Don Mosse: Royal Surgeon and Poet of the Cancionero de Baena

Abstract

Don Mosse ibn Zarzal’s poem offers –unsually for poems of that period– a precise date: the birth of the infante Juan –later King Juan II of Castile-Leon– [6/3/1405]. It is also rare as an example of Jewish official, courtly texts in the romance after 1391. Baena’s and Isabella’s attention to the courtly scientist/poet Don Mosse and his work, therefore, may inspire contributions to two areas. The first is that of the trend towards examining individual poets in the collective Cancionero de Baena (CB). The second is that of romance (rather than Hebrew) literature and culture emanating from the Hispano-Jewish communities –and more specifically the courtly scientific milieu– of the late middle ages. It is argued that, once analyzed, the poem may be seen as reflecting the biography, period and family context of the poet. His engagement in science and po- etry are not erased in the poem. There is no contradiction between the two fields. The distance is bridged by the Ibn Zarzal dynasty’s concern with rhetoric, particularly epideictic.