The Secret Faith of Maestre Honoratus
THE MIDDLE AGES SERIES
RUTH MAZO KARRAS, SERIES EDITOR EDWARD PETERS, FOUNDING EDITOR
A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
The Secret Faith of
Maestre Honoratus
PROFAYT DURAN AND JEWISH IDENTITY
IN LATE MEDIEVAL IBERIA
Maud Kozodoy
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS Philadelphia
THIS BOOK IS MADE POSSIBLE BY A COLLABORATIVE GRANT FROM THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION.
© 2015 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kozodoy, Maud, author.
The secret faith of Maestre Honoratus: Profayt Duran and Jewish identity in late medieval Iberia / Maud Kozodoy.
pages cm — (The Middle Ages series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8122-4748-0 (alk. paper)
1. Duran, Profiat, approximately 1350–approximately 1415. 2. Christian converts from Judaism—Spain—Catalonia—Biography. 3. Jewish philosophers—Spain—Catalonia—Biography. 4. Jews—Identity. 5. Jews—Spain—Catalonia—History—To 1500. 6. Christianity—Controversial literature. I. Title. II. Series: Middle Ages series.
DS135.S8D875 2015
946’.004924—dc23
2015012979
CONTENTS
1. Honoratus de Bonafide, olim vocatus Profayt Duran, judeus
2. Scientific Transmission Outside the University
3. Efodi: The Commentary on the Guide of the Perplexed
5. Jewish Astronomy: Between Maimonides and Gersonides
6. A Jewish Cosmos: Number and Speech
7. Astronomy and Jewish Identity: Ḥeshev ha-Efod
8. Rationalist Polemics: Al tehi ka-avotekha
9. History and Religion: Kelimat ha-goyim
10. The Inner Life: Eulogy for Abraham ha-Levi of Girona
11. The True Wisdom of the Torah: Ma‘aseh Efod
12. Sigil and Segulah: Magical Elements in Ma‘aseh Efod
Appendix: The Extant Works of Profayt Duran
Introduction
One summer day in 1392, magister Honoratus de Bonafide, a Christian physician and astrologer of King Joan I of Aragon, appeared before Bernard Fabre, a Perpignan notary. He was accompanied by Mosse Alfaquim, a Jew, also of Perpignan, who was acting as his proctor. The three men had known each other for years. Bernard Fabre had recorded Honoratus’s financial transactions for over a decade, since as early as 1380, and had done so several times over the previous two years.1 But this time the notary must have looked at the two men before him with surprise and some emotion—perhaps embarrassment or sympathy, perhaps amusement or mockery. One can even imagine Fabre commenting on the awkwardness or irony of the situation. Through all these years of doing business with Honoratus, he had known him by a different name and even as a different person: as Profayt Duran judeus.2
During the previous summer of 1391, anti-Jewish riots had broken out in Seville and, taking different forms in the highly diverse regions of Iberia, had spread through Castile to the Crown of Aragon, up to the northernmost parts of Catalonia.3 Jewish quarters were attacked, Jews were killed, and Jewish property was destroyed. Some Jews were dragged to the baptismal font and there converted to save their lives. Others died fighting or committed suicide rather than submit to baptism.4
In Perpignan, when the Call (the Jewish quarter) was attacked that August, the local Jews took refuge in the royal palace.5 Sporadic violence seems to have continued until the late spring of 1393, with considerable physical injury to person and property. In July of that year, Joan I gave a general pardon to the Christians of Perpignan, but explicitly excluded from this pardon those who had carried out attacks