Hardcover, 8vo, 482 pages. S. 479-482: Americo Castro. Selected bibliography. The Richard Kronstein foundation for the promotion of Jewish and cognate studies. Castro (18851972) , was a Spanish historian and literary critic. Castro was a professor at the University of Madrid and later at Princeton University. He interpreted the culture and history of Spain as a result of the coming together of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, which created a peculiarly Hispanic form of life, different both from the East and from the civilization of Western Europe. The expulsion of 1492 was in Castro's view the result of uncontainable pressures from below. He believes that the preoccupation with purity of lineage in Christian Spain from the 15th century on was a transfer of a Jewish concept, due to the infiltration of converts into Christian society. The use of secrecy and informers by the Inquisition was a continuation of methods used by Jewish tribunals. Ultimately, according to Castro, it was the Jews and their descendants the Conversos who were responsible for the discrimination by the Spaniards against the New Christians because of the latter's blood or race and for the cruel and unjust methods employed by the Inquisition and the maltreatment of those who were brought to trial before it. These were all derived from Jewish sources and traditions. Castro relied on "evidence" from the Bible, from the origin of the Spanish aristocracy, from medieval Jewish authors like Santob de Carrion (Shem Tov ben Ardutiel) , R. Moses Arragel, R. Asher ben Yehiel, R. Solomon ben Adret, and others. Castro's evidence is based entirely on a basic misunderstanding of the sources, of the Jews' understanding of the biblical text, and of the essence of Jewish law (Scholberg in EJ 2007) . OCLC lists 1 copy worldwide (National Library of Sweden) . Heavily warped by waterdamage, but completely usable with no explicit damage (plates were not printed on glossy paper, but rather high-grade flat paper, so they did not stick) . Ex-library with usual markings. Staining to cover. Staining on edges of pages. Good condition. Important and scarce. (Sef-18-17)
