Don mosse: Royal surgeon and poet of the Cancionero de Baena

Translated title of the contribution: Don mosse: Royal surgeon and poet of the Cancionero de Baena

Eleazar Gutwirth*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Don Mosse ibn Zarzal’s poem offers –unsu-ally for poems of that period– a precise date: the birth of the infante Juan –later King Juan II of Castile-Leon– [6/3/1405]. It is also rare as an example of Jewish official, courtly texts in the romance after 1391. Baena’s and Isabella’s attention to the courtly scientist/poet Don Mosse and his work, therefore, may inspire contributions to two areas. The first is that of the trend towards examining individual poets in the collective Cancionero de Baena (CB). The second is that of romance (rather than Hebrew) literature and culture emanating from the Hispano-Jewish communities –and more specifically the courtly scientific milieu–of the late middle ages. It is argued that, once analyzed, the poem may be seen as reflecting the biography, period and family context of the poet. His engagement in science and poetry are not erased in the poem. There is no contradiction between the two fields. The distance is bridged by the Ibn Zarzal dynasty’s concern with rhetoric, particularly epideictic.

Translated title of the contributionDon mosse: Royal surgeon and poet of the Cancionero de Baena
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9-31
Number of pages23
JournalMiscelanea de Estudios Arabes y Hebraicos, Seccion Hebreo
Volume68
DOIs
StatePublished - 2019

Keywords

  • Court jews
  • Fifteenth century
  • Ibn zarzal family
  • Jewish-moslem relations
  • Judeo-romance culture
  • Science and poetry

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Don mosse: Royal surgeon and poet of the Cancionero de Baena'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this