Venice the Jews and Europe 1516–2016

VENICE THE JEWS AND EUROPE 1516–2016 Marsilio indeX 18 Venice, the Jews, and Europe: Five Hundred Years Since the Creation of the Ghetto Donatella Calabi THE siGnificance venICE, THE JEWS, of THE GHETTO AND euROPE. 1516–2016 38 Today. 70 1 . BEFORE THE GHETTO 152 3 . THE COSMOPOLITAN GHETTO 276 5 . JEWISH CULTURE AND WOMEN 372 7 . TalES OF THE GHETTO. 458 9 . THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Jews and Other introduction by Elisa Bastianello introduction by Ludovica Galeazzo introduction by Cristiana Facchini THE SHadOW OF SHylOCK introduction by Simon Levis Sullam Minorities entries by Stefania Meggiato entries by Andrea Pavanello, entries by Valeria Cafà, introduction by Shaul Bassi entries by Elisabetta Barisoni, Amos Luzzatto and Francesca Rizzi, Elisa Gianmario Guidarelli, Angela Tiziana Plebani, Stefania entry by Shaul Bassi Martina Massaro, Stefano Bastianello, Caterina Gottardi, Munari, Elisa Bastianello, Silvestri, Michela Dal Borgo, Zaggia, Martina Carraro, Mirka Dalla Longa Giovanni Caniato, Claudia Marcella Ansaldi, Martina 382 8 . NAPOLEON: THE OPEninG OF Isabella Brezigar, Simon 48 Venice and Europe’s Ghetto Salmini, Ludovica Galeazzo, Massaro THE GATES and assimilaTION Levis Sullam, Francesca Rizzi 82 Before the Ghetto Riccardo Calimani Massimo Favilla and Ruggero introduction by Martina Massaro and Stefania Meggiato, Studio Renata Segre 298 Dialogues Rugolo, Michela Dal Borgo, entries by Giovanni Favero, Azzurro Monica Centanni 56 Venice: A Symbol 90 Jewish Banks in Mestre Stefano Zaggia, Francesco Ludovica Galeazzo, Roberto 498 The Jews in Venice of Jewish History and on the Venetian Mainland Spagnolo 306 Jewish Philosophy in the De Feo, Martina Massaro, in the Twentieth Century: Robert Bonfil in the Late Middle Ages Ghetto: Simone Luzzatto Camillo Tonini, Alessandra 208 The Jewish–Venetian Mode A Cultural and Political Rachele Scuro and Sara Copio Sullam Ferrighi, Stefano Zaggia, Mirka of Speech (and the Languages Profile Giuseppe Veltri Dalla Longa, Giovanni Caniato, of the Ghetto) Simon Levis Sullam 94 2 . COSMOPOLITAN VENICE Gianmario Guidarelli Umberto Fortis 310 Leone Modena, Sara Copio introduction by Gianmario Sullam, and l’Accademia 436 The Impossibility of Being Guidarelli, Martina Massaro, 212 Architectural and Urbanistic degli Incogniti Themselves: Venetian Jews 503 bibliography Elisa Bastianello Aspects of the Venice Ghetto Howard Tzvi Adelman in the Early Nineteenth entries by Andrea Bellieni, David Cassuto Century Elisa Bastianello, Martina 314 Jewish Female Society: 216 Ghetto Urbanism Michele Gottardi Massaro, Sara Menato, Piero Shared Weakness Dana E. Katz Lucchi, Tiziana Plebani, or Peculiar Autonomy? 442 The Emancipation Yoel Finkelman 220 Synagogues and a City: Paola Lanaro of the Jews in the Veneto Gerrit Berckheyde’s View Gadi Luzzatto Voghera 130 The Jewish Merchants of Amsterdam 318 6 . TRADE IN THE SEVENTEENTH of Venice, the Ottoman 448 Becoming Italian Citizens. Joël J. Cahen, Erik Koopman AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURiES Empire, and the Iberian The Role of Jewish Women introduction by Martina Massaro Diaspora 224 Between Lisbon and Venice: in Renewing Education entries by Paolo Delorenzi, Benjamin Ravid Itineraries and Stories Nadia Maria Filippini Ludovica Galeazzo and Martina of Portuguese Sephardim 134 The Place of Venice Massaro, Martino Ferrari Bravo, 454 Jewish Patronage During in the Sixteenth Century in the Cultural Formation Alberto Craievich, Piero Lucchi, the Emancipation Process Susana Bastos Mateus of Early Modern Jewry Michela Dal Borgo, Angela Martina Massaro David B. Ruderman Munari, Camillo Tonini, Stefano 228 4 . THE SYNAGOGUES Zaggia, Margherita Stevanato, 138 Jewish Publishing in Venice: introduction by Gianmario Livio Vianello Its Glories and Decline Guidarelli and Stefano Zaggia Giulio Busi entries by Carol Sethill, 364 Jews and Credit in Early Marcella Ansaldi, Doretta Modern Europe and the 142 Variations on Ham. Davanzo Poli, Michela Zanon, Mediterranean: From Usury Giovanni Bellini’s Alberto Craievich, Martina to International Trade The Mocking of Noah Massaro, Gianmario Guidarelli, Francesca Trivellato Augusto Gentili Stefano Zaggia 368 Family Bankers: The Bonfils 148 I nside the Gates: From Jewish 260 Being a Rabbi, Inside and the Querinis of Santa Quarters to Ghettos and Outside the Ghetto Maria Formosa on the Venetian Mainland Scialom Bahbout Angela Munari Stefano Zaggia 264 The Bimah and the Stage: Synagogue Music and Cultural Production in the Italian Ghettos Francesco Spagnolo 270 Musical Practice in the Venice Ghetto. Reading and Analysis of a Manuscript Witness Piergabriele Mancuso When we place the word Jews next to the word credit, the image of Shylock, the quintessential usurer, almost invariably comes to mind. It is an association rooted in