"The ass dispute" is one of the best-known writings of Turmeda that relates the debate about the superiority of animals over people in a medieval Palma where the chapel of San Cristòfol still existed.
At that time, at the brothel, there was a handsome gallant pimp called Nadalet, a fine well-made fellow with well-proportioned limbs who wasgraceful, polite and always so elegantly dressed that no one would ever have said he was a ruffian – more a trader of good standing. This Nadalet had a friend at the brothel called Francesca, an extremely beautiful pleasant girl who had been a Jew. One Christmas holiday, the said Nadalet lost his money gambling at dice and he asked his friend Francesca to lend him two gold florins to play on, which she immediately did. And no sooner did he lose them than he asked for more. When she did not wish to lend him anymore, he stabbed her in the stomach in a gambler’s fury. She fell to the ground and bled so copiously that Nadalet, in the belief that he had killed her, fled and hid under an altar known as Saint Christopher’s altar in a Franciscan church, accompanied by Antoni Riussech. He quickly sent his companion to the brothel to confirm whether Francesca was dead, telling him to return at once and give him news.
La disputa de l’ase, (The Ass Dispute), 1418
Translated by Rachel Waters.
(Ciutat de Mallorca c. 1355 – Tunis, post. 1423). A Mallorcan writer, also known as Abdallah at-Tarjuman, whose literature was all written in Tunisia. What is known of his life istaken from his writings. Anselm Turmeda was probably from a comfortably off family of artisans. He studied grammar, logic, theology, physics and astrology, and joined the Franciscan order. He moved to Leridaand Bologna, where he continued his studies, and he is thought to havestayed briefly in Tarragona and Paris. Later he settled in Tunisia, where, as a Moslem, he adopted the name Abu Muhammad Abdallah Ibn Abdallah at-Tarjuman al-Mayurquiandheld important administrative posts.
The book La disputa del asno (The Ass’ Dispute) (1418) was condemned by the Inquisitionin 1583, very probably leading to the disappearance of copies of the publication. Thus no copy remains in Catalan and the only known edition is based on a 1544 French version. This was one of Turmeda’s best known works, debating on the superiority of animals over men, defended by the ass, and of men over animals, defended by Brother Anselm Turmeda. Other examples of his work include Cobles de la divisió del regne de Mallorques (Verse on the Division of the Kingdom of Mallorca)and Llibre de bons amonestaments (Book of Good Warnings), both written in 1398, in addition to Tuhfa, written in 1420.
The old neighbourhood linking the streets Calle de la Platería, Calle Bosseria and Calle Sagell was an important trading place, with narrow streets, houses, shops and workers all crowded together on small building blocks. Today, many of these blocks no longer exist, as is the case of San Cristóbal, where an old chapel of the same name could be found, situated at the point where today’s Calle Bosseria meets Calle Sindicato, in what used to be Plaza del Pa.This chapel was considered to be one of the city’s oldest. In the mid 19th century, it was no longer used for worship and, at the end of the same century, the buildings on the block were demolished.
