Barcelona Disputation, Barcelona, Spain, 1263

The Disputation of Barcelona (July 20–24, 1263) was a formal ordered medieval disputation between representatives of Christianity and Judaism regarding whether Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. It was held at the royal palace of King James I of Aragon in the presence of the King, his court, and many prominent ecclesiastical dignitaries and knights between Dominican Friar Pablo Christiani, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, and Nachmanides, a leading medieval Jewish scholar, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator. During the Middle Ages, there were numerous ordered disputations between Christians and Jews. They were connected with burnings of the Talmud, burnings of Jews at the stake, and anti-Jewish pogroms. In Barcelona, Jews and Christians were given absolute freedom to deliver their arguments however they wanted—a freedom not then otherwise available to Jews anywhere else.