Abstracts

This paper will try to reconstruct some of the ideals of patronage common among the Jews in medieval Spain.

Several if not most of the early qur’anic fragments known are codices, which developed some common features including their large size, which characterizes their ritual public function. What are the stakes of these sacred manuscripts? Who were their scribes and who were their commissioners? How were they originally produced and why did patrons support their activity? These questions and others are at the heart of my topic.

The information available in the Romanesque Bible corpus is uneven. Hence, a particularly explicit colophon acknowledging the exemplar which served as the codex model, in addition to the analysis of the script, confirm that the Bible currently held in the Real Colegiata of San Isidoro, in León, was made at the collegiate scriptorium in ca. 1162. Information regarding other exemplars in the corpus is significantly scarcer. Most often we can only determine the place of origin immediately prior to an exemplar’s present location, and can only venture a date and an origin on the basis of the script, illumination, codicological analysis and internal specificities, along with additional information coming from other objects. It is nonetheless preferable to assume that little is known regarding the genesis of these manuscripts, which in fact is true, and leave the question open, than insist on ascribing them to some atelier, which would be fictional, on the basis of weak evidence since the passage of time and the reproduction of information from secondary sources have turned once coherent suppositions into false certainties.

The Qur’an manuscript OR 13002 produced in 1011 C.E. exhibits some unique features, not customarily seen in other Qur’ans. Each Sura (chapter) in this Qur’an is introduced by a non-quranic introduction that has – in addition to the masoretic information that is customary in some Qur’an manuscripts (like number of verses, where it was revealed etc) – prophetic traditions about the merit of reading that particular chapter. These traditions (merit-of-sura traditions) have come to play an important function in expanding the role of the Qur’an in the pietistic rituals of medieval Islam. The merit-of-sura traditions have a precarious position in the hierarchy of prophetic traditions in medieval discourse. They were unanimously reviled as being forgeries, yet everyone was quoting them. They were central in arguing for the role of the Qur’an as a read text and as such they were indispensible for refashioning of the non-official rituals of medieval Islam. This paper will discus the nature of the prophetic traditions in OR 13002 and their relationship to the collections of hadith that contain such traditions (fadā’il al-qur’ān works). Some questions have to be settled: How unique is this copy? Has the study of Qur’an manuscripts as works of art prevented us from assessing the more mundane copies (since most of the reproductions of Qur’an manuscript in secondary literature is of “high” copies which does not exhibit tolerance for non-quranic material?) Are most of the “ordinary” copies of the Qur’an much more connected to their ritual use as read copies? And can one speak of Qur’an copies that have a different patronage than the imperial copies? The pietistic Qur’ans?

Joshua ben Abraham ibn Gaon of Soria copied and illuminated some of the most luxurious and precious Hebrew bibles produced in the Iberian Peninsula. He produced his work at the beginning of the 14th century in the city of Tudela, Navarre. Two bibles, now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Ms héb 20 & 21), copied in under two years, are the work of his atelier. I have recently studied their colophons, introductory poems, subscriptions and annotations, which offer new and valuable information regarding their patronage, use and circulation, and reveal important differences with respect to the historical circumstances in which the manuscripts were produced. This paper will focus on these differences, and will address issues such as the role of both the scribe and the patron in the production of manuscripts, the use of the book as reflected in its historical annotations and marginal texts, and the transmission and circulation of books in the 14th century.

This paper examines female patronage and reading of religious books, specifically theological and devotional works written for women, in the context of the royal courts of the Iberian Peninsula from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. It will focus specifically on the works of Francesc Eiximenis (1340?–1409?), the Franciscan theologian, writer, moralist and political theorist, who was very close to the royal house of Aragon, and to Queen Maria de Luna (r.1396–1406) in particular. Eximenis was patronized enthusiastically by Maria, and consequently his writings were translated and adapted under Isabel the Catholic (r. 1474–1504) of Castile, and subsequently her granddaughter, Catherine of Habsburg (1507–1578), the Queen of Portugal. Through this example, the paper explores the effects of patronage on the production and circulation of moralizing texts, including the impact that they had on the authors, patronesses and readers who were associated with them.

This paper will also consider how the presence of Scholastic philosophers and of an eclectic group of artists and intellectuals at the court may have informed the exegetical and philosophical thought of Jewish scholars.