Publications

2017
David Shyovitz, A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz, reviewed by Miri Fenton
Fenton, Miri . “David Shyovitz, A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz, reviewed by Miri Fenton” (2017).
Minority Dress Codes and the Law: A Jewish-Christian Comparison
Baumgarten, Elisheva . “Minority Dress Codes and the Law: A Jewish-Christian Comparison”. In Religious Minorities in Christian, Jewish and Muslim Law (5th - 15th centuries), 8:289–299. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2017. https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/book/10.1484/M.RELMIN-EB.5.109274.
Reflections of Everyday Jewish Life: Evidence from Medieval Cemeteries
Baumgarten, Elisheva . “Reflections of Everyday Jewish Life: Evidence from Medieval Cemeteries”. In Les vivants et Les morts dans les sociétés médiévales (Histoire ancienne et médiévale) (French Edition), 95–104. Editions de la Sorbonne., 2017.
Why are there Two Medieval Copies of the Holy Sepulcher in Pisa? A Comparative Analysis of San Sepolcro and the Baptistery
Bodner, Neta B. . “Why are there Two Medieval Copies of the Holy Sepulcher in Pisa? A Comparative Analysis of San Sepolcro and the Baptistery”. Viator 48, no. 3 (2017): 103–124. https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/10.1484/J.VIATOR.5.116350.
"Tales in Context: A Historical Approach" Epilogue.
Baumgarten, Elisheva . “"Tales in Context: A Historical Approach" Epilogue.”. In Tales in context: Sefer ha-Ma'asim in medieval Northern France: (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Ms. Bodl. Or. 135), 687–672. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 2017.
Religious minorities in Christian, Jewish and Muslim law (5th-15th centuries)
Berend, Nora, Youna Hameau-Masset, Capucine Nemo-Pekelman, and John Victor Tolan, eds. Religious minorities in Christian, Jewish and Muslim law (5th-15th centuries). Religion and law in medieval Christian and Muslim societies. Turnhout: Brepols, 2017.Abstract
The fruit of a sustained and close collaboration between historians, linguists and jurists working on the Christian, Muslim and Jewish societies of the Middle Ages, this book explores the theme of religious coexistence (and the problems it poses) from a resolutely comparative perspective. The authors concentrate on a key aspect of this coexistence: the legal status attributed to Jews and Muslims in Christendom and to dhimmis in Islamic lands." –Back cover
Motherhood and Ma’asim: Maternal Agency in Medieval Hebrew Stories
Baumgarten, Elisheva . “Motherhood and Ma’asim: Maternal Agency in Medieval Hebrew Stories”. In Mothers in the Jewish Cultural Imagination, 345-357. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2017.Abstract
This article examines the roles of mothers in the 13th century composition Sefer ha-ma'asim written in Hebrew in Champagne
Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century
Baumgarten, Elisheva, Ruth Mazo Karras, and Katelyn Mesler, eds. Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century. 1st ed. Philadelphia: (Penn) University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017. http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15555.html. Abstract
From Halakhic innovation to blood libels, from the establishment of new mendicant orders to the institutionalization of Islamicate bureaucracy, and from the development of the inquisitorial process to the rise of yeshivas, universities, and madrasas, the long thirteenth century saw a profusion of political, cultural, and intellectual changes in Europe and the Mediterranean basin. These were informed by, and in turn informed, the religious communities from which they arose. In city streets and government buildings, Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived, worked, and disputed with one another, sharing and shaping their respective cultures in the process. The interaction born of these relationships between minority and majority cultures, from love and friendship to hostility and violence, can be described as a complex and irreducible "entanglement." The contributors to Entangled Histories: Knowledge, Authority, and Jewish Culture in the Thirteenth Century argue that this admixture of persecution and cooperation was at the foundation of Jewish experience in the Middle Ages.
 
Natural Materials of the Holy Land and the Visual Translation of Place, 500-1500
Bartal, Renana, Neta Bodner, and Bianca Kuhnel, eds. Natural Materials of the Holy Land and the Visual Translation of Place, 500-1500. London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017. https://www.routledge.com/Natural-Materials-of-the-Holy-Land-and-the-Visual-Translation-of-Place/Bartal-Bodner-Kuhnel/p/book/9781472451774. Abstract

Natural Materials of the Holy Land and the Visual Translation of Place, 500-1500, focuses on the unique ways that natural materials carry the spirit of place. Since early Christianity, wood, earth, water and stone were taken from loca sancta to signify them elsewhere. Academic discourse has indiscriminately grouped material tokens from holy places and their containers with architectural and topographical emulations, two-dimensional images and bodily relics. However, unlike textual or visual representations, natural materials do not describe or interpret the Holy Land; they are part of it. Tangible and timeless, they realize the meaning of their place of origin in new locations.

What makes earth, stones or bottled water transported from holy sites sacred? How do they become pars pro toto, signifying the whole from which they were taken? This book will examine natural media used for translating loca sancta, the processes of their sanctification and how, although inherently abstract, they become charged with meaning. It will address their metamorphosis, natural or induced; how they change the environment to which they are transported; their capacity to translate a static and distant site elsewhere; the effect of their relocation on users/viewers; and how their containers and staging are used to communicate their substance.