus noncupari.” Josep Millás Vallicrosa, “Esbozo histórico sobre los judíos en Barcelona,” Miscellanea barcinonensia 12 (1966): 13–20.
4. Arch. Crown, reg. 202, fol. 202 (27 December 1304): “eo quia graviter excessistis, quia sinagogam vestram et almidraz construxistis et operati fuistis alcius et amplius quam fuisset licitus et debebat[ur]; quam quidem sinagogam et almidraz nos per vos ad statum debitum et pristinum reduci fecimus et mandavimus.” On the circumstances of this synagogue see David Abulafia, “From Privilege to Persecution: Crown, Church, and Synagogue in the City of Majorca, 1229–1343,” in Church and City 1000–1500: Essays in Honor of Christopher Brooke, ed. David Abulafia et al. (Cambridge, 1992), 124–125, and his Mediterranean Emporium, 90.
5. The manuscript gives the name forms as Abraham (in second declension), Aster, Astruch, Bondia, Bonet, Choen, Coras (?), Crexent, Fagim, Gaux, Jacob, Juceff, Mancosa, Mometa, Regina, Soall, Vitalis. On Aster as Est(h)er see above, chap. 4, p. 86. On Bondia see chap. 3, n. 47, on Bonet n. 27, on Cohen n. 30; on Creixent chap. 4, p. 82, on Fagim/Faqim p. 80, and on Gaugs/Gaux p. 98. Though Mancosa baffles Simon Seror (Les Noms des juifs de France au moyen âge [Paris, 1989], 171) it may well come from Catalan mancús, a facsimile or counterfeit Arabic gold coin minted at Barcelona by the counts; the first emission carried the minter’s name “Bonnom hebreu,” while the second was minted by the Jew Enees. The value, beauty, Jewish connection, and by the thirteenth century rarity of the exotic Arabic-Catalan coin must have led to this rare use of it as a name. Mometa is feminine for the masculine Momet/Mamet used among Jews at this time. Plausible origins are hard to discover, and Seror’s Noms des juifs is not useful here. The Catalan and ancient Roman name Mamet/Mamert (including an Occitan St. Mamet) may afford a clue. The rest of the names here were touched on in my introduction, except for the puzzle of Coras/Comte/Cresques.
6. Arch. Hist. Puigcerdá, protocols, Alb/Mauri, fol. 15 (9 November 1306), transcribed below in appendix, doc. 37. Uncanceled. Mazères is seventy kilometers west of Toulouse, though less likely candidates can also be suggested.
7. Fori antiqui Valentiae, ed. Manuel Dualde Serrano (Madrid, 1967), rub. 82.
8. Cf. the Bedós will in chap. 4, n. 22, and related text. The manuscript gives the name forms throughout the document as Astruch, Baynola, Bedoz, Bonatosa, Cobes and Cubes, Deuslosal, Elias, Jacob, Juceff, Mosse, Ruben, Salamo, and Vidas, with toponym forms Besaldu, Lunellus, and Matzeres. Deulosal might also be seen as salutation, as Shalom. The phrase “domina et potens” in this will to mean full executor and administrator first appears in Catalan texts in 1192, though the reality of widows as executors was “much older”; see Stephen Bensch, Barcelona and Its Rulers 1096–1291 (Cambridge, 1995), 273, with citations of testaments also from 1250.
9. Arch. Hist. Puigcerdá, protocols, Alb/Mauri, fol. 15v (6 November 1306), transcribed below in appendix, doc. 36. Canceled by three vertical lines, indicating copy made. At left margin middle, again: “debet V solidos.” In paragraph three, adverbial caste used. Before Jucef (always Juceff in the manuscript) in the witness area: X.
10. Is Fava a form of Catalan Febe (English Phoebe; of Greek root)? Seror finds the name among Jews at Narbonne, Marseilles, and Perpignan, and also as a Christian name; he suggests an origin in French fève, as in trouver la fève au gáteau (to hit the mark, have a lucky find); see his Noms des juifs, 105. More simply, the Catalan surname Fava (“bean”) may be its affectionate and whimsical source.
