The Itinerary Of Benjamin Of Tudela Part 9

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Tudela was called in Benjamin's time _Tuteila_.

Sepharad is Spain.]

[Footnote 2: There is a considerable difference of opinion as to the exact dates at which Benjamin began and completed his journey. In my opinion, the period can be placed within a very narrow compa.s.s. Early in his journey he visited Rome, where he found R. Jechiel to be the steward of the household of Pope Alexander. This can be no other than Pope Alexander III, who played so important a part in the struggle between King Henry II and Thomas a Becket. The German Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, supported the anti-Pope Victor IV, and in consequence Alexander had to leave Rome soon after his election in 1159 and before his consecration. He did not return to settle down permanently in Rome until November 23, 1165, but was forced to leave again in 1167. Consequently Benjamin must have been in Rome between the end of 1165 and 1167. Benjamin terminated his travels by pa.s.sing from Egypt to Sicily and Italy, then crossing the Alps and visiting Germany. In Cairo he found that the Fatimite Caliph was the acknowledged ruler. The Caliph here referred to must have been El-'Adid, who died on Monday, September 13, 1171--being the last of the Fatimite line. A short time before his death, Saladin had become the virtual ruler of Egypt, and had ordered the Khotba to be read in the name of the Abbaside Caliph el-Mostadi of Bagdad. (See the _Life of Saladin_, by Bohadin: Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, p.

61.) It is clear, therefore, that Benjamin's absence from Europe must be placed between the years 1166 and 1171.

Benjamin on his return journey pa.s.sed through Sicily when the island was no longer governed by a viceroy. King William II (the Good) attained his majority in 1169, and Benjamin's visit took place subsequently. It will be found in the course of the narrative that not a single statement by Benjamin is inconsistent with this determination of date; see p. 3, n. 4; p. 9, n. 2; p. 15, n. 4; p. 61, n. 1; and p.

79, n. 2.]

[Footnote 3: Saragossa was called in Benjamin's time _Sarakosta_ (= Caesar-Augusta). Charisi, in _Tachkemoni_, 46, refers to some of the Rabbis.]

[Footnote 4: The imposing ruins at Tarragona comprise prehistoric walls of enormous unhewn blocks of stone, as well as the remains of Roman aqueducts, tombs, amphitheatres, &c. Here and generally in this narrative the letter R is used as an abbreviation for Rabbi.]

[Footnote 5: See Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_, vol. VI, pp. 230 et seq.; also notes 1 and 10 at the end of vol. VI.]

[Footnote 6: The ancient name of Gerona was Gerunda.]

[Footnote 7: See Geiger's _Judische Zeitschrift fur Wissenschaft und Leben_, p. 281. The Records of Narbonne bear evidence of sales of lands standing in the name of R.

Kalonymos (_Archives Israelites_, 1861, p. 449). His ancestor, R. Machir, came to Europe in the time of Charlemagne.]

[Footnote 8: R. Abraham ben Isaac (Rabad II) was author of the Rabbinic code; Ha-Eshkol, and was one of the intermediaries between the Talmudists of France and the Scholars of Spain. He died 1178.]

[Footnote 9: A parasang is about 3-2/5 English miles, and the distance from Narbonne to Beziers is correctly given. 10 parasangs make a day's journey.]

[Footnote 10: The King of Portugal is even now styled King of the Algarves.]

[Footnote 11: Cf. Graetz, VI, p. 240, also Joseph Jacob's _Angevin Jews_, p. 111. R. Asher was one of a group of pious Rabbis known as Perus.h.i.+m--who might be styled Jewish monks.

His father, Rabbenu Meshullam, died 1170.]

[Footnote 12: He is referred to in _Tosafoth Temurah_, fol.

12a and b.]

[Footnote 13: This eminent Talmudist, known as the Rabad, was son-in-law of the R. Abraham of Narbonne before referred to. See Graetz, VI, 243.]

[Footnote 14: The Abbey of St. Aegidius was much resorted to in the Middle Ages. The Jews of Beaucaire, and the neighbourhood, enjoyed the patronage of Raymond V, Count of Toulouse, called by the Troubadour poets "the good Duke."

See Graetz, VI, note I, p. 401. It is impossible to enlarge in these notes upon the several Jewish scholars referred to by Benjamin. An interesting article by Professor Israel Levi on the "Jews in Mediaeval France," and other articles, in the _Jewish Encyclopaedia_, also Gross, _Gallia Judaica_, might be consulted with advantage.]

[Footnote 15: The BM. MS. calls R. Abba Mari dead, which statement, unless qualified, as in a few other instances, by the insertion of the word "since," would be unintelligible.]

[Footnote 16: Asher's Text and Epstein's MS. give the distance between Arles and Ma.r.s.eilles as three days'

journey. The actual distance is about fifty-three English miles. Probably the Roman roads were still in use.]

[Footnote 17: R. Isaac, son of Abba Mari, is the celebrated author of "Baal Haittur"; he wrote this work at Ma.r.s.eilles, 1179. It is doubtful whether he was the son of Count Raymond's bailiff.]

[Footnote 18: His full name is R. Jacob Perpignano. See Graetz, VI, note 1, p. 399.]

[Footnote 19: The meaning of course is that the Genoese pillage Christian and Mohammedan places alike.]

[Footnote 20: See Dr. H. Berliner's work _Die Geschichte der Juden in Rom._ His derivation of the Hebrew word used for Pope, [Hebrew:] from Peter, is questionable. It is the Greek [Greek: hepiphoros]. See Talmud, _Aboda Zarah_, 11 a.]

[Footnote 21: The great work alluded to is the _Talmudical Dictionary_, completed in 1101. See Graetz, VI, p. 281.]

[Footnote 22: The palace of the Caesars on the Palatine Hill is no doubt here referred to.]

[Footnote 23: [Hebrew:], quoted by E and Asher, is a corrupt reading for [Hebrew:].]

[Footnote 24: This is Josippon's story. Benjamin occasionally embodies in his work fantastic legends told him, or recorded by his predecessors. His authorities lived in the darkest period of the Middle Ages. Josippon, Book I, Chap, iv, speaks of 320 senators. I have followed Breithaupt, and rendered [Hebrew:] "consul."]

[Footnote 25: Having regard to the various readings, it is possible that the Thermae of Diocletian or more probably the Flavian amphitheatre, which early in the Middle Ages began to be called the Colosseum, is here referred to. It had four stories, each floor composed of arcades containing eighty separate compartments, making 320 in all. Our author in the course of his narrative speaks more than once of buildings erected on a uniform plan corresponding with the days of the year.]

[Footnote 26: I. Heilprin, the author of _Seder Hadoroth_ (Warsaw, 1897 edition, p. 157) as well as Zunz, appear to have here fallen into error, a.s.suming as they do that Benjamin refers to the ten teachers of the Mishna, R.

Gamaliel, R. Akiba and the other sages who suffered martyrdom in Palestine at the hands of the Roman Emperors.

The ten martyrs here alluded to are those referred to in the Preface to Hakemoni, published by Geiger in [Hebrew:], Berlin, 1840, and [Hebrew:], Berlin edition, fols. 151-2 [Hebrew:] Rome, as so many other cities, had its own martyrs.]

[Footnote 27: This is the statue of Marcus Aurelius now before the Capitol.]

[Footnote 28: Even in Benjamin's time the Campagna was noted for malaria.]

[Footnote 29: Professor Ray Lankester, in a lecture given on Dec. 29, 1903, at the Royal Inst.i.tution, ill.u.s.trated changes in the disposition of land and water by pointing to the identical ruined Temple referred to by Benjamin. It now stands high above the sea, and did so in the second and third centuries of the present era, but in the eighth and ninth centuries was so low, owing to the sinking of the land, that the lower parts of its marble pillars stood in the sea, and sea-sh.e.l.ls grew in the crevices.]

[Footnote 30: Josippon gives these legends in Book I, chaps.

iii and iv, when speaking of Zur, whom he a.s.sociates with Sorrento. Benjamin had few other sources of information. In the immediate neighbourhood of Pozzuoli is Solfatara, where sulphur is found. A destructive eruption from the crater took place in 1198. Hot springs abound, and the baths at Bagnoli are much frequented to the present day. The underground road is the Piedi grotta of Posilipo, constructed by Augustus.]

[Footnote 31: R. Isaac, the father of R. Judah, must be the "Greek Locust" against whom Ibn Ezra directed his satire when visiting Salerno some twenty years before R. Benjamin.

See Graetz, VI, p. 441.]

[Footnote 32: Cf. Isaiah lxvi. 19.]

[Footnote 33: This city was destroyed by William the Bad in 1156. It was ordered to be restored by William the Good in 1169, so that Benjamin must have visited Bari before that date. See p. 79, note 2. We have here another clue as to the date of Benjamin's travels.]

[Footnote 34: See H.M. Adler's article on Jews in Southern Italy, _J.Q.R._, XIV, p. 111. Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, chap. lvi, describing the reconquest of the southern provinces of Italy by the Byzantine Emperor Manuel, 1155, says. "The natives of Calabria were still attached to the Greek language and wors.h.i.+p."]

[Footnote 35: The river Achelous falls into the Ionian Sea opposite to Ithaca.]

[Footnote 36: Anatolica is now known as Aetolic.u.m.]

[Footnote 37: Patras, the ancient Patrae, was founded long before the time of Antipater. _Josippon_, II, chap. xxiii, is again the questionable authority on which Benjamin relied.]

[Footnote 38: Lepanto in the early Middle Ages was called Naupactus or Epacto, and to reach it from Patras the Gulf of Corinth had to be crossed.]

[Footnote 39: Chalcis, the capital of Euboea or Negroponte, is even now called Egripo. It is situated on the Straits of Euripus.]

[Footnote 40: Some twenty years later the Wallachians were in open revolt and became independent of the Byzantine Empire. Gibbon, chap. lx.]

[Footnote 41: See Gibbon, chap. liii. He often quotes Benjamin.]

[Footnote 42: The Grand Duchy of Kieff was called Russia.