Edited by Moshe Lazar, Labyrinthos Publishing, 1999
The first comprehensive reader of Ladino literature, covering a wide range of texts from the 15th to the early decades of the 20th century, most of them originally written or printed in Ladino using Hebrew typeface. The editor’s aim is to open a window on the cultural heritage, which the Iberian Jewish exiles carried with them to Italy and the Ottoman Empire. The Ladino Reader presents a broad spectrum of poetic and prose writings, some of which were written before the expulsion. Most of the Ladino texts in Hebrew characters face transliterated versions; a few are present only in Hebrew typeface or in romanized transliteration. As traditional Ladino texts, particularly those dealing with religious and ethical matters contain a great number of Hebrew and Aramaic words or expressions, a succinct glossary is provided; the same for Turkish words found in later Ladino texts.