Talk:Isaac Chelo

Translated from Hebrew wikipedia --Midrashah (talk) 10:50, 13 August 2012 (UTC)

What is actually known about Chelo?

As far as I can tell, most of the biographical details regarding Chelo derive from the narrative in Carmoly's book. Since the Itinerary in there is now considered a forgery, it is unclear which of the biographical details can be trusted. We shouldn't just copy things from sources that are unaware of the suspicions.

I was not able to find a source that defends Carmoly against the forgery charge. There are of course many sources that just cite the Itinerary in the belief that it is true, but they don't really count in the debate. What we need, and should cite if it exists, is a source that acknowledges the charge of forgery but argues that it is unfounded. Zero^talk 13:57, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Another issue: Shapira says he was from Larissa in Thessaly, but Carmoly says Laresa in Aragon (is there such a place?). Probably Scholem's long article solves these puzzles, but I don't have access to it. Zero^talk 14:23, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

I have not been able to find any other mention of a "Laresa" in Aragon. I even consulted the Diccionario geográfico-estadístico-historico de España y sus posesiones de ultramar, by Pascual Madoz, an amazing catalogue of historical place names in Spain that has over 10,000 pages of fine type. The only possibility is that it is a variant/mis-spelling of Larrosa. Can anyone else find something on "Laresa"? Zero^talk 11:02, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Scholem judges Laresa to be an erroneous form of Lerida, which was indeed in Aragon. Zero^talk 04:53, 4 January 2023 (UTC)