Hebrew 14th Century Manuscripts Reused As Bindingin Gerona

The study is devoted to a commentary to Tractate Berakhot written by a student of Rashba in the first decade of the 14th century, fragments of which were extracted from the bindings of a book housed in the archives of Girona, in the Catalonian province of Spain. The first chapter surveys the issue of manuscripts retrieved from bindings of books in Girona. During the middle ages, numerous European Hebrew manuscript fragments were reused as material for binding other books, commonly referred to as “The European Geniza.” In Girona, this process began by 1330 and continued until the period of the Spanish expulsion in 1492. The vast majority of these manuscripts were bound during the 14th century. About half of the fragments are Latin (including Catalan), and the other half are Hebrew. Of these, about half consist of registers and contracts and the other half is Rabbinic literature. In Girona, we have identified fragments of manuscripts of Talmudic commentaries composed by the following sages: Rashi, Tosafot, R. Zeraḥya HaLevy, Ramban, R. Aaron HaLevy, Rashba, and Ran. We also discovered other halachic works, sermons, and more. No examples of Mishnah, Tosefta, and Talmud Yerushalmi were found.
Books in Girona archives contain up to tens of fragments in each binding, representing various different manuscripts. We discovered literary relationships between the works represented within several particular bindings. The Historical Archive of Girona is one of the three archives in Girona in which Hebrew manuscripts have been discovered. The archive houses notary books. Each book is clearly dated and thus indicates when the manuscripts were included in the binding, a terminus ad quem for the composition of the manuscripts themselves, which generally precedes this date considerably.
We found fragments of eight manuscripts related to Tractate Berakhot in the three Girona archives, in ten different bindings. These are described and all other Hebrew manuscripts found in these bindings are identified.
Scholars dispute whether these Hebrew fragments were bound by Jews or by gentiles. Several distinct pieces of evidence support the theory that Jews bound the fragments: 1) contemporary sources indicate that bookbinding was a Jewish occupation in Catalonia; 2) the practice of Jewish printers in Salonika in the 16th century discussed in responsa of R. Shmuel di Modena and R. Moshe Ḥaviv; 3) the custom of Yemenite Jewry; and 4) documented sales of worn-out manuscripts for bindings in Medieval Christian Europe.
In the second chapter, the manuscripts which were extracted from volume 2, 62 of the Arxiu Historic in Girona are described. The binding contains many bifolios of a manuscript of Rashba’s Torat HaBayit HaQatzar. Also found are fragments of a letter from Jews of Girona, mentioned by name, to the King of Aragon, composed in Latin, subsequently used as scrap paper for practicing gothic Latin and cursive Spanish Hebrew scripts. The binding contains three bifolios of a commentary to the sixth chapter of Tractate Berakhot, which is the focus of our study.
The third chapter is dedicated to an examination of the language of the commentary to Tractate Berakhot. The Hebrew is typical of the Talmudic works of Catalonian sages of the 13th and 14th centuries. Due to the nature of the Talmudic chapter, twenty-one vernacular phrases in the commentary describe names of plants, animals, and prepared foods which were consumed or smelled. These terms are mostly in the Catalan language, such as safumeig, but also include Arabic, such as ḥarirah.
The fourth chapter examines which books were utilized by the commentator during the composition of his commentary, his “library.” The Talmud Yerushalmi is cited five times but it appears that these are from secondary sources. No particular relationship between the text of the Babylonian Talmud which is cited within the commentary and any other individual textual witness to Tractate Berakhot was discovered, including a Girona fragment on parchment still housed in the quire of a notary book. The commentator made notably frequent use of Halakhot Gedolot. The text of bhis citations often does not match known textual variants, nor does the published text of a fragment of of Halakhot Gedolot (Pesahim) extracted from another Girona binding. Some of these citations match versions cited by Spanish and Catalonian sages and those found in a fragment from the Cairo geniza. The commentator often cites Halakhot Gedolot as a primary source where the work was not cited by his other sources.
