A Jewish Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Spain
Mark D. Meyerson

Runner up for the 2005 National Jewish Book Award in the History category, Jewish Book Council

Cloth | 2004 | $42.50 / £24.95
272 pp. | 6 x 9 | 7 halftones. 3 maps.

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This book significantly revises the conventional view that the Jewish experience in medieval Spain--over the century before the expulsion of 1492--was one of despair, persecution, and decline. Focusing on the town of Morvedre in the kingdom of Valencia, Mark Meyerson shows how and why Morvedre's Jewish community revived and flourished in the wake of the horrible violence of 1391. Drawing on a wide array of archival documentation, including Spanish Inquisition records, he argues that Morvedre saw a Jewish "renaissance."

Meyerson shows how the favorable policies of kings and of town government yielded the Jewish community's demographic expansion and prosperity. Of crucial importance were new measures that ceased the oppressive taxation of the Jews and minimized their role as moneylenders. The results included a reversal of the credit relationship between Jews and Christians, a marked amelioration of Christian attitudes toward Jews, and greater economic diversification on the part of Jews.

Representing a major contribution to debates over the Inquisition's origins and the expulsion of the Jews, the book also offers the first extended analysis of Jewish-converso relations at the local level, showing that Morvedre's Jews expressed their piety by assisting Valencia's conversos. Comparing Valencia with other regions of Spain and with the city-states of Renaissance Italy, it makes clear why this kingdom and the town of Morvedre were so ripe for a Jewish revival in the fifteenth century.

Reviews:

"In his eloquent style, [Meyerson] highlights the complex inner workings of a multicultural society such as that of medieval Morvedre, and presents a new methodology that other Hispanists should apply to their studies."--Choice

"Mark D. Meyerson constructs a subtle understanding of Spain before the Expulsion. He details not only the political relationship between the kings and 'their' Jews, but even more interestingly, the complex relationship between open Jews and the conversos of 1391."--Jewish Book World

"Making a signal contribution to our knowledge of the Jews of medieval Spain is surely no easy matter. Mark D. Meyerson has performed precisely such a service in these two valuable volumes. All those concerned with the history of the medieval Iberian peninsula and/or its Jews are deeply indebted to him."--Robert Chazan, Ecclesiastical History

"Elegantly conceived and painstakingly documented, Mark D. Meyerson's A Jewish Renaissance in Fifteenth-Century Spain stands as a strong and solid contribution both to medieval Iberian history and Jewish history. . . . Meyerson has given the Jews of Morvedre a historical agency and a uniquely human subjectivity that would otherwise have remained silent."--Horacio Chiong Rivero, Sixteenth Century Journal

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Table of Contents:

Figures and Maps ix
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Names and Money xiii
Abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
Chapter One
On the Edge of Desolation 22
Chapter Two
Revival in the Shadow of Valencia 65
Chapter Three
Wine, Money,and Mobility 109
Chapter Four
Jews and Muslims 143
Chapter Five
The Politics of Plenty 157
Chapter Six
Converts and Kinsfolk 184
Chapter Seven
Chill Wind from Castile 225
Concluding Remarks 240
Glossary 247
Bibliography 249
Index 263

Series:

• Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World
  Michael Cook, William Chester Jordan, and Peter Schäfer, Editors

Subject Areas:

• European History
• Jewish Studies
• Religion

Shopping Cart:

For customers in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, and Australia
Cloth: $42.50 ISBN13: 978-0-691-11749-2

For customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India
Cloth: £24.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-11749-2

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