ABSTRACT
Another Jewish troubadour, Santob de Carrion, flourished in Castile in the fourteenth century. Of his Book of JJtIaxims, written in Spanish in 1350, Ticknor says that' the measure is the old redond£lla, and is uncommonly easy and flowing for the age.' The poem still enjoyed cqnsiderable reputation in the fifteenth century for its 'quaint and pleasant' lines 2 • Much s.imilar literature is recorded in Spain and Portugal, and the Jews of Germany, too, loved the legends of national heroes which they preserved in the vernacular, but sometimes in Hebrew characters 3. Naturally, too, religious literature was cultivated in the vernacular. A J ewess of Regensburg, named Litte, wrote the History of David in the contemporary German dialect, using German rhymes interspersed with a few Hebraisms·. Later, a Jewess of Rome, Deborah AscarelIi, translated Hebrew hymns into elegant Italian verses 5. Translations of the Bible, made by Jews in Spanish, were already printed at the first half of the sixteenth century. Some of these Jewish translations were apparently employed by the Protestants of Spain 6.
