ABSTRACT
Under Muslim domination, Tudela, especially, had been home to important Jewish scholars, such as Abraham Ibn ‘Ezra and Judah ha-Levy. Tudela, Pamplona and other towns remained significant Jewish centers under the Christians. The disastrous consequences of the massive voluntary conversion of thousands of Jews throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and the loss of intellectual and spiritual leadership which resulted, led to a decline in cultural creativity. The supercommentary on Nahmanides is disappointingly platitudinous, coming from so important a scholar, ignoring all of the esoteric statements in that commentary and perhaps even more surprisingly, also the significant interpretations and even legal innovations mentioned in the discussion of Nahmanides. While biblical exegesis, along with other learning, deteriorated in the fifteenth century, two other phenomena emerged which were of lasting significance: Jewish translations of the Bible into Spanish and the first printed Hebrew bibles.
