Jewish writers in England during the pre-expulsion period ofthe eleventh through the thirteenth centuries produced different kinds of writing inHebrew. Many wereTosafists; others wrote legal material, and some wroteliturgical poetry and literary texts.
According toJoseph Jacobs, Jewish literary and scholarly culture received its prime impetus during the time ofAngevin England from France. Jacobs sees Simeon Chasid of Treves as the first such writer; he lived in England between 1106 and 1146. Subsequent important Jewish English writers came fromOrléans, includingJacob of Orléans, who was murdered during theanti-Jewish violence during the coronation of Richard I in 1189, and possiblyAbraham ben Joseph of Orleans.[1]
The increasing degradation of the political status of the Jews in the thirteenth century is paralleled by the scarcity of their literary output compared with that of the twelfth. In the earlier century, for example, there were eminent authorities such asAbraham ibn Ezra,Judah Sir Leon of Paris,Yom Tov of Joigny, andJacob of Orléans, in addition to a school ofgrammarians which appears to have existed, including Moses ben Yom-Ṭob andMoses ben Isaac. In EnglandBerechiah ha-Nakdan produced hisFox Fables—one of the most remarkable literary productions of the Middle Ages.
In the thirteenth century, however, only a few authorities, likeMoses of London,Berechiah de Nicole,Aaron of Canterbury, andElias of London, are known, together withJacob ben Judah of London, author of a work on the ritual,Etz Chaim, andMeïr of Norwich, a liturgical poet. Throughout they were a branch of the French Jewry, speaking French and writing French glosses, and almost up to the eve of the expulsion they wrote French in ordinary correspondence.
