HISPANIA JUDAICA BULLETIN
Articles, Reviews, Bibliography and Manuscripts on Sefarad
Editors: Yom Tov Assis and Raquel Ibáñez-Sperber
No 5 5767/2007
The Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Dossier
Research Project
Diffusion of Sicilian Exiles and their Culture as
Reflected in Hebrew Colophons
Nadia Zeldes
Colophons are the “personal voice” of the copyist and as such they offer glimpses
of individual histories that complement the information provided by other,
more “objective” sources. In fact, Hebrew colophons offer considerably more
information on their authors than their parallels in Latin medieval manuscripts.
Whereas most medieval codices were copied in monastic scriptoria (later also
by university stationers), and circulated mainly among clerics and aristocrats, in
Jewish society literacy was widespread and the books were copied and used by
private persons. Malachi Beit Arié distinguished between copyists, persons who
copied books for their own use, and scribes who worked for a fee.1 However,
this is not always a clear cut distinction as the same person could at times copy
books for his own use and at times produce copies for others. Scribes and copyists
usually attempted to produce as faithful a copy as possible, only rarely did they
consciously change anything or add remarks of their own, except for colophons,
the personal inscriptions written at the end of a manuscript, a book, or part of
a book. Colophons usually provide the name of the copyist, title of the work,
the date of completion of the copying, and the place where it was copied. It was
also customary to include certain formulas or biblical quotations in the colophon.
However, sometimes the copyist also referred to historical events or mentioned
his personal circumstances. Not all these details are included in every colophon,
but even so, colophons can offer invaluable historical information. Another matter,
before the era of printing producing a book was a lengthy laborious process and
every copy made is proof of the importance accorded to the book, the willingness
1
In Christian Europe until the late medieval period copies were only rarely produced for
private persons, though with the spread of literacy in the Renaissance also lay ateliers
produced copies: R. Rouse, ‘Manuscripts, Production of’, Dictionary of the Middle
Ages, 8 (1987), pp. 100–105; Hebrew books: Malachi Beit-Arié, ‘Transmission of
Texts by Scribes and Copyists: Unconscious and Critical Interferences’, Bulletin
of John Rylands University Library of Manchester 75,3 (1993), pp. 33–51; Idem,
‘Publication and Reproduction of Literary Texts in Jewish Medieval Civilization:
Jewish Scribality and Its Impact on the Texts Transmitted’, Transmitting Jewish
Traditions: Orality, Textuality and Cultural Diffusion, eds. Yaakov Elman and Israel
Gershoni, New Haven and London 2000, pp. 225–247.
[Hispania Judaica *5
5767/2007]
Nadia Zeldes
of someone to spend time copying it, or alternatively, to pay a competent scribe to
produce a copy.
This article proposes to trace by means of colophons and ownership notes
the diffusion of Sicilian exiles after the expulsion, and at the same time, attempt
to characterize their cultural world. As the present discussion is concerned with
the diffusion of books and copyists after the expulsion from Sicily, works and
translations of the thirteenth or the fourteenth century by Sicilian, Iberian or
Provençal Jews living in Sicily, are not included.2 On the other hand, manuscript
copies produced in Sicily during the fifteenth century are nevertheless relevant
because some copyists continued their work outside of Sicily, and tracing their
peregrinations provides crucial information on the spread of Sicilian emigrants in
the Mediterranean basin.
Before coming to the main argument I would like to mention several studies
that served as the basis for my paper. A list of seventeen manuscripts copied in
Sicily (or copied by Sicilians) was published in 1993 by Giuliano Tamani, to
which Malachi Beit Arié added another thirteen. Further studies on this topic
were published in recent years by Cesare Colafemmina and Mauro Zonta.3 These
publications complement an older study on Sicilian book culture conducted
more than thirty years ago by Henri Bresc that was based on book lists made by
Christian notaries in the Latin language, and included twenty-eight inventories
belonging to Sicilian Jews. Despite the great contribution of this work to the
Jews’ cultural world, Hebrew manuscripts offer a more immediate perception of
Jewish libraries, and perhaps a better understanding of the works in question, since
2
3
For the thirteenth century see: C. Sirat, ‘Les traducteurs juifs à la cour des rois de
Sicile e de Naples’, G. Contamine ed., Traduction et traducteurs au Moyen Âge, Paris
1989, pp. 169–191; S. Arieti, ‘Mosè da Palermo e le traduzioni dei trattati di mascalcia
di Ippocrate indiano’, N. Bucaria ed., Gli ebrei in Sicilia dal tardoantico al medioevo,
Palermo 1998, pp. 55–63; M. Idel, ‘The Ecstatic Kabbalah of Abraham Abulafia in
Sicily’, Italia Judaica V (1995), pp. 330–340; a conclusive list of translations and
philosophical works, most from the thirteenth century, appears in the article of Mauro
Zonta, ‘La filosofia ebraico medievale in Sicilia’, Ebrei e Sicilia eds. N. Bucaria, M.
Luzzati, A. Tarantino, Palermo 2002, pp. 163–168 and the bibliography cited there.
G. Tamani, ‘Manoscritti ebraici copiati in Sicilia nei secoli XIV-XV’, Henoch XV
(1993), pp. 107–112; M. Beit-Arié, ‘Additamenta to G. Tamani’s Article on Hebrew
Manuscripts copied in Sicily’, Henoch XV (1993), pp. 359–361. Another work that
discusses Sicilian colophons, albeit only those written before the expulsion, is the
doctoral thesis of Michael Rigler, The Colophon in Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts
as an Historical Source, Ph.D. Thesis, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 1995, pp.
93–94 (Hebrew). See also: C. Colafemmina, ‘Un copista ebreo a Demenna nel 1472’,
Gli ebrei in Sicilia, Studi in onore di Monsignor Benedetto Rocco, Palermo 1998, pp.
89–98 and Idem, ‘Oltre lo stretto’, Ebrei e Sicilia, eds. N. Bucaria, M. Luzzati, A.
Tarantino, Palermo 2002, pp. 219–222.
[304]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
Latin transcriptions of Hebrew and Arabic titles are often difficult to identify with
certainty.4 However, none of the above-mentioned publications gives the full text
of the Hebrew colophons or notes of ownership, and in any case they omit several
manuscripts that were copied outside of Sicily after the expulsion. Moreover, so
far, too little importance had been accorded to the preponderance of certain works
among Sicilian Jews. It should be pointed out that the titles of books copied shed
light on the cultural world of the copyist, the person paying the scribe to copy a
specific work, and finally, that of the owner (sometimes all three are one and the
same, at other times, each is a separate individual).
Starting from a different point of view is the thesis of Giuseppe Palermo on
the passage of Sicilian Jews to the eastern Mediterranean. Palermo discussed
a number of colophons in order to trace the geographical dispersal of Sicilian
exiles after the expulsion, but even his work does not include a publication of
the full Hebrew texts.5 Moreover, nowadays research is greatly facilitated by
the codicological data-base of the Hebrew Paleography Project. Thus I was able
to include a previously unknown colophon, number V, written by Ḥayyim ben
Shabbetay Yonah.6
The earliest colophon to be discussed was written in 1438 in Hebron by Siman Tov
ben Rabbi David Barceloni of Syracuse on a copy of David Kimhi’s Mikhlol (a
philological work on Hebrew grammar).7 The copyist began his work in Jerusalem
and finished it in Hebron. I have decided to include this colophon despite its early
date mainly because of the note added in a different hand by a later owner, Moshe
Shim’on Asqilyia.
4
5
6
7
H. Bresc, Livre et societé en Sicile (1299–1499), Palermo 1971.
Giuseppe Palermo, The Passage of Sicilian Jews to the Eastern Mediterranean after
the Expulsion, M.A. Thesis, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem 1993 (Hebrew). For an
overview of the spread of the Sicilian diaspora based mainly on rabbinic responsa see:
S. Schwartzfuchs, ‘The Sicilian Jewish Communities in the Ottoman Empire’, Italia
Judaica V, Atti del V convegno internazionale Palermo, 15–19 giugno 1992 (Roma
1995), pp. 397–411.
Here I would like to thank Dr Edna Engel of the Hebrew Paleographical Project for
her help in locating colophons of Sicilian copyists, and Dr Abraham David of the
Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts for being available for consultation and
discussion of the colophons whenever I was in doubt of my reading. I thank also Dena
Ordan for her help in the translation of the Hebrew colophons.
David Kimhi’s philological treatise was written in two sections: the grammatical
portion, Ḥeleq ha-Diqduq known as the Mikhlol and the lexicon Ḥeleq ha-Inyan also
known as Sefer ha-Shorashim, see ‘Kimhi’, David, Frank Talmage, Encyclopedia
Judaica, Jerusalem 1971, vol.10, pp. 1002–1003.
[305]
Nadia Zeldes
I. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Héb. 1237 (F 15615, 23099)8
Title of work copied: ‫מכלול‬
‫ כתבתי `זה‬:‫אני סימן טוב ב"ר דוד זצ"ל תנצב"ה ברצלוני מן עיר סרקוסת אצקלייא‬
'‫המכלל יופי בירושלים וסיימתי אותו בחברון במקום האבות ע"ה ]עיר הקדש[ לר‬
‫ זצ"ל נבתוי"א ]נפשו בטוב תלין וזרעו‬9[ ] [‫שמואל י"ל ]ייבדל לחיים[ ב"ר ]בן רבי‬
‫כז( בחדש‬:‫[ ושביה בצדקה )יש' א‬9915] '‫ בשנת הצ'ד'ק'ה‬:[(31:‫יירש ארץ )תה' כה‬
‫כסליו באחד ועשרים בחדש בו תם ונשלם בריך רחמנא דסייען כן אמן וכן יהי רצון‬
‫שיזכהו להגות בו יומם ולילה דכתיב והגית בו יומם ולליה >!< )לו( ויתן לו בנים זכרים‬
‫וילמדו בו דכתיב לא ימושו מפיך ומפי זרעך ומפי זרע זרעך אמר ה' מעתה ועד עולם‬
‫ויקיים בו ולא יהיה בך עקר ועקרה ויזכה לבני בנים דכתי' וראה בנים לבניך שלום על‬
<!> ‫ישראל אמן נצח סלה ברוך אתה בבואך ברוך אתה בצתך‬
‫זה של משה שימעון אסקלייא‬
Ownership note (page 1 recto):
Translation:
Title of work copied: Mikhlol
I, Siman Tov, son of R. David Barceloni of blessed memory, may his
soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life, from the city of
Syracuse, Sicily, began to copy this Mikhlol Yofi in Jerusalem and
completed it in the city of the patriarchs, the holy city of Hebron, for R.
Shemuel, may he be set apart for life, son of R. [ ] of blessed memory,
may his soul abide in prosperity and may his seed inherit the land [Ps.
