Eight Small Research Grant Programme (SRGP) grants were awarded in Summer 2025. Reports for these will be added below as they are received:
Guillermo López Juan: The Lost Records: Recovering the Notarial Footprints of Valencia’s Conversos
Daniele Minisini: The Ethiopian Manuscript Tradition of the Book of Jubilees
Guillermo López Juan
The Lost Records: Recovering the Notarial Footprints of Valencia’s Conversos
Thanks to the generous support of the European Association for Jewish Studies through the Small Grants Bursary Programme, I was able to conduct two weeks of archival research at the Archivo Histórico Nacional (Madrid). The purpose of this research stay was to examine and process a collection of Valencian notarial protocols confiscated by the Inquisition, preserved today in the Inquisición, Tribunal de Valencia section of the archive.
The grant proposal initially envisaged two weeks as sufficient to complete an on-site survey of the protocols—that is, to consult them, extract the relevant data, and produce either summaries or full transcriptions when the documents were of particular value and worth publishing. The protocols and notales to be examined originated from Valencia. Their precise archival history remains somewhat obscure, although my work has helped clarify it. The material is heterogeneous: some complete protocols (a minority), some notales (full copies of legal formulas, hence more extensive but often repetitive), and individual documents or dismembered fascicles. The chronological range extends from 1413 well into the sixteenth century.
The collection comprises fourteen bundles, preserved under consecutive shelfmarks: AHN, Inquisición (Tribunal de Valencia), legajos 581–595. I had previously surveyed the first six bundles (nos. 581–586, all dated before 1450) during a doctoral research stay at the CSIC in June 2023, under the supervision of Javier Castaño. The aim of the present stay was to cover the remaining material.
Each bundle is divided into two boxes, containing between six and thirty-two separate fascicles of varying length. In some cases, I photographed only selected items; in others, I captured entire volumes, especially when they had been produced by converso notaries, since such records can later be analysed using more sophisticated digital methods (e.g., client frequency, prosopography, or social network analysis). Over the course of ten working days, I produced approximately 3,000 photographs. Given that individual documents generally range from one to ten folios in length—most often between two and four—the estimated yield corresponds to somewhere between 750 and 1,500 documents, with a likely average of around 1,000–1,200. For comparison, my doctoral dissertation, based on about 1,000 protocols, yielded roughly 5,600 notarial documents.
The documentation surveyed during this research stay is of exceptional quality and significance. It consists primarily of private documents produced both before and after the establishment of the Inquisition in Valencia (from November 1482–February 1483 onwards). The material therefore spans the pre-inquisitorial period and the height of inquisitorial persecution in the city, which began to decline around 1520, once most conversos had either been prosecuted, reconciled, executed, fled, or acquitted. It also coincides with the mass conversion of Muslims, the emergence of the Morisco community, and the beginning of another wave of religious persecution in the kingdom of Valencia, one that would reach its peak between 1560 and 1570.
The thematic scope of the documentation is wide. Credit operations (sales and collection of rents), mercantile activities (contracts of sale, service contracts, agency and representation, freight contracts, formation of shareholder companies, bills of exchange), family affairs (marriage contracts, wills), and judicial instruments (arbitrations, mediations) are all well represented. Of particular importance is the sheer number of marriage contracts and wills involving conversos. By 1450, several converso notaries were already working in Valencia and attracting a significant number of clients from their own community. The protocols of Pere Alfonso and Lluís Almenara (covering c. 1465–1490) and the fragments from Benet Salvador are especially rich. Other collections appear less significant, likely because the same converso notaries also worked with cristianos viejos, whose records were seized by the Inquisition but are of limited relevance to my current research.
Despite focusing primarily on photography, I was able to register some indicative figures. Among the material photographed, I identified approximately 50 marriage contracts (compared to 200 in my doctoral dissertation) and 30 wills (115 in my dissertation). This represents a substantial amount of information gathered within the short span of two weeks (in contrast to the four years of archival work that my dissertation took me, on top of writing).
In the medium and long term, the results of this research will feed into several scholarly outputs:
- Monograph: the material will be incorporated into the book project stemming from my doctoral dissertation, enriched with new archival findings.
- Archival study: I plan to prepare a shorter article dedicated to the archival history of these protocols, addressing how notarial records from Valencia ended up in the Archivo Histórico Nacional—when they might more logically belong to the Archivo del Reino de Valencia or the Archivo de Protocolos del Real Colegio y Seminario del Corpus Christi, where the rest of the city’s notarial series (including those of other converso notaries) are preserved.
- Digital dissemination: in order to enhance the visibility of this documentation, I intend to create an online platform (either a website or blog) where the summaries and references for each document will be made available in Spanish and English. This project, which will explicitly acknowledge the support of the EAJS, is conceived as a medium-term initiative.
Although time constraints prevented me from completing the survey of the collection, this stay has enabled me to cover a substantial portion of it. Approximately four bundles (eight boxes) remain to be photographed, which would require about one additional week of work. I intend to return to Madrid to complete the project as soon as I obtain new funding or contractual support.
