CANCELLED: The Reconstitution of Occitan Jewish Culture after the French Expulsions

The Jewish community of medieval Occitania, today's southern France, is increasingly recognized in scholarly discourse for its distinctive and substantive contribution to the intellectual culture of medieval Jewry and of the premodern Mediterranean. However, the emerging narrative of Occitan Jewry largely considers its regional distinctiveness to have ended with the dispersals of the French general expulsions in the fourteenth century. My poster will present graphically my research into the reconstitution of Occitan Jewry at the margins of its old territories, in those areas open to Jewish settlement: in Perpignan in the west and in Avignon and the papal Comptat Venaissin in the east. Through maps, images, and text, I will demonstrate my contention that Occitan intellectual culture was effectively reconstituted in both of these areas and, in the eastern arena, was subsequently transmitted into early modern Italy, where it was highly influential. Cross-cultural interaction, transmission, and translation will be emphasized.