Jewish History (2020) 33: 351–375 © The Author(s) 2020 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10835-020-09367-y When the Rabbi’s Soul Entered a Pig: Melchiorre Palontrotti and His Giudiata against the Jews of Rome MARTINA MAMPIERI Lichtenberg-Kolleg, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract This essay analyzes an unpublished manuscript of a giudiata, a poem mocking Jew- ish funerals that was written and performed in Rome in the mid-seventeenth century. Mel- chiorre Palontrotti, the author of the composition, was a Roman polemist and author of other published works against Italian Jews, including, among others, the Venetian rabbi Simone Luzzatto, between 1640 and 1649. After furnishing information on the author and the histor- ical background in which the song was written, and following an analysis of the origins of giudiate and their diffusion in early modern Rome, this paper explores the content, language, and style of the giudiata text. The appendix includes a bibliography of Palontrotti’s writings and a transcription of the manuscript. Keywords Jewish-Christian Relations · Jewish History · Anti-Jewish Polemics · Early Modern Polemics · Seventeenth Century · Rome In the rich manuscript collection belonging to Giovanni Pastrizio (ca. 1636– 1708),1 a lecturer in theology at the Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide and scriptor hebraicus at the Vatican Library from 1695, there is a brief but extremely interesting rhymed composition.2 This text, handwritten by Pas- trizio, consists of a canzone contro gli ebrei (“song against the Jews”) in 1On Pastrizio, also known as Ivan Paštric,ˇ and his activity in Rome from the first half of the seventeenth century until his death, see Notizie istoriche degli Arcadi morti, tomo secondo, in Roma, nella Stamperia di Antonio de Rossi, 1720, f.