An anti-jewish libel in the printed popular literature of the 16th century

Abstract

In this article there is edited and studied an anti-Jewish blood libel preserved in a Spanish poetic chapbook («pliego suelto») of the 16^th century and attributed to the blind traditional poet («ciego coplero») Francisco González de Figueroa. Thanks to a tracking of diverse medieval and contemporary sources, Hispanic and foreign, related to the accusations of ritual murder against Jews, we have verified that this narration is a more link of a long chain of anti-Jewish blood libels arisen in Europe, which had a wide and extensive diffusion for several centuries.