Francisco Javier Perea Siller

Biography

F. Javier Perea Siller is a Hispanic philologist and a professor in the Department of Language Sciences at the University of Córdoba, Spain. His research interests focus on Spanish linguistics as well as the cultural aspects of linguistics during the Renaissance. Two representative books are La lengua primitiva de España en el Renacimiento. La hipótesis hebrea y caldea (Granada, Método, 2005) and Comunicar en la Universidad: Descripción y metodología de los géneros académicos (Córdoba, Universidad de Córdoba, 2013, editor). In 2015, he was curator of the exhibition “Sendas de la Torá. El legado del judaísmo en el Renacimiento cristiano” (Provincial Historical Archive, Córdoba).

 

Abstract

Hebrew Language and Inquisition Censorship: The crisis of post-Tridentine Spanish humanism

This talk aims to examine the role of the Hebrew language, as a language of the Bible, in shaping Catholic identity in Spain during the 16^th century. This was a period of change in Spanish society; after Jews were expelled in 1492 there was an effort to assimilate converts. The Hebrew language and its exegetical texts were placed in the middle of a confrontation between two schools of thought: on the one side, some thinkers aimed to protect Christendom from Jewish influence; on the other side, some theologians (mostly converts) praised the Hebrew language and its traditions as the best means to understand the Old Testament and, therefore, as important parts of Christian identity. Thus, this talk hopes to contribute to the analysis of the ideological aspects involved in the controversy after the Council of Trent.