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500 Years of Ladino Literature

an overview

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Overview

What is Ladino? Sephardic languages Pre-1492 Ottoman diaspora

Conversos and Western Diaspora Modernity USA

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What is Ladino?

Castilian (ca. 1492) Hebrew Turkish, Arabic, French, Slavic, etc. French influence: Alliance Isralite

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Sephardic languages

Hebrew Ladino Diasporic languages Question of relative prestige

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Pre-1492

Was there a Jewish Spanish beforeexpulsion?

Literary or liturgic ladino Context: how is the language used? Calque: Hebrew meaning, Castilian

words

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Coplas de la muerte (16th c.)

Couplets on the Death of his father Jorge Manrique (ca. 1440-1479) Included in manuscript with

philosophical and religious texts Manscript from Salonika

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Coplas de la muerte

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Recuerde el alma dormida,avive el seso y despiertecontemplando

cmo se pasa la vida,cmo se viene la muertetan callando;cun presto se va el placer,cmo despus de acordado

da dolor,cmo a nuestro parescer cualquiera tiempo pasadofue mejor.

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Ottoman diaspora

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Ottoman diaspora

Sultan Bayazid II to Ferdinand Jewish press 1493 > Salonika

Majority Jewish Concentration of merchants Over 40 synagogues (turn of 20th c)

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Seder Nashim (Salonika,

1550) Prayer book for women Preceded by handwritten version from

Spain Prayers and hand-washing times for all

days of the year

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Seder Nasim

Es sidur de mugeres en Ladino paratodo el anyo con su orden deberakhot al fin. Y el orden del lavarde las manos y otros muchos dinim los que vienen a propsito en

cada...

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Dialoghi de amore (1568)

Most important philosophical text of itstime

First published in Italian Original language? Dialogues between Philo and Sophia on

nature of love

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Venice edition inRomancharacters

1568

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Sabbateanism and the

Donmeh Shabbeti Tzvi (1626-1676) False messiah Converts to Islam Donmeh sect of Islamic messianic Jews

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Tzvi and Ladino

Lingua franca in Turkish Jewry Avid singer of romansas (ballads) Kabalistic interpretation of Ladino love

songs

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Romansa de Meliselda

(17th c.) Traditional Spanish ballad

Melisenda/Meliselda

Extremely popular in 16th centurycollections of ballads printed in Spain

Used in Donmeh liturgy

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This night my cavaliersI slept with a maidenwhose equal I have never metin the best years of my life.Meliselda is her name,Meliselda elegant and beautifulalong the course of a river

and the slope of a hillI met Meliselda,daughter of the Emperor who came to bathe herself in the waters of the seato bathe herself and refresh

herself,

and to change her garment.Thus she brings her body

pure as snow

with her rosy face,like milk and blood;her russet hair

like threads of goldher gleaming forehead

like a mirror;her nose upliftedlike the quill of a scribe;her red lips,like the coral;

and her little teeth,like pearls.

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Biblia de Ferrara (1533)

Vernacular translation of Tanakh Prepared for Italian and other

Sephardim educated in Spanish,Portuguese, or Latin

Derived authority from high level of Spanish

Roman characters

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Isaac (Fernando) Cardoso

1603 (Portugal) - 1683 (Italy) University at Salamanca

Court Physician to Phillip IV Emigrated to Italy Anti-Kabbalist

Brother Abraham Miguel Cardoso, major Sabbatean and Kabbalist

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Las Excelencias de los

Hebreos 1679 History of Jewish people Catalog of outstanding traits Refutation of common calumnies

against Jews Spanish or Ladino?

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Zohar in Ladino (1876)

Vernacular translations of selections of the Zohar

Ottoman diaspora (Belgrade, Smyrna,etc)

Trans. Avraham Fintsi

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Election of letter to begin

creationPara el prinsipiyo entro la letra de [taf] al prinsipiyo dio: soy delmundo, gustas por krear kon mi elmundo ke leo su letra del seyo tuyoke es [emet] konviene a el reypor enpesar kon [emet] y por krear kon mi el mundo.

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La brigante (Jerusalem, 1911)

Modern novels adapted in Ladino serialization in Ladino press French influence

Alliance schools Many novels originally French

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Bella Starr

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USA

Major emigration following mandatoryconscription in Turkey (1909)

Important centers in New York Seattle Los Angeles

Active Ladino press in NY (1918-1944)

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La vara (1922)

Published in NY (1922-1948) Editorial offices on Rivington St. in L.E.

Side

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