Traces of Late Medieval Jewish Scotism: A Catalan Translation in Hebrew Script of De distinctione predicamentorum by Petrus Thomae

Abstract

Jewish-Christian intellectual relations in late medieval Spain are discussed in light of a curious fragment in Hebrew script from the Vatican Library. The fragment contains an unknown translation from Latin to Catalan (in Hebrew characters) of the work of the Catalan Franciscan monk Petrus Thomae, De distinctione predicamentorum. This translation is also compared with Thomae’s Tractatus brevis de modis distinctionum as it demonstrates an intermediate version between these two works by Petrus Thomae, though it resembles the first more closely. These traces invite a discussion on the existence of “Jewish Scotism” among the Jews of Catalonia, and after the expulsion, among their descendants, who probably made their way to Italy. The text is among the latest evidence of the use of Catalan in Hebrew characters on the cusp of the sixteenth century.