Bio

Ana Marques has a degree in History (2021) from the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto and is currently finishing her master thesis entitled “O antijudaismo na Dinastia de Avis.” She was awarded a grant by the Foundation for Science and Technology in the FALCO Project (2022). Her research areas are the Portuguese Jewish community, the history of criminality and the history of everyday life. She has already published several articles related to Jewish criminality in late medieval Portugal, and has been editing a paleographical edition of medieval documents.

Project

The project focuses on anti-Judaism in Portugal under the Avis Dynasty (João I through João II), and how this influenced everyday social life within and outside of the Jewish community. Although Portuguese historiography has extensively dealt with the history of the Jews, attacks on Jews throughout the late medieval period have been scarcely explored. Our goal is to try to understand why and how attitudes and violent actions materialized during this century. For this purpose, we look at several issues, starting with the legal framework (and how it reflects hostility towards Jews), but also individual and social attitudes and episodes of violence. The main sources at our disposal are the records of the Royal Chancellery (including pardon letters), and the minutes of municipal councils. Besides, we are currently exploring Hebrew Iberian historical sources. Through the analysis of the data collected, we can conclude that the moments of higher tension are witnessed under João I, during the attack against the Judiaria Grande in Lisbon, in the context of a civil war. With the arrival of Jews expelled from Castile in 1492, tensions in Portugal against the Jews became more acute and both Portuguese and Castilian Jews were affected by these attacks.