Description
Book SynopsisThe Black Death of 1348-50 devastated Europe. With mortality estimates ranging from thirty to sixty percent of the population, it was arguably the most significant event of the fourteenth century. Nonetheless, its force varied across the continent, and so did the ways people responded to it. Surprisingly, there is little Jewish writing extant that directly addresses the impact of the plague, or even of the violence that sometimes accompanied it. This absence is particularly notable for Provence and the Iberian Peninsula, despite rich sources on Jewish life throughout the century.
In After the Black Death, Susan L. Einbinder uncovers Jewish responses to plague and violence in fourteenth-century Iberia and Provence. Einbinder''s original research reveals a wide, heterogeneous series of Jewish literary responses to the plague, including Sephardic liturgical poetry; a medical tractate written by the Jewish physician Abraham Caslari; epitaphs inscribed on the tombstones of tw
Trade Review
"After the Black Death offers a compassionate cultural history of the plague and its influence on the Iberian Jewish community...In her unique style, [Einbinder] both conveys the evocative language of the medieval texts and produces a contemplative history on humanity and resilience. This book is a must read for scholars studying and teaching the plague—not only because of its focus on the Jewish community which unwillingly played an important role in the social events that followed its wake, but for its sensitive and inquisitive attempt to bring to the fore the ways in which the plague, and historical events more broadly, imprint people’s lives. Herein lies its even greater and more universal value." * The Catholic Historical Review *
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1. Before the Plague: Anti-Jewish Violence and the Pastoureaux
Chapter 2. Emanuel ben Joseph: Trauma and the Commemorative Lament
Chapter 3. Abraham Caslari: A Jewish Physician on the Plague
Chapter 4. Stones of Memory: The Toledo Epitaphs
Chapter 5. Bones and Poems: Perpetrators and Victims
Appendix. The Toledo Plague Epitaphs: Translations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
