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arcelona
of their adherents, Nathan Erholz, and dismissed him from
the post of rabbi of Stampen. In 1771 he was a candidate for
the vacant post of rabbi of Frankfurt, but was not elected. He
was in halakhic correspondence with many prominent scholars,
including Ezekiel *Landau, Isaiah *Berlin, and Meir Posner,
and he gave approbations to many works. Aside from his
Torah erudition, Barby had a good knowledge of medicine and
music. Though he opposed the publication of his responsa,
many of his novellae are cited in the works of his contemporaries.
His only published work is Ḥiddushei Hilkhot Maharam
Barby (2 vols., Dyhrenfurth-Prague, 1786–92).
Bibliography: Arim ve-Immahot be-Yisrael, 7 (1960),
41–45.
[Itzhak Alfassi]
BARCELONA, Mediterranean port in Catalonia, northeast
Spain, seat of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the
country. Amram *Gaon sent his version of the prayer book
to “the scholars of Barcelona.” In 876/7 a Jew named Judah
(Judacot) was the intermediary between the city and the emperor
Charles the Bald. Tenth- and eleventh-century sources
mention Jews owning land in and around the city. The prominence
of Jews in Barcelona is suggested by the statement of an
Arabic chronicler that there were as many Jews as Christians
in the city, but a list of 1079 records only 60 Jewish names. The
book of Usatges (“Custumal”) of Barcelona (1053–71) defines
the Jews’ legal status. Jewish ownership of real estate continued:
the site of the ancient Jewish cemetery is still known as
Montjuich. A number of Jewish tombstones have been preserved.
From the end of the 11th century the Jews lived in a
special quarter in the heart of the old city, near the main gate
and not far from the harbor. The area known as Call, the name
of the Jewish quarter throughout Catalonia, is still echoed in
the names of some of its streets that contain the word, such
as Carrer del Call. (The word call derives from the Latin callum).
Barcelona’s Jews were subject to the jurisdiction of the
counts of Barcelona. The forms of contract used by Jews there
from an early date formed the basis of the Sefer ha-Shetarot
of *Judah b. Barzillai al-Bargeloni, written at the beginning
of the 12th century. In the first half of the 11th century, some
Barcelonan Jews were minters, and coins have been found
bearing the name of the Jewish goldsmith who minted them.
In 1104, four Jews of Barcelona received the monopoly to repatriate
Muslim prisoners of war to southern Spain. Shortly
afterward, *Abraham b. Ḥiyya was using his mathematical
knowledge in the service of the king of Aragon and the counts
of Barcelona, possibly assisting them to apportion territories
conquered from the Muslims. Abraham’s role in the transmission
of Greco-Arabic culture to the Jews north of the Pyrenees
who did not know Arabic was crucial. His encyclopedic works
in Hebrew presented the scientific and philosophical legacy
that was available in Arabic to the Jews of Christian Europe.
It was probably due to his residence in Barcelona, a city that
was for a very brief period under Muslim rule, but otherwise
the most important city in Christian Spain in the early stages
of the Reconquista, that Abraham b. Hiyya was so appreciative
of the need to disseminate in Hebrew the treasures of the
Greco-Arabic world. The Jewish community reached the peak
of its prestige in the 13th century, when the Crown of Aragon,
under James I, doubled the size of its territories. Besides the
important members of the community who served the kings
and counts, the community had very distinguished scholars
who were among its political, financial, religious, and intellectual
leaders.
Communal Life
Documents of the second half of the 11th century contain the
first mention of nesi’im (“princes”; see *nasi) of the house of
Sheshet (see Sheshet b. Isaac *Benveniste), who served the
counts as suppliers of capital, advisers on Muslim affairs, Arab
secretaries, and negotiators. From the middle of the 12th century
the counts would frequently appoint Jews also as bailiffs
(baile) of the treasury; some of these were also members of
the Sheshet family. Christian anti-Jewish propaganda in Barcelona
meanwhile increased. In 1263 a public *disputation was
held at Barcelona in which *Naḥmanides confronted Pablo
*Christiani in the presence of James I of Aragon. The bailiff
and mintmaster of Barcelona at the time was Benveniste de
Porta, the last Jew to hold this office. In 1283, as a result of the
French invasion following the conquest of Sicily by Pedro I,
“the Great,” the Catalan noblemen, joined by their Aragonese
and Valencian counterparts, forced Pedro to give up his Jewish
civil servants who had occupied numerous positions throughout
the Kingdom of Aragon. The Jews were subsequently replaced
by Christian aristocrats and burghers and Jews from
families whose ancestors had formerly acquired wealth in the
service of the counts now turned to commerce and moneylending.
Many of them returned to the communal political
arena and aspired to hold important positions in the community
leadership. However, learned Jews such as Judah *Bonsenyor
continued to perform literary services for the sovereign.
In 1294 Jaime II gave him the monopoly on all Hebrew and
Arabic documents drawn up in the territory of Barcelona. By
the beginning of the 13th century, a number of Jewish merchants
and financiers had become sufficiently influential to
displace the nesi’im in the conduct of communal affairs. In
1241, James I granted the Barcelona’s Jewish community a constitution
to be administered by a group of ne’emanim (secretarii,
or “administrative officers”) – all drawn from among the
wealthy, who were empowered to enforce discipline in religious
and social matters and to try monetary suits. James further
extended the powers of these officials in 1272. The class
struggle within the Jewish community that erupted in 1263
in Saragossa and spread throughout the communities in the
Kingdom of Aragon did not greatly affect the political regime
in Barcelona. Nevertheless, one of the institutions that served
as the community’s parliament, the Council of Thirty or Eẓat
ha-Sheloshim, was established on the model of the municipal
Council of the Hundred or Concell de Trente. Solomon b.
Abraham *Adret was now the leading halakhic authority and
142 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3