history. Across the Italian peninsula, after the thir- teenth century, the Church and secular governments confined most Jews to moneylending and promoted the Jews and Credit representation of Jews as rapacious speculators intent in Early Modern Europe on exploiting the Christian commonwealth. The Jewish and the Mediterranean: usurer thus became both a historical figure and a meta- From Usury phor. As a metaphor, it stood in for all greedy and illegit- to International Trade imate economic behavior, whether carried out by Jews or by Christians. This dual medieval construction of usury has left a profound mark on the history of Jews and the Francesca Trivellato history of credit in the Western world. But it would be wrong to assume that across early modern Europe and the Mediterranean, all Jews were moneylenders. During the sixteenth century, as the first globalization of Euro- pean commerce ensued, certain segments of the Jewish diaspora participated in far-flung mercantile networks. The Republic of Venice led the way in promoting new economic and social roles for these Jewish merchants and, in so doing, favored the creation of new forms of Christian–Jewish credit relations, which in turn con- tributed to a greater integration of Jewish merchants in Venetian society. The process, however, remained in- complete and did not erase preexisting prejudices. The first inhabitants of the Ghetto established in Ven- ice in 1516, the so-called Italian–German Jews, were allowed to carry out only two economic activities: pawn- broking and the retail of secondhand clothes. They could lend money on pawned objects of little value (no more than three ducats) at the official interest rate of 5 percent per year. This service was meant to sup- port poor Christians throughout the city. The retail of secondhand clothes was not a lucrative occupation; moreover, the government demanded that those Jews dealing in used goods furbish the temporary residenc- es of foreign ambassadors without compensation. In 1624 the charter once again prohibited Italian–Ger- man Jews from dealing in any new merchandise.1 In short, the first long-term Jewish residents in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Venice conformed to the medieval economic and ethical model for Jewish-Chris- 364 365 tian coexistence and, as a consequence, also remained those Jews who had been forcibly baptized in Spain after Elsewhere, too, the involvement of Iberian Jews in inter- The few surviving portraits of affluent Iberian Jews targets of the most insidious stereotypes. 1492 and in Portugal after 1497. Anyone who had been national trade gave rise to new legal arrangements for living in Venice, Livorno, and Amsterdam painted in But the creation of the Ghetto in 1516 also coincided with baptized but did not live as a faithful Christian could their settlement. From 1551 to 1723, the French crown the eighteenth century show them in poses and attire the beginning of Venice’s commercial decline and the be charged with being an apostate. In defiance of canon welcomed Jews crossing the border with Spain to take that render them virtually indistinguishable from lo- Portuguese expansion in the Indian Ocean. Spices and law and with the goal of protecting the assets of the Ibe- up residence in Bordeaux but only with the status of cal commercial elites. State regulations and the pur- textiles that used to arrive from Egypt and Syria along rian refugees, the Venetian government decided to grant “Portuguese merchants.” The French thus admitted suit of profit both ensured that commercial credit tied caravan routes now also reached Lisbon and Antwerp all New Christians immunity from the Inquisition as tacitly that a good many of these merchants secretly the interests of merchants from all different groups. on board ships sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. long as they lived within the confines of the Ghetto as practiced Judaism. The rulers of Amsterdam, by con- Yet Europe’s commercial society never became in- Meanwhile, Venice had to fend off the rise of the Ot- Jews. In addition, in case of war, Venice pledged to hold trast, devised the most tolerant policies of the period: sensitive to religious prejudice. Christian travelers to toman Empire and northern European powers like the neither Jews nor their belongings hostage.3 This time, Jews were allowed to build majestic synagogues but, the Levant repeatedly accused Jewish merchants of English and the Dutch in the eastern Mediterranean. no explicit prohibition was made against Jews becom- like all other merchants, were required to use the city’s overcharging their French and English counterparts. One of the measures taken by the Republic to counter ing involved in petty loans or secondhand retail trade, many public services and institutions devised

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