Conclusive evidence is demonstrated that the version of Tosafot consulted by the commentator was that of R. Judah ben Isaac Messer Leon, also employed by R. Jonah of Girona, as opposed to the later Tosafot of R. Peretz, which had not yet become standard. It appears that Rashba utilized the older Tosafot of R. Judah as well. On one occasion, the commentator cites fragmented novella to Tractate Berakhot attributed to Ramban. Notably, he does not attribute these to Ramban. The commentator’s primary reliance on the commentary of a student of R. Jonah of Girona is uniquely distinguished by his clear and consistent implicit discernment between the opinions of R. Jonah, always cited as having been written in his name, and those of the student, freely reworked without attribution.
The fifth chapter concerns the broader goals of the commentator in producing his composition. The commentary of R. Aaron HaLevy of Girona, a close disciple of Ramban, both of whom received traditions from Provencal Sages, does not represent his own approach as a disciple of Rashba, R. Aaron’s ardent rival. The commentator was influenced more prominently by the Northern French Tosafists via the school of Rashba’s main teacher, R. Jonah of Girona, who studied in Évreux. The novellae of Rashba do not suit his pedagogical goals or perhaps were not yet formally published or fully known to him. The commentaries of R. Aaron HaLevy and Rashba were drawn from sparingly, with primary reliance on the more accessible and popular commentary of the student of R. Jonah.
The work resembles commentaries to Alfasi: it is clear and simple, defining words and clarifying concepts; the gloss covers the Talmudic text in its entirety (as opposed to just selected passages); two or three authoritative legal interpretations and opinions are often presented; and novel interpretations and convoluted discussions are generally avoided. A legal conclusion of each topic is emphasized, often under the heading: din, a notable form not found in other contemporaneous Talmudic commentaries. The commentator follows the Northern French Tosafists, whose discussions were always based on the Babylonian Talmud rather than Alfasi, the standard base text for the Sages of Provence.
The work was classified as a commentary to the Talmud, not an independent legal composition. Nevertheless, the majority of the commentary may be studied on its own, without reliance on a complete version of the Talmud. It can be utilized without the commentary of Rashi or as an alternative to it. R. Aaron HaLevy of Girona’s elusive Nezer HaQodesh, probably represented in his published commentary to Tractate Sukkah, seems to have been a similar venture, and the commentary of the student of Rashba may have been a competitor to it. The commentator blazes his path by eclectically selecting from among existing interpretations. Some literary aspects are shared with R. Menaḥem Meiri’s contemporary Beit HaBeḥira.
Other students of Rashba composed abridged halakhic works which include the Laws of Blessings and present similar traditions and opinions, often for the layman. The commentary generally surpasses these regarding fealty to sources and quality of grammar. It is proposed that the composition was conceived as a Talmudic guide to students of the commentator, not solely for his own personal review.
The sixth chapter consists of a critical edition of the surviving text of the commentary. We added sources with brief notes and reconstructed almost all of the text missing due to maculation or complete disintegration of the manuscript paper.
The identity of the commentator as a student of Rashba was clarified in an appendix focused on the topic of roses: which blessings are recited upon their fragrance and whether the biblical prohibition of orla applies to them. According to Rashba one recites: “Blessed… who gave a pleasant fragrance to fruit” upon both roses and rosewater. Regarding the obligation of orla for roses, Rashba replied stringently in a responsum. These unique halakhic opinions of Rashba are cited within the commentary (43b) as belonging to “Our teacher, may the merciful one protect him.” Thus, the commentator presented himself as a student of Rashba writing during his master’s lifetime.
A follow-up responsum on the topic of orla was prompted by the inquirer, R. Isaac ben Solomon, a little-known but highly-regarded student/colleague with whom Rashba maintained extensive correspondence in the form of intensive dialectical study. As a result of R. Isaac’s prodding, Rashba retracted his stringent opinion somewhat and, in accordance with the opinion of Ra’avad, exempted roses from the obligation in the diaspora. R. Menaḥem Meiri’s presentation of Rashba’s opinion follows this understanding. However, other legal authorities cited solely Rashba’s stringent earlier opinion. Rashba’s student probably presents his teacher’s final opinion on the matter, maintaining stringency and suggesting that Rashba only compromised his stance under duress for those requiring release from the obligation of orla for reasons of financial necessity, tsarkhey ha-brioth.

