Dublin Core
Title
Oro, wife of Samuel Rimok: Monzón, 1463
Subject
Oro, wife of Samuel Rimok
Description
Oro, the wife of a scion of a well-known family, dictates a long Hebrew will in early summer of 1463 when is she healthy, as she says, in both body and mind. The introductory materials have Oro insisting that, in the bad times in which she lives, no one can know if s/he will live through a sickness, and so one needs "to open his eyes and organize his affairs." She also expresses concern that once one succumbs to illness, they may not have the mental capacity to produce a will and act "according to his heart," and thus she explains her motivation to write a will at present. She articulates again in the will that all that she leaves is according to her own desire, not coerced. It is an unusually long articulation of a testator's independent choices.
Oro leaves money and goods for the sake of her soul, i.e. for charity, including having Torah finials made to be used at the Great Synagogue, to be made within a year of her death, though control over these items remains with her husband and his heirs in perpetuity. She leaves money, clothing, linens, and other goods to men and women alike -- including to widows, relatives, and a young orphaned girl who may have been her domestic servant. Her husband is named her universal heir. A lot of boilerplate legalese appears in this will, aimed at ensuring the validity of this will and the upholding of her exact wishes as described in the will.
TRANSCRIPTION of this will from Blasco Orellana, et al, attached as file here.
Oro leaves money and goods for the sake of her soul, i.e. for charity, including having Torah finials made to be used at the Great Synagogue, to be made within a year of her death, though control over these items remains with her husband and his heirs in perpetuity. She leaves money, clothing, linens, and other goods to men and women alike -- including to widows, relatives, and a young orphaned girl who may have been her domestic servant. Her husband is named her universal heir. A lot of boilerplate legalese appears in this will, aimed at ensuring the validity of this will and the upholding of her exact wishes as described in the will.
TRANSCRIPTION of this will from Blasco Orellana, et al, attached as file here.
Creator
Monzón, Aragon, Spain
Date
24 June 1463
Source
Archives Departmentales de Pyrénées Orientales, 1 B 338
Meritxell Blasco Orellana, J. Ramón Magdalena Nom de Déu, and Miguel Ángel Motis Dolader, "Últimas voluntades de los judíos en Aragón: El testamento de Doña Oro, esposa de Samuel Rimok, judía de Monzón (1463)," Materia giudaica 14 (2009): 431-459.
Language
Hebrew
Coverage
Spain