The Jews in Medieval Normandy: A Social and Intellectual History

Description

This 1998 book is a comprehensive account of the high Hebraic culture developed by the Jews in Normandy during the Middle Ages, and in particular during the Anglo-Norman period. This culture has remained virtually unknown to the public and to the scholarly world throughout modern times, until a combination of recent manuscript discoveries and archaeological findings delineated this phenomenon for the first time. The book explores the origins of this remarkable community, beginning with topographical evidence pointing to the arrival of the Jews in Normandy as early as Roman and Gallo-Roman times, through autograph documentary testimony available in the Cairo Genizah manuscripts and early medieval Latin sources, finally using the rich manuscript evidence of twelfth- and early thirteenth-century writers which attest to the high cultural level attained by this community and to its social and political interaction with the Christian world of Anglo-Norman times and their aftermath. Cover Contents Preface 1. The earliest sources 2. The extent and antiquity of Jewish settlement in Normandy 3. From Robert of Normandy until the First Crusade 4. The Jewish quarter of Rouen in the twelfth century 5. School and community in the reign of Henry I and Angevin times 6. Masters of the law in the mid-twelfth century 7. Abraham Ibn Ezra and his literary activities in Normandy 8. Disciples of the Master: Rouennaise scholars during the reign of Henry II Plantagenet 9. The civil status of the Jews from Henry II to John Lackland 10. The Tosafists 11. From the last years of Philip Augustus to the reign of Louis IX 12. The final decades Appendix I. The chronicle concerning Jacob B. Jequthiel of Rouen Appendix II. The epistle on behalf of Reuben B. Isaac of Rouen Appendix III. Guibert of Nogent’s account of the persecution of the Jews of Rouen in 1096 and the conversion of William the Jew to Christianity Appendix IV. Eadmer the Monk’s account of the meetings of William Rufus with Jews of Rouen (AD 1099) Appendix V. A Latin charter of Philip the Fair ceding to the city of Rouen the property of the Jews after the expulsion of 1306 Appendix VI. The schools of the Jews of royal France, Normandy, and England Bibliography Index of manuscripts Index of personal names Index of toponyms