Jews in the Notarial Culture

Jews in the Notarial Culture: Latinate Wills in Mediterranean Spain, 1250-1350 offers an innovative lens into medieval society through the study of Jewish wills crafted within the legal and cultural frameworks of Christian notarial traditions. This groundbreaking work explores how Jewish testators in Aragon and Catalonia navigated the Roman-law-driven notarial systems to create “Latinate Jewish wills.” These documents, written in Latin and influenced by Christian legal norms, provide a rare opportunity to examine the intersections of Jewish and Christian legal, cultural, and social life in a pluricultural Mediterranean society. By analyzing these wills, the book sheds light on familial relationships, property dynamics, and the broader acculturative processes that characterized Jewish-Christian interactions in this pivotal era.

This meticulously researched study enriches the historiography of medieval Spain, building on a growing interest in the complex lives of Catalan Jews. Drawing from a wealth of archival material, it connects the microhistories of individuals and families to larger societal trends. The book also situates Latinate Jewish wills within broader historiographical debates, engaging with themes of cultural assimilation, legal pluralism, and the preservation of Jewish identity. As a vital resource for medievalists, legal historians, and scholars of Jewish studies, Jews in the Notarial Culture opens new avenues for understanding the layered interactions between legal systems, cultural exchange, and community identity in the medieval Mediterranean world.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1996.