Gender, Jewish Credit Markets, and Notarial Culture in the Crown of Aragon

Abstract Jews in the medieval Crown of Aragon were legally mandated to register loans to Christians with local notaries. These notaries were legal professionals and public officials, all of whom were Christian men. Jewish women developed a complicated relationship with notarial documentary culture, shaped by their marginality both as women and as Jews. This article examines the documentary practices that notaries used when recording Jewish loans, and how they shaped the lived experience of Jewish men and women who made loans to Christian debtors. The case study of Dolça, widow of Astrug de Ripoll, a Jewish woman living in the Catalan town of Manresa in the early fourteenth century, offers insight into the challenges and possibilities for Jewish women creditors.