The Ma'asé-Ester. a Judeo-Provençal Poem about Queen Esther

A Critical Edition with Commentary
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-90-04-51422-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 92, 274 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 610 g

Reihe: Études sur le judaïsme médiéval

The Ma‘asé-Ester, “Esther’s affairs”, is a 14th-century Judeo-Provençal poem on the story of Esther, intended for a recital during the banquet for Purim.

The short poem – recently discovered in the single manuscript that preserves it – is a new precious document that enriches a small corpus of medieval Judeo-Provençal texts. This book offers the first critical edition of the complete text accompanied by a detailed study of the sources and the language. It guides us in understanding why the story of Esther became such a popular theme in 14th-century Provence, and in what way the Avignon Papacy and the studies on Moses Maimonides influenced this literary novelty.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Baricci, Erica

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien: Leben & Praxis, Soziale Aspekte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

Acknowledgements

Editor’s Note

Introduction

1 Judeo-Provençal Texts on Queen Esther: Dates and Context

2 Narrating Purim in Medieval Provence: Wine Songs and Prayers

3 Esther, an Inspirational Example of Provençal Jews

4 Roman d’ Esther: Text, Author, Audience

5 Biblical Inspiration and Jewish Themes

6 Romanz and Romance Themes

7 The Omniscient Author, the Modernization and the Irony

8 Ma?asé-Ester or “Esther’s Affairs”

9 Text, Content and Style

10 Metrical Structure

11 Between Oral Tradition and Authorial Rearrangement

12 A Text in Search of an Author

The Ma?asé-Esther: Text and Commentary

1 The Text

2 Alterations in the Manuscript

3 Ma?asé-Esther

1 Text

2 Notes to the Text

4 Linguistic Study

1 Phonetics: Vocalism

2 Phonetics: Consonantism

3 Morphology

4 Syntax

5 Vocabulary

5 Glossary of Provençal Terms

6 Glossary of Hebrew Terms

7 Transcription of the Manuscript Text

8 Transcription in Latin Letters

9 The Codex unicus

1 The ms. Rome, Casanatense 3140

2 Physical Description of the Manuscript and the Scripts

3 Structure

4 State of Preservation

5 Decorations, Notes and Annotations to the Text

6 A Composite Manuscript

7 Story of a Book and of the Person Who Wrote it

8 Watermarks

9 Ms. Rome, Casanatense 3140: Photo-Reproductions of Fols. 190v–192r

Bibliography

Index of Special Terms

Über Autor(innen)

Erica Baricci, Ph.D. (2014), University of Milan, teaches Hebrew and Aramaic. She has published translations and articles on Judeo-Provençal and Hebrew Literature, including ‘Vite da copisti. Scorci autobiografici nei colophon di alcuni manoscritti ebraici’, Consonanze 22 (2020) and Yitzhaq ibn Sahula’s Meshal haQadmoni (Novelle Antiche, 2021).