Precisiones literarias sobre el antijudaísmo de Gonzalo de Berceo en el Milagro de Teófilo (XXIV) = Literary Reflections on Gonzalo de Berceo’s Anti-judaism in The Miracle of Theophilus (XXIV)

Abstract

In the medieval Marian collection Los Milagros de Nuestra Senora (Miracles of Our Lady) by Gonzalo de Berceo, the Milagro de Teofilo (The Miracle of Teophilus) is the most extensive and elaborate. The poem, which enjoyed wide circulation in other European vernacular languages, contains a moralizing didactic message aimed at the readership in order to prevent any contact with the Devil and his followers. In this case, it is a Jew who acts as an intermediary between Teofilo and Satan. However, whereas the rest of the European versions portray anti-Semitic features on the Jewish character influenced by popular folklore, such as embodying an evil animal-like creature involved in diabolical practices, these references are absent in Berceo’s version. Berceo’s position with respect to the Jew stands out as one based essentially on anti-Jewish traits inherited from Patristic and other traditional clerical thought. Hence, it lacks anthropological and racial prejudices common to anti-Semitism in the rest of Europe and which were unknown in the Iberian Peninsula imaginary at least for the following two centuries.