Hebrew Bible in Fifteenth-Century Spain

Jonathan Decter, Ph.D. (2002) in Medieval Jewish Studies, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, is Associate Professor and Edmond J. Safra Professor of Sephardic Studies at Brandeis University. He is author of Iberian Jewish Literature: Between al-Andalus and Christian Europe (Indiana UP, 2007), which won the Salo W. Baron Prize for best first book in Jewish Studies.Arturo Prats, Ph.D. (2004) in Semitic Philology, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, is assistant professor at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He has published on Hebrew literature of the fifteenth century focussing on the work of the poet Shelomoh Bonafed including La disputa de Selomohh ben Reuben Bonafed con la aljama de Zaragoza (Granada 2010)

• Introduction Jonathan P. Decter and Arturo PratsI. Literature and ArtWeeping Over Rachel´s Tomb: Literary Reelaborations of a Midrashic Motif inMedieval and Early Modern Spain Luis M. Girón NegrónThe First Murder: Picturing Polemic c. 1391 Tom NicksonSephardic Illuminated Bibles: Jewish Patrons and Fifteenth-Century Christian Ateliers Andreina ContessaII. Jewish Exegesis Abarbanel’s Exegetical Subversion of Maimonides’ ‘Aqedah: Transforming a Knight of Intellectual Virtue into a Knight of Existential Faith James Diamond‘From My Flesh I Envision God’: Shem Tov Ibn Shaprut´s Exegesis of Job 19:25-27 Libby Garshowitz Messianic Interpretation of the Song of Songs in Late-Medieval Iberia Maud KozodoyIII. Uses of Christian ExegesisPro-Converso Apologetics and Biblical Exegesis Claude B. StuczynskiA Father´s Bequest: Augustinian Typology and Personal Testimony in the Conversion Narrative of Solomon Halevi / Pablo de Santa María Ryan SzpiechIV. Liturgy and TranslationThe Liturgy of Portuguese Conversos Asher SalahThe Relationship between Ladino Liturgical Texts and Spanish Bibles Ora (Rodrigue) SchwarzwaldTranslation and the Invention of Renaissance Jewish Culture: The Case of Judah Messer Leon and Judah Abravanel Aaron W. Hughes