Jews in Italian Renaissance

Leon Modena, one of the celebrated personalities of Italian Jewry in the early modern period, is known for his extensive, life-long involvement with music in its various theoretical and practical aspects. The article presents additional evidence that has gone unnoticed in previous studies of Modena’s musical endeavors: his adaption of a polyphonic, secular Italian melody, for the singing of a liturgical hymn. After identifying the melody and suggesting a possible date for the composition of the Hebrew text, the article proceeds to discuss it in a broader context of the Jewish musical culture at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in particular contemporary Jewish views to the use of “foreign” melodies in the synagogue. The article concludes with an attempt to situate it as part of Modena’s thought of art music.

Il protestantesimo è una branca del cristianesimo sorta nel XVI secolo per riformare la Chiesa cattolica, la cui dottrina e la prassi erano considerate deviate e non più conformi alla parola di Dio. Questo movimento religioso, originato dalla predicazione dei riformatori Jan Hus, Martin Lutero, Huldrych Zwingli, Giovanni Calvino e John Knox determinò enormi risvolti politici nelle nazioni dell'Europa centrale e in altre che, per via di alleanze strategiche e dinastiche, erano legate alla cultura espressa in lingua tedesca. Sotto il termine "protestantesimo" si riunisce un variegato universo di chiese ed organizzazioni ecclesiastiche, alcune delle quali molto diverse tra loro.

La "triade Borgia", composta dal pontefice Alessandro VI e dai suoi figli Cesare e Lucrezia, caratterizzò la vita politica e religiosa della penisola italiana nel periodo compreso tra il 1480 e il 1520.
Nel mondo giudaico Alessandro VI è considerato un protettore degli ebrei, per aver egli mostrato comprensione verso i profughi sefarditi che giunsero a Roma nel giugno 1493 a seguito dell'espulsione dal regno bipartito di Spagna. In realtà l'ambiguo pontefice rivelò tratti di severità verso la comunità israelitica romana, alternati a momenti di conciliazione, approfittando non di rado della sua ricchezza economica e tassandola per finanziare le campagne militari del figlio Cesare.

The figure of the Italian kabbalist, philosopher and physician Rabbi Yohanan Alemanno has been known to the scholars of Jewish studies for some decades. Nonetheless, his autograph in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris MS 849), has not been studied thoroughly.
This article describes this manuscript and discusses certain kabbalistic and magical themes in it. The purpose of this discussion is to shed new light on the figure of Alemanno, while emphasizing his aspirations to lead the Jewish nation, like Moses, and to bring about the redemption. Furthermore, I argue that Paris MS 849 is a literary autobiography, in which the author used the literary frame of Dante’s La Divina Commedia, and that this untitled manuscript might have a name.

Институт этнологии и антропологии им. Н.Н. Миклухо-Маклая РАН, Москва; Национальный исследовательский университет «Высшая школа экономики», Москва). A Short History of Migration Theory in Archaeology Эдельман Джой Иосифовна (Институт языкознания РАН, Москва). Лингвистические свидетельства доисторических миграций (на примере иранских языков) Lugli Francesca (Italian Association for Ethnoarchaeology, Rome, Italy). Steppe Roaming And Migration And Climate Changes Гордова Юлиана Юрьевна (Институт языкознания РАН, Москва). Топонимическая карта региона как результат тысячелетних миграций (Тамбовская область) Зенин Василий Николаевич (Институт археологии и этнографии СО РАН, Новосибирск), Коровушкин Дмитрий Георгиевич (Сибирский университет потребительской кооперации, Новосибирск). Археолого-этнографические сопряжённости в исследовании миграционных потоков от древности до современности Ситнянский Георгий Юрьевич (Институт этнологии и антропологии им. Н.Н. Миклухо-Маклая РАН, Москва). Ностратические истоки Евразийского единства 2.2 Этногенез мадьяр Вереш Петер Тибор (Институт комплексных исследований гуманитарных наук Академии наук Венгрии, Будапешт, Венгрия), Цевек Юдит Илона (Институт этнологии Академии наук Венгрии, Будапешт, Венгрия). Mиграция древних венгров в Евразийской степной зоне-этногенез мадьяров Тюрин Анатолий Матвеевич (Оренбургский государственный университет, Оренбург). Родина венгров-Северный Кавказ Ракачёва Ярослава Владимировна (Кубанский государственный университет, Краснодар). Транснациональные миграции и идентичность армянского населения в регионах Юга России Соколова Флера Харисовна (Северный (Арктический) федеральный университет им. М.В. Ломоносова, Архангельск). Динамика миграционных процессов в Российской Арктике в XX-XXI вв.

