Legal Agreement in consideration of 120 “Sueldos” between “The Hon. Yuse Rodorg, Jew” and two Christians. Text in Catalan

(SPAIN).

February 13th

Calatayud, Aragon (Spain)

1450

Brown ink ON VELLUM

Legal document creating a carriers’ contract between a Jew and two Christians, concluded in the city of Calatayud, one of the princlipal cities of Jewish culture and commerce in the Kingdom of Aragon. Indeed, one of the earliest documents on Jewish communial organization in Spain, dated 1229, is the Charter granted by James I to the Aljama of Calatayud authorizing the election of four Jewish notables as “mukademim”. It is intersting to note the economic involvement of the Jews in the years prior to the Expulsion, a Golden Age for the Jews of the Iberian Peninsular. Note of the transaction here is made on the reverse in Catalan written in Hebrew characters, except for the last word, the Hebrew term “na’asa” or “done”. The document was then “pegged”