Recently, a new document of significant linguistic and literary interest has enriched the corpus of Judeo-Provençal texts. Preserved in a single copy, it is written on fols. 190vâ192r of manuscript 3140 of the Biblioteca Casantense in Rome.1
The text, which I decided to call MaÊ¿asé-ʾEster2 (from now on ME), i.e. âEstherâs affairsâ, for reasons that will become clear later on, was probably composed around 1320â1330 in Salon-de-Provence and it is a metrical rearrangement in Judeo-Provençal3 of the story of Esther, to be recited during the banquet for Purim.
Within the rather modest corpus of medieval Judeo-Provençal documents,4 there is a disproportionate number of texts that recall the story of Esther and deal with the topic of Purim: in addition to ME, there are the Roman dââ¯Esther by Israel Caslari and some maxims on wine and the joy of banqueting. The blessing on the miracles (Ê¿al ha-Nissim) contained in the only Judeo-Provençal Siddur (fols. 102râ102v),5 can also be included, since, by summarizing the story of Esther to explain the miracles of Purim, it presents in fact another version of the same story composed in Provençal. If we extend the research outside the Judeo-Provençal corpus, looking into the literary production on the theme of Purim composed in Hebrew in medieval Provence, we may also find exegetical treatises such as that of Yosef Caspi (Gelilé kesef) or Levi ben Gershon (Perush âal Megillat Ester); in addition, there are various piyyutim (including that of the same Israel Caslari) and some parodies,6 among which the most famous are Kalonymos ben Kalonymosâ Massekhet Purim or the Sefer ha-Baqbuq ha-Naviʾ and the Megillat setarim by Levi ben Gershon.
All of these texts, composed either in Hebrew or in Judeo-Provençal, focus on the Book of Esther, they all belong to the same timeframe (the TwentiesâForties of the XIVth century) and were written by authors who lived in Provence (Avignon, Salon-de-Provence, and Arles); some of them, like Levi ben Gershon and Israel, often wrote about this topic (exegetical treatises/parodies; religious poetry; romanz), choosing different literary genres each time.
Therefore, it seems clear that this tradition became especially relevant in Provence at the beginning of the XIVth century. The reasons behind this phenomenon will be discussed in detail later, but it is likely that it was caused by a series of elements, among which were the birth of parody as a literary genre (at the end of the XIIIth century); the learned debate on whether or not to put the translations of the Holy Scripture in writing; the general Jewish receptiveness towards Provençal literature, dated precisely around the end of the XIIIth and the beginning of the XIVth century.
The special bond between Jewish Provence and the stories of Esther and Mordecai persisted: the Tragediou de la Reina Ester was written by Mardoché Astruc in the XVIIth century, to be acted in the Jewish quarter during Purim, and in 1929 Armand Lunel wrote an opéra bouffe for the same purpose with the title Esther de Carpentras. Modern authors do not seem to know the medieval Judeo-Provençal production, or at least not directly in its written form; but it seems evident that reading and then reciting in the vernacular the rewritings of the story of Esther during Purim is a very strongly felt and rooted tradition among the Jews of Provence and reflects their identity.
This study focuses on ME, giving a critical edition of the text and a linguistic and content analysis. The critical edition of ME is accompanied by a critical apparatus, a linguistic commentary and a series of notes examining the sources (especially the Bible and the Midrash but also some potential Romance-language sources), and from time to time I compare ME with other Judeo-Provençal, Judeo-Italian and Judeo-Spanish texts on the same topic. A glossary collects and explains all Provençal and Hebrew words present in the text. Finally, there are two âdiplomaticâ editions: the transcription of the Hebrew text of the manuscript Casanatense 3140 and its transliteration in Latin letters. At the end of the volume, a chapter contains a codicological analysis of the codex unicus (ms. Rome, Casanatense 3140) and some conjectures on its history, based on the notes of possession and colophons.
The specific study of the text is preceded by an introduction on its context, where I also consider other texts on Queen Esther and Purim from the medieval, Judeo-Provençal corpus, especially the Roman dââ¯Ester. Nonetheless, a few words must be said on the interesting group of medieval Judeo-Provençal texts. However small, the corpus displays a typologically extremely varied collection of literary or sub-literary genres. This also has linguistic consequences because it allows us to observe how the Judeo-Provençal language is shaped in a series of stylistic variations within different contexts.