11. Shlomo D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, 6 vols. (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1967–1993), 2:151. Alvin Kass, “Torah, Ornaments,” Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 15, cols. 1255–1258, and plates. The Sephardim used a wooden scroll-case, opening like a book, the rods coming up through its top.
12. The manuscript gives the various name forms as Abraham (in first declension), Aster, Astruga, Bonafylla and Bonafilia, Bondia, Coen, Fava, and Juceff. On Aster/Est(h)er see p. 86. For Bondia see chap. 3, n. 47, for Cohen n. 30.
13. Arch. Hist. Puigcerdá, protocols, Alb/Mauri, fol. 17rv (21 November 1306), transcribed below in appendix, doc. 38.
14. The manuscript gives the various name forms as Abraham (first declension), Adzero/Atzero, Astruch, Choen, Davit, Deulosal, Durandus, Fabib, Gentill, Goyo, Jacob, Juceff, Judea, Regina, and Salamon. On the name Asher see chap. 4, pp. 78, 83.
15. Gabriel Secall i Güell, Els jueus de Valls i la seva época (Valls, 1980), from the Arxiu Històric Arxidiocesà de Tarragona, with the four libri Judeorum described at length on p. 200. On the number of families and complete lists, see pp. 193, 204–206. The author reprinted this will in his Les jueries medievals tarragonines (Valls, 1983), appendix, pp. 554–555, doc. 19.
16. Ibid., pp. 188–191, with transcription on pp. 202–203 (1337–1338). Leila Berner, “A Mediterranean Community: Barcelona’s Jews under James the Conqueror,” Ph. D. diss., UCLA, 1986, pp. 144–162, 452–455.
17. Some of the phrases are “revocans omnia alia mea testamenta et ultimas voluntates per me olim conditas sive factas quondam”; “quod quingenti solidi distribuantur per eos ad puellas judeas maritandas”; “çafertora, quod quidem rotle sive çafertora volo dari et assignari scole sive sinagogue judeorum”; “item dimitto dicte Cerone terciam partem omnium pannorum meorum, tam lane quam lini quam stupe quam fustani quam eciam aliorum…et eciam ollarum mearum et mortariorum de cupro”; “absolvo et libero omnes judeos pauperes, qui mihi…debeant debita ascendencia usque ad quantitatem quindecim solidos terni”; “in hospicio quod ego et ipsa et eius filii insimul habitamus”. (I have corrected some grammatical or typographical errors.) Seror, Noms des juifs, 100, on Serrona. On the de tern money here, see my introduction, above, under “Moneys.”
18. The manuscript as transcribed presents the names in the will as Abraam, Asterona, Astrugua, Barzelay, Biona, Bonafilia, Bonetus, Boniua, Cap, Cerona, Dulcich, Isach and Isçach, Leo, Maymo and Maymonus, Regina. On the name Biona see above, chap. 3, n. 26. On Maymó as Arabic Maimūn see above chap. 4, p. 77. Besides names discussed in the text, a number are in my introduction. The transcription errs as filius for filios in setting executors; name form and later reference to Astruga’s sons clarify this. Regino and Astero are maltranscriptions, perhaps for the diminutives Reginona and Asterona. Note that there are two Maymos, one being the dead husband, the other being the legatee Maymó de Narbonne.
19. Baskin, “Jewish Women in the Middle Ages,” 102.
20. Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 3:250–260, 278, 285–286.
21. Bensch, Barcelona and Its Rulers, chap. 6, especially the section “Marital Assigns and Widows’ Rights,” quotations from pp. 264 and 266.
22. Renée Melammed, “Sephardi Women,” 23. Yitzhak Baer discusses the case in his A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1971), 1:318–319.