ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses exclusively on medieval Jewish civilization, from the fall of the Roman Empire to about 1492. It includes alphabetically organized entries, written by scholars from around the world, include biographies, countries, events, social history, and religious concepts. The chapter focuses on the nature of the medieval rabbinate in general, and of leadership and learning in the Jewish community, rather than on individual rabbis. Theoretically, rabbis were not supposed to receive salaries. Maimonides expressed his strong opposition to the idea of any remuneration for a rabbi or teacher. This went unchallenged until the fourteenth century, when certain scholars (Spain) began to express the opinion that rabbis could be salaried because they taught laws to people and instructed the judges. It is well known that in the thirteenth century the Tuscan merchants and bankers connected to the Capitoline Curia and municipality tried repeatedly to impose their commercial supremacy in Lazio and in the neighboring regions.