Abstract
Historical Archive of Girona holds an important collection of over a thousand Hebrew manuscript fragments emanating from the important medieval Jewish community of Girona (Catalonia). The presence of Jews has long been documented in this city: individuals explicitly described as iudei or hebrei are mentioned in notarial sources as early as the 10th and 11th centuries. The Jewish community produced important figures in thought and culture, including philosophers, scientists and poets, as Nahmanides (Ramban). When the mystical and Kabbalistic movement developed in the 13th and 14th century, Girona became its most important center in Western Europe.
Most of these documents are still hidden in the bindings of numerous notarial registers. These are fragments in Hebrew script (in Hebrew, Aramaic and Catalan languages) which, during the Middle Ages, were reused to create hardcovers for the medieval notarial books. These manuscripts are one of the most important collections of Hebrew medieval documents in Europe of considerable importance both for the various fields of Jewish literature and for the history of the Jewish community in Catalonia.
The aim of this thesis has been to present the palaeographic edition and the translation of these Hebrew manuscript fragments of the Historical Archives of Girona with Catalan written in Hebrew characters (aljamia) (14th-15th centuries). Textual and linguistic analyses have provided for this entire corpus, and, through this examination, we have assessed the use of the Catalan and Hebrew language among this medieval Jewish community.
All this collection contains a diverse typology of documents of which we have offered an overview. We found many pages from moneylender registers concerning money lent predominantly to merchants from Girona and their surroundings and also related to taxation. Therefore, we also focus on the study and contextualization of such economic manuscripts.
The introductory part provides an exhaustive overview of all literature relating to the subject, which allows us to capture the important progress that has led to the present research in many aspects of Medieval Catalan Judaism.  In this part, the study presents new arguments to put into question the existence of a judeocatalan.
The first chapter outlined the forms, causes and ways of reusing materials in this collection from the first decades of the fourteenth century, a date that is about before 250 years the spread of the phenomenon in Italy and other European countries. Then, the work analyses typologies of the texts, the stylistic features and scripts, historical and linguistic data, and the process of re-employment of these manuscripts in that, some Jewish bookbinders participated.  It is carried out a special study of the economic texts.
The second chapter is devoted to examining the largest group of documentation regarding on the lending activity of the Jewish community of Girona that Christian authorities were able to take advantage of, and that was the development of medieval society. Very interesting are also the documents that tell us about taxation because that shows the communal structures very regulated with books of internal control. This important material gives us a series of data regarding the everyday life of the aljama of Girona and shows that the credit activity was intense, complex and regulated.
The third chapter is focused on the lexical and onomastic analysis of this documentation. There are a lot of Catalan words relating to all semantic fields in the Hebrew Catalan documents. The transcription system is analysed and compared with other Catalan words found the found in the texts of other places.
Therefore, these sources shed new light on the economic system of that period, the relationships between Jewish money lenders and those receiving loans, and the commercial movements and migrations of the Jewish and Christian populations from the Girona area. The overall review of this documentation has allowed us important information regarding the history and configuration of the internal workings of the Jewish community, data concerning the booklore circulating among the Jews in that period, other precious information for the study of Catalan linguistics, and new data for more accurate palaeographic study of the script used in this Catalan region. 
The second section presents the palaeographic edition, translation and description of around a hundred of Hebrew manuscripts of diverse typology, grouped into twenty blocks. Finally, the third section contains indices of more than two hundred of Catalan words written in Hebrew, a thousand of Christian and Jewish names, place names, and Hebrew abbreviations particular of these manuscripts. The appendices present a detailed list of Catalan archives that keep Hebrew documents from medieval book bindings.



Resum
Aquesta tesi proposa l’edició paleogràfica i la traducció dels fragments de manuscrits hebreus dels segles XIV i XV, amb aljamies catalanes, que es van descobrir en els lloms dels protocols notarials custodiats a l’Arxiu Històric de Girona. Es porta a terme l’estudi textual i l’anàlisi lingüística del corpus català escrit en lletres hebrees i, a través d’aquest examen, valorem l’ús de la llengua entre els jueus de la comunitat.
La col•lecció conté tota mena d’escrits de diversa tipologia dels quals en presentem una visió panoràmica. Una gran part d’aquesta documentació està relacionada amb el món del préstec i la fiscalitat medieval de la comunitat jueva gironina, especialment vinculada al món del crèdit rural de la rodalia de Girona. Així doncs, també fem especial atenció a l’estudi i contextualització d’aquesta mena de manuscrits econòmics.