The Talmud in Dispute During the High Middle Ages

Alexander Fidora is ICREA Research Professor at the Department of Ancient and Medieval Studies of the Universitat Autÿnoma de Barcelona, where he directed the ERC project ÇThe Latin TalmudÈ. GÜrge K. Hasselhoff is Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Protestant Theology of the Faculty for Human Sciences and Theology at the Technical University Dortmund, Germany. He spent the academic year 2016/17 at the Universitat Autÿnoma de Barcelona as a member of the ERC project ÇThe Latin TalmudÈ. The Christian discovery of the Babylonian Talmud is a significant landmark in the long and complex history of anti-Jewish polemic. While the Talmudic corpus developed in the same period as early Christianity, this post-biblical text was largely unknown to the Christians. Full awareness of the Talmud among Christian authors did not arise until the late 1230s, when the Jewish convert Nicholas Donin presented a Latin translation of Talmudic fragments to Pope Gregory IX. Though the Talmud was subsequently put on trial (1240) and burnt (1241/2) in Paris, the controversy surrounding it continued over the following years, as Pope Innocent IV called for a revision of its condemnation. The textual basis for this revision is the Extractiones de Talmud, that is, a Latin translation of 1.922 Talmudic fragments. The articles in this volume shed new light on this monumental translation and its historical context. They also offer critical editions of related texts, such as DoninÕs anti-Talmudic polemic. Authors of the contributions are: Wout van Bekkum, Piero Capelli, Ulisse Cecini, Enric CortÅs, îscar de la Cruz Palma, Federico Dal Bo, Alexander Fidora, GÜrge K. Hasselhoff, MoisÄs Orfali, Ursula Ragacs and Eulêlia Vernet i Pons.