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CHAPTER XIII THE LITERATURE OF THE MARRANOS* UP TO a certain extent, the Marranos may be considered the originators of vernacular literature among the Jews. Of course, throughout medieval Europe, as in the classical world, the language of the country had universally been spoken in the home, but it had undergone certain inevitable dialectical modifications. Moreover, for literary compositions, the Hebrew tongue had been preferred; it monopolized attention in the schools; and, when it was necessary to write the language of the country for the benefit of the less erudite, it was universally transliterated into Hebrew characters. Thus a whole literature arose in Judeo-German, Judeo-Spanish, and even Judeo-French and Judeo-Italian.1 The incongruity of these dialects became even more striking when (as in the two former cases) those speaking them were driven into exile, continuing to cherish them in places far distant from their original homes and among peoples of a completely different culture. With the forcible conversion of the Marranos, a different situation arose. A fresh generation grew to manhood, educated in the fullest cultural tradition of the Peninsula, and entirely ignorant of the tongue of their fathers. When they escaped to countries of greater tolerance, where they were able * I wish to record my thanks to Professor Alexander Marx for revising this chapter in the light of his vast bibliographical knowledge.
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