Abstract
MS Typ. 479 Houghton Library, Harvard University is a compendium of miscellaneous works in Italian. The subject of the following lines is not this Italian compendium but rather some folios at the end of the codex. They are not in Italian. Although sometimes described as being in Hebrew we can say for certain that the text in these pages is not in Hebrew. It is in Hebrew characters, and may be described as Judeo-Catalan aljamía. The identification of the content reveals that it is concerned with and uses the language of alchemy. It has multiple references to armaments. The article attempts to reconstruct a historical context for Jewish interest in alchemy and armaments in late medieval Spain.
Translated title of the contribution | Alchemy and armaments: On an aljamiado fragment in a houghton ms |
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Original language | English |
Pages (from-to) | 69-88 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | Sefarad |
Volume | 81 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2021 |
Keywords
- Aljamiado texts
- Jews and Alchemy
- Jews and Armaments
- Jews in Medieval Spain