While scholarship has paid much attention to the role of endogamy in strengthening the social fabric of diaspora, this presentation highlights the critical role of leisure to socialization that reinforced the constitution of the *converso* “Nação.” In Inquisition files, leisure and fun features prominently amid confessions, denunciations and defense claims against potential accusations. According to Inquisition records, men usually met at night to gamble; and women visited each other during daytime. People often took walks in the cities’ bucolic surroundings. On the meadows outside the city walls, they watched the River Douro and the city. They also took boat trips on the river, which sometimes were followed by picnics. They rested on the river’s banks, pitching tents and watching the fishermen in their boats fishing lamprey. During these promenades, individuals and groups often encountered their fellow townspeople. On the other hand, enmities arising around gambling tables were among the most common defense allegations raised by Porto New Christian merchants against their presumptive accusers. Mingling, fun and friction were different aspects of the same phenomenon.
**“*Diamo Gloria al Creator*: A Judeo-Italian Poem for Purim”** Martina Mampieri, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York (Ms. 4104, fols. 45r-46r)
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R. Moses Provenzalo (1503-1576) was born in Rosà, in the Veneto, to a Provençal family. He was largely self-taught.[^1] Provenzalo resided in Mantua for most of his life and served as the rabbi of the Italian community there. He was involved in several public disputes that embroiled the rabbinate throughout Italy. One of these took place in 1558-1560, when Moshe Ibn Shoshan was sent to Italy by R. Joseph Karo to oversee the printing of *Bet Yosef* and got involved in a disagreement with the Savionetta printers. Another dispute was the notorious Tamari-Venturozzo *get* (divorce document) in 1566- 1567. Provenzalo wrote responsa, commentaries on Maimonides' *Guide*, annotations on *Ma’or Enayim* by R. Azariah de Rossi and R. Yedayah ha-Penini’s geometrical work *Beḥinat Olam*, talmudic commentaries, and a work on Hebrew grammar. Provenzalo's compilation of responsa was edited by his grandson, R. Elazar bar Avraham, who arranged it and intended to print the work, but failed. The responsa remained in manuscript until 1989, when *Makhon Yerushalayim* published them based on Ms Mantua 39, with completions and emendarions based on Ms Jerusalem 1999 and Ms New York R.1537. [^1]: This is interesting in light of a responsum, where he pointed out the difference between “the oral learning that the earlier authorities were accustomed to in their day and the written learning from books, as we do it.” Responsa, R. Moshe Provenzalo, 6. דע כי יש הפרש גדול בין הלימוד על פה כמו שהיו הראשונים ]נוהגים[ בימיהם אל הלימוד בכתב מתוך הספר על פי דרכנו
Amina Boukail, University of Jijel-Algeria Bodleian Library, Oxford, Ms. Opp. Add. 4o 85 (Neubauer, *Catalog of the Hebrew* *Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library* 1191) cols, XII- XXXIX.