El libro de los acuerdos: On Printing Books

The Spanish and Portuguese Congregation of London

1693

No Jew shall be allowed to cause to be printed in this city or outside it in these realms Hebrew or Ladino books or [books] in any other language without express permission of the Mahamad [board of governors—Ed.] so that they be revised and emended; and him who should contravene this Escama we straightway hold as subject to the penalty of Herrem, because it thus conduces to our preservation. [ . . . ]

No person may dare to make lampoons, defamatory libels, nor utter slanders or write evil against his fellow, nor retain papers of others; and he who should commit an outrage of this kind or order it to be done by another stands straightway in Herrem and separated from the nation, with all the curses of our holy Law that they may fall upon him as disturber of the commonweal, since he commits crimes of this kind against the most holy Law and his neighbour, beside that he shall be rigorously punished as the Mahamad may decide; and he who should know of it and should not come to reveal it shall be subject to the same penalties.

Translated by Lionel D. Barnett.

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Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation, unless added by the editor.

Credits

The Spanish and Portuguese Congregation of London, from El libro de los Acuerdos: Being the Records and Accompts of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of London from 1663 to 1681, ed. and trans. Lionel D. Barnett (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1931), pp. 11–12, fol. 1a, no. 30 and 33. Used with permission of The Society of Heshaim the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation, London.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.