Daniele Minisini
The Ethiopian Manuscript Tradition of the Book of Jubilees (Gǝʿǝz/Ethiopic: Maṣḥafa kufāle)
Carefully transmitted by some and deliberately erased by others, at times remembered through the centuries, at others completely forgotten and vanished into the unseen, the Book of Jubilees is a second-century BCE non-canonical Jewish text that retells the foundational stories of Genesis and Exodus, often adding unique details otherwise lost to tradition. Although originally composed in Hebrew, as attested by fragments of at least fourteen manuscripts discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls, its fullest survival is through the Gǝʿǝz manuscript tradition, preserved in the unique religious and cultural context of Ethiopia and Eritrea. While Eritrea remains largely inaccessible to foreign researchers, Ethiopia safeguards a significant corpus of manuscripts of the Book of Jubilees (Maṣḥafa kufāle, in Gǝʿǝz, or more commonly just kufāle), constituting an unparalleled resource for textual and literary scholarship
Project Framework and Rationale
This research trip, which took place in Ethiopia in the city of Hawassa, Sidama Region, and Addis Ababa, the capital of the country, from September 27th to October 16th 2025, was part of the larger European Union-funded MSCA project “UnderText – Understanding the Textual Development and the Literary Fortune of the Book of Jubilees through Ages, Languages and across Geographic Regions” (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01-01, n. 101152028). As the project title indicates, the central aim is a comprehensive analysis of the textual development and transmission history of the Book of Jubilees, from its Hebrew origins to its translations and adaptations in Latin, Greek, Syriac, and Gǝʿǝz. This cross-linguistic and transregional approach is essential for reconstructing the complex trajectories of the book’s survival, domestication, and reinterpretation.
Dual Aims and Objectives of the Research Trip
The research trip to Ethiopia was shaped by two primary objectives. The first goal was to foster international visibility for my research, most importantly, to scholars from the Horn of Africa. This was achieved through active participation in the 22nd International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (ICES22, Hawassa University, from September 29th to October 3rd 2025), entitled “Ethiopia in Transition: Heritage, Innovation, and Future Pathways.” ICES is among the world’s most significant platforms for Ethiopian studies and, being hosted in Ethiopia, drew a majority presence of African scholars. Here, I presented a paper entitled “The Book of Jubilees within the Ethiopian Tradition: Manuscript Culture, Textual History, and New Research Horizons” within the Manuscript Studies panel, which sparked intensive scholarly exchange and substantive networking.
A further and vital aspect of this exchange was interaction with local researchers who possess unique expertise in traditional methods for Ethiopian manuscript preservation and study. These encounters were not only instrumental for sharing knowledge and building collaborations between European and African scholarship but also provided crucial guidance for accessing resources held by Ethiopian institutions, whose collections are often not easily accessible to outsiders. The relationships and collaborations initiated during this period have paved the way for future joint events and ongoing research trips, both in Ethiopia and Europe.
The second aim was to conduct first-hand research in Addis Ababa, with a focus on gaining direct access to manuscripts of the Book of Jubilees and related materials. This included examination of primary manuscripts and/or microfilms not easily consulted elsewhere, in addition to textual witnesses alluding to the transmission and actual liturgical or scholarly use of Jubilees.
Libraries, Archives, and Primary Sources Examined
During the research stay in Addis Ababa, primary investigation was conducted at the National Archives and Library Agency of Ethiopia (NALA) and at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) of Addis Ababa University.
At NALA, I examined a selection of microfilms belonging to the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library (EMML) collection. The following materials were successfully consulted: EMML 7399, EMML 9001, EMML 8292, EMML 1200, EMML 6974, EMML 7862, EMML 101, and EMML 1945. An attempt was made to locate EMML 8671, but according to the archive staff, the microfilm could not be found, possibly relocated, misplaced, or lost. Similarly, EMML 8400 was requested, yet the staff were unable to retrieve it despite several efforts to identify its current location. In addition to these, I examined two manuscripts designated as UNESCO 2.13 and UNESCO 2.26.
At the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES), the research focused on several codices relevant to the transmission of the Book of Jubilees and related literature. The main manuscripts consulted were: IES 436, IES 439, IES 77, and IES 2480. Each provided valuable evidence on textual variation and division, and the broader manuscript context of Jubilees preservation within Ethiopian scholarly and religious tradition.
Challenges in Field Research
Studying manuscripts in Ethiopia inevitably involves a series of well-known challenges characteristic of local conditions. During this research trip, some microfilms had been relocated to other locations, causing difficulties for the National Archives and Library Agency staff in locating them. The microfilm reader machines often had smudges or dirt on the lenses that projected the images onto screens, resulting in compromised readability and making detailed examination difficult or slow. At the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (IES) at Addis Ababa University, certain manuscripts, particularly IES 392 (XV century, Jub 1:1–39:16 on ff. 41r–94v), were on public display at the Ethnographic Museum and thus unavailable for direct consultation. Additionally, an official and comprehensive catalog was lacking; while the existence of a printed catalog had been mentioned to me, the head of the manuscripts section could not confirm having such a catalog available. Instead, researchers must rely on fiche cards that are frequently disorganized, complicating the identification and retrieval process. Such logistical and infrastructural impediments are common in field research in Ethiopia, yet they do not diminish the immense cultural and scholarly value of the manuscript collections preserved within the country.
Achievements Relative to Project Goals
Both aims and objectives were achieved in full. International dissemination was considerably advanced. The presentation at ICES22 anchored my research firmly within the current landscape of Ethiopian manuscript studies and promoted active networking with regional specialists. This proved essential for acquiring support in navigating local archives, libraries and repositories for subsequent research steps. Additionally, engagement with the living tradition of Ethiopian manuscript culture (including access to local expertise and institutional knowledge) significantly enriched my methodological approach and empirical insight, directly benefiting my broader project framework.
None of these advances would have been possible without the vital support of the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS). Their invaluable backing marked a decisive step forward in my research and understanding of the Book of Jubilees, substantially strengthening the foundation for future work in the field.