Medieval History

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Internet Medieval Sourcebook

Selected Sources: Iberia

• General
• Visigothic Spain
• Al-Andulus: Moorish Spain
• The "Reconquista"
• Leon and Castile
• Aragon
• Portugal
• The Life of Christian Spain
• Seferad: Jewish Spain

• See also section on Exploration and Expansion

General

There is very little material available in etext form, as yet, about medieval Spain and Portugal. There are three offsite archives:

• WEB  AARHMS Web
  The American Association of Research Historians of Medieval Spain [AARHMS] maintains an which includes an Archive section devoted to putting such Iberian material online. It is still fairly sparse at this stage.
• WEB  Libro: The Library of Iberian Resources Online.
  A major site that contains the full texts of a number of important modern studies of medieval Iberia by leading authorities.

• Professions of Faith Extracted from Jews on Baptism, Visigothic and Byzantine
• The Jews of Spain and the Visigothic Code, 654-681
• The Visigothic Code (Forum iudicum) ed. and trans. by S.P. Scott (Print edition: Boston Book Company, 1910)  [At Libro]

• Ibn Abd-el-Hakem: The Islamic Conquest of Spain .
• Al Maggari: Tarik's Address to His Soldiers, 711 CE, from The Breath of Perfumes
• The Poetry of the Spanish Moors, Selections
• Kenneth Baxter: Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain (Cambridge University Press, 1988) [At Libro]

• Robert Southey: The Chronicle of the Cid, 1637, full text, but not entirely a translation of any one Spanish text [At Project Gutenberg]. See also Catholic Encyclopedia: EL CID
• The Lay of the Cid (Translation: R.Selden Rose& L. Bacon) [OMACL 30]
• James Goodman: Ransoming Captives in Crusader Spain: The Order of Merced on the Christian-Islamic Frontier, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986), complete text [At Libro]

• A Late-Medieval Spanish Nobleman: Don Juan Pacheco, Master of the Order of Santiago (1419-1474),  with original notes, translated by Simon Doubleday

• James I of Aragon: The Barcelona Navigation Act, 1227
• James I of Aragon: Grant of Trade Privileges to Barcelona, 1232
• James I of Aragon: Improvement of Harbor Facilities in Barcelona, 1243
• James I of Aragon: The Barcelona Maritime Code, 1258
• Rule of the Lady Hospitallers of the Royal Monastery of Sigena, 1188, in Latin, [At Internet Archive, from Kansas]
  The Royal Monastery of Sigena was an institution of Lady Hospitallers and enjoyed a great deal of independence and influence. It would appear that its Rule was the work of Sancha, Queen of Aragon.

• Osbernus: De expugnatione Lyxbonensi [The Capture of Lisbon], 1147.
• Sir Jean Froissart: John of Gaunt in Portugal, 1385

• Arxiu, Capitular of Vic, Various translated texts.[At Libro]
• Leyenda de Santiago (translated by William Granger Ryan).[At UCLA] This version of the Legend of Santiago is taken from The Golden Legend, by Jacobus de Voragine. The page contains links to other legends about medieval Spanish pilgrimage centers [In Spanish.][At UCLA]
• Spill: A Fictional Pilgrimage from Valencia to Santiago in the Fifteenth Century, From the Spill or Book of Women by the fifteenth-century Valencian medical doctor, Jaume Roig.[At UCLA]
• Indulgences granted to the Confraternity of Belchite, 1136. [At Libro]
• available 10/24/2000

• Benjamin of Tudela (1160-1173): The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela Critical Text, Translation and Commentary by Marcus Nathan Adler. [At Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
• Royal Grants to the Jewish Community of Barcelona, 1241-1271, trans. Elka Klein
• Barcelona Jewish Court Documents: A Jewish Widow and her Daughter, 1261-1262, trans. Elka Klein
• Barcelona Jewish Court Documents: A Daughter's Inheritance, 1293, trans. Elka Klein
• Jewish Community of Barcelona: The Book of Document Forms, 13th century, trans. Elka Klein
• Jewish Views of  Royal Monetary Policy in Aragon, 13th Century, trans. Elka Klein.
• The Siete Partidas: Concerning Jews, 1265.
• Judah Ha-Levi (ca 1075-1141): The Kuzari, also known as The Book of Argument and Proof in Defense of the Despised Faith (Kitab al Khazari).
  The entire first book of the Kuzari, a philosophical treatise written by the Spanish Jewish philosopher and poet, Judah Ha-Levi. It is written in the form of a dialogue, purportedly between the king of the Khazars and the representatives of various belief systems, culminating with a rabbi.
• Jews and Christians in Teruel: The Fuero of Teruel, 1176 CE, trans. Elka Klein
  Excerpts from the Fuero, or urban ordinance.
• A Business Partnership between a Jew and Christian in Barcelona, 1235-1242 CE
  Documents on exploitation of royal mills by Jews and Christians in Barcelona.
• Ordinance of the Jews of the Crown of Aragon, 1354 CE
  This ordinance or takkanah was the product of  an increased sense of Jewish vulnerability in the years after the Black Death (1348).
• Synod of Castilian Jews, 1432
  Ordinances from  assembly of the Jews of the kingdom of Castile at Valladolid in 1432.
• The Expulsion from Spain, 1492
  Account by an Italian Jew.

NOTES: copyrighted means the text is not available for free distribution. In some cases alternate versions are available, and are working through the pipeline. Dates of accession of material can be seen in the New Accessions Page. The date of inception was 1/20/1996. Links to files at other site are indicated by [At some indication of the site name or location]. No indication means that the text file is local. WEB indicates a link to one of small number of high quality web sites which provide either more texts or an especially valuable overview.