El coneixement de l'hebreu entre els conversos valencians del segle XV

Resum

The main purpose of this article is to find out the level of knowledge of the Hebrew language among Valencian converts at the end of the fifteenth century. In order to reach this end, the author attempts a reconstruction of the linguistic situation of that particular social group. Using as his evidence the declarations of accused converts attesting in front of Inquisition juries, as well as the accusations of witnesses who claimed having heard those converts speak some words in Hebrew or seen them participate in group readings of Hebrew scriptures, the author explores the ambivalence converts felt towards the Christian community and religion and how this feeling could be detected in their language. The numerous court cases mentioned by the author evince the intensity of the persecution of the use of Hebrew among converts in Valencia, even when their knowledge seemed to be rather limited, as the quoted documents suggest. As far as the pronunciation of Hebrew by members of this community is concerned, the author studies the transcriptions of Inquisition scribes to infer certain peculiarities in the way Hebrew words were pronounced. Furthermore, he tries to find out the level of knowledge of written Hebrew and in what clandestine ways converts tried to learn the language. There is also mention of the prohibition of owning books in Hebrew, a transgression which was also persecuted and severly punished. As a conclusion, the author underlines the limited knowledge of Hebrew among Valencian converts, so much so that whatever notions they had were obliterated during the persecution carried out by the Catholic church and the monarchy. As a result, the use of Hebrew was to disappear without a trace in the twenty years that followed.