Collection of letters from Jewish merchants from the community of Portuguese exiles in the city of Thessaloniki. [Mid-16th century]. Judeo-Portuguese (Hebrew and Latin script).
Thirteen handwritten leaves: ten letters, two sheets that served as envelopes (with destination address), and one draft sheet.
The leaves were discovered bound in old book bindings, and contain segments of letters from Jewish merchants in Salonika (Thessaloniki) – descendants of Jews expelled from Portugal – who persisted in clinging to their unique language, Judeo-Portuguese.
Roughly half of the letters were written in Hebrew script, and can thus be characterized as "Portuguese Aljamiado, " an exceedingly rare linguistic entity, represented by only a very small number of known writings and documents (see below).
The letters were all dispatched to Salonika, apparently in the course of the writers’ wanderings throughout the lands of the Ottoman Empire and Europe. Among the cities mentioned in the letters are Ankara, Edirne (Adrianople), Ancona, Bologna, Venice, Florence, Dubrovnik, and other places. This testifies to the broad geographical scope of the travels conducted by Jewish merchants in those years.
The letters were apparently written by four different writers: Abraham Hodara, his brother Joseph Hodara, Joseph Lindo, and a fourth (unidentified) person. The letters were addressed to Solomon (Salomon) Hodara (father of Abraham and Joseph) and Salomon Sensor; these names appear on the backs of the letters or on the envelopes.

The letters mostly deal with business matters, but the names of many members of the Portuguese-Jewish community of Salonika appear in them (including names that are most likely unknown from other sources): the uncle of the Hodara brothers, Joseph Ben Attar; Moses Baruch; Abraham and Moses de Boton; Joseph Gedaliah, and others.
In addition to the present letters, we know of only eleven Judeo-Portuguese manuscripts written in Hebrew script: two Passover Haggadahs (containing instructions in Judeo-Portuguese), a guide to paint mixing for book illustrators, seven translations of books on the subjects of medicine and astrology, and a private contract dated 1408. All eleven of theses texts were written prior to the expulsion from Portugal, and in all likelihood, they were actually written in Portugal. The present letters evidently represent the only surviving post-expulsion documents inscribed in this particular form of writing, and the only ones composed outside Portugal.

Judeo-Portuguese was a language spoken by the Jews of Portugal prior to their expulsion – a language which gradually disappeared over the years. The language was written in both Hebrew and Latin script, and it preserved archaic elements of the regular Portuguese language that had been extinguished from the language of non-Jewish Portuguese speakers. Similar trends were evident in the relationship between Ladino and non-Jewish Spanish. And as with other Judaic languages such as Ladino or Yiddish, many words possessing a uniquely Hebrew-Jewish source formed an integral part of the language. Following the expulsion of Jews from Portugal in the late 15th century, some of the exiles persisted in speaking Judeo-Portuguese in the lands they moved to, though at an ever-diminishing rate. By the 19th century, the language had entirely ceased to exist.

[13] leaves, approx. 16X21 cm (size varies). Five in Hebrew script (three written on both sides), five in Latin script (four written on both sides), two leaves which served as envelopes, and one draft leaf. Condition varies. Stains. Open tears, mostly small to medium in size, some affecting text. Large segments missing from one leaf. Some leaves partly mended. Remnants of wax seal on verso of one leaf.

See: Dov Cohen, "New Sources in Portuguese Aljamiado: A Collection of Letters Concerning the Commercial Activities of Sephardic Jews in the Ottoman Empire and Italy During the Mid-Sixteenth Century, in: "Portuguese Jews, New Christians and ‘New Jews’: A Tribute to Roberto Bachmann", Leiden: Brill, 2018, pp. 73-101.