Grants Awarded for Dissertations on Jewish Studies Topics, 2007-08

Katelyn Mesler, Northwestern University
Magical Beliefs and Practices Among Medieval Christians and Jews

Many scholars of the past century have tried to correct the perception that medieval Christians and Jews lived in entirely separate worlds. Katelyn Mesler’s dissertation contributes to this understanding by exploring the evidence of a shared interest in magical beliefs and practices among Christians and Jews. Her research will address the question of how the anti-Semitic stereotype of Jewish sorcery developed in spite of—or perhaps even on account of—this shared interest in magic.

Important sources for Mesler’s project will be the manuscript collections of the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma and the Bibliotèque Nationale in Paris. The latter collection is particularly important for this project because it contains a strong assortment of Latin and Hebrew manuscripts originating in Provence, Languedoc, and the contiguous regions stretching along the Mediterranean coast into Spain and Italy—a culturally distinct region where magical literature of both traditions flourished from the twelfth century until the expulsion of the Jews from Provence in 1501. Mesler will seek evidence of borrowing between traditions in the magical texts, and of shared assumptions and practices among the Christian and Jewish elite. She will also attempt to identify sources for the myth of Jewish sorcery among these manuscripts.