"Carta de don Mosé Chico -- Carta de çenso por don Juan Quixada y María Álvarez Triguera, su muger, contra don Mosé Chico y su muger, de las meitades en el huerto y trascorral…"

1482 September 9

The earliest mention of a Jewish community in Salamanca dates to the late twelfth century. Jews of the city assisted King Ferdinand II of the kingdom of León in the war against the kingdom of Castile, for which Ferdinand granted them equal rights to the city's Christian inhabitants. Following a period of persecution after the death of King Alfonso IX of León in 1230, the Salamanca Jewish community thrived culturally and financially. Synagogues were erected, and many Jews worked as manufacturers. Salamanca was also revered as a center for Jewish learning during this period. While most Jews lived in the Jewish quarter located near the city's citadel, some lived outside of it, an arrangement that was uncommon for the time.

Salamanca Jews experienced persecution in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In 1335, a town council heavily segregated Jews and Muslims from Christians, forbidding them from serving in each other's houses or receiving medical aid from each other, among other restrictions. In 1391, the missionary Vicente Ferrer instigated violence against Jews in Salamanca, and converted many Jews to Christianity during 1411 and 1412. Additionally, Jewish inhabitants were falsely accused of murdering a Christian boy in 1456, which nearly escalated into violence before their innocence was proven in a court.

The Jewish population in Salamanca remained through the early 1470s, and efforts were made to create a new Jewish quarter in 1482 by two Jewish inhabitants named Mosé Chico and his wife, Rica. They mortgaged part of their property to invest in expanding the Jewish community, legalizing their intentions in a notarized lease contract.

Following the Alhambra Decree of 1492, which ordered the expulsion of practicing Jews from Spain, most Salamanca Jews fled to Portugal.