2 Duby -Le Goff (a cura di), Famille et parenté dans l'Occident médiéval; Herily, La famiglia nel Medioevo; Klapisch-Zuber, L'arbre des familles; Ead., La famiglia e le donne nel Rinascimento a Firenze; Ead., Parenti, amici e vicini: il territorio urbano d'una famiglia mercantile nel XV secolo; Lett, Famille et parenté dans l'Occident médiéval V e -XV e siècle; Leverotti, Famiglia e istituzioni nel Medioevo italiano; Bellavitis -Chabot (a cura di), Famiglia e poteri in Italia tra Medioevo ed età moderna; Delille, Famiglia e potere locale. Una prospettiva mediterranea; Chabot, La dette des familles. Femmes lignage et patrimoine à Florence aux XIV et XV siècles; Bellavitis -Chabot (a cura di), La justice des familles: autour de la transmission des biens, des savoirs et des pouvoirs (Europe, Nouveau monde, XIIe-XIXe siècles); Albera, Au fil des générations: Terre, pouvoir et parenté dans l'Europe alpine (XIVe-XXe siècles). 3 Si vedano, ad esempio, Goody, Famiglia e matrimonio in Europa. Origini e sviluppi dei modelli familiari dell'Occidente e Leví-Strauss, Le strutture elementari della parentela. 4

The text aims to evaluate the level of participation of the Italian, Ashkenazi and Sephardic Nations in processes of mutual inclusion and family relationships fusion among the three groups, in Ferrara between 1492 and 1598.  The archival collection helped us to understand what circumstances were an obstacle to 'mixed' marriages between Jews of different linguistic and cultural origin (the various testamentary uses, the greater independence of the Ashkenazi women, the different size of the dowry and the Sephardic marriage / inheritance law).

In the last weeks of 1523, a colorful traveler arrived in Venice from Alexandria: “Dark in aspect, short in stature, gaunt, his language Hagarish [Arabic] and a little Jewish. … He wore striped silk according to the custom of the Ishmaelites, and on his head a white scarf, with which he covered his head and most of himself.” The traveler presented himself to local Jews and community leaders as “David,” the ambassador of an independent Jewish state on the Arabian peninsula, where he claimed that his brother, King Joseph, ruled over the tribes of Reuven, Gad, and half the tribe of Menashe. The “Jewish ambassador” announced that he was on his way to Rome to hold a state meeting with the Pope, as an emissary of the Seventy Elders, the advisers of his brother the king. He added, of course, that he needed money.(Online publication May 06 2011)

Sicilian Origins and Roman Splendours of Ferdinando Balami: Pontifical Archiater, Poet and Translator of the First Half of the 16th Century.
The career of Ferdinando Balami, which took place in the shadow of papal power in Renaissance Rome, was unquestionably extraordinary. He was the son of Sicilian Jews, or Jewish converts, who had emigrated to the Urbe following the exile of 1492-93. Balami practised medicine and managed to scale the heights of his profession in the eternal city and the earnings he accumulated enabled him to have a luxurious palace in the centre of Rome, designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. Balami knew and frequented the academia and the banquets: he, too, composed and exchanged verses of poetry, and, thanks to his established position at the papal court, he managed to exploit this network of friendships cultivated by means of his role as physician and pontifical archiater, maintaining relationships with the greatest cultural and political exponents of the time, united by a shared philo-Medici project. Over the course of his life in Rome, Balami showed himself to be a humanist physician who, following the centuries-old tradition of the Jews of Sicily, made his knowledge of languages and ability to translate of texts into in- struments of power and social success. His role as a translator of Galen’s texts from Greek into Latin undoubtedly transported him into the intellectual avant-garde of the time and earned him a place in posterity with his successors and critics. Furthermore, in Rome between the 15th and 16th centuries, one begins to see a certain number of “Sicilians”, either Jews or new Christians, who formed a rete mirabile (“remarkable network”) that had access to the Urbe thanks to the relationships of patronage with eminent families who maintained interests in and ties to the island.

