Question about the 13th century crown of Aragon and its Jewish population

by kylir

Hello everyone, once again I am working on a research paper and could use some help finding primary and secondary sources. I am working on a research paper on 13th Century Crown of Aragon and the ways in which its Jewish residents negotiated their place as a minority through the dominant Christian legal structure. I do not know if there are a lot of sources to go off of, but I have found some on Fordham's Medieval Sourcebook. Perhaps my focus is too narrow, or not narrow enough; but anything would help.

Edit: In particular I would like to find a well documented court case that I could use as a case study, and perhaps the roles and trends in ordinating new Rabbi's, who as I understand it were more legalistic than spiritual.

idjet

The first two will get you a long way, if not in content then in bibliographic direction:

Robin Vose, Dominicans, Muslims and Jews in the Medieval Crown of Aragon (Cambridge University Press, 2011)

David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Age (Princeton University Press, 1998)

These will provide further bibliography missing in the above:

Thomas Bisson, Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History, The (Clarendon Press, 1986)

Damian J. Smith, Crusade, Heresy and Inquisition in the Lands of the Crown of Aragon: c. 1167 - 1276 (Brill, 2010)

alfonsoelsabio

In addition to Nirenberg, as /u/idjet mentioned, I would recommend Jonathan Ray as a major resource for Aragonese Jewry. I've read his The Sephardic Frontier, which contains some key primary sources, and he also has several relevant articles. His publications: http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/jsr46/?action=viewpublications&PageTemplateID=360