Jews Reading Arthurian Romances from the Middle Ages: On the Reception of Chrétien de Troyes'sYvain, the Knight of the Lion, based on Manuscript JTS Rab. 1164

Abstract

Evidence of Jewish readerships for French literature in the Middle Ages, particularly romances, has been accumulating. This article focuses on a recently discovered tale from Italy, copied in Hebrew in MS JTS Rab. 1164, as a prism through which to explore the cultural interactions between Jewish and Christian society in Italy of the early Renaissance. I first analyze the Jewish tale, which I posit has an affinity with the Arthurian romanceYvain, The Knight of the Lionby Chrétien de Troyes, and expound on the thematic and poetic links between the two stories. I then examineYvain’s reception in Italy as part of a broader phenomenon involving the acceptance, copying, adaptation, and assimilation of French romances in Italy into vernacular Italian. Finally, I present the story and the factors that played a role in its reception in the context of Italian Jewish society. The entirety of the review offers an overall portrait of the story's reception as a unique socioliterary phenomenon shared by Jews and non-Jews alike in Italy in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.