Bill of Sale (Barcelona)

We the undersigned witnesses testify unambiguously that marat Goig, daughter of mar Yehuda b. Natan and her husband mar Yosef b. Benvenisti said to us:

“Be our witnesses and make a qinyan and write and sign for us with every expression of title and give it to R. Moshe b. Avun for him to have as proof of title, since we are fully willing and under no compulsion, but with a whole heart and a willing spirit, and we took and received from him 20 gold morabetins, sound and good, two and a quarter zuzim each by weight, and for those 20 gold morabetins, we sold him a field of two and a half modiatas which we have within the borders of this territory,¹ in a place called Torterola, which I, Yosef, inherited from my distinguished [lit: lord] father, mar Benvenisti. These are the boundaries of that field: on two sides are the property of the heirs of mar Halabo b. Yitzhak, and the property of the heirs of his brother Meshulam; on the third side is the property of Don Pere Bernat Marcús; on the fourth side is the public way and the property of Don Oliver. We have sold to the aforementioned R. Moshe b. Avun for the sum written above everything which we have within these four boundaries. We have sold to R. Moshe for the specified sum all we have, I Goig, whether by the authority of my ketubbah or gift, whether by the authority of inheritance or purchase, or whether by any other authority or claim in the world, and I Yosef b. Benvenisti similarly,² along with any authority or title or share which we have there in any manner, including soil and earth, cultivated and uncultivated, sown and unsown, including any income or gain in value there, as it is found between the boundaries described above, with its exit and entrance, from the depths of the earth to the heights of the firmament. This sale is a complete sale, firm and established, decisive and absolute, [performed] according to law and precept, not to be changed or retracted, and it is given and transferred to him and his heirs after him, and no one can protest against him or his agents. As of now, R. Moshe may take full possession of that sale, whether in our presence or not, whether in our lifetimes or after our deaths. He or his agent are authorized to inherit and bequeath, bestow and endow [it], to sell or pledge [it], to remove or introduce a sharecropper, and to give [it] as a gift to whomever he wishes, or to do whatever his heart desires, he or his agents, without our permission or the permission of anybody whatsoever. We did not retain for ourselves or our agents any residual possession or share or title or claim whatsoever in this sale, neither more nor less than a handspan, and we are owed nothing from the price of this sale by R Moshe, neither less than a zuz in value nor more; and we have removed ourselves and our agents from this sale entirely and permanently, for thus have we accepted upon ourselves with a complete qinyan. Anyone who may come from the ends of the earth, son or daughter, brother or sister, near [relative] or distant [person], heir or beneficiary, Jew or gentile, man or woman,³ with or without our authorization, who may stand up and claim or sue or contest or challenge any thing against R. Moshe or his agents in order to annul this sale, may his words be null and void, considered like a broken potsherd which has no value. Any document or validation, written in any language which shall be produced, written in our names or those of our agents, in order to annul this sale, that document or validation shall be null and void, and it shall have no authority, neither under Jewish law nor gentile law. It is incumbent on us and on our heirs after us to appease and to banish and to remove from him and his heirs after him any challenges to this sale whatsoever, and to establish his ownership and that of his agents. We have annulled before you any declaration [that the sale was coerced] or counter-declaration [that the first declaration was coerced] which we have made or which we may make in the future, and from which no meaning may be derived. We have accepted upon ourselves and our heirs after us the lien and substance of this bill of sale, like the lien and substance of all bills of sale as decreed by the sages, [to be valid] from this day forward; it is not to be regarded as mere rhetoric⁴ or as perfunctory legal form.”

We performed the qinyan from marat Goig and from her husband mar Yosef on behalf of R. Moshe according to what is written and explained above with an article which is appropriate to use for qinyan on [the first of] the month of Shevat, in the year 4877 since the creation of the world, according to the way we count here in the city of Barcelona, and we wrote and signed [it] and put it in the hand of the aforementioned R. Moshe b. Avun to be proof of title for him and his agents. And everything written in the bill of sale is firm and established.

Ya‘akov b. Meir

Yitzhak b. Yosef