Reuben and the Collecta: A Dossier of Fourteenth-Century Iberian Responsa

A dispute erupted in 1346 between the Jewish communal leaders of Gerona and Perpignan. It revolved around a wealthy Jewish family (referred to as “Reuben” and his sons) that migrated from the Gerona region to Perpignan after Pedro IV of Aragon’s conquest of the Kingdom of Majorca. At stake was the family’s share in the tax burden, which had moved from the collecta of Gerona to the collecta of Perpignan. The Gerona officials tried to forbid the Jewish family from moving to Perpignan and to penalize them for doing so. The legality of the collecta’s actions, and on the other hand the family’s freedom to move between communities, were the questions debated in a dossier of eight responsa penned by rabbinic scholars and communal leaders. In this article, I explore the legal arguments made by the respondents and the prooftexts they marshalled and I suggest some insights into the way that the dossier was conceived and created.