Unpublished letter of Šelomoh de Piera to Rab Abraham ben Yishaq ha-Levi

Abstract

Critical edition—according to all available manuscripts—of the text from a group of unpublished Hebrew poems. It is a letter that was presumably sent by a young Šelomoh de Piera (Kingdom of the Crown of Aragon, middle of the 14th to beginning of the 15th century) to the great rabbi of Gerona, Abraham ben Yishaq ha-Levi. This letter is an attempt to console him "for the great deterioration of the times and the conversion of his friends and family." In the introduction it is noted that those poems are especially interesting because they are the only reference that relates De Piera with R. Nissim and his circle of Talmudists and poets. A Spanish translation and a literary study of the text complete this study.