La funzione e il ruolo delle donne delle minoranze ha cominciato ad attirare, negli ultimi anni, l'attenzione degli storici. Qualche anno fa è stato organizzato a Napoli un panel di lungo periodo sull'argomento, nel corso del quale sono emersi alcuni dati interessanti; in modo particolare si è evidenziato quanto una prospettiva di genere possa essere utile per meglio comprendere le tipologie di relazione esistenti tra gruppi minoritari e gruppi maggioritari, come anche le modalità di interazione tra gruppi minoritari omogenei provenienti da diverse aree geografiche. 1 Partendo da questa consapevolezza, si cercherà qui di concentrarsi sulle donne ebree dimoranti nelle regioni del centro-nord tra fine Duecento e fine Quattrocento, cercando di evidenziarne il ruolo economico e sociale, ma anche di suggerire che la provenienza geografica della donna, e quindi l'adesione ad un diverso background culturale, possa avere influito in modo significativo sulla sua possibilità di agire autonomamente in campo economico e come soggetto indipendente nell'ambito della propria famiglia.

in Rostros judíos del Occidente medieval, XLV Semana Internacional de Estudios Medievales (Estella-Lizarra, 17-20 de julio de 2018), Gobierno de Navarra, Pamplona 2019, pp. 193-217 (open access volume at: <https://www.navarra.es/home_es/especial/SemanaEstudiosMedievales/Actas.htm>, <https://www.navarra.es/NR/rdonlyres/DA399C57-3C97-4D44-B9D7-1E81B9EF4A4D/449279/2018.pdf>)

The great handwritten production drawn up by the Jews in Lugo, mainly from 17th to 19th Centuries, kept in the libraries of Europe, United States and Israel, is very important for the identification and reconstruction of the main protagonists and aspects of the local Jewish community’s everyday life. Among this abundant documentation, the unpublished manuscript 4101 from the Jewish Theological Seminary library in New York City contains a copy of an anthology of Jewish prayers composed by Rabbi Yiṣḥaq Berekyah Da Fano (III) (1676-1750) for various circumstances and festivals, produced in 1759. The transcription of the Hebrew text and the Italian translation by the author allow us to preserve the memory of this specific liturgical prayers, together with the memory of everyday events of inspiration and therefore worthy of commemoration. Moreover, this material contributes to enrich not only the cultural profile of the author and his illustrious family, but also the results of the studies carried out so far on Lugo’s internal sources that make the local Jewish community a very interesting case-study.

David ben Isaac de Pomis was an Italian linguist, physician, and philosopher. His life and work are considered a paradigmatic attempt at strengthening the relationship between Jews and Christians. He did so by comparing the two traditions, showing their similarities, and emphasizing the common destiny of Jewish and Christian peoples. The study and practice of the medical profession provided him with an intense and fruitful intercultural field but also confronted him with the strong religious prejudices and political obstacles posed by Christian society and legislation. Thus the training of Jewish students at the medical faculties of the universities in Central and Northern Italy played a significant role in defining the status of Jewish physicians and fostering interaction between Christian and Jewish scholars . Furthermore, the discovery during the Renaissance of numerous ancient medical texts was of great benefit to

<https://retailhistory.wordpress.com/2021/05/07/venice/>


Rags, pearls, silks and loans: second-hand retailing and the credit market in the 16th century Venetian ghetto, in CHORD: the Centre for the History of Retailing and Distribution (<https://retailhistory.wordpress.com/>), based at the University of Wolverhampton, blog post: 07 May 2021, url <https://retailhistory.wordpress.com/2021/05/07/venice/>

The Gate of Heaven (Sha'ar ha-shamayim in Hebrew) is a work based on a kabbalistic parchment scroll, on which there was a drawing of a sefirotic tree. The text was written by an anonymous kabbalist, most probably in Italy during the 14th century. This study by Giulio Busi examines the impact of the work on Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494), the founder of Christian Kabbalah.

Le mot de « ghetto » a une histoire ancienne. La réalité à laquelle il renvoyait à l'époque moderne (du XVI e au XVIII e siècle, et même, dans le cas de Rome, encore au XIX e siècle) a été partiellement recouverte par celles que le mot a désignées plus récemment : on pense d'abord aux centaines de « ghettos » institués par les nazis dans des villes d'Europe orientale pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale pour y rassembler les Juifs avant de les exterminer. On peut aussi penser à ces « ghettos » urbains qu'habitent des populations frappées par une discrimination socio-économique, ethnique ou culturelle : le mot fut employé assez tôt en référence à certaines populations des États-Unis, et il existe aujourd'hui mille et une formes de ghettos, parfois même revendiqués par leurs habitants, et qui ne résultent pas nécessairement de la même discrimination, tant s'en faut (on parle ainsi parfois de « ghettos de riches », de « ghetto gay », etc.).