25:13]. Finished in the year of “justice” [5199 = 1438], “her repentant
ones by justice” [Isa. 1:27], in the month of Kislev, on the twenty-first
of the month. Blessed be the merciful one who assisted me in this
task. Amen. And may it be His will that he [R. Shemuel] be favored
to peruse it day and night, as it is written: “Recite it day and night”
[Josh. 1:8] May he be favored with male children who will study it, as
Scripture states: “[the words] which I have placed in your mouth, shall
not be absent from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your children,
nor from the mouth of your children’s children — said the Lord
— from now on for all time” [Isa. 59:21]. And may what is written
be fulfilled: “There shall be not be among you (any) barren-male or
barren-female” [Deut. 7:14]. May he merit to see grandchildren, as
Scripture says, “And live to see your children’s children. May all be
8
9
Published: Manuscrits médievaux en caractères hébraïques, eds. C. Sirat and M. BeitArieh, Paris, Jerusalem 1972, vol. 1, 96.
The lacuna is in the original text.
[306]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
well with Israel!” [Ps. 128:6]. Amen, Nezah ̣, Selah. “Blessed shall you
be in your comings and blessed shall you be in your goings” [Deut.
28:5].
Ownership note: This is the property of Moshe Shim’on Asqiliya
An analysis of the colophon and the ownership note at the beginning of the
manuscript unfolds a little known page of the history of Sicilian Jewry. The
copyist’s surname, Barceloni, indicates that he (or his family) emigrated from
Barcelona to Sicily and settled in Syracuse. It is likely that this migration was
a result of the persecutions endured by the Jews of Barcelona during the riots of
1391 which destroyed the community. Although there is no direct evidence for the
migration of Jews of Barcelona to Sicily, there is a document that mentions the
arrival of refugees from the Iberian Peninsula in Palermo shortly after that. A letter
of King Martin I of Sicily from 1393, issued at the request of the Palermo Jewish
community, refers to the presence of foreign Jews that came to Palermo from other
kingdoms and were suspected of being Christians. It stands to reason that these
suspect Jews converted during the riots of 1391 and later came to Sicily where
they were able to resume a Jewish identity.10 Moreover, throughout the fifteenth
century whole families migrated from Aragonese territories to Sicily, and Syracuse
seems to have been a destination of choice.11 At the time of the expulsion from
Sicily, Syracuse had a large Jewish population of approximately 5,000 souls,12 and
although we do not know much about the cultural life of the Jewish community of
Syracuse, apparently there was a school for copyists in that city, as several Sicilian
manuscripts were in fact copied by Jews of Syracuse.13 Thus, Siman Tov ben David
Barceloni who hailed from Syracuse had probably been schooled there before
settling in the Holy Land. It is possible that already at the beginning of the fifteenth
century there had been a group of Sicilian Jews living in Jerusalem. In 1416 a
Jew of Malta asked permission to marry a second wife claiming that his other
wife was living in Jerusalem, perhaps indicating the presence of Sicilian families
there. Siman Tov ben David Barceloni probably arrived in Jerusalem around that
time, and in any case, no later than 1428. After that, Jews were forbidden the
10 ASP R. Cancelleria reg. 19 c 42r-v: G. & B. Lagumina, Codice diplomatico dei giudei
di Sicilia, Palermo 19922, I, no. XCVII, p. 142; Simonsohn, The Jews in Sicily, Leiden
2001, vol. III, no. 1372, pp. 1307–1308.
11 J. Hinojosa Montalvo, The Jews of the Kingdom of Valencia, Hispania Judaica Series,
Jerusalem 1993, p. 216.
12 Lagumina, Codice, vol. III, p. 47; H. Bresc, Arabes de langue, juifs de religion:
L’evolution du judaïsme sicilien dans l’environment latin, XIIe-XVe siècles, Paris
2001, p. 143.
13 Tamani, ‘Manoscritti ebraici’, pp. 107–112; Beit-Arié, ‘Additamenta’, pp. 359–361.
[307]
Nadia Zeldes
passage to Palestine, following the well-known dispute between the local Jews
and the Franciscans concerning the Coenaculum, the site of the Last Supper, on
Mount Zion. The Franciscans involved their brethren in Europe and secured the
intervention of the Holy See and of the Republic of Venice to weaken the Jews’
position in the Holy Land. In 1428 Pope Martin V issued a prohibition on Jewish
travel to the Holy Land, and Venice responded with an even harsher decree that
prohibited all Jewish travel by sea.14 For several decades Jewish travel by sea
to the Levant became very difficult and it is unlikely that Siman Tov ben David
Barceloni could have crossed the Mediterranean shortly after the prohibition. In
time the restrictions were lifted, and in 1480 a Jewish woman of Syracuse could
openly declare her intention to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.15 It is therefore
reasonable to assume that by the late fifteenth century there were Sicilian Jews
living in Jerusalem, Hebron or other places in Palestine, and the manuscript copied
by Siman Tov ben David Barceloni circulated among them.
After the expulsion, an anonymous Hebrew source mentions a group of
Sicilian Jews who in 1495 organized a caravan in order to reach Jerusalem,16 and
in the second half of the sixteenth century there already was an established Sicilian
community in Safed.17 This brings us to the possibility that Moshe Shim’on
Asqilyia, one of the owners of our copy, came into possession of the manuscript
either in the late fifteenth century when travel to Palestine again became possible,
or after the expulsion. It is worthy of note that the owner identified himself as
a Sicilian and used the Arabic form “Asqilyia” (‫)אסקלייה‬, rather than the form
commonly found in other Hebrew sources of the late fifteenth or the sixteenth
century, i.e. ‫ סיסיליאני‬,‫ ציציליאני‬and variations on these scripts.18 The adherence
14
15
16
17
18
J. Prawer, ‘The Friars of Mount Zion and the Jews of Jerusalem in the Fifteenth
Century’, Bulletin of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society 14 (1948), pp. 15–24
(Hebrew); D. Jacoby, ‘The Franciscans, the Jews and the Problem of Mount Zion
in the Fifteenth Century: A Revision’, Catedra 39 (1986), pp. 51–70 (Hebrew);
S. Simonsohn, ‘Divieto di trasportare ebrei in Palestina’, Atti del Congresso
Internazionale Italia Judaica 2, Rome 1986, pp. 39–53.
V. Mulè, ‘Argenta Judea siracusana pellegrina a Gerusalemme’, Archivio Storico
Siracusano, Ser. III, XIII (1999), pp. 149–160.
Letter of an anonymous disciple of R. Obadiah of Bertinoro: A. Ya’ari, Iggerot
Eretz Israel, Tel Aviv 1943, p. 143; republished by A. David, Reflections on Jewish
Jerusalem: An anthology of Hebrew Letters from the Mamluk Age, Tel Aviv 2003,
p. 144 (Hebrew). Cf. S. Schwarzfuchs, ‘The Sicilian Communities in the Ottoman
Empire’, Italia Judaica V (1992), p. 398.
J. Hacker, ‘Greeks Gathering in Safed in the Sixteenth Century’, Shalem 7 (2002), pp.
133–150 (Hebrew); Schwarzfuchs, Ibidem, p. 411.
Variations on the term “Sicilians” in Hebrew script in contemporary works: ‫ציציליאני‬
in the description of the anonymous disciple, David, Reflections, p. 144; ‫סיסלייאני‬, ‫סי־‬
‫ סילייני‬in the Responsa of David ben Hayim Ha-Cohen, Constantinople 1537, Bayt 13,
[308]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
to the Arabic form may indicate that the owner wrote this note, either sometime
before the expulsion, or not long afterwards, at a time when Sicilian Jews still kept
their linguistic particularities.
Now to the expulsion and its aftermath. Most Jews leaving the Iberian Peninsula
in 1492 carried with them very little, and those leaving the kingdom of Sicily,
were allowed to take even less. It is generally accepted that the exiles leaving the
Spanish kingdoms took with them books and manuscripts, but the actual process
is rarely discussed and the fate of the books is not as well studied as that of other
types of Jewish property.19 The question of books figures more prominently in the
terms of return. A converted physician, Yishaq Abucar, who returned to Castile
after 1492, asked for permission to bring his books, and this was granted in a letter
dated the 9th January 1493. He was allowed to bring back books in Hebrew and
Arabic, but not books of the Mosaic Law, exegesis or glosses. The same conditions
applied to other Jews who converted and returned around that time.20 However, it is
important to point out that also the permission to export books was not self evident
and that after the publication of the edict of expulsion there already were attempts
to prohibit certain books, the Talmud in particular. Therefore our discussion must
begin with the terms of the expulsion as regards the fate of Hebrew books: their
sequestration by the authorities, permission to export them, their carriers and their
destinations. An excellent source of information regarding the diffusion of books
and the cultural world of the exiles are Hebrew colophons, which so far have been
rarely studied in this context.
The best preserved records concerning the disposal of private property
and in particular, moveable goods, come from the Aragonese kingdoms where
the process of expulsion included sequestration of all Jewish property and the
making of detailed lists. Yitzhaq Baer remarked that whereas in Castile these
p, 101v; ‫ חכם אחד ציציליינו‬in Sefer Benyamin Ze’ev, Venice 1529, ed. M. Benayahu,
Jerusalem 1989, no. 107, p. 179r.
19 On the disposal of property after the publication of the edict of expulsion see: H.
Beinart, The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, Jerusalem 1994 (Hebrew version),
pp. 57–311 (English translation: H. Beinart, The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain,
Oxford-Portland 2002, pp. 55–328); for the Aragonese territories see: R. Conde y
Delgado de Molina, La expulsión de los judíos de la Corona de Aragón, Saragossa
1991. For the terms of the expulsion from Sicily see Lagumina, Codice, vol. III; see
also my article: N. Zeldes, ‘The Extraordinary Career of Ferrando de Aragona: A
Sicilian Convert in the Service of Fernando the Catholic’, Hispania Judaica Bulletin 3
(2001), pp. 97–125
20 “que no fuessen libros de la Ley mosaica ni de glosas y comentas sobre ella ni que en
cosa alguna toquen a la Ley mosaica e que pueden estudiar en ellos sin pena alguna”,
L. Suárez Fernández, La expulsión de los judíos de España, Madrid 1991, no. 242, pp.
504–505; Beinart, Expulsion, pp. 323–324 (English version: pp. 341–342).
