The Disputation of Barcelona

In July 1263, the Dispute of Barcelona took place between the converted Jew Pau Cristià, of the Dominican order, and the prestigious rabbi of Girona Mossé Ben Nahman, also known as Nahmànides. Ordered and presided over by Jaume I, who acts coerced by Ramon de Penyafort, faithful executor of the papal policy of intolerance towards the Jews, the dispute aims only to show the moral superiority of Christianity and force the conversion of the rabbi and all the Jews of Catalonia.

Josep M. Quintana faithfully exposes this real event that took place in Barcelona and delves into fiction to show how, in a subtle way, Ramon de Penyafort acts on the conscience of the monarch. Thus, he involves the dispute of a series of facts of a criminal nature that, with a plot full of intrigue, explain the attitude of a feudal society, deeply anti-Semitic, that struggles to affirm its privileges.