As far as we know, the corpus includes/consists of:
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The Roman dââ¯Esther by Israel Caslari, probably written in Avignon in the 1340s. It is preserved by a single fragmentary copy in New York, Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, ms. 3740, fols. 23vâ29v(XVthâXVIth cent.);7
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The MaÊ¿asé-Ester (Rome, Casanatense Library ms. 3140, fols. 290vâ292r, XIVth cent.);8
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Five mottos about wine and joy preserved in three manuscripts: Vatican, Bibliotheca Apostolica ms. 107, fol. 196v (ca. 1438), Oxford, Bodleian Library, ms. 2746, fol. 47b (XVth cent.), Cambridge, University Library, ms. 2661, fol. 33a (XVth cent.);9
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The Judeo-Provençal Siddur, the book of daily and Festival prayers (Leeds, University Library, ms. Roth 32, XVth cent.);10
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Three Epithalamia (Jerusalem, JNUL ms. Heb. 8° 3312, XVth cent.);11
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Many glosses, translating difficult Hebrew words, contained in biblical commentaries, grammars and scientific books;12
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Some account books written by Jewish merchants (such as Marseille, Archives Communales, ms. Ii, XIVth cent. and Krakow, Jagellonian University Library, ms. Przyb/163/92, XIVth cent.).13
Most of the texts have a liturgical or paraliturgical purpose: the Siddur is a translation, mostly used by women, of the prayers for the annual cycle of Jewish holidays; the epithalamia are composed for weddings; the translations of the story of Esther and probably the sayings on wine were conceived for the celebration of Purim.
A common trait to all texts of the corpus, despite their diversity, is the lively, innovative and creative bond with the Holy Scripture, which is constant in post-biblical Jewish literature up until contemporary literature: literary and even ironic uses of Biblical quotations, show us that the Bible is always present as a creative source and an indispensable cultural reference.
The literary production of Provençal Jews also gave birth to the scientific culture of that time, and not by chance: in the Middle Ages, because of their work in the translation and dissemination of texts, Jews were often responsible for passing Arabic scientific knowledgeâwhich had already absorbed âGreek wisdomââto Christian western society.14 Therefore, it is not surprising to find so many references to science in Judeo-Provençal literature. Even the Roman dââ¯Estherâthe work of a Jewish doctorâquotes Galen and suggests the latest remedies and diets, though it describes a traditional banquet for Purim.
Even in the case of Biblical glosses, therefore tied to the interpretation of the Holy Scripture, the terms selected are usually scientific ones, including rare words referring to stones, plants, animals. Behind the choice of a specific translation from the Bible, there is always a rigorous scientific research. The area of the glosses also allows us to introduce another element that pervades all Judeo-Provençal literature, or perhaps all of Jewish literature: the attention paid to the language, in all its implications from grammar to wordplays, and consequently the act of translation.
This strong, metalinguistic sense is widely developed within diasporic Judaism also because of the diglossia Jews were frequently involved in, divided between everyday language and the Hebrew of faith and culture. Bilingualism is at the basis of (not only) Judeo-Provençal literature, which builds its stylistic peculiarity upon it.15
In this respect, it is especially interesting to note how between Hebrew and the local language, a relationship forms, not so different from what happens in the earliest Romance poetry with Latin and the newly arisen languages. In this case, the Romance language often constitutes the gloss of the Latin, in the sense Paul Zumthor gives to the word: a heteroglossic linguistic unit inserted in a text and of a lower register than the language of the text, born together with the text itself, for which it serves as annotation and explanation.16 The alternation of two registers, a more sophisticated one and a less formal one, creates a strong dynamism within the text, which is considered stylistically precious. Within the Judeo-Provençal corpus this is clearly visible in the Roman dââ¯Esther, and especially in the epithalamia, enriched by Hebrew, biblical and talmudic quotations, with an extraordinary effect of opposition.
The attention to the productive and playful potential of the languageâtypical of the initial phase of a growing languageâbecomes evident also in the openness towards neologisms and calques, which is extreme in the case of biblical translations, as represented by the Siddur and by glosses: the meaning of the Provençal word is bended towards the Hebrew, or in many cases the word is even made up through etymological parallels with the Holy Tongue, in order to be the exact calque and alter ego of the original word.
