Department of History
2019 Rothman Faculty Summer Fellow
Dr. Caputo received a Rothman Faculty Summer Fellowship for her project titled “A Jew in the Margins: Petrus Alfonsi and the Figure of the Medieval Convert”.
Petrus Alfonsi converted from Judaism to Christianity in the early 12th century and quickly rose to a position of significance in Iberia and beyond. Shortly after converting, he penned Dialogi contra iudaeos, a dialog between Petrus and his pre-conversion Jewish self, Moses. Both events took place at a time when converts to Christianity played an increasingly active role in shaping the public discourse concerning the legal and theological role of Jews and Judaism in the Christian world. Yet, the convert was an ambivalent figure among Christians and Jews alike. This book examines the religious and cultural factors that informed the way Alfonsi crafted a textual self-representation first as a convert and then as a Christian, which shaped the reception and interpretation of his work from the twelfth through the sixteenth century.