Abstract
We know very little about his life, but he lived in Carrion de los Condes, in the province of Palencia (Castile) in the fourteenth century, at the court of the Kings Alfonso XI and Pedro I of Castile. It is not certain if he wrote the Proverbs when he was old, or if he converted to Christianity, as his works were confused in earlier times with others. Some scholars have studied his works trying to develop some ideas about his life, as authorship was also often confused, that is, his own name with that of other Jewish thinkers or poets. Was he a proper rabbi? We attempt to distinguish the facts from the legends.
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Notes
- 1.
Baer has identified him with this name in his article in Hebrew on fourteenth-century Hebrew-Castilian poets, published in the volume which pays tribute to David Yellin, Minha le David, Jerusalem, 1935, 200–204.
- 2.
Pilar León Tello, Los Judíos de Palencia, Palencia, Institución “Tello Téllez de Meneses”, 1967 p. 14. This is reaffirmed also by Sanford Shepard in his introduction to Sem Tob: Proverbios Morales, Madrid, Castalia, 1985, p. 9.
- 3.
Shepard, Sanford, Shem Tov. His world and his words, Miami, Ediciones Universal, 1978, p. 98.
- 4.
Sanford Shepard in his introduction to Sem Tob: Proverbios Morales, Madrid, Castalia, 1985, p. 27.
- 5.
Ibidem, p. 102.
- 6.
On the causes of this misidentification and other works being attributed, see the Introduction to Sem Tob de Carrión, Proverbios Morales, Madrid, Cátedra, 1998, edited by Paloma Díaz-Mas and Carlos Mota, p. 33–34.
- 7.
Jacques Joset considers this to be the Jewish name of the Spanish form, Santob, in “Pour une archeologie de l’autobiographie: de quelques modalites du yo dans les Proverbios Morales de Santob de Carrión” L’autobiographie dans le monde hispanique: Actes du Colloque international de la Baume les Aix, 11, 12, 13 May, 1979, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1980, p. 67. Similarly, Perry considers Santob de Carrión to be the pen name of Rabbi Shem Tov Ibn Ardutiel, born in Soria at the close of the thirteenth century and dying in 1345. T. A. Perry, The Moral proverbs of Santob de Carrión (Jewish Wisdom in Christian Spain), Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1987, p. 4.
- 8.
Segundo Serrano Poncela, in his article “Machado y don Sen Tob”, Cultura Universitaria, LXVI-L, 1959, p. 10 gives him this name, also indicating that Sen Tob means “good name”.
- 9.
A brief summary of that identification and its families, as well as its implications can be read in the Introduction to Sem Tob de Carrión, Proverbios Morales, Madrid, Cátedra, 1998, edited by Paloma Díaz-Mas and Carlos Mota, p. 30–31, referring to other more extensive studies such as Zemke 1997:11, 25–32.
- 10.
Ibidem, p. 26.
- 11.
Yitzhak Baer, Historia de los judíos en la España Cristiana, Barcelona, Riopiedras, 1998, p. 399.
- 12.
Sanford Shepard in his introduction to Sem Tob: Proverbios Morales, Madrid, Castalia, 1985, p. 9.
- 13.
T. A. Perry, The Moral Proverbs of Santob de Carrión (Jewish Wisdom in Christian Spain), Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1987, p. 6.
- 14.
Sem Tob de Carrión, Proverbios Morales, Madrid, Cátedra, 1998, Introduction by Paloma Díaz-Mas and Carlos Mota, p. 26–27.
- 15.
T. A. Perry, The Moral proverbs of Santob de Carrión (Jewish Wisdom in Christian Spain), Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1987, p. 149.
- 16.
Others assert that he lived at a later date, although with no data to confirm this, between 1350 and 1400, which seems improbable; Segundo Serrano Poncela, Op. Cit. p. 10. Perry places him in 1345. T. A. Perry, The Moral proverbs of Santob de Carrión (Jewish Wisdom in Christian Spain), Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1987, p. 4.
- 17.
«José Rodríguez de Castro says in his Biblioteca: “R. Don Santo de Carrión, named as such for being a native of Carrión de los Condes, a town in Old Castile, born at the end of the thirteenth century or beginning of the fourteenth. He was a renowned moralist philosopher and one of the most celebrated troubadours of his time: he abjured Judaism and gave evidence of being a good Christian, as shown in his writings during the reign of Peter I i.e. the 1360s, when he was by then at an advanced age.” Diccionario Enciclopedico Hispano-Americano, Barcelona, 1896, Montaner y Simón Editores, Vol. 18, SEM TOB, p. 972
- 18.
Shepard, Sanford, Shem Tov. His world and his words, Miami, Ediciones Universal, 1978, p. 13 cont.
- 19.
Claudio Sánchez Albornoz, España, un enigma histórico, Buenos Aires, Editorial Sudamericana, 1956, vol. I, p. 542
- 20.
Sanford Shepard, in his introduction to Sem Tob: Proverbios Morales, Madrid, Castalia, 1985, p. 11.
- 21.
“It was at this time that rumours of Santob’s arrest were circulating. Our poet was nationally known at that time, for it was then that Josef ibn Sason lauded him in several poems extolling his greatness and influence at court.” Joel H. Klausner, “The historic and social milieu of Santob’s “Proverbios Morales”, Hispania, New York, 1965, no. 48, p.787. Also indicated by: Shepard, Sanford, Shem Tov. His world and his words, Miami, Ediciones Universal, 1978, p. 14.
- 22.
“It was at this time that rumours of Santob’s arrest were circulating. Our poet was nationally known at that time, for it was then that Josef ibn Sason lauded him in several poems extolling his greatness and influence at court.” Joel H. Klausner, “The historic and social milieu of Santob’s “Proverbios Morales”, Hispania, New York, 1965, no. 48, p.787. Also indicated by: Shepard, Sanford, Shem Tov. His world and his words, Miami, Ediciones Universal, 1978, p. 14.
- 23.
Enrique Gómez Pérez y Santiago Villafruela Peral, Carrión, la ciudad de los condes, Palencia, 1997. p. 24.
- 24.
Introduction to Sem Tob de Carrión, Proverbios Morales, Madrid, Cátedra, 1998, edited by Paloma Díaz-Mas y Carlos Mota, p. 37–39.
- 25.
Diccionario Enciclopedico Hispano-Americano, Barcelona, 1986, Montaner y Simón Editores, Vol. 18, SEM TOB, p. 972.
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Galán Díez, I. (2017). The Life of Rabbi Santob. In: The Birth of Thought in the Spanish Language. Philosophical Studies Series, vol 127. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50977-8_1
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