Netanyahu, B[enzion]. The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain.

• Author: Mills, III, Edward Jay
• Position: Book Review

Netanyahu, B[enzion]. The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain. 2nd ed. New York: New York Review of Books, 2001. 1320 pp. Paper, $34.95.

Netanyahu has written a definitive history of the Spanish Inquisition. To read this work, it is helpful to have a rudimentary knowledge of medieval history and the historical twists and turns of both Judaism and Christianity. This reviewer also found it helpful to be comfortable with Latin and Spanish. Yet, Netanyahu's work is so well written and his writing style so conducive to learning (see below) that even a non-specialist will be able to follow his history and his historical arguments.

Netanyahu's book follows a long tradition of multi-volume works on the Spanish Inquisition. He simply puts his "four books," as he calls them, in one binding. They are titled: "Book One: Historical Background"; "Book Two: The Rein of Juan II"; "Book Three: Enrique IV and the Catholic Kings"; and, "Book Four: The Origins of the Inquisition."

The appendices are chapters on specific unresolved topics or issues and well worth reading. This work completes a trio of books by Netanyahu on Spain's Jews and Marranos; it follows his Don Isaac Abravanel (1982) and The Marranos of Spain (1999).

The Origins of the Inquisition is a very long book for two very good reasons. One is that Netanyahu's research and work are so meticulous and exhaustive. He has mastered the relevant extant documents of an enormously long historical period (from the Babylonian Exile of the Jews in the sixth century B.C.E. through Ferdinand and Isabella's expulsion of the Jews and establishment of the Inquisition in the 15th century C.E.). He uses them with wisdom and precision. It is clear to this reviewer that what one gets in this book is years of reflection on the meaning of these many sources. Hence, this work is very extensively footnoted. An examination of selected references clearly demonstrates that the author was always accurate and balanced in his use of those sources. The only criticism this reviewer has regarding any of his sources is that those he uses for early Christianity are at least a generation old (i.e., A. Harnack, The Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, (1904-05); Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (1910); and, F. Charles Baur, History of Christianity in the First Three Centuries (1878)). His analysis of the era nonetheless is quite accurate.

The second reason is his style of writing...