Jews and Judaism in Medieval Europe
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 September 2016
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 September 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396584-0214
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 September 2016
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 September 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396584-0214
Introduction
In the year 1000, Christian-controlled areas of Europe housed only a tiny proportion of world Jewry. The majority of Jews lived in the Islamic world. Indeed, the largest Jewish communities on European soil were found in those areas of southern Europe under Islamic rule. At the turn of the millennium, western Christendom began a process of invigoration destined to transform this area of weakness, relative to its Byzantine and Islamic competitors, into the most powerful religious-political bloc in the Western world by the year 1500. One of the results of this invigoration was the steady growth of the Jewish population of western Christendom. As Christian armies eliminated the Muslim enclaves in Europe, Jews who had lived under Islamic rule by and large opted to stay on under Christian hegemony. In addition, areas of northern Europe that had no prior Jewish population began to attract Jewish settlers. In both cases, Jewish perceptions of the newly-found vigor of Christian Europe were reinforced by overtures from the rulers of western Christendom. In the south, kings and barons offered Jews benefits for remaining in their former homes; in the north, governmental authorities extended protection and support to Jewish immigrants. The result was a rapidly increasing set of Jewish settlements. The Jews of medieval western Christendom encountered difficult circumstances—broad societal hostility, grounded in the sense of these Jews as newcomers and in traditional Christian anti-Jewish imagery; constricted economic opportunities; serious church pressure for limitations on Jewish life and significant church-sponsored missionizing campaigns; and overdependence on the governmental authorities, which could eventuate in despoliation and expulsion. By the end of the 14th century, the Jews of England and France had been banished, and the Middle Ages closed with the expulsion of the Jews of Spain in 1492. At the same time, the Jews of medieval Europe benefitted markedly from the vibrancy of their environment. On the most basic level, the number of Jews in Europe expanded continuously, eventually bringing European Jewry to parity with the older Jewish communities of the Islamic sphere and then subsequently, in the early modern centuries, to demographic dominance in the Jewish world. These Jews of medieval Europe fashioned effective structures of self-government and created a rich new Jewish culture, deeply rooted in their creative medieval European ambiance.
Reference Works
The standard encyclopedias provide useful overviews on geographic areas and major topics in medieval Jewish history. The two gazetteers—Gallia Judaica for France and Germania Judaica for Germany—provide invaluable data on individual Jewish communities in the two areas. Both The Jewish Encyclopedia and Encyclopedia Judaica include many relevant entries.
Encyclopedia Judaica. Rev. ed. 22 vols. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007.
Presents the work of a more international group of scholars and includes entries about topics and fields not discussed in The Jewish Encyclopedia, such as the Cairo Geniza, Kabbalah, and the application of social sciences (e.g., sociology, economics, and demography) to Jewish history. Originally published in sixteen volumes in 1971–1972 (New York: Macmillan). The revised edition is also available online.
Gallia Judaica. Rev. ed. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2010.
Based on Henri Gross’ geographical dictionary of the history of Jews in France during the Middle Ages (1897), the revised edition incorporates work on the intellectual life of Jews in medieval France published since the 1970s. Originally published in 1897 (Paris: L. Cerf).
Germania Judaica. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 1963–.
A comprehensive multivolume geographic dictionary of all medieval Germanic areas in which Jews settled. Although the editorial office of the last volumes is based in Israel and four of the contributors and editors are affiliated with Israeli universities, most of the remaining contributors are non-Jewish scholars born in Germany after the war and affiliated with German universities as well as state and municipal archives. Originally published in 1917–1934 (Breslau).
The Jewish Encyclopedia. 12 vols. New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1901–1906.
This encyclopedia, which contains over 15,000 articles, gives a comprehensive account of Jewish history, culture, and literature. The journal is also available online.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Aelred of Rievaulx
- Alcuin of York
- Alexander the Great
- Alfonso X
- Alfred the Great
- Alighieri, Dante
- Ancrene Wisse
- Angevin Dynasty
- Anglo-Norman Realm
- Anglo-Saxon Art
- Anglo-Saxon Law
- Anglo-Saxon Manuscript Illumination
- Anglo-Saxon Metalwork
- Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture
- Apocalypticism, Millennialism, and Messianism
- Archaeology of Southampton
- Armenian Art
- Art and Pilgrimage
- Art in Italy
- Art in the Visigothic Period
- Art of East Anglia
- Art of London and South-East England, Post-Conquest to Mon...