[309]
Nadia Zeldes
transactions were supervised by secular and civil officials, in the Aragonese cities
the inquisitors took a hand in supervising the sale of Jewish property, just as
they had done when the Jews were expelled from Andalusia, under the pretext
that its status was similar to that of the property of heretics.21 However, except
for isolated cases, even in Aragon the sale of property was actually supervised
by the king’s officials, not by inquisitors. Baer based his conclusion on the fact
that the inquisitors indeed attempted to censure books, but this initiative was not
approved by King Fernando. In a letter dated the 6th June 1492 the king ordered the
inquisitors of Saragossa and Tarazona to desist from their harassment of the Jews
and allow them to take “books of Talmud and books of all types” and permit these
books to be extracted out of all his kingdoms and fiefs.22 It is probable that the real
reason for the stricter application of certain measures in Aragonese territories was
not the pressure exerted by the inquisitors (as suggested by Baer), but simply a
result of the bureaucratic nature of the Aragonese system and its greater attention
to juridical procedure. At any rate, the same methods were adopted in Sicily where
the Spanish Inquisition had no special standing at the time.23 The inventories made
in the months before the implementation of the edict of expulsion listed all sorts of
property, including books.24 It is interesting to note that according to the Sicilian
inquisitor Giovanni Di Giovanni, writing in the eighteenth century, a similar edict
allowing the extraction of Hebrew books out of the kingdom had been issued for
Sicily, but so far, his book remains the only source that mentions this document.25
21
Y. Baer, A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, Philadelphia and Jerusalem 1992,
vol. 2, p. 435. Beinart, Expulsion, pp. 219–225 (English translation : pp. 232–235).
22 “Assimesmo vos dezimos que en los libros del Thalmut y otros qualesquieres libros de
los dichos judios no les pongays empacho alguno, antes los dexeys yr liberamente con
ellos que assi cumple a nuestro servicio por observacion de nuestro edicto y seguro,
que pues ellos y los dichos libros sallen de nuestros reynos y señorios, lession o
prejuyzio no es possible que fagan guardandovos de fazer lo contrario por quanto nos
desseays servir”, Conde y Delgado de Molina, La expulsión, no. 72, pp. 122–123.
23 For the lists made of Jewish property in Aragon: Conde y Delgado de Molina, La
expulsión; on the sequestration of Jewish property in Sicily: Lagumina, Codice, vol. 3,
no. DCCCLXXII, pp. 3–5, no. DCCCXCIII, p. 44, no. DCCCXCVII, pp. 53–55 (the
publication of the brothers Lagumina is now being revised and republished with the
addition of new documents by S. Simonsohn, The Jews in Sicily, Italia Judaica Series,
Brill, Leiden).
24 Books appear in the property lists made in Sicily at the time of the expulsion, see note
28 below.
25 Giovanni Di Giovanni, L’ebraismo della Sicilia, ricercato ed esposto, Palermo 1748,
p. 210. However it should be noted that Di Giovanni gave the date of this edict as the
9th June, an unlikely date, as the expulsion edict for Sicily was published on the 18th
of that month. However, in August that year the Viceroy of Sicily approved a petition
of the Jews of Malta and Gozo to be allowed to take their Torah scrolls and other
[310]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
Legally, therefore, the departing Jews could take their libraries with them.
It is possible that some Sicilian Jews anticipated the great exodus and attempted
to transfer their books to a safe place even before the publication of the edict for
Sicily. Interesting testimony comes from a letter of Count Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola to his nephew, dated the 30th May 1492. According to this letter, twenty
days earlier before he wrote it, the count, who was at the time in Ferrara, met a
Sicilian Jew who was carrying Hebrew books that greatly interested him, so much
so, that he spent two weeks reading them.26 Given the count’s interest in Jewish
mysticism, were these books of Kabbalah? But none of the books to be discussed
below are books of Kabbalah.
But first we must return to the months succeeding the publication of the edict
of the expulsion. In Sicily the authorities sequestered Jewish property and put
it under seal until the monetary matters regarding taxation were resolved. Lists
were made and some include books, though, unfortunately, they do not provide
the titles. The inventory dated the 5th September 1492 of the property belonging
to “Mastru” (master) Prospero Monçonigo (or Monsonigo), a Jew of Caltagirone
(or Licata), probably a physician, includes various books. Six were books of
Medicine, the titles of which remain unknown, but the scribe carefully noted that
some were in Hebrew and some in Latin. There were also books of philosophy,
some handwritten, and some printed (a stampa)27, fourteen “pieces” of books,
large and small, of medicine and philosophy in Hebrew and in Latin.28 This is
books (loru libri tori et altri libri Iudaichi): Lagumina, Codice, III, no. DCCCCLVII,
p. 141.
26 “Est enim hinc ad 20 dies discessurus, qui huc libros attulit Siculus quidam Hebraeus,
quare dum me ab illis extricaverim”, Ioannes Picus Mirandula, Opera omnia, Basileae
1557, p. 360. This encounter is mentioned by Umberto Cassuto in his Gli ebrei a
Firenze nell’età del rinascimento, Firenze 1918, pp. 317–318. But unless one is
familiar with Pico’s letter, Cassutto’s wording lets it be understood as referring to a
Sicilian exile who had left Sicily after the publication of the edict, whereas the date of
Pico’s letter is 30 May, 1492 and it in fact refers to events that occurred twenty days
earlier. On Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s interest in Jewish mysticism see:
Ch. Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola’s Encounter with Jewish Mysticism, Jerusalem
1989.
27 The first Hebrew printed books were brought to Sicily from Italy in 1490: Bresc, Livre
et societé, p. 67.
28 Archivio di Stato di Palermo, Conservatoria di Registro, reg. 872, f. 50 cited by M.
Di Pasquale, ‘Sugli ebrei di Sicilia verso la fine del XV secolo’, Atti della Accademia
di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti di Palermo, (1988/9), p. 207; a photocopy reproduction
of the document is given on pages 215–216 of the article. It is difficult to check the
author’s reading because of the poor quality of the reproduction, nonetheless, the date
on this inventory is clearly the 5th September and not the 5th October, and the owner’s
name is Monçonigo or Monsonigo, and not Monsuvago. The name is probably of
[311]
Nadia Zeldes
interesting evidence for the level of education of the intellectual elite, which in
fact runs contrary to the well-known image of Sicilian Jewry as unschooled and
unlettered, but of this more to be said later.
The above-mentioned list indicates that books owned by Jews were scrutinized
by the authorities before they were allowed to pack them for the long voyage
ahead, and although the king’s edicts permitted their export, it is possible that
some books were confiscated by the inquisitors or the officials making these
lists. In other words, copies that circulated among the exiles do not necessarily
represent the full extent of their libraries. Of course, the dangers and difficulties
encountered by the exiles — robbery on the high seas, destruction of property in
the places of destination and other vicissitudes as well as frequent moves — all
contributed to the loss of books and manuscripts. In this context it is useful to
quote the words of a Sicilian convert, one who probably returned to Sicily after the
expulsion, who mentioned in his will that his wife’s Ketubbah had been lost along
with other “writings” when the kingdom of Naples was conquered by the French
(1494–1495) and many Jewish homes were sacked.29 These events may explain
the limited number of manuscripts that survived.
Several colophons attest to the presence of Sicilian Jews in the Kingdom
of Naples during the first decades after the expulsion. Though evidence for the
coming of a great number of Sicilian Jews to southern Italy can be found in other
sources30, little is known on their cultural life. The colophons shed some light on
the literature they were interested in, the identity of the copyists and the owners,
Spanish origin. More references to books are written on the margin but again, difficult
to read. According to other documents from the period of the expulsion, Monçonigo’s
books were first sequestered and then released after he paid his due part in the sum
of 100,000 florins set on the Jews of the kingdom of Sicily: S. Simonsohn, The Jews
in Sicily, Leiden, vol. 8 (in press), no. 5653 and 5862. In both documents his city of
origin is listed as Licata, not Caltagirone.
29 “tunc quam chitubam una cum certis aliis scripturis, asserit ammisisse tempore
guerrari regni Neapolis invasi per gallos et regem gallorum”, N. Zeldes, ‘The Last
Will and Testament of a Sicilian Converso’, Revue des Études Juives 159 (2000), p.
459; Idem, ‘The Former Jews of this Kingdom’: Sicilian Converts after the Expulsion
(1492–1516), Leiden 2003, pp. 280–283. On the sack of Jewish property in Naples
see: N. Ferorelli, Gli Ebrei nell’Italia meridionale, Napoli 1990, pp. 199–201. Also in
Naples, Don Yishaq Abrabanel lost his library during the French invasion: Devarim,
pp. 4–5; B.Z. Netanyahu, Don Isaac Abravanel: Statesman and Philosopher, (revised
edition), Ithaca-London 1998, pp. 68–69.
30 Many sources, official documents as well as chronicles, are cited by Ferorelli (note 29
above). More information, also from Christian sources (mostly documents issued by
the Camera Sommaria, but also notarial acts), comes from the publications of Cesare
Colafemmina in ‘Sefer Yuh ̣asin’. The material on Calabria is republished in his book:
Per la storia degli ebrei in Calabria, Messina 1996.
[312]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
and so on. The earliest dated colophon was written in Reggio Calabria in December
1504 on a copy of Orah Hayyim, a medical treatise by Yehoshua Ha-Narboni.
II Paris Bibliothèque Nationale, Héb. 1200 (F 14755)31
Title of work copied: ‫( אורח חיים‬Way of Life)
‫והנה נשלם החבור ביום חמישי חמישי לטבת שנת הרס"ה ליצירה שנת יג לגירושינו‬
‫מאי אסקלייא ממלכות ספרד פה העירה ריגו ראש קלבראיא‬
Translation:
Title of work copied: Orah ̣ Ḥayyim
[The copying of] this work was completed on Thursday, the fifth of
Tevet, the year 5265 to the Creation, the thirteenth year of our expulsion
from the island of Sicily, from the kingdom of Sefarad [Spain], here in
Reggio, the principal city of Calabria.
The copyist remains anonymous. However, he took care to note that he was writing
“in the thirteenth year to our expulsion from Sicily”, thus identifying himself as
a Sicilian exile. Here again it is important to pay attention to the words and terms
used by the copyist. As did the owner of Sefer Shorashim, Moshe Shim’on Asqilyia
mentioned above, this anonymous copyist also used the Arabic form: “Asqilyia”
to denote Sicily. Another interesting point, he let it be known for posterity that
the expulsion was “from the island of Sicily, from the kingdom of Sefarad”. Thus
making it clear that Sicily too was part of “the kingdom of Sefarad”, reflecting a
reality that was obvious at the time, but rarely understood by modern scholarship
(as most studies on the expulsion from Spain omit Sicily).
The city of Reggio, that lies across the strait from Messina, at the shortest
distance from Sicily, was preferred by many Sicilian exiles. In fact, immediately
after the expulsion the leaders of the community of Syracuse all crossed over
to Reggio Calabria.32 Another book copied in Reggio Calabria is a collection of
medical treatises by Bernard de Gordon (among them: Shoshan ha-Refuah, Lilium
Medicinae) translated by Yekutiel ben Shelomo of Narbonne in the fourteenth
century. These works were copied in 1508 by Shemuel Ibn Musa “known as
Marāgh” for Yosef the dayyan of Sicily, and in the colophon the copyist provides
some information on his circumstances as an exile.
