On the Western Shores: The Jews of Barcelona during the Reign of Jaume I, 'El Conqueridor,' 1213-1276 (SPAIN, CATALONIA, SEPHARDIM, MEDITERRANEAN).

Taking the position that micro-historical studies of local Jewish communities serve to illuminate the wider picture of Jewish life in medieval Mediterranean Spain, this dissertation focuses on the Jews of Barcelona during the reign of Jaume I, 'el Conqueridor,' (1213-1276). Through a systematic examination of over three thousand paper and parchment documents from the Archives of the Crown of Aragon and the Capitular Archives of Barcelona (a project never undertaken before), this dissertation studies the physical, economic and social environment of Barcelona's Jews in the thirteenth century, and offers important insights into their daily commercial and family lives.Collation and close examination of the archival sources (along with use of several important archaeological reports) enabled: a discussion of methodological problems and earlier, fragmented scholarly studies (Chapter 1); an historical survey of Jewish settlement in Barcelona from late antiquity to the thirteenth century, indicating longevity and continuity of Jewish residence (Chapter 2); a reconstruction of the boundaries and important public edifices of Barcelona's Jewish quarter and identification of the location of one to the quarter's main entrance points, (Chapter 3); a compilation of genealogies and mini-histories for some of the city's most prominent Jewish families, leading to the conclusion that Barcelona's Jewish patriciate guided and molded the character of Jewish life in the city (Chapter 4); a thorough study of Barcelona's Jews as moneylenders, indicating that the scale of their involvement in this enterprise was fairly modest (Chapter 5); an assessment of the daily, mundane ("unofficial") contacts between Jews and Christians in Barcelona, which suggests that inter-faith relations were amicable but distant, and were generally guided by pragmatic interests (Chapter 6); compilation of an onamasticon for Jews living in thirteenth-century Barcelona (Appendix B); and presentation of a selection of hitherto unpublished documents from the capitular and royal archives.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 1986.School code: 0031