Instituciones sociorreligiosas judías de Zaragoza (siglos XIV-XV). Sinagogas, cofradías, hospitales

Abstract

The authoress, having examined the documents from notarial protocols and registers from the Royal Chancillery, besides an appropriate use of the available bibliography, makes a systematic and exhaustive study about the religious and social institutions of charitable nature which are registered in the aljama of Zaragoza during the 14th and 15th centuries. The first part of the paper is devoted to studying the most important of the Jewish institutions, the sinagogue, which was the core of Jewish community life. The second part deals with charitable institutions and it is the largest because fourteen charities recorded in that town are examined: eleven charitable organizations (devoted to helping the underprivileged, to visiting the sick, to fostering study, to performing the rites of burial) and three labour guilds (shoemakers, tawers and skinners). The paper finishes with an analysis of the community hospitals.