Jewish Symbols and Secrets (A Fifteenth-Century Spanish Carpet)

In the 100 years that led up to expulsion in 1492, hundreds of thousands of Spanish Jews converted publicly - but not privately - to Christianity. They left clues to their compelling and dangerous secret lives, revealed through personal artifacts. This book examines one such artifact - the 15th-century Vizcaya carpet. This study of the private lives of the noble family who commissioned the carpet, as well as the weavers who wove it, shows that neither group were Christians. They were secret Jews, conversos. The symbols in the carpet - with their hidden messages of Judaism and Kabbalah - are analyzed, along with their alternative meanings in medieval Christian and Islamic culture. The book also traces the history of the Star of David in Judaism from Biblical times to 1600 C.E. The neglected role of textiles in Jewish culture is uncovered, as is the history of the Sephardi weavers of Spain from Biblical to Islamic times. Further insights are gained in the question of the total number of Jews who converted to Christianity. In understanding the worlds and secret lives of the people who created this carpet, we see it as a beautifully encoded statement of Jewish faith and survival.