- Arthurian Romance
- Attila And The Huns
- Auchinleck Manuscript, The
- Audelay, John
- Augustodunensis, Honorius
- Bartholomaeus Anglicus
- Benedictines After 1100
- Benoît de Sainte Maure [113]
- Beowulf
- Bernard of Clairvaux
- Bernardus Silvestris
- Biblical Apocrypha
- Birgitta of Sweden and the Birgittine Order
- Boccaccio, Giovanni
- Boethius
- Bokenham, Osbern
- Book of Durrow
- Book of Kells
- Bozon, Nicholas
- Byzantine Art
- Byzantine Empire, Eunuchs in the
- Byzantine Empire, Rural Landscapes, Rural Communities, and...
- Byzantine Empire, Women in the
- Byzantine Manuscript Illumination
- Byzantine Monasticism
- Byzantine Science
- Calendars and Time (Christian)
- Cambridge Songs
- Canon Law
- Capgrave, John
- Carolingian Architecture
- Carolingian Era
- Carolingian Manuscript Illumination
- Carolingian Metalwork
- Carthusians and Eremitic Orders
- Cecco d’Ascoli (Francesco Stabili)
- Charlemagne
- Charles d’Orléans
- Charters of the British Isles
- Chaucer, Geoffrey
- Childhood
- Christian Mysticism
- Christianity and the Church in Post-Conquest England
- Christianity and the Church in Pre-Conquest England
- Christina of Markyate
- Chronicles (East Norse, Rhymed Chronicles)
- Chronicles of England and the British Isles
- Church of the Holy Sepulchre, The
- Cistercian Architecture
- Cistercians, The
- Clanvowe, John
- Classics in the Middle Ages
- Cloud of Unknowing and Related Texts, The
- Coins
- Constantinople and Byzantine Cities
- Contemporary Sagas (Bishops’ sagas and Sturlunga saga)
- Coptic Art
- Corpus Christi
- Councils and Synods of the Medieval Church
- Crusades, The
- Crusading Warfare
- Cynewulf
- da Barberino, Francesco
- da Lentini, Giacomo
- da Tempo, Antonio and da Sommacampagna, Gidino
- da Todi, Iacopone
- Dance
- Dance of Death
- d’Arezzo, Ristoro
- de la Sale, Antoine
- de’ Rossi, Nicolò
- de Santa Maria, Cantigas
- Death and Dying in England
- Decorative Arts
- delle Vigne, Pier
- Drama in Britain
- Dress
- Dutch Theater and Drama
- Early Italian Humanists
- Economic History
- Eddic Poetry
- El Cid
- England, Pre-Conquest
- England, Towns and Cities Medieval
- English Prosody
- Exeter Book, The
- Falconry
- Family Letters in 15th Century England
- Family Life in the Middle Ages
- Feast of Fools
- Female Monasticism to 1100
- Feudalism
- Findern Manuscript (CUL Ff.i.6), The
- Florence
- Folk Custom and Entertainment
- Food, Drink, and Diet
- Fornaldarsögur
- France
- French Drama
- French Monarchy, The
- French of England, The
- Friars
- Froissart, Jean
- Games and Recreations
- Gawain Poet, The
- German Drama
- Gerson, Jean
- Glass, Stained
- Gothic Art
- Gower, John
- Gregory VII
- Guilds
- Hagiography in the Byzantine Empire
- Handbooks for Confessors
- Hardyng, John
- Harley 2253 Manuscript, The
- Hiberno-Latin Literature
- High Crosses
- Hilton, Walter
- Historical Literature (Íslendingabók, Landnámabók)
- Hoccleve, Thomas
- Hood, Robin
- Hospitals in the Middle Ages
- Hundred Years War
- Hungary
- Hungary, Latin Literacy in Medieval
- Hungary, Libraries in Medieval
- Hymns
- Icons
- Illuminated Manuscripts
- Illustrated Beatus Manuscripts
- Insular Art
- Insular Manuscript Illumination
- Islamic Architecture (622–1500)
- Italian Cantari
- Italian Chronicles
- Italian Drama
- Italian Mural Decoration
- Italian Novella, The
- Italian Religious Writers of the Trecento
- Italian Rhetoricians
- Jewish Manuscript Illumination
- Jews and Judaism in Medieval Europe
- Julian of Norwich
- Junius Manuscript, The
- King Arthur
- Kings and Monarchy, 1066-1485, English
- Kings’ Sagas
- Knapwell, Richard
- Kraków
- Lancelot-Grail Cycle
- Late Medieval Preaching
- Latin and Vernacular Song in Medieval Italy
- Latin Arts of Poetry and Prose, Medieval
- Latino, Brunetto
- Learned and Scientific Literature
- Ælfric
- Libraries in England and Wales
- Lindisfarne Gospels
- Liturgical Drama
- Liturgical Processions
- Liturgy
- Lollards and John Wyclif, The
- Lombards in Italy
- London, Medieval
- Love, Nicholas
- Low Countries
- Lydgate, John
- Machaut, Guillaume de
- Magic in the Medieval Theater
- Maidstone, Richard
- Malmesbury, Aldhelm of
- Malory, Sir Thomas
- Manuscript Illumination, Ottonian
- Marie de France
- Markets and Fairs
- Masculinity and Male Sexuality in the Middle Ages
- Medicine
- Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Fifth to Eleventh Centuri...
- Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Twelfth to Fifteenth Cent...
- Medieval Bologna
- Medieval Chant for the Mass Ordinary
- Medieval English Universities
- Medieval Ivories
- Medieval Latin Commentaries on Classical Myth
- Medieval Music Theory
- Medieval Naples
- Medieval Optics
- Melusine
- Mendicant Orders and Late Medieval Art Patronage in Italy
- Middle English Language
- Middle English Lyric
- Mirk, John
- Mosaics in Italy
- Mozarabic Art
- Music and Liturgy for the Cult of Saints
- Music in Medieval Towns and Cities
- Music of the Troubadours and Trouvères
- Musical Instruments
- Necromancy, Theurgy, and Intermediary Beings
- Nibelungenlied, The
- Nicholas of Cusa
- Nordic Laws
- Norman (and Anglo-Norman) Manuscript Ilumination
- N-Town Plays
- Nuns and Abbesses
- Old English Hexateuch, The Illustrated
- Old English Language
- Old English Literature and Critical Theory
- Old English Religious Poetry
- Old Norse-Icelandic Sagas
- Ottonian Art
- Ovid in the Middle Ages
- Ovide moralisé, The
- Owl and the Nightingale, The
- Papacy, The Medieval
- Paris
- Peasants
- Persianate Dynastic Period/Later Caliphate (c. 800–1000)
- Peter Abelard
- Petrarch
- Philosophy in the Eastern Roman Empire
- Pictish Art
- Pizan, Christine de
- Plowman, Piers
- Poland
- Poland, Ethnic and Religious Groups in Medieval
- Pope Innocent III
- Post-Conquest England
- Pre-Carolingian Western European Kingdoms
- Prick of Conscience, The
- Pucci, Antonio
- Pythagoreanism in the Middle Ages
- Queens
- Rate Manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 61)
- Regions of Medieval France
- Regular Canons
- Religious Instruction (Homilies, Sermons, etc.)
- Religious Lyrics
- Rímur
- Robert Mannyng of Brunne
- Rolle, Richard
- Roman Law
- Romances (East and West Norse)
- Romanesque Art
- Rus in Medieval Europe
- Ruthwell Cross
- Sagas and Tales of Icelanders
- Saint Plays and Miracles
- Saint-Denis
- Saints’ Lives
- Scandinavian Migration-Period Gold Bracteates
- Schools in Medieval Britain
- Scogan, Henry
- Seals
- Sermons
- Sex and Sexuality
- Ships and Seafaring
- Shirley, John
- Skaldic Poetry
- Slavery in Medieval Europe
- Snorra Edda
- Song of Roland, The
- Songs, Medieval
- Spain
- St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury
- St. Peter's in the Vatican (Rome)
- Syria and Palestine in the Byzantine Empire
- Textiles
- The Middle Ages, The Trojan War in
- The Notre Dame School and the Music of the Magnus liber or...
- The Use of Sarum and Other Liturgical Uses in Later Mediev...
- Theater and Performance, Iberian
- Thirteenth-Century Motets in France
- Thomas Aquinas
- Thomism
- Thornton, Robert
- Tomb Sculpture
- Travel and Travelers
- Trevisa, John
- Tropes
- Troubadours and Trouvères
- Troyes, Chrétien de
- Umayyad History
- Usk, Adam
- Usk, Thomas
- Venerable Bede, The
- Vercelli Book, The
- Vernon Manuscript, The
- Vikings
- Von Eschenbach, Wolfram
- Wace
- Wall Painting in Europe
- Wearmouth-Jarrow
- Welsh Literature
- William of Ockham
- Witchcraft
- Women's Life Cycles
- Wulfstan
- York Corpus Christi Plays
- York, Medieval