A ketubbá, in Portuguese, from the Jews of Lisbon (15th century)

Abstract

In the last quarter of the 15th century a ketubbá was written in Portuguese by Yuda Barceloní, the Jewish notary of the Lisbon community (comuna). It celebrated not only the contract but also the marriage between Josepe Crespim and Rica, previously a widow. This original form of writing ketubbot stemmed from royal normative to control public notary. Jewish and Muslim minorities were therefore forbidden to use their respective languages in every notarial instrument. Though it is the only document of this typology so far known in a romance language, same elements, namely the structure, coincide with other ketubbot. Others, however, differ as a side effect of this community’s customary law (minhagim) that shaped its own identity.