Jews and Personal Networks in Tierra de Campos during the Second Half of the 15th Century: A Notebook of the Memoranda of Citizenship of Villalón ; Judíos y redes personales en Tierra de Campos durante la segunda mitad del siglo XV: un Cuaderno de Minutas de Avecindamientos de Villalón
In the middle decades of the fifteenth century Jews were registered as local citizens in the municipal council records of individual Castilian towns. Traditionally, a citizen was recorded as belonging to a parish or parochial neighborhood within the local political community; this would exclude Jews by definition as they were designated separately as a religious caste. The study of unpublished documents related to the Castilian locale of Villalón –characterized by the economic importance of its fairs promoted by the 4th count of Benavente– in the region of Tierra de Campos during a period of general political disorder, records that the municipal council assigned citizenship to Jews in relation to their community (aljama) through which specific aspects of their lives were regulated, and by which the local council rather than other political instances assumed control of that community. With the help of other primary sources, these documents reveal the suggestion of personal networks in which Jewish physicians play a key role. ; En las décadas centrales del siglo XV algunos judíos fueron inscritos por las autoridades concejiles como vecinos en distintas localidades castellanas. Tradicionalmente, la vecindad se había caracterizado como una categoría de pertenencia a una comunidad política local, cuya participación estaría vetada a los judíos al considerarlos como una casta religiosa. Partiendo del estudio de documentación inédita relativa a la localidad castellana de Villalón –en un momento de auge de sus ferias impulsadas por el IV conde de Benavente– en Tierra de Campos, durante los años de desorden político general del reino, se propone una interpretación del avecindamiento de judíos que privilegia las relaciones de subordinación de la aljama respecto del concejo. Con ayuda de otras fuentes documentales, se ofrece un esbozo de las redes personales de judíos, subrayando el protagonismo de los médicos.