Granada (EFE).- A researcher from Granada has found in the Library of the University of Cambridge a glossary of terms related to colours, staple foods and herbs written in the Romance language by the Cordovan philosopher and physician Maimonides in the second half of the century XII.
The importance of the text, found by chance during a review of lexicographical materials of Andalusian origin, lies in the fact that it is the first time that a writing by this author has been found in the Romance language, as well as in Judeo-Arabic – the philosopher used to write in Arab-.
The author of the finding is José Martínez Delgado, a professor in the Department of Semitic Studies at the University of Granada, who is conducting a research stay at the University of Cambridge, the academic institution has reported.
While reviewing lexicographical materials of Andalusian origin from the Cairo Genizah from the Taylor-Schechter collection for a new project on this medieval Jewish community, his attention was drawn to the clearly Andalusian spelling of the fragment TS NS 163.57.
A genizah is a deposit that synagogues have dedicated to storing deteriorated or obsolete manuscripts.
It is not about preserving them, explains the University, but about preventing a text that contains the divine name from receiving undignified treatment.
In the 19th century, a genizah was discovered in Cairo with a large number of forgotten manuscripts that had been preserved thanks to the specific climatic conditions of the place.
Currently, the three largest containers of this type of material, scattered around the world, are the University of Cambridge (Taylor-Schechter collection), the National Library of Saint Petersburg (Firkovich collection) and the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. (ENA collection), among others, explains the researcher.
Analyzing a fragment of the Cambridge University genizah, the spelling seemed familiar to him, and after consulting his colleague Amir Ashur of Tel Aviv University (Israel), they both concluded that the glossary is a new handwritten sample of Maimonides. .
Amir Ashur has taken it upon himself to demonstrate the authorship of Maimonides by contrasting this copy with other well-known autographs that are kept in the same collection, explains Martínez Delgado.
Glosses in judeo-romance
The importance of this autograph Judeo-Arabic glossary is that it contains glosses in Judeo-Romance that both researchers clearly date to the second half of the 12th century, adding new very early samples for the study of this group of languages.
The text in question preserves four sections or categories of words ordered by semantic fields: colors; flavors and aromas; stocks and food.
The researchers have carried out a detailed review of this brief glossary and have prepared an edition of the text that will appear in the CSIC’s “Sefarad” magazine.
Some items on these lists are glossed in Judeo-Romance by Maimonides himself, without it being possible to know if it was he himself who included these glosses thanks to his knowledge of romance (in principle, Andalusian) or if, on the contrary, they were one or various informants who helped you complete your list.
When Maimonides draws up these lists, between the years 1168 -when he arrived in Egypt- and 1204 -the year of his death-, the Andalusian romance was already in the process of an unstoppable extinction that culminated in the 13th century.
The syncretism that can be seen in the glossary, details the professor, could perhaps be explained in a personal elaboration of Maimonides based on scraps and loose knowledge, “although that requires a recently acquired knowledge of the plural in Italo-Romance, clear enough to overlap the I remember other ways that he might have heard in Alandalus or know from his Provençal contacts”.
“Despite everything, it is impossible to pronounce exhaustively, at least with the information currently available, on the enigmatic origin of the Romance glossemes noted by Maimonides in these four lists,” he concludes.