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Variations on a Religious Theme Jews and Muslims From the Eastern Mediterranean Converting to Christianity, 17th & 18th Centuries Daphne Lappa Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute Florence, April 2015 i European University Institute Department of History and Civilization Variations on a Religious Theme Jews and Muslims From the Eastern Mediterranean Converting to Christianity, 17th & 18th Centuries Daphne Lappa Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor of History and Civilization of the European University Institute Examining Board Emeritus Professor Anthony Molho, European University Institute Professor Luca Molà, European University Institute Professor Nikolaos Karapidakis, Ionian University Associate Professor Eric Dursteler, Brigham Young University © Daphne Lappa, 2015 No part of this thesis may be copied, reproduced or transmitted without prior permission of the author Abstract This study explores the religious conversion of Jews and Muslims to Christianity from the mid-17th to the 18th centuries in the international city of Venice and the port-city of Corfu. It does not focus on the subjective experiences and identity formation of candidate converts, but rather on the background situations that acted as catalysts for these people’s decision to convert. More concretely, the study connects, on the one hand, the conversion of Jews to the impoverishment of a large part of the Jews in Europe in the period under consideration, while it also traces the existence of a minority of educated and wealthy Jewish converts, whose conversion it considers in connection to the crisis of Jewish identity in the late 18th century. On the other hand, the study traces two core elements in the lives and itineraries of Muslim candidate converts: a background of sustained familiarity with Christianity, and an extensive physical mobility that exposed them to and entailed interaction with multi-ethnic and multi- religious contexts . Additionally, the study argues that despite the diversity of social status, backgrounds, circumstances or incentives for conversion that candidate converts displayed, a common element transcends the majority of their life-stories: the fact that before reaching the Christian institutions, they were already embedded in cross-faith and cross-cultural social networks. These networks, which often operated as agents of conversion, formed the wider framework within which the various catalysts –from straightforward coercion and poverty to intense cross-faith intimacy, physical mobility, identity crisis or the prospect of professional and status gain- were played out. The study draws mostly, but not exclusively, on material from the archive of the institution of the Casa dei Catecumeni and the church of San Giorgio in Venice, as well as on material from the Megalos Protopapas and the Latin Cathedral archival series in Corfu. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................... vi PREFACE .................................................................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 4 I. RACHEL VIVANTE: A UNIQUE CASE? ................................................................................ 4 II. EARLY MODERN MOBILITY AND FLUIDITY .................................................................. 6 III. BEFORE CONVERSION: THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL FRAMEWORKS ................................................................................................................................. 7 IV. ARCHIVAL SOURCES ............................................................................................................11 A. VENICE .................................................................................................................................................. 11 B. CORFU .................................................................................................................................................... 14 C. FEW REMARKS ON THE SOURCES ........................................................................................ 16 V. CHAPTER STRUCTURE ..........................................................................................................21 CHAPTER 1. RELIGIOUS CONVERSION IN CONTEXT ..................................... 24 I. THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES ...................................................................24 II. CONVERSION IN EVERYDAY LIFE: A DIALECTIC BETWEEN STRATEGIES AND TACTICS .................................................................................................................................28 III. MOBILITY IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE .....................................................................32 IV. FLUIDITY IN EARLY MODERN STUDIES ......................................................................41 CHAPTER 2. RELIGIOUS CONVERSION IN VENICE AND CORFU ............... 51 I. VENICE. A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE CASA DEI CATECUMENI ...............................51 A. THE CASE DEI CATECUMENI IN HISTORIOGRAPHY ................................................... 51 B. THE VENETIAN CASA DEI CATECUMENI ............................................................................ 54 C. CANDIDATE CONVERTS AT THE VENETIAN CASA DEI CATECUMENI ............ 60 II. RELIGIOUS CONVERSION IN THE CITY OF CORFU .................................................62 A. LATINI, GRECI, EBREI AND TURCHI IN CORFU ............................................................... 63 B. CONVERSION BETWEEN THE LATIN AND GREEK CHURCHES ........................... 70 C. CANDIDATE CONVERTS AT THE LATIN AND GREEK CHURCHES IN CORFU .......................................................................................................................................................................... 78 CHAPTER 3. JEWISH CANDIDATE CONVERTS ................................................... 81 I. THE UNDERPRIVILEGED ......................................................................................................81 A. JEWS LIVING IN VENICE ............................................................................................................. 81 B. JEWISH CANDIDATE CONVERTS IN THE CASA DEI CATECUMENI ..................... 88 C. RELIGIOUS CONVERSION AS A FAMILY VENTURE ................................................ 102 II. A NEW TYPE OF CONVERT EMERGING IN THE 18TH CENTURY ..................... 108 A. IN THE VENETIAN CASA DEI CATECUMENI .................................................................. 108 B. THE STORY OF RACHEL VIVANTE FROM CORFU .................................................... 114 SOURCES ............................................................................................................................................................... 115 ACCOUNT OF THE EVENT .......................................................................................................................... 116 RACHEL’S CONVERSION IN THE 18TH CENTURY CONTEXT .............................................. 120 CHAPTER 4. MUSLIM CANDIDATE CONVERTS ............................................... 128 I. WAR CAPTIVES: CONVERSION AS PART OF THE OTTOMAN-VENETIAN WARFARE ...................................................................................................................................... 128 A. VENICE ............................................................................................................................................... 128 B. CORFU ................................................................................................................................................. 136 iv II. RELIGIOUS CONVERSION BEYOND WARFARE ....................................................... 142 A. A STRUCTURED FAMILIARITY ............................................................................................ 149 B. A WORLD ON THE MOVE ......................................................................................................... 155 CHAPTER 5. A CONNECTED MICROCOSM ........................................................ 158 I. CROSS-FAITH NETWORKS ................................................................................................. 158 II. THE PROSELYTIZING NETWORK .................................................................................. 164 EPILOGUE .......................................................................................................................... 177 PRIMARY SOURCES ...................................................................................................... 181 VENICE ........................................................................................................................................... 181 CORFU ............................................................................................................................................ 181 SECONDARY LITERATURE ....................................................................................... 183 v Acknowledgments I would like to express my profound appreciation and