31 Manuscrits médiévaux en caractères hébraïques, eds. C. Sirat and M. Beit-Arieh,
Paris, Jerusalem 1972, vol. 3, p. 55.
32 Colafemmina, Calabria, pp. 36–38, Docs. no. 48, 50.
[313]
Nadia Zeldes
III. Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, D. 84 (F 12264)33
Title of work copied: ‫שושן הרפואה‬
Colophon: fol.191 v
‫נשלם ספר המכונה שושן הרפואה אל הרופא המהירי מאגישטיר בירנארדוש די גורדו‬
‫על ידי אני שמואל אבן מוסה הנקרא מראג˙ אשר אנכי חונה היום פה ריג˙ו ראש‬
'‫קאלבריאה על ידי בלבולי וגלגולי הזמן כי עזבתי את ביתי נטשתי את נחלתי )יר‬
‫ ( אשר היו מימי קדם במלכות ספרד מיום אשר גורשנו כל היהודים במצות המלך‬7:‫יב‬
‫( על חמשת אלפים לבריאת עולם ועל ידי גלגול‬01:‫בשנת מ˙ז˙ר˙ה˙ ישראל )יר' לא‬
,‫ ע"א‬,‫באתי פה וכי קצר המצע מהשתרע וההוצאה יתרה על השבח )בבלי כתובות פ‬
‫ ע"א ( הרימותי ידי לקרב ואצבעותי למלחמה נגד הזמן הרע להשלים‬,‫ קא‬,‫בבא קמא‬
‫ לכתב ספרים‬35(‫ב‬:‫ קכח‬,‫ כי תאכל )תהלים‬34‫ולמלאת את ספקי לקיים יגיע כפיך‬
‫מספרי הרפואות ובתוכם השלמתי זה בשנת גרש י˙ר˙ח˙י˙ם˙ על חמשת אלפים‬
‫לבריאת עולם לנבון ומעולה הר' יוסף דיין מן אי סקליה ולפי שהעתקתיו במהירות‬
‫ומספר מוטעה מבקש אני לכל קורא בו לא יאשימני אשם כי בנחץ ובמרוצה נכתב‬
‫ונרשם חתמתי שמי פה נאם אשר מתלאות הזמן נפשו עמוסה מבני הגרשוני לעבוד‬
˙‫עבודת משא שמואל בן לאדוני ה˙ר˙ יום טוב נ˙ע˙ ]נוחו עדן[ ן' מוסה ש˙ל˙ב˙ע‬
[‫]שבח לאל בורא עולם‬
Translation:
Title of work copied: Shoshan ha-refuah
Colophon: fol. 191v
[The copying of] the book entitled Shoshan ha-refuah by the nimble
physician Magister Bernardus de Gordon was completed by me,
Shemuel Ibn Musa, called Marāgh, currently situated here in Reggio,
the principal city of Calabria, due to the vicissitudes and troubles of
the age. I have abandoned my house, I have deserted my possession
[Jer. 12:7], which were from days of old in the kingdom of Sefarad,
from the day that all of us Jews were expelled at the king’s order
in the year of “[He who] scattered Israel” [Jer. 31:10], in the fifth
millennium to the Creation [1492]. The story of how my wanderings
brought me here is too lengthy to unfold. The costs outrun my profits
[Bavli, Ketubbot, 80r, Baba Kama, 101r] I have lifted my hand in
33
C. Bernheimer, Codices hebraici Bibliothecae Ambrosianae, Florentiae 1933, no. 103,
p. 140; M. Steinshneider, Die hebraeschen Uebersetzungen des Mittelatlers und die
Juden als Dolmetscher, Berlin 1893 (Graz 1956), p. 785.
34 Bernheimer: ‫בפיך‬
35 Idem: ‫תאבל‬
[314]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
battle and my fingers in war against the enemy, time, to complete and
to execute my task, to fulfill what is written: “You shall enjoy the
fruit of your labors” [Ps. 128:2], to copy medical books. From among
them I completed this one in the year “excellence of the moon’s crop”
[Deut. 33:14] in the fifth millennium to the Creation [1508] for the
most wise and excellent R. Yosef dayyan from the island of Sicily.
Because I copied it in haste and from a mistake-ridden book, I ask
the indulgence of every reader, that he not impute blame to me, for
it was copied and written down in haste. I sign my name here, the
utterance of one whose soul is burdened by these troubled times, of
the sons of Gershuni [the exiles], to discharge my task [reference to
the Gershonites’ duties in the Tabernacle; see Num. 4:47], Shemuel,
son of my master, R. Yom Tov, may he rest in Paradise, Ibn Musa.
Praised be God, creator of the universe.
The copyist, Shemuel Ibn Musa known as Marāgh, describes himself as an exile
from Sefarad and refers to his own peregrinations and the vicissitudes he suffered
until he arrived in the kingdom of Naples: “as I have left my home and forsaken
my holdings that from ancient times had been in the kingdom of Sefarad, from the
day all of us Jews were expelled at the king’s order, in the year of ‘scattered Israel’
(‫( )מזרה ישראל‬Jeremiah, 31:10) 36 and five thousand to the Creation of the World
and my wanderings brought me here (‫”)על ידי גלגול באתי פה‬.
The wording of this colophon was misunderstood by modern scholars who
presumed it to be referring to two Sicilians who settled in Reggio Calabria,
whereas in fact the copyist was an exile from the Iberian Peninsula. One can
arrive at this conclusion by no other means than a careful reading of the colophon
itself, but in this case the copyist can also be identified from other manuscripts.
In 1502, in Reggio, he copied a Bible codex and the Scroll of Antiochus (a
historical work in Aramaic). On this copy he wrote a long colophon: “Completed
by Shemuel Ibn Musa known as Marāgh the Sefardi of the sons of the “Gershuni”
(“of the Gershuni” is a word play on the word Gerush, expulsion, a term that
usually identifies the exiles from Spain.37), here in the city of Reggio where I am
36 The author employs Gematria (using the numerical value of letters of the Hebrew
alphabet to indicate a word or a date) in order to use an appropriate quotation from
the Bible, a common ploy in the dating of manuscripts. Here the author substituted the
letters that normally served for the numerical value of the year 5252 (in Hebrew letters
— ‫)ה"רנב‬, i.e. the year 1492 for the Hebrew letters ‫מזרה‬, which mean scatter. Though it
can be a coincidence, it should be pointed out that Don Yishaq Abrabanel also used the
same ploy in his introduction to the commentaries on Kings: Don Yishaq Abrabanel,
Commentaries on the Early Prophets, Jerusalem 1956.
37 See Rigler, The Colophon, p. 344 note 20.
[315]
Nadia Zeldes
constrained and forsaken because of the misfortunes of war between the kingdoms
“˙‫הספרדי מבני הגרשוני פה רגיו העירה בהיותי עצור נשלם על יד שמואל ן' מוסא הנקרא מראג‬
"‫ועזוב מבלבולי מלחמות המלכות‬. The allusion to the wars in the kingdoms can only
refer to the war between the French and the Spanish armies that raged in those
years and ended only in 1503. In 1507, also in Reggio, he copied a philosophical
work by Avicenna that had been translated into Hebrew by Ya’aqov Anatoli (in the
thirteenth century).38
Since Shemuel Ibn Musa referred to his wanderings (‫ )גלגול‬this choice of
words, even without the information provided by other colophons, would make
more sense if he had sailed from the Iberian Peninsula to south Italy, than if he
had just crossed the straits of Messina. Furthermore, the copyist mentioned his
“abandoned house... and deserted possession... which were from days of old in
the kingdom of Sefarad”. Regret for the loss of the native land is characteristic of
Spanish Jewry after the expulsion. During the fifteenth century Spanish Jews were
very much aware of their millennium old presence in “Sefarad”, and some even
tried to manufacture evidence for being there before the destruction of the Temple.
After the expulsion, the exiles tended to glorify their past and only with difficulty
were reconciled to their actual circumstances.39 A Sefardi Jew of Sicily would have
hardly described his life before the expulsion in those glorifying terms. One more
thing, the copyist’s reference to the king’s order (omitting the queen’s) probably
indicates that he came from a territory of the Crown of Aragon.
The relationship between the professional scribe and the person who
commissioned his work was usually one of economic inequality. In both the
Jewish communities of Christian Europe and the Muslim Orient, scribes had a
low economic and social status and were paid meager wages for their work. In
fact, most manuscripts copied in fifteenth century Italy were written in non-Italian
script, mainly Sefardi, thus attesting to the fact that the copyist profession was
dominated by immigrants.40 It therefore might be significant that Shemuel Ibn
38
Manuscripts copied by Shemuel Ibn Musa: Vatican Ebr. 546 (F. 8659); New York,
Jewish Theological Seminary, Ms. 2384 (F. 28637).
39 H. Beinart, ‘When had the Jews Arrived in Spain?’, Chapters in Judeo Spanish History,
(collected articles), Jerusalem 1998, vol. I, pp. 21–22 (Hebrew); Idem, ‘¿Cuándo
llegaron los Judíos a España?’, Estudios, 3 (1962), pp. 1–32. For the mentality of
Spanish exiles see: H.H. Ben Sasson, ‘The Generation of the Spanish Exiles on its
Fate’, Zion 26 (1961), pp. 34–43 (Hebrew); J. Hacker, ‘Pride and Depression: Polarity
of the Spiritual and Social Experience of the Iberian Exiles in the Ottoman Empire’,
R. Bonfil et al eds,, Culture and Society in Medieval Jewry: Studies dedicated to
the Memory of H.H. Ben Sasson, Jerusalem 1989, pp. 541–586 (Hebrew) (French
translation: ‘Superbe et désespoir: l’existence sociale et spirituelle des Juifs ibériques
dans l’Empire ottoman’, Revue Historique 578 (1991), pp. 261–293).
40 Beit-Arié, ‘Transmission of Texts’, p. 40.
[316]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
Musa the author of the colophon mentioned his need to lift his “hand in battle”
and his “fingers in war” to satisfy his needs, quoting the biblical verse “You shall
enjoy the fruit of your labors” (Psalms 128:2). Though this could be only a literary
metaphor, it is not unreasonable to surmise that the scribe was indeed a poor man,
a refugee who needed to earn money by copying books.
