Beginnings of Ladino Literature

Olga Borovaya is Visiting Scholar in the Mediterranean Studies Forum at Stanford University. She is author of Modern Ladino Culture: Press, Belles Lettres, and Theater in the Late Ottoman Empire (IUP).

With detailed notes, bibliography, and an index, this work is a critical addition to the growing body of research on the importance of Ladino literature today.(Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews) [Olga Borovaya's] labor of many years resulted in a superb and insightful book, which approaches the classics of Sephardi literature from a perspective different from the one adopted until now, and thus teaches us to explore new paths. It should be read and savored slowly, because one is sure to encounter there an intriguing fact that will open a gold mine where one will discover new approaches to the study of sixteenth-century Sephardi literature, a virgin field never before plowed in depth. We need many works like this one by Olga Borovaya. - Pilar Romeu (Sefarad) This book is heartily recommended for anyone wishing to learn more not only about one fascinating rabbi, traveller and author, but about the nature and development of a fascinating literary culture, and the world of two dynamic Ottoman cities.(Bulletin of Spanish Studies)

• Acknowledgments Note on Translations, Transcriptions, Titles, and Proper NamesIntroductionPrologue. Jewish Vernacular Culture in Fifteenth-Century Iberia 1. Ladino in the Sixteenth Century: The Emergence of a New Vernacular Literature2. Almosnino's Epistles: A New Genre for a New Audience3. Almosnino's Chronicles: The Ottoman Empire Through the Eyes of Court Jews 4. The First Ladino Travelogue: Almosnino's Treatise on the Extremes of Constantinople 5. Rabbis and Merchants: New Readers, New Educational ProjectsEpilogue. Moses Almosnino, a Renaissance Man?Appendix. The Extremes of ConstantinopleNotesBibliographyIndex