Archival poetics: Questions of evidence in reconstructions of Judeo-Spanish culture

Because of the late date of most surviving (oral and textual) examples of vernacular literature in Judeo-Spanish communities, any evidence indicating the earlier presence of such literature assumes a particular significance. Archival records, some of which are analysed in this article, can provide such evidence, leading us to challenge received ideas about early and late Judeo-Spanish culture, and to question traditionally used categories such as rare versus popular or latent versus manifest. Archival evidence shows the connection of such early literature to other, lost, elements of Judeo-Spanish culture, such as dance and music. Examples of poetic creativity or taste found in archival records range from nonsense verse, endechas , coplas and verses about Merlin, to specific ballads, consexas and noticiero songs. These examples allow us to examine more closely than hitherto the motifs, formulae and lexicalization characteristic of early Judeo-Spanish literature, and to study and better understand the public for which it was intended. In short, archival recordswhen approached in this wayallow us to see Judeo-Spanish literature within its own cultural frame.