The Troyes Laments: Jewish Martyrology in Hebrew and Old French

"The Troyes Laments: Jewish Martyrology in Hebrew and Old French." Five laments survive commemorating the deaths of thirteen Troyes Jews burned in 1288 following a blood libel. Of the five poems, a pair of laments by an otherwise unknown poet, Jacob b. Judah of Lorraine, offers a unique opportunity to explore the use of literary conventions in Jewish martyrological writing of the medieval period. One of Jacob b. Judah's laments is in Hebrew and the other is a translation of the Hebrew lament into Old French. Although the nineteenth-century "discoverers" of the Troyes laments showed far greater interest in the vernacular composition, both poems illustrate a sophisticated awareness of the range of expression possible in their respective tongues. A close reading of the texts demonstrates that the Hebrew text, more restrained in tone, actually preserves most of the detail expressed more explicitly in the Old French poem. To do so, the Hebrew relies on typological conventions while the vernacular text turns to courtly motifs familiar from contemporary literature. Significantly, the vernacular text would have been accessible to both men and women, while the Hebrew text would have seerved an exclusively male audience. In both languages, the martyrs are exalted for their defiance of their persecutors and for their loyalty to their families and their God. The differences between the texts are also significant, and the French text preserves details of historical interest, such as references to the involvement of the preaching orders in the libel trial, which are censored by the Hebrew. The texts and annotated translations are appended.