Manuel Forcano Aparici
“Girona was a shelf, a library, a school, a place to study, a debate”
Talmud is a Hebrew word meaning 'study', 'learning', and it is also the name of the ancient compendium of rabbinical commentaries on the religious law of the Jews. It is a collective work, a compilation of the voices and opinions of more than two thousand rabbis from different times who dialogue, debate, discuss and analyse, methodically and logically, every word, every term, every verse of the Law. Girona, home to one of Catalonia's largest Jewish communities during the Middle Ages, was noted for its rabbis, teachers and Talmudic academy. The Christian city also signified hope: in 1078, its cathedral received the most beautiful and complete copy of the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Beatus of Liébana, a text that, in those centuries of darkness and fear, became a symbol and a theological weapon. Completed in 975 AD, the Beatus is the work of the scribe and presbyter Senior and two illustrators: "Ende, painter and servant of God" and the "monk and presbyter Emeterius".
In the 14th century, the thoughts of the sages of the Call (Jewish quarter) were recorded in commentaries on the Talmud, such as this fragment preserved in the Municipal Archives. In 2007, Francesc Torres Monsó was inspired by the Talmudic tractate niddah to create his work El Talmud, el orden de las cosas puras (The Talmud, the order of pure things). In 975 AD, the illustrated words of Ende, the nun painter, gave her a place in history, thanks to the Beatus which she illustrated with 115 wonderful miniatures. The spirit of Girona is filled with many divine words such as these.
Ajuntament de Girona – Museu d'Història de Girona • Carrer de la Força, 27 - 17004 GIRONA • Tel. 972 222 229 • Terms of use