“Dize la Muerte”: A Study of the Hebrew Transcription of the Castillian “Dance of Death” (Ms. Palatina Parma 2666)

In my lecture I will analyze the Castillian-Hebrew multilingualism and unique poetics of a dramatic-lyrical text on the topos of the Dance of Death, whereby I intend to substantiate the theory of its Jewish transmission. This text is found in the codex of Palatina Parma (No. 2666), a manuscript that consists of many books written in Solitreo (חצי קולמוס ספרדי רהוט: `סוליטריאו` – a traditionally Sephardi cursive form of the Hebrew alphabet). The text is one of the many Hebrew writing works currently located at the Palatina Library in Parma and is extraordinary considering the fact that it forms part of a small group of literary compositions written in Hebrew script and in Castilian language still preceding the expulsion of Jews from Spain.

This version of the `Dance of Death` is a rare example for the medieval genre of the Macabre. Its author remains, as in most other related cases in European literatures, anonymous. The text is also one of the earliest examples of this literary genre, which indirectly transmits a Spanish-Christian dramatic-theatrical work on the Dance of Death through a Jewish copyist in Hebrew transcription. I analyze the changes introduced by the coypist that lead to a neutralization of Christian tropes, in what can be considered a movement proto-secularization.

This Hebrew-Castillian version of the `Dance of Death` raises crucial questions about the nature of the relation between Christian and Jewish cultural spaces at the time, which I seek to address in my presentation: Why does a literary 15th-century Jew take interest in a work so identified with the culture of the Christian majority like the `Dance of Death` that he transcribes it into Hebrew letters and believes it is relevant to the Jewish bookcase? What changes can be observed in this process of transcription and proto-secularization – how does it render the Christian piece suitable for Jewish audiences, both as readers and as theater audiences?