Nahmanides in Medieval Catalonia: History, Community, and Messianism » (1)

Nina Caputo situates Nahmanides (1195-1270), the brilliant Talmudic scholar, in medieval Catalonia and in the important discourse anticipating messianic redemption that began developing there in the late thirteenth century. Caputo argues that Nahmanides' role in negotiating Jewish-Christian interactions and mediating relations among Jews, as well as his formulation of fresh systematic approach to exegesis, reflects a sense of historical and chronological contingency expressed through out this writings.

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

1 The Maimonidean Controversy: In Defense of Reasonable Faith 19

2 Timely Matters: Nahmanides' Historical Reading of Genesis 53

3 The Barcelona Disputation: Text, Rhetoric, and Cultural Politics 91

4 At the Threshold of Redemption: Daniel and Messianic Discourse in Thirteenth-Century Catalonia 129

5 Language and Literature: Nahmanides' Disputation Account and Narrative in the Catalonian Vernacular 159

Notes 181

Bibliography 259

Index 313