Rabbi Moses ben Isaac of Rieti (1388-1467) was an Italian rabbi, poet, philosopher, banker, and celebrated physician of pope Pius II. In 1412 he wrote a theological-philosophical poem in terza rima Hebrew verse, titled Miqdásh Mè'at ("Little Temple," ‫מעט‬ ‫.)מקדש‬ Like many Italian Jews, Rieti had an ambivalent and complex relationship with the Christian culture around him, and thus, although he admits in the opening lines of this work that Dante inspired his style, Rieti rejects any Dantean influence on the contents of his work.

This study explores the reading and writing practices of Joseph Ha-Kohen, a sixteenth-century Jewish chronicler from Genoa, against the background of his Italian and Spanish sources: in what ways and why did he adapt, change or subvert their narratives? It focuses on two of Ha-Kohen's major works: his Franco-Turkish Chronicle, and his Hebrew adaptation of López de Gómara's account of the Spanish conquests in the Americas. Based on these writings, the essay asks how the author’s Sephardic identity and migration experience inform his ideas about the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires. Notably, the Jewish chronicler applauds the Ottomans’ conversion of churches into mosques, while he condemns the forced Christianization of the Amerindians. At the same time, Ha-Kohen shares cultural attitudes with Gómara and voices qualified support for a Spanish civilizing mission. These ambiguities in Ha-Kohen’s writings—oscillating
between praise and repudiation of imperial ideology—prove to be emblematic of post-expulsion Sephardic Jewry.

The signature of Marchion in small Latin humanistic characters can be spotted in seventeen Hebrew manuscripts, all of which were found to be related in one way or another to Florence. 1 This peculiar signature is in fact a censor-mark interspersed within the folios of each of the seventeen manuscripts: as a rule it appears on the sidemargins of the written text, adjacent to deleted words, lines or passages which were regarded as blasphemous and disparaging to the Christian faith. 2 In several cases it was placed in close vicinity to an expression which called for apologetic explication, and which, eventually, had been left untouched. 3 Followed by the sigla, or abbreviation mark, SS, Marchion's signature must have acted as a formal stamp of validation. 4 The humanistic type of script of Marchion's signature betrays the fact that this intervention had taken place sometime during the fifteenth century, certainly in Italy, and most probably in Tuscany, where this script prevailed. 5 1 These seventeen manuscripts are listed and described in the Appendix. Presumably there are more manuscripts bearing Marchion's signatures which have not yet been traced. 2 Two scholars had already spotted Marchion's censor-mark in the past: H. Hirschfeld, Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts of the Montefiore Library (London: Macmillan and Co. 1904), mentions a censor by the name of Marchion in three manuscripts' descriptions: "Censor: Marchion (ff. 78, 95, 97v), who signed his name opposite the erasures on the margin" etc., (ibid., 66-68, description of MSS Montefiore 214 and 215, "Ma<h>zor, Roman rite in two parts" (see App., No. 15); and yet another Ma<h>zor, MS 217 (ibid., 69): "Marchion, who erased many passages, writing his name against them on the margin (ff. 162, 296v, &c.). The erasures have been re-written by a later hand." Marchion's censor-marks in MS London, formerly Montefiore Collection 214 have been mentioned once more, by Naftali Wieder,"Al ha-berakhot 'goy-'eved-isha', 'behema' and 'bur'" in: Hitgabshut nosa<h> ha-tefilla ba-mizra<h> uva-ma'arav, (Jerusalem: Makhon Ben-Zvi and Yad Ben-Zvi, 1988), 208 and n. 45 (Hebrew), yet he elaborated no further on the significance of their presence (my thanks to Dr. Mordechai Glatzer of the Hebrew University for referring me to this information).

Dopo la peste del 1577, che li aveva colpiti e decimati, gli ebrei di Padova ricominciarono a tenere i verbali delle loro riunioni. Ne emergono storie di tutti i tipi. Ne ho raccolto alcune, anche per suscitare un sorriso nei lettori, usando uno stile poco accademico...

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In recent years, the history of the Jews in Italy in the early modern era has been at the center of many studies that are beginning to painstakingly trace the affairs of this minority group within the major events of the period. Based on sources that have long been overlooked by studies on this subject and on a renewed scientific sensibility, a profile is beginning to emerge of a history built on a range of interactions between Jews and Christians, notwithstanding the centuries-old discrimination to which the second subjected the first. The phenomenon of the ghetto, which was without a doubt the most characteristic and significant experience of the period, is now being investigated “beyond” and “across” the walls.

Shimshon (AKA Samson or Sanson) Morpurgo is a classic Italian Renaissance personality-physician, rabbi, liturgist/poet, author. The present contribution is not primarily intended to expand upon Morpurgo’s narrