Juan Manuel (1282-1348) and ‘Jewish’ Professions in Count Lucanor: A Medieval Iberian Model of Inter-Group Relations

This article aims to analyze the personal relationship between Christian writer Juan Manuel (1282-1348) and the Jewish community in his collection of didactic exempla, El Conde Lucanor [Count Lucanor]. Through the theory of out-group interaction, and the mechanisms of re-fencing and extended contact hypothesis, I will examine the relationship of trust and respect reflected between the author and the Jews through the portrayal of some professions attributed to that community by popular folklore, such as money lenders, physicians, alchemists, nigromancers and sorcerers, as shown in the introduction and four exempla of the book. I will analyze several literary techniques employed by the author in regards to these ‘Jewish occupations’ as a resource to minimize the social rejection towards the Jew, and an example of a complex convivencia [cohabitation] that shaped XIV-century Castilian Christian-Jewish relations.