Language:
English
Year of publication:
2018
Titel der Quelle:
AJS Review
Angaben zur Quelle:
42,2 (2018) 381-401
Keywords:
Chrétien,
;
Jews History 1500-1800
;
Tales, Jewish
;
Christianity and other religions Judaism
;
Judaism Relations
;
Christianity
;
Arthurian romances Adaptations
;
Manuscripts, Hebrew
Abstract:
Evidence of Jewish readerships for French literature in the Middle Ages, particularly romances, has been accumulating. This article focuses on a recently discovered tale from Italy, copied in Hebrew in MS JTS Rab. 1164, as a prism through which to explore the cultural interactions between Jewish and Christian society in Italy of the early Renaissance. I first analyze the Jewish tale, which I posit has an affinity with the Arthurian romance "Yvain, The Knight of the Lion" by Chrétien de Troyes, and expound on the thematic and poetic links between the two stories. I then examine "Yvain's" reception in Italy as part of a broader phenomenon involving the acceptance, copying, adaptation, and assimilation of French romances in Italy into vernacular Italian. Finally, I present the story and the factors that played a role in its reception in the context of Italian Jewish society. The entirety of the review offers an overall portrait of the story's reception as a unique socioliterary phenomenon shared by Jews and non-Jews alike in Italy in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.
Note:
About ms. New York - Jewish Theological Seminary Rab. 1164/3
DOI:
10.1017/S0364009418000454
URL:
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