The beginnings of Ladino literature
Subtitle: Moses Almosnino and his readers
By: Olga Borovaya
Series: Indiana series in Sephardi and Mizrahi studies; Indiana series in Sephardi and Mizrahi studies
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 317
ISBN-13: 9780253025692
Subjects: Intellectual life; History and criticism; Sephardim; Ladino literature
Description: "Moses Almosnino (1518-1580), arguably the most famous Ottoman Sephardi writer and the only one who was known in Europe to both Jews and Christians, became renowned for his vernacular books that were admired by Ladino readers across many generations. While Almosnino's works were written in the style of contemporary Castilian, Olga Borovaya makes a strong argument for including them in the corpus of Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) literature. Borovaya suggests that the history of Ladino literature begins at least 200 years earlier than previously believed and that Ladino, like most other languages, had more than one functional style. With careful historical work, Borovaya establishes a new framework for thinking about Ladino language and literature and the early history of European print culture"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Prologue: Jewish vernacular culture in fifteenth-century Iberia; title: Ladino in the sixteenth century: the emergence of a new vernacular literature; title: Almosnino's epistles: a new genre for a new audience; title: Almosnino's chronicles: the Ottoman Empire through the eyes of court Jews; title: The first Ladino travelogue: Almosnino's treatise on the extremes of Constantinople; title: Rabbis and merchants: new readers, new educational projects; title: Epilogue: Moses Almosnino, a renaissance man?; title: Appendix: The extremes of Constantinople.