This advanced course focuses on two primary goals: (1) appraising how Jews, Christians, and Muslims shaped the history of medieval Spain and (2) mastering the craft of Spanish paleography, the skill of identifying Spanish handwriting in the 11th- through 15th-century manuscripts. Through the lens of the medieval history of Burgos, we dedicate 75% percent of our efforts to developing pragmatic expertise in the interpretation of Carolingian/French/Gothic handwriting. Specifically, the course explores how the royal Castilian city of Burgos influenced, and was influenced by, Jews, Christians, and Muslims. We closely evaluate the Spanish Christian Reconquest, the Plague and the 14th-century Castilian civil war, anti-Jewish pogroms, the emergence of elite conversos (Jewish converts to Christianity), and the role of the king and Roman Catholic Church in the creation of Catholic Spain. Through onsite interviews in archives and museums in Burgos, we experience the medieval city, artifacts, and manuscripts. While we teach using Spanish manuscripts, very little or no knowledge of the Spanish language is necessary to complete the course. Using an intensive array of paleography practices, exams, independent projects, and collaborative efforts, you will garner exceptional skills that you can apply to interpreting any medieval European handwriting. To demonstrate your mastery of paleography you will (1) create a 14th-15th-century alphabet, numeral, and abbreviation guide using manuscript images, and (2) transcribe one selection from a medieval manuscript.
Anti-Jewish Pogroms (1390s CE)
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From the course by University of Colorado System
Burgos: Deciphering Secrets of Medieval Spain
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From the lesson
14th Century Tragedy, Jewish and Christian Museum Artifacts, and Continuing 11th Century Manuscripts
This week we delve into the Castilian crisis of the 14th-century -- the arrival of the Black Death (Plague), an intensive civil war, and rampant anti-Jewish violence. We explore the creation of a new Spanish identity -- the conversos -- Jewish converts to Christianity. Via virtual field trips, we visit medieval Burgos and return to the Museo de Burgos. We continue our investigation of 11th-century manuscripts, working hard to perfect our paleography skills.
Meet the Instructors
Dr. Roger Louis Martínez-DávilaAssociate Professor
History
There was so much suffering and pain still to be felt in
Castile and across Christian Iberia in the lives of Sephardic Jews.
However, just as different Christians have experienced uneven turmoil and opportunity,
individual Jewish communities lived vastly diverse lives at the close of the 14 century.
The highly varied outcomes of these good ideas help us to
appreciate why some Jews responded as they did,
pursuing new lives and identities as conversos.
For those who remained steadfast in their faith,
only rare pockets of cooperation with families such as
the Carvajal-Santa Maria confederation would offer
a semblance of the prior medieval period's best years of
productive and collaborative that evolved Convivencia.
Since the publication of the influential works of José Amador de los Rios,
Henri Charles Lea, and Yitzhak Baer,
to name a few,
the history of Jewish and Christian inter-relations in Spain in
the late 14 century and the early 15 century has remained largely unchallenged.
These fathers of Sephardic historiography critically evaluated the devastation
inflicted upon Juderias during the notorious anti-Jewish riots of the 1390s,
which first formed in Sevilla and
subsequently swept across Spain over the course of several years.
These historians contributed, in immeasurable ways,
to our understanding of how Jews were systematically targeted for persecution and murder,
and the Juderias for eventual dismantlement during the 15th century.
José Amador argued that "The
horrid butchering that occurred in the Spanish Juderias during in
the year 1391 was a vast conspiracy that had as its objective their total annihilation;
however, it was a conspiracy made in the light of day and proposed with vehement desire."
Other scholars echoed his haunting assessment.
After the Christians' attacks in Sevilla,
Henry Charles Lea assessed that "In the paralysis of public authority,
one city after another followed the example;
the Juderias were sacked,
the Jews that would not submit to baptism were slain and
fanaticism and cupidity held their orgies unchecked."
It is estimated that as many as 100,000 Jews were killed,
100,000 converted to Christianity,
and another 100,000 fled to Muslim territories and went into hiding.
Perhaps because of this incontrovertible historical evidence
of the particular horrors exacted upon Jews,
such as those who resided in the cities of Sevilla, Cordoba,
and Valencia, as well as the distastefulness of the issues,
this difficult era in Spanish history continues to be portrayed
with uniformly negative assumptions about Jewish and Christian coexistence.
For example, Benzion Netanyahu who reduces and summarizes the era as follows,
"The losses of Spain's Jews in 1391
far surpassed those the Jews had borne elsewhere in Europe.
Within two or three years from 1391, Spain's Jewish community,
the largest in the world, was reduced by
nearly one-third in both geographic and numeric terms.
The greatest catastrophe that had hitherto befallen the European Jewry."
In short, such authoritative statements
have all too often reduced the granularity, richness,
and complexity of interreligious relations in the first half of the 15 century to
these universalistic assumptions in Sephardic historiography.
In truth, a systematic reappraisal of 15 century
Jewish and Christian convivence is long overdue because within it
reveals a hidden history of cooperation and
collaboration of all Christians, conversos, and Jews.
And especially in the light of
accumulated scholarly evidence that comprehensively describes
the Jewish and Christian convivencia in
individual Spanish communities during and after the 1390s,
it is evident that the past groundbreaking Sephardic historiographies of
the late 19 century and mid-20 century are overdue for recalibration.
For example, Jews and conversos in the cities of Astorga, Aviles,
Cordoba, Leon, Lavida, Murcia,
Salamanca, Sevilla, Tulo, and Valencia experienced
distinct and divergent communal outcomes from the 1390s and through the 1420s.
For example, in Valencia,
in July of 1391,
Jews of Valencia were victims of a massive wave of persecution and attacks.
At this time, Danvila states,
"In order to inspire terror in the Hebrew people,
Christians erected gallows in the plazas and streets near the Juderia."
Following these acts of intimidation,
the Christians attacks began and Jews sought refuge in
blockaded homes and in synagogues that were ultimately overwhelmed by the onslaught.
As if possessed by a satanic fury,
the Christians looted what they could and destroyed what they could not carry off.
Further, the Christians aggression turned into a murderous assault.
And within a short period,
hundreds of bodies of Jewish men,
women, and children littered Valencia's streets.
Those Jews who survived the riots sought refuge in the nearby community of Monforte.
By 1394, Valencia's Jewish quarter was
deserted and its synagogues converted to the churches.
Sevilla, the first town rocked by anti-Jewish violence,
experienced extensive bloodshed and destruction.
By 1412, most Jews there had converted to Christianity,
and there were many members who were initially combined to
a neighborhood adjacent to the city's gate of Cordoba.
Additionally, city leaders moved conversos to other sections
of the city to prevent them from interacting with Jews.
Subsequently, in 1437, due to overcrowding in the Jewish Quarter,
King Juan II granted
some Jewish families permission to reside in other zones in the city.
Cumulatively, those outcomes signal that
the Jewish community was in severe distress after the 1390s.
And Cordoba?
Although Cordoba experienced the same violent
acts the other cities endured during the 1390s,
some scholars suggest they were far less bloody than acknowledged up until now,
and the goal of the Christians attacks seemed more
focused on pillaging Jewish goods than murder.
Conversions by Jews was also whittled away at the community's vitality.
By 1410, many conversos moved into a new neighborhood near the King's castle,
the A Casa Viejo, that had undergone
depopulation after the reconquest of the city by Muslims.
The creation of this conversos' home was similar to what had occurred in Sevilla,
thus the reflected the ordinances of divide to lead and intent to socially,
economically, and religiously isolate Jewish communities.
Lastly, Burgos.
About the middle of the 1300s,
the Jewish population of the city of Burgos was
about 130 families and may have been added as many as 600 individuals.
In the aftermath of the violent anti-Jewish riots of
the 1390s and the progressively worse conditions in Burgos,
by 1474, there were only 11 Jewish families left.
Another measure of the vitality of
the Jewish community was the collapse of poll taxes paid.
In 1290, the Juderia contributed 22,161 maravedis,
a silver coin denomination, in collections.
And in 1439, less than 50 percent of this amount: 10,000 maravedis.
By 1464, only 500 maravedis were paid.
These collections would substantially rebound in the 1480s,
but it also may reflect the more intense efforts by the Castilians to extract
more wealth from the Juderia of Burgos before their expulsion in 1492.
Lastly, one quick note.
A crucial part of this course, Deciphering Secrets,
is discovering new details about the Jewish community in
Burgos during the 14 and 15 centuries.
While we understand the Jewish residents of the city were in distress,
in many ways we did not know the granular details of their lives.
This is why we will be reviewing manuscripts at the end of the course.
We want to add to this initial commentary on the Jewish community of Burgos,
as well as at other cities.
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