Under a literary point of view, the openness towards linguistic creativity becomes experimentalism, another trait in common with the very first products of the Romance language. Especially for the Occitan area, we may consider the early birth of the main literary genres, still unripe but destined to a full consecration in the more mature phases of literature: from the topic of love and the troubadour women, to the sirventes (the Liebesstrophen of ms. Harley 2750),17 to the theatre (the Sponsus) and so on.18
In the case of Judeo-Provençal literatureâeven though this is not an early production in relation to Provençal tout court, since the time frame these texts belong to ranges from approximately the XIIIth to the XVth centuryâthe few texts preserved seem to display the same âenthusiasmâ and gusto for experimentation: romanz and poetry, exegetic literature and religious production. It appears to be a ânewâ literature wishing to assert itselfâthough in its limited spaceâalongside the more famous Hebrew and Provençal literatures, in order to give expression and a language to Provençal Judaism, which was finding its own dimension in those centuries, combining tradition with the extraordinary local culture it took part in.
The first 190 pages the manuscript contains the first two books of Moses Maimonidesâ Mishneh Torah (Sefer ha-MaddaÊ¿ and Sefer ha-ʾAhavah, fols. 1râ190r).
This is, as I will explain later, my own reconstruction, i.e. my proposed integration of the lacuna found in the colophon precisely where the title of the text is given.
I consider âJudeo-Provençalâ the Provençal language written in Hebrew letters. For a general overview of the âProvençal of the Jewsâ see Aslanov 2001.
For a list of texts and bibliography see infra, XI.
For further details concerning the ms., see infra, XI.
For a list and analysis of all parodic texts on Purim see Davidson 1907: 134â143.
For the bibliography on RdE, see Meyer-Neubauer 1892: 194â227; Pansier 1925:5â18; Silberstein 1973; Huchet 1991: 173â184; Viguier 1992: 569â582; Méjean Thiolier-Notz Grob 1997 (particularly 124â157); Wanono 1999: 349â378; Einbinder 2005: 437â463 and 2009: 84â111; 193â207; Choffrut 2009: 30â35; Piudik 2014; Baricci 2014: 222â244, 2014b: 9â50, 2017: 367â388.
On ME see Baricci 2014; Baricci 2017; Strich-Jochnowitz 2016: 523.
I would like to thank Dr. Roni Cohen for the transcription of the mottos from the manuscripts in Oxford and Cambridge.
To this day there are only a few, partial studies on this manuscript: Lazar 1970b: 575â590, a note in Lazar 1995: XII; FrojmoviÄ 1997: 54â55 (this is the codicological card in the catalog of the show Hebraica and Judaica from the Cecil Roth Collection, held in 1997 in Leeds); a few references in Jochnowitz 1981, Aslanov 2001, Kahn 2011, Baricci 2014a, Strich-Jochnowitz 2016: 520â523, Baricci 2022: 41â55.
Cf. Lazar 1967: 159â177 e Lazar 1970a: 333â346. Note, however, that Strich-Jochnowitz 2016: 523 remove from the corpus the three epithalamia, citing them as linguistically more Catalan than Provençal.
See specifically: Thomas 1897: 337â339; Saenz-Badillos 1987: 46â49; Aslanov 1996: 5â25; Aslanov 2001; Aslanov 2003: 9â42; Kogel 2008: 331â337; Kogel 2009: 3â16; Kogel 2014; Bos-Mensching 2000: 17â51; Bos-Mensching 2001: 21â40, Bos-Hussein-Mensching-Savelsberg 2011.
Meyer 1898: 129â170; Schwab 1913: 7â98; Olszowy-Schlanger 2014: 97â147; Sibon 2014: 1â13.
On this topic see Fontaine 2011; Freudenthal 2011; Fontaine-Freudenthal 2013; Fidora-Hames-Schwartz, 2013.
Cf. Fudeman 2009 with regard to Judeo-French.
Zumthor 1963: 92â94.
London, British Library, ms. Harley 2750.
Meneghetti 1997: 163; 179.