A Morisco entertainer could recite long passages of chivalric romance from memory.

Evidence

The said Rom´an took a sheet of paper from his pocket, and he looked at it as if he were reading, and spoke a long passage of the book and chapter that they had asked for. And he would have been able to do the same, as was confirmed by most of those who had been present, if he had been asked for part of the Bible or Holy Scripture.” — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 932

Categorization

• FICTION: The storyteller who pantomimes reading while reciting from memory is a vivid scene — a Morisco entertainer performing literacy he may or may not possess, in a culture where his religious identity is being policed.
• DEEPTHINKING: The sheet of paper is a prop of literacy — the performance of reading, not reading itself — which raises the question of what literacy meant socially in a world where oral memory could outpace the written page. Also notable that his repertoire spans both chivalric romance and Scripture, collapsing the sacred-secular boundary the Inquisition insisted on.
• XREF: Connects to Milgrom’s work on reputation and signaling — the sheet of paper is a costly signal that the Inquisition and his audience can both read, one indicating learning, the other indicating danger.