Navarrese Hebrew Documents: Notes on their Historical and Philological Significance

Abstract

The medieval documentation written in Hebrew and aljamía preserved in Navarrese archives is an essential source of information both for history and linguistics. Navarra, among the old Hispanic kingdoms, is one of the territories that conserves more medieval documents of this type. Therefore, what motivates this study, in the first instance, is to present the quantity and manifest quality of these sources. These manuscripts allow, on the one hand, to complete and to highlight the information about the Navarrese Jewish community obtained from Christian sources; with which history of Navarrese Jewry is largely built. On the other hand, they interest philologically as direct witnesses of the use of Hebrew, and vernacular languages, like Basque, in a given period of history and in a particular historical context.

Keywords

• judíos
• navarra
• edad media
• lengua hebrea
• euskera