Date:
Location:
Dr. Katelyn Mesler, Postdoctoral Fellow, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
presents a lecture:
“In the Language of the Christians”: On the Role of Latin among Late Medieval Sephardic Jews
Monday, February 1, 4:00 p.m. ~~ 6 Divinity Avenue, room 201
For the Jews of medieval Iberia, aspects of Arabic language and thought remained integral to Jewish culture long after Muslim dominion was replaced by Christian rule. But as Sephardic Jews became entangled in a Christian environment, Latin—though not easily accessible—became an increasingly important point of reference. This talk will highlight Sephardic Jews’ use of Latin in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to show how they engaged actively with the culture and intellectual traditions of the Christian majority.
Katelyn Mesler is a research fellow at the Sidney M. Edelstein Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Her research is concerned primarily with the interactions of Jewish and Christian cultures in medieval Europe.
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Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University