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The Talmud in Latin

Updated: Dec 13, 2019


In CCCM 291, Ulisse Cecini and Óscar L. de la Cruz Palma present the edition of the anonymous Extractiones de Talmud per ordinem sequentialem, the first substantial translation of hundreds of Talmudic passages from Hebrew and Aramaic into Latin (Paris in 1244/45).

In 1239 Pope Gregory IX wrote to kings and bishops across Europe, urging them to seize and examine the manuscripts of the Talmud in their dominions. As a result, a trial against the Talmud took place in Paris in 1240. Though the Talmud went up in flames at the Place de la Grève in 1241/42, the controversy on the Talmud continued over the following years, since Gregory’s successor, Pope Innocent IV, called for a revision of its condemnation. At the centre of this revision are the Extractiones de Talmud, a translation of hundreds of Talmudic passages prepared during the years 1244/45 for Odo of Châteauroux, Legate of the Apostolic See, that served as the basis of his final condemnation of the Talmud in May 1248. This is the first edition of the Latin Talmud, which is a milestone in the long history of Christian-Jewish intellectual encounters.

Ulisse Cecini is a Latin philologist currently active as a postdoctoral researcher at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Óscar de la Cruz is Professor of Latin Philology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

See the press release by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the resulting press articles in La Vanguardia | Barcelona, Catalunya Vanguardista, Europa Press, and Gente en Catalunya. And again on 13 May 2019 in La Vanguardia (Sp., Cat.)

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