Shemuel Ibn Musa, the copyist, warned the reader that he did his job in haste
and there might be mistakes in his work. Again, though this is a common figure
of speech and frequently found in colophons, it can also mean that he did his
work in haste because he needed the payment as quickly as possible. On the other
hand, the person who commissioned the work is described as “the most wise and
excellent [...] dayyan (judge) from the island of Sicily”. The fact that the copyist
thought it necessary to explain that the dayyan was “from the island of Sicily”
strengthens the impression that he himself was not Sicilian. The dayyan, however,
was obviously well enough off to pay for Shemuel Ibn Musa’s work, whereas the
copyist bemoaned his need to work for a living. Despite the prevailing image of
Sicilian Jewry as poor and uneducated, especially when compared with the glory
of Spanish Jewry, here the situation is almost reversed. But historical realities bear
out this conclusion, because Spanish refugees arrived in the kingdom of Naples
penniless and destitute after being prey to greedy and criminal sea captains (as
described in Shebet Yehudah and other Hebrew sources of this period, the reports
of foreign ambassadors and the accounts of contemporary chroniclers).41 Sicilian
Jews too were occasionally robbed during the crossing but they had a shorter
voyage to accomplish and many arrived to their destination with their fortune
intact, as attested by the Syracusan Jew Leone Sacerdote who was able in 1494 to
pay the entire sum owed by the Jews of the Camera Reginale to Queen Isabel, a
hefty sum of 20,000 florins.42
Unfortunately the copyist did not provide the full name of Yosef, the dayyan
who commissioned the book and thus nothing can be known of his family or city of
origin, but it is possible that he was one of the heads of the community of Syracuse
that transferred its entire leadership to Reggio Calabria. The dayyan’s interest in
the works of Bernard de Gordon may indicate that he was also a physician.
Another colophon written in Reggio Calabria after the expulsion is a copy
41 Shelomo Ibn Verga, Shebet Yehuda, ed. A. Shohat, Jerusalem 1947, pp. 122ff; the
Genoese chronicler Bartholomeo Senarega, ‘De rebus genuensibus commentaria’,
ed. Emilio Pandini, RIS, Bologna 1929, vol. XXIV, p. 24; Baer, History, pp. 438ff.
Beinart, Expulsion, pp. 240–251, 259–264 (English version: pp. 253–271, 274–279).
42 Payment by the Jews of Syracuse: G. Modica Scala, Le comunità ebraiche nella contea
di Modica, Modica 1978, pp. 551–552; Colafemmina, Calabria, pp. 38–39; N. Zeldes,
‘The Queen’s Property: Isabel I and the Jews and Converts of the Sicilian Camera
Reginale after the 1492 Expulsion’, Hispania Judaica Bulletin 4 (2004), pp. 70–85.
[317]
Nadia Zeldes
of Seder Beh ̣inat ’Olam (Book of the Examination of the World — an ethical
philosophical work) by Yedaiah ben Avraham Bedersi, ha-Pnini (c. 1270–1340).
The colophon is cited by Ernst Renan, Les ecrivains juifs français du XIV siècle,
Paris 1893, but there is no further reference to this manuscript in recent times.43
Though there is now no possibility of consulting the manuscript, I have decided
to include it for several reasons that I shall discuss presently. The description
given by Renan is based on the reading of Albert Harkavi, at the time head of
the Department of Oriental Manuscripts at the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg,
an experienced orientalist, and though the manuscript itself may have vanished
(possibly during the Second World War?), this is no reason to doubt the veracity of
the text or the accuracy of the reading. Moreover, there no doubt as to its Sicilian
provenance (especially since the copyist in the introduction to the manuscript copy
of Beh ̣inat ’Olam criticized Sicilian scholars in a way that fits the impression most
foreign visitors had of Sicilian Jews).
According to his own statement, the copyist began his work in Syracuse,
probably shortly before the expulsion, and finished it in Reggio Calabria in 1508.
Since it is not possible to consult the manuscript, there is no way to know whether
the note at the beginning of this copy and the colophon were both by the same
hand.
IV. St. Petersburg?44
Title of work copied: ‫סדר בחינת עולם‬
Introductory note:
‫אמר יצחק בן אברהם המכונה מונטישון ספרדי היושב פה העירה סרקוסה אי‬
‫איסקלייא למה שראתי הבחורים המתענגים בהלצה זו עד שיודעים אותה על פה‬
‫בפיהם ובשפתותיהם כבדוה ולבם רחק ממנה והיתה ידיעתה אצלם מצות אנשים‬
‫ כדברי הספר החתום לכל ישימו לב על פנימיותיה‬45[‫מלומדה ותה ילהם ]ותהי להם‬
‫ואל צורתה אשר היא תכליתה ונשארה כחומר בלי צורה מה שאין הפה יכולה לדבר‬
‫ומצורף לזה בהיות בזאת המליצה הרבה ענינים נראה להם שהם הרדפת לשון כאלו‬
‫ בזה בהרבה‬46‫רודפים ענין אחד ואינו כן אבל כולם באו לענין ג"כ ]גם כן[ תשבו‬
‫מאמרים ואין ראוי לומר שנפל במקרה אצל המאמרים ואני הצעיר בבית אבי חמלתי‬
43 This manuscript was mentioned by Giuseppe Palermo in his M.A. Thesis, but he
remarked that he too was unable to find it: Palermo, The Passage, p. 27, note 16. I
have also consulted the data base of the Institute of Hebrew Microfilmed Manuscripts
and no manuscript corresponding to this description appears there.
44 E. Renan, Les ecrivains juifs français du XIV siècle, Paris 1893, pp. 41–42.
45 My correction, N.Z.
46 It should be corrected: ‫חשבו‬, N.Z.
[318]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
‫עליה לבלתי הכסות ולהראות צורתה אשר היא כוונת מחברה ואבארנה מאמר מאמר‬
‫עד השלים הכוונה בה‬
Colophon: fol.191 v
‫תם ונשלם אללאל >!< עולם יום ד' יא לחדש כסליו פה ריג'ו ראש קלאבריא שנת‬
[‫בזאת יבא אהרן הקדש ליצירה ]ה'רסט‬
Translation:
Title of work copied: Seder Beh ̣inat ’Olam
Introductory note:
Says Yitshaq son of Avraham, called Montizon the Sefardi, who is
residing here in the city of Syracuse, on the island of Sicily, regarding
how I have seen youths taking pleasure in this rhetorical work until
they know it by heart with their mouths, and honor it with their lips but
have kept their hearts far from it, learned it only by rote [paraphrase of
Isa. 29:13], and it remains a sealed book to them [based on Isa. 29:11].
They pay attention neither to its content nor to its form, which is its
essence. It remains formless matter, which the mouth cannot speak.
Moreover, because of its use of flowery prose for many concepts, they
imagine that they are word plays, as if they all have one meaning and
this is not the case. They think this as well about many of the dicta and
this is not by chance. And I, the youngest in my father’s house, took
pity on it [this work], so that it not be hidden, and to show its form,
which is its author’s intent, and I have explained it dictum by dictum
until its understanding is whole.
Colophon:
Finis, [praise] the Master of the universe, on Wednesday, the 11th of
Kislev, here, in Reggio, the principal city of Calabria, the year “Thus
only shall Aaron enter the Shrine” [Lev. 16:3] to the Creation [5269]
[1508].
The introductory note at the beginning of the manuscript was written in Syracuse
before the expulsion, but I have included it in this collection because it ties the
manuscript to Sicily and Sicilian exiles. Yitshaq ben Avraham Montizon, the copyist,
was of Sefardi origin. His presence in Syracuse draws the attention to the migration
from the Iberian Peninsula to Sicily during the fifteenth century, a phenomenon that
at present is not given its due importance. The copyist had a rather lowly opinion
of the learning of Sicilians Jews he encountered in Syracuse, criticizing them for
[319]
Nadia Zeldes
learning by rote and for misunderstanding the text. Nevertheless, this description
refers in fact to the existence of a school of higher learning in Syracuse where texts
such as Seder Behinat ’Olam were studied. After the expulsion, the leaders, and
presumably the intellectuals of the Syracuse community, immigrated to Reggio
Calabria and the colophon dated the 24th November 1508 indeed confirms this.
By that time the manuscript copy of Seder Behinat ’Olam circulated in Reggio
Calabria, and if it was not Yitshaq ben Avraham Montizon who finished it, it is
likely the copyist was another Sicilian refugee.
The next colophon was also written in the kingdom of Naples, but this time in
the city of Trani.
V. Jewish Theological Seminary, Ms. 04074 (F. 24976)
Title of work copied: ‫סדור עמרם גאון‬
‫מכתב ידי ימיני אני חיים בכמה"ר ]בן כבוד מורנו ורבנו[ שבתי לבית יונה פה טראני‬
.‫והשלמתיו ליל א' כ"א לחדש מרחשון משנת הרס"ז ליצירה‬
Translation:
I, Ḥayyim, the son of our honored teacher and rabbi Shabbetay of the
house of Yonah, wrote this with my right hand, here in Trani, and I
finished it on Saturday night, the 21st of Marh ̣eshvan in the year 5267
to the Creation [1506].
This colophon was written on a manuscript copy of Siddur R. Amram Gaon (Amram
ben Sheshna, was Gaon of the Sura yeshiva, and he died in circa 875). R. Amram is
noted for composing the oldest surviving order of prayer. The manuscript copy is
in fact an autograph, copied by R. Ḥayym ben Shabbetay Yonah in 1506, probably
for his personal use. Ḥayym ben Shabbetay Yonah was a Sicilian rabbi, the author
of a volume of responsa he wrote after the expulsion, now conserved in Florence
in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurentiana.47 So far, nothing is known of his activities
as dayyan in Sicily prior to the expulsion. In one responsum he refers to his youth
‘‫( ’נקרא נקראתי אני הצעיר החתום בקצה היריעה‬And so was I called, I the young man
who signed his name on the margin of this parchment).48 This could simply be a
figure of speech expressing modesty, but it could well be a truthful statement and
47
Ḥayyim ben Shabbetay Yonah is identified as a Sicilian in his responsa, see note 46
below.
48 Biblioteca Medicea Laurentiana Plut. 88.4, p. 20r, I thank Dr. Abraham David of the
Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts for the information regarding Ḥayyim
ben Shabbetay Yonah and for giving me a photocopy of the responsa manuscript.
[320]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
it may be that this youthful dayyan had no opportunity to be a spiritual leader
before the expulsion. In any case, he was probably a member of the important
and wealthy family of Yonah, merchants of Trapani.49 After the expulsion several
members of that family emigrated from Sicily to the kingdom of Naples, but later
some of them converted and returned, while others remained in southern Italy as
Jews.50
The responsa of dayyan Ḥayym ben Shabbetay deal with problems concerning
personal status: abandoned wives, divorce and conversions. Since the Halakhic
responses are dated 1504, we know that in that year he lived in the city of Monopoli
(under Venetian rule from 149551), and there he convened a rabbinical court (Beit
Din) to resolve a difficult case of a broken marriage promise involving Sicilian
exiles.52 The colophon cited above was written three years later than the responsa,
when the dayyan was living in Trani, in Apulia. The responsa and the references
therein to Halakhic precedents and Halakhic literature, demonstrate the dayyan’s
erudition, thus the copying the Siddur of Amram Gaon is eminently appropriate
to this personage.
I have also included an undated copy of the Bible because according to the
colophon, it was also produced by a Sicilian who left his native land. The owner
was living in Genazzano and the copyist was from Sonnino, both in the Patrimony
of St. Peter.
VI Biblioteca Palatina, Parma, no. 1858; De Rossi, no. 287 (F 1416353)
Title of work copied: Bible codex
Colophon and ownership note:
...‫לעולם יכתב אדם שמו על ספרו שמי לא יבא אדם אחר מן השוק ויאמר שלי הוא‬
49 On the Yonah family of Trapani see: A. Scandaliato, ‘Momenti di vita a Trapani nel
Quattrocento’, Gli ebrei in Sicilia dal tardoantico al medioevo, pp. 167–219.
50 Zeldes, The Former Jews of this Kingdom, pp. 34, 114. According to Latin sources
a Ḥayyim de Yonah converted and took the name Giovanni Battista Yonah, thus he
cannot have been the dayyan mentioned above. But the dayyan could still have been a
member of this family.
51 K.M. Setton, The Papacy and the Levant (1204–1571), Philadelphia 1978, vol. II,
p. 498. For the coming of Jews to Venetian Monopoli in this period see: Netanyahu,
Abravanel, pp. 74–75.
52 Biblioteca Medicea Laurentiana Plut. 88.4, p. 21r.
53 G.B. De Rossi, Mss. Codices hebraici Bibiothecae I. B. De Rossi accurate ab eodem
descripti et illustrati, Parmae 1803, no. 287. And more recently: Hebrew Manuscripts
in the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma, ed. B. Richler; paleographical and codicological
descriptions in M. Beit-Arié, Jerusalem 2001, no. 1858.
[321]
Nadia Zeldes
‫( תשב היום בינצאנו‬Valmontone) ‫שלי גרשום בכ"ר ]בן כבוד רב[ יעקב מבלמנטוני‬
‫( פס ידא די כתבא אנא בנימן בכר ]בן כבוד רב[ שבתי זל מציציליה‬Genazzano)
‫( עומד היום יום ב פרשת הנני נתן לו את בריתי שלום ]פרשת‬Sonnino) ‫תשב מסונינו‬
‫ לעולם יכתב אדם שמו על ספרו‬.‫[ בינאצאנו בששה עשר בתמוז‬21:‫ כה‬,‫ במדבר‬.‫פנחס‬
‫שמי לא יבא אדם אחר מן השוק ויאמר שלי הוא שלי יעקב מבלמנטוני‬
‫פ‬
‫ע‬
Translation:
Title of work copied: Bible codex
[Colophon and ownership note] A person should always write his name
in his book, lest someone come from the marketplace and say, “This
is mine.”...This is mine, Gershom, son of the honored Rabbi Ya’aqov
of Valmontone, presently residing in Genazzano. Handwritten by me,
Benyamin son of the honored Rabbi Shabbetay of blessed memory
from Sicily, now living in Sonnino, completed today, Monday, the
weekly portion of “I grant him My pact of friendship” [Pinhas; Num.
25:12] in Genazzano, the 16th Tammuz. A person should always write
his name in his book, lest someone come from the marketplace and
say, “This is mine.” [This is] mine. Ya’aqov of Valmontone.
Here the copyist, Benyamin ben Shabbetay, is a Sicilian whereas the owner of the
book, Gershom ben Ya’aqov, does not identify himself as one. This colophon does
not provide much information, only a partial date, names and places. Nevertheless
something can be gleaned from this meager information. If the colophon is indeed
from the fifteenth century, and as we surmise, was written by a Sicilian after the
expulsion, the partial date (Monday, the 16th Tamuz), allows for three possibilities:
June 1493, June 1496 or June 1499. Now to the individuals mentioned in the
colophon. The Sicilian copyist was living in Sonnino. He produced the copy for
Gershom ben Ya’aqov who was originally of Valmontone and at the time the book
was finished was living in Genazzano. These places are all situated in the same
area, the Maritima that belonged to the Patrimony of St. Peter. It is interesting to
note that owner and copyist were not living in the same city and therefore we can
surmise that they did not belong to the same community. Is this proof that Sicilian
Jews failed to integrate into existing Italian communities? As mentioned before,
scribes were usually paid lowly wages, their social and economic status was
considered to be inferior, and in Italy they were frequently immigrants. Benyamin
ben Shabbetay, the Sicilian copyist, apparently corresponds to this image.
In fact little is known of the settlement of Sicilian Jews in Italy after the
expulsion. So far, until recently, existing studies were confined to the Sicilian
[322]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
community of Rome.54 As for other places in peninsular Italy, Ariel Toaff
reached the conclusion that the coming of Sicilian refugees left no impact on the
demography of Italian Jewry and in his opinion they failed to become integrated
into the existing Jewish communities.55 Though this was probably true for the
small communities of northern Italy, it is possible that a greater number of Sicilian
exiles settled in cities belonging to the papal state. Thus, a recently published study
on the Jews of Terracina, in the Patrimony of St. Peter, shows that a large number
of Sicilian Jews settled in that area.56 However, most documents cited in the latter
work are from the second half of the sixteenth century, and therefore the question
as to when these Sicilian Jews arrived there remains unanswered. Nevertheless, it
is interesting to note that they still identified themselves as Sicilians.
If the above cited colophon is indeed from the fifteenth century, it may indicate
an earlier settlement of Sicilians in the lands of Holy See than previously thought,
but it is likely that most Sicilian Jews arrived there after the expulsions from the
kingdom of Naples.
So far, we have six colophons that attest to the spread of Sicilian exiles in
peninsular Italy after the expulsion. However, most copies come from the kingdom
of Naples and were written between 1504 and 1508. It is probable that in this
period the exiles finally recovered from the disasters of the end of the fifteenth
century when Jewish property was sacked, many were forced to convert, others
to leave the towns yet others were imprisoned or held captive. Only in 1503 did
the wars between the Spanish and the French cease, and the kingdom of Naples
came under Spanish rule, a solution that provided a modicum of political and
economic stability. The exiles then enjoyed a short period of prosperity until the
expulsion of 1510–1511 when both Jews and New Christians were ordered to
leave the kingdom, and only two hundred Jewish families were allowed to remain.
As only very wealthy families were granted this privilege, it is probable that most
Sicilian Jews left the kingdom of Naples to join the Sicilian communities that
already formed in the eastern Mediterranean by that time, in Venetian or Ottoman
territories.
Following the colophons written by Sicilians exiles we come to peregrinations
54 A. Esposito, ‘Dopo le espulsioni; un’immagine della contrada degli ebrei nei primi
decenni del Cinquecento (con l’edizione del “Iettito della chiavica delli Iudei” del
1519)’, RMI 58,1–2 (1992) 75–96; Idem, ‘La “schola siculorum de Urbe”: la fine della
storia?’, Italia Judaica V, Atti del V convegno internazionale Palermo, 15–19 giugno
1992, Roma 1995, pp. 412–422.
55 A. Toaff, ‘Gli ebrei siciliani in Italia dopo l’espulsione: Storia di un’integrazione
mancata’, Italia Judaica, pp. 382–396; Idem, ‘L’espulsione degli ebrei dalla Sicilia nel
1492’, Movimientos migratorios y expulsiones en la diáspora occidentale: Terceros
Encuentros Judaicos de Tudela 1998, Pamplona 1999, pp. 185–198.
56 Pier Luigi de Rossi, La comunità ebraica di Terracina (sec. XVI), Cori 2004.
[323]
Nadia Zeldes
of Shalom bar Shelomo Yerushalmi of Syracuse. The copyist’s full name is given
in a manuscript completed in Syracuse before the expulsion: ‫שלום בר' שלמה בר' סע־‬
57
‫דיה בר'זכריה בר חייא בר יעקב המכונה ירושלמי ממקומ"י‬. 58The manuscript represents a
collection of several books on astronomy and mathematics that the copyist copied
for his own use revealing his interest in the sciences. He continued copying books
of this nature even after the expulsion.
Yerushalmi wandered for several years after the expulsion noting the places
where he wrote his colophons. The earliest is from 1498, a book on astronomy ‫שער‬
‫( השמים‬Sha’ar ha-Shamayim, The Gates of Heaven) by Yishaq ben Yosef Israeli
that he copied in Modon, at the time a Venetian colony. Later, in 1512 while in
Patras, he copied astronomical tables from ‫( כלי חמדה‬Keli Ḥemda, Instrument of
Delight), an astronomical work by Yishaq ben Shelomo Ibn Al-Ah ̣dab, a Spanish
scholar who lived some years in Sicily at the end of the fourteenth century. In
1515, in Lepanto Shalom Yerushalmi copied ‫( ספר זכרון‬Sefer Zikkaron, Book of
Memory), exegesis on Rashi’s commentaries by Avraham ben Shelomo ha-Levi
Bukarat for Moshe Figo. This work was completed in Tunis in 1507.59
VII. Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica, ebr. 379 (F. 00458)
Title of copied work: ‫( שער השמים‬Sha’ar ha-Shamayim, Gate of Heaven)
‫אלו הם הלקיות שהע]ת[קתי מקלנדאר של גואן דומונטי אני שלום ירושלמי ערב ר"ה‬
‫)ראש השנה( שנת הרנט פה מודון‬
Title of copied work: ‫( כלי חמדה‬Keli Ḥemda)
‫[ כתבתי אלו הלוחות אני שלום בר שלמה ירושלמי נ"ע ביום יב אב י"ל ]יהפך‬v 61.p]
‫לששון[ שנת הערב פה בפטרץ הישנה והעתקתים מכלי חמדה שעשאו הרב המחבר‬
[‫]יצחק בן שלמה אבן אלאחדב‬
57 The word ‫ ממקומי‬means “from my place” but it is in fact an acrostic: ‫מחץ מתנים קמיו‬
‫( ומשנאיו מן יקומון‬Genesis 49:9).
58 Vatican Ebr. 379, pp. 5r and 41r-42v. Bibliographical reference: N. Aloni and
D.S. Lewinger, List of Hebrew Photocopied Manuscripts in the Institute, Hebrew
Manuscripts in the Vatican Library, Jerusalem 1968, vol. III, p. 55
59 On this work and Bukarat’s stay in Tunis see: H.H. Ben Sasson, ‘Dirge on the
Expulsion from Spain’, Tarbiz 31 (1962), pp. 59–71; E. Gutwirth, ‘Le Sefer Yuhasin
(livre des Généalogies) et la période tunisienne d’Abraham Zacut’, S. Fellous ed.,
Juifs et musulmans en Tunisie, Paris 2003, pp. 93–438.
[324]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
VIII JNUL Heb. 80 51460
Title of copied work: ‫( ספר זיכרון‬Sefer Zikkaron)
Colophon: fol. 315
‫השלמתי זה הביאור שהוא פירוש על פי התורה לרש"י ז˙ל˙ שנקרא ספר זכרון שחבר‬
‫]הח[כם השלם נר ישראל אב לתורה ולחכמה ה˙ח˙ר˙ ]החכם רבי[ אברהם הלוי‬
‫בקארט ת˙נ˙צ˙ב˙ה˙ והשלמתיו היום יום שני בשלשה עשר יום לחדש חשון שנת‬
'‫חמשת אלפים ומאתים ושבעים ושש לבריאת עולם פה במתא ליפאנתו וכתבתיה‬
˙‫אני שלום ב˙כ˙ר˙ ]בן כבוד רב[ שלמה ירושלמי לנעלה היקר כבוד הר' משה פיגו י˙ץ‬
‫אמן הרחמן יזכהו להגות בו הוא וזרעו וזרע זרעו עד סוף כל הדורות ויקיים בו קרא‬
˙‫ א˙נ˙ס‬.‫דכתי' לא ימושו מפיך ומפי זרעך ומפי זרע זרעך אמר יי' מעתה ועד עולם‬
.[‫]אמן נצח סלה‬
Translation:
Title of work copied: Sha’ar ha-Shamayim (Gate of Heaven)
These are the eclipses that I copied from the calendar of John Domonti.
I, Shalom Yerushalmi. Erev Rosh ha-Shanah 5659 [1498], here, in
Modon.
Title of work copied: Keli Ḥemdah
[Colophon, fol. 61v] I, Shalom, son of Shelomo Yerushalmi, may
he reside in Paradise, wrote these tables on the 12th Av, may it be
transformed to rejoicing, in the year 5272, here in ancient Patras. I
copied them from the Keli Ḥemdah written by the author, R. [Yishaq
ben Shelomo Ibn al-Ahʋdab].
JNUL Heb 8º 514
Title of work copied: Sefer Zikkaron
[Colophon, fol. 315:] I completed [copying] this exegetical work,
entitled Sefer Zikkaron, which is a commentary according to [the
commentary to] the Torah by Rashi of blessed memory, written by
the perfect sage, light of Israel, eminent in Torah and wisdom, the
sage, Rabbi Avraham ha-Levi Bukarat, may his soul be bound up in
the bond of everlasting life, and I completed it today, Monday, the
13th Ḥeshvan, in the year five thousand two hundred and seventy-six
60 Described: Beit-Arié, ‘Hebrew Manuscripts Copied in Jerusalem’, pp. 272–273.
[325]
Nadia Zeldes
to the Creation [1515], here in the town of Lepanto. It was written
by me, Shalom, son of the honored Rabbi Shelomo Yerushalmi for
the exalted and honored Rabbi Moshe Figo, may God preserve him,
Amen. May the merciful one favor him, that he and his children and
his descendants will peruse it until the end of time, in fulfillment of
Scripture: “[the words] which I have placed in your mouth, shall not
be absent from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your children, nor
from the mouth of your children’s children — said the Lord — from
now on for all time” [Isa. 59:21]. Amen, Netsah, Selah.
The Yerushalmi was also a Halakhic scholar and a rabbi. He is known for his ‫שבח‬
‫( שלום‬Shevah ̣ Shalom, In Praise of Peace61), a commentary on the commentaries
of Avraham Ibn Ezra to the weekly portions of Genesis and Numbers.62 In 1504 he
gave a responsum while in Masaraka in the Epirus and another responsum in 1509
in Modon.63 The latest notice comes from 1521 when his name appears among the
leaders of the community of Arta, also in the Epirus.64
The colophons attest to Shalom Yerushalmi’s wanderings in southern Greece
and the Balkans and they probably reflect the uncertain conditions of those years
of war between Venice and the Ottomans. The Venetian colony of Modon was
probably one of the first stopovers for Sicilian exiles who perhaps joined the
existing Jewish community that in 1481 numbered about 300 families, according
to the testimony of Meshulam of Volterra.65 After the 1492 expulsion many exiles
settled in the Venetian colonies, as Venice was not opposed to the settlement of
Sefardi or Sicilian Jews in her territories. Sicilian Jews settled in Venetian Corfu
and in Cyprus, as attested by Moshe Basola and other sources.66 What’s more,
Venetian authorities did not oppose even the coming of conversos who were
61 The title is based on the author’s name, Shalom, according to the custom still in force
today in titles of commentaries or Halakhic works.
62 M. Beit Arié, ‘Hebrew Manuscripts Copied in Jerusalem before the Ottoman
Conquest’, Jerusalem in the Middle Ages, eds. B.Z. Kedar, Z. Baras, Jerusalem 1979,
p. 272 (Hebrew).
63 H. Gross, ‘Jesaja b. Mali da Trani’, Zeitschrift fuer Haebraische Bibliographie, XIII
(1909), p. 49.
64 L. Burstein Makovetski, ‘Life and Society in the Community of Arta in the Sixteenth
Century’, Peamim 45 (1991), p. 133 (Hebrew).
65 Meshulam of Volterra’s Pilgrimage to Eretz Israel, ed. A. Yaari, Jerusalem 1948, p.
83 (Hebrew).
66 Moses Basola: In Zion and Jerusalem: The Itinerary of Rabbi Moses Basola (1521–
1523), ed. A. David, Jerusalem 1999, pp. 10 and 11 (Hebrew) (pp. 50, 52 in the English
translation). See also B. Arbel, ‘The Jews in Cyprus: New Evidence from the Venetian
Period’, Jewish Social Studies, 41 (1979), pp. 23–40
[326]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
obviously returning to Judaism.67 Unfortunately for the Jews who attempted to
settle in this area in the years that followed, war broke out between Venice and
the Ottoman Empire. With war looming, in 1500 Venice ordered the evacuation of
civilians from her colonies of Corfu, Modon, Zante, Napoli (in Romania, today:
Naupolios). Some sources mention the evacuation of Jews specifically while others
refer to civilians in general. In August 1500 Modon fell to the Turks.68 A few
years later, in 1512, Yerushalmi stayed in Patras where he copied the astronomical
work of Ibn Al-Ah ̣dab. According to Jewish and Ottoman sources, in the later
sixteenth century the Jewish community of Patras numbered about 500 families.
However, already at the beginning of the sixteenth century there was according
to the responsa of R. Shemuel Kalai (1500–1578) a Sicilian congregation. In his
responsa, Mishpatei Shemuel, R. Shemuel Kalai mentioned four congregations in
Patras: Greek, Sicilian (two congregations, the Great and the New), and Sefardi.
Since he referred to an agreement among the four congregations that was decided
upon thirty years beforehand, we can safely conclude that the presence of the
Sicilian congregation, the largest of the four, dated to the beginning of the sixteenth
century.69
67 A letter written in January 1507 by Leonardo Bembo, the Venetian bailo, head of
the Venetian colony in Constantinople, reports the arrival in Corfu of three large
Portuguese vessels carrying spices and other goods, and a number of Jews: Marino
Sanuto, I Diarii, R. Fulin ed., Venezia 1884,vol. VI: col. 519–520. See also my article:
N. Zeldes, ‘Spanish Attitudes Toward Converso Emigration to the Levant in the Reign
of the Catholic Monarchs’, Eurasian Studies 2 (2003), p. 272, note 37.
68 The end of the fifteenth century witnessed the loss of the Venetian colonies of Modon,
Coron, Zante and Lepanto. The island of Corfu was lost in 1499 and then recovered.
In the summer of 1499 Venice ordered the evacuation of all civilians from Corfu,
specifically mentioning the Jews in an order addressed to the Captain General in
Corfu: “mandi fuora di la terra tutti i zudei e vollendo quelli andar in Puja o altrove li
dagi i navi”, Sanuto, I diarii, vol. 2, col. 872. In the summer of 1500 Venice ordered
the evacuation of civilians from Modon to Crete: Sanuto, I diarii, vol. 3, Col. 488489, 574. Loss of Modon: Sanuto, I diarii, col. 716–720. For an overall discussion of
the campaigns and politics of this period in the Eastern Mediterranean, see: Setton,
The Papacy and the Levant, vol. 2, pp. 526–51. On the fate of the Jews: Palermo, The
Passage, pp. 33–34.
69 A responsum of R. Shemuel Kalai refers to an agreement and oath made between the
four congregations thirty years beforehand and he also comments that the Sicilians
were currently the dominant group in Patras: '‫עיר שיש בה ארבע קהלות והסכימו כל הד‬
‫ והציציליאני בבית‬,‫ רוצה לומר התושבים ]היוונים[ בבית הכנסת שלהם‬...‫קהלות עתה שלושים שנה‬
‫ שהסיסיליאני הם רבים ולעולם תהיה ידם על הע־‬....‫הכנסת שלהם והספרדים בבית הכנסת שלהם‬
...‫ ונמצא אם כן שיהיו מונהגים תמיד על פי הסיסיליאני‬...‫’ליונה‬, Mishpatei Shemuel, Venice
1599, no. 26, M. Benayahu ed., Mishpatei Shemuel Jerusalem 1989 (Hebrew). On the
community of Patras see: L. Burstein-Makovetzki, ‘The Struggle for Hegemony in
the Community of Patras’, Michael VII (1982), pp. 11–12 (Hebrew). See also: M.A.
[327]
Nadia Zeldes
It is interesting that Yerushalmi continued to copy works of astronomy for his
own use throughout his wanderings, but in 1515 while in Lepanto, he produced a
copy for Moshe Figo. As we have seen, the scribe’s status was considerably lower
than that of the scholar, and for a learned man such as Shalom Yerushalmi to act
as a lowly scribe, it probably meant that he needed the income. Finally, despite
his yearnings for Jerusalem (in a colophon written in Sicily he referred to his own
name — Yerushalmi — and bemoaned his fate, being an exile among the exiles
living far from Jerusalem70) he apparently settled in Arta in the Epirus.
All the colophons discussed above explicitly mentioned Sicilian exiles, either
as copyists, as commissioners of a copy or as owners. Yet, I would like to add a
colophon that can reasonably be attributed to a Sicilian though the author is not
identified as such.
Yom Tov Ibn Faraji, the author of a colophon from 1505 written in Famagusta
(Cyprus), at that time under Venetian rule, says nothing about his origins. However,
the name Faraji is that of a well-known Sicilian family of scholars, whose best
known member is Shemuel Abu El Faraji from the town of Caltabellotta in southwestern Sicily who converted and took the name Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada
and was later known as Flavius Mithridates.71 All this is to say that Ibn Faraji
was indeed a surname carried by Sicilian Jews in the fifteenth century. Another
argument in favor for this Yom Tov Ibn Faraji being a Sicilian is the testimony of
Moshe Basola who visited Famagusta in 1522 and there encountered a number of
Sicilian families: “The Jews there are few and ill-natured; there are approximately
twelve Jewish households. There is hatred and conflict between them and most
of them drink forbidden wine. They are Sicilian”.72 A later testimony, by Elia of
Pesaro who visited Cyprus in 1563 shows that even at that time Sicilians still
maintained their separate identity.73
Epstein, The Ottoman Jewish Communities in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries,
Freiburg 1980, p. 210 and M. Benayahu, The Relations between the Jews of Greece
and the Jews of Italy, Tel-Aviv 1980, pp. 60–64 (Hebrew).
70
‫החתום בשמי שלום ירושלמי והנה להיות כנויי בשם ירושלם עיר הקדש ואני בתוך הגולה מגורשים‬
‫ממנה בעונותינו‬Vatican Ebr. 379 p. 41r
71
Recently a Sicilian historian, Angela Scandaliato, has identified with certainty
Moncada’s family as the Faraji of Caltabellotta: ‘Le radici familiari e culturali di
Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada. Ebreo convertito del rinascimento nell’ “isola dello
specchio” ’, Una manna buona per Mantova: Studi in onore di Vittorio Colorni,
Firenze 2004, pp. 203–240.
72
‫ והם‬,‫ שנאה וקטטה ביניהם ושותי']ם[ יין נסך רובם‬.[‫’'היהודים שם מעט ורעים כמו י'ב בעלי בתי']ם‬
[‫ציציליאני']ם‬, Basola, p. 11 (English translation: Ibid. p. 53)
73
Dov Baer Goldberg and Mordecai Adelman, eds, ‘A Letter from Elia of the Town of
Pesaro in Italy on his Journey to Famagusta in the island of Cyprus’, in Ḥaye ’Olam,
Paris 1879, p. 20 (Hebrew).
[328]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
IX Moscow - Russian State Library, Ms. Guenzburg 559 (F 43058)74
Colophon: fol.93 v
‫יום טוב בן פאראג'י מעתיק מדרש לחמישה חומשי תורה של ר' יהושע ן' שועב‬
Colophon:
‫אני יום טוב ן' פ'אראג'י כתבתי וסיימתי זה הספר מבן שועב והשלמתי אותו ליל‬
‫יום ו' באיילת השחר כ"ה ימים לחודש חשו"ן שנה ה' אלפים ומאתים ושישה וששים‬
‫לבריאת עולם באי קוברוז בעיר פ˙אמאגושטה והשם יזכני להגות בו אני וזרעי וזרע‬
‫זרעי דכתי']ב[ ולא ימושו מפיך ומפי זרעך ומפי זרע זרעך אמר השם אנס ]אמן נצח‬
.‫סלה[ בפרשת אשר בו רוח חיים‬
Translation:
Yom Tov ben Faraji, copyist of R. Yoshua Ibn Shū’āb homiletic
commentary to the Pentateuch
Colophon:
I, Yom Tov Ibn Faraji, copied this book by Ibn Shū’āb, completing it
at dawn on Friday, 25 Ḥeshvan, the year five thousand two hundred
and six and sixty to the Creation [1505] on the island of Cyprus, in
the city of Famagusta. May God favor me, that I and my children
and my descendants will peruse it, as Scripture states: “[the words]
which I have placed in your mouth, shall not be absent from your
mouth, nor from the mouth of your children, nor from the mouth of
your children’s children — said the Lord — from now on for all time”
[Isa. 59:21]. Amen, Netsah, Selah. The weekly portion of “in which
there is breath of life” [Noah ̣; Gen. 6:17, 7:15, 7:22].
According to a Venetian engraving from 1571, thus reflecting the local conditions
until Cyprus’s conquest by the Ottoman Turks, the Jews of Famagusta lived in a
separate quarter, the zeùcha, which in the Venetian dialect is identical to the Italian
term giudecca, situated in the southern part of the town.75 The separation of the
Jews from the rest of the population is in accordance with Basola’s description
of the local customs concerning the Jews, namely that “a Jew will not touch
bread or other foodstuffs unless he first purchases them, for the Greeks do not
eat or drink anything a Jew has touched”.76 Both the avoidance of the Jews by the
74 B. Roth, ‘Regarding the History of the Jews in Cyprus’, Sefunot, 8 (1964), p. 292
(Hebrew).
75 Arbel, ‘The Jews in Cyprus’, pp. 25–26.
76 Basola, p. 53.
[329]
Nadia Zeldes
local population and the existence of a separate quarter in all likelihood meant
that the Jews, especially newcomers, were isolated from the general population
and probably continued for a long time to use their own dialect. This might be
relevant in our case. Ibn Faraji is a name derived from the Arabic, and although
the copyist could have been a Spanish or Portuguese Jew, given the presence of
Sicilian exiles in Famagusta already in 1522, it is not unreasonable to suppose that
he was actually a Sicilian Jew. In that case his use of the Arabic name of Cyprus,
“Ḳubrus”77 in the colophon instead of the Venetian Cypro, the Turkish Kıbrıs, the
Greek Kúpros or the Hebrew Italianate name of Zipri (‫)צפר"י‬,78 could reflect the
continuing influence of the Judeo-Arabic dialect used by Sicilian Jews even in the
fifteenth century.
Conclusions
Using the colophons cited and discussed above as an historical source offer a
double advantage: they are among the few primary sources that help us trace the
movements of the Sicilian exiles in the first decades after the expulsion, and they
also offer a glimpse of the cultural world of the Sicilian intellectual elite. So far,
most of the information regarding the fate of Sicilians exiles immediately after the
expulsion comes from documents of legal nature issued by Neapolitan or Sicilian
authorities that concern mainly taxation, litigation and privileges. The Hebrew
colophons offer a more personal note, a more intimate source where the exiles
related their own experiences and expressed their feelings, such as the anonymous
Sicilian exile who mournfully counted the thirteen years that had passed since
the expulsion, or the Spanish scribe who referred to the loss of his house and
property.
Another matter, the colophons attest to the spread of the exiled Sicilians Jews
even outside the kingdom of Naples, in Italy and in the eastern Mediterranean. It
is reasonable to surmise that the individuals mentioned in the colophons were part
of larger groups of exiles for they would have needed economic support and social
contacts with other refugees in order to survive, and it stands to reason that these
groups were formed by fellow Sicilians. In any case, other sources that attest to the
presence of Sicilian Jews in the same places mentioned in the colophons support
this hypothesis.
The colophons indicate that given a choice, the exiles and especially the
intellectual elite, preferred to remain under Christian rule rather than migrate to the
77
78
‘Ḳubrus’, by A.H. de Groot, The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, vol. 6, Leiden
1986, pp. 301–309.
‘‫’האיסולה דצפר'י‬, Basola, p.11.
[330]
Sicilian Hebrew Colophons
Ottoman Empire. Thus, they apparently wanted to settle in Italy or in the Venetian
colonies, and only the vicissitudes of war and conquest forced them into Turkish
territory. This conclusion merits more studies and perhaps comparisons with the
choices made by Spanish and Portuguese exiles at about the same time.
One of the characteristics of the Sicilian intellectual elite, was, as before
the expulsion, the interest in the sciences as they were perceived in this period:
medicine, mathematics, grammar and astronomy, which included astrology. Most
of the books copied belong to that category. Only a minority of the works copied
are commentaries, Bible codices and Halakhic works. In some cases the latter were
commissioned by others, therefore, the act of copying them does not necessarily
reflect the copyist’s choice. The preference for what we might define as “secular”,
“lay” or “scientific” learning to the Halakha, might explain the low esteem for
Sicilian Jews expressed by Italian or Spanish visitors to Sicily. R. Obadiah of
Bertinoro’s criticism of the Jews of Palermo for their moral laxity is well-known79,
but perhaps even more significant is a comment found in a travel guide still in
manuscript form and so far unpublished. The guide is included in a collection of
letters completed in 1501 by Meshulam Cusi ben Moshe Ya’aqov of Mestre (near
Venice), instructing Jewish travelers how to reach Sicily.80 The author suggests
to the traveler that a scholar would easily find a living in Palermo: “How good
and pleasant it is (Psalms 133:1) to put your mind to go to the city of Sicily (i.e.
Palermo) as there you will gain a name and become famous, for in that city there
is no one who preaches and no one who seeks Torah and wisdom...”.81 To these
words we can add the comments of Yitshaq ben Avraham Montizon regarding the
scholars of Syracuse, cited above. The peculiarities of the Sicilian Jews’ cultural
world are worthy of further study but this argument goes beyond the scope of the
present article. In any case, it is doubtful that these peculiarities survived beyond
the first generation of exiles, given the relatively small number of Sicilians and the
hardships they endured first in southern Italy and then in the Venetian colonies:
war, sacks, capture and impoverishment. Not to speak of the pressures exerted by
other congregations living in the same towns as the Sicilians (see for example the
responsa of Shemuel Kalai cited above).
79 R. Obadiah: From Italy to Jerusalem: The Letters of Rabbi Obadiah of Bertinoro from
the Land of Israel, ed. A. David, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 1997, p. 38 (Hebrew).
See also: E. Horowitz, ‘Towards a Social History of Jewish Popular Religion: Obadiah
of Bertinoro on the Jews of Palermo’, Journal of Religious History 17 (1992), pp.
138–151.
80 As the guide mentions the presence of Jews in Sicily it must have been either written
before the expulsion or copied by the author from an older original.
81 ‫( היות דעתך ללכת אל מדינת ציציליאה כי שם תהיה לשם‬1:‫הנה טוב ומה נעים )תהלים קלג‬
‫ולתפארת כי במדינה הזאת אין דורש ואין מבקש תורה וחכמה‬: MS. Ginzburg 722/3, (F. F
47566), p. 31v.
[331]
Nadia Zeldes
Also interesting are the relationships between Sicilian exiles and Spanish or
Italian Jews. The colophon written in Reggio Calabria by Shemuel Ibn Musa haSefardi for Yosef ha-Dayyan the Sicilian shows that in the period immediately
succeeding the expulsion, some members of the Sicilian elite still kept their wealth.
Yosef ha-Dayyan had the means to commission a copy of the Lilium Medicinae
whereas the Sefardi scribe complained of the necessity to “lift his hand in battle”
and “his fingers in war” to earn his daily bread. On the other hand, the Sicilian who
copied the Bible for a Jew of Valmontone, was probably in need of work and that
could be the reason he left his town of Sonnino to work in Genazzano. A scholar
such as Shalom Yerushalmi continued to copy manuscripts for his own use, but
the latest colophon shows that he served as scribe for another. Does this hint at
the impoverishment of the exiles with the passage of the years and the enforced
wanderings?
To conclude, the colophons offer a rare opportunity to trace the wanderings
of Sicilian Jews in the first years after the expulsion, sound the individual voices
of the exiles and glimpse their cultural world in a period for which there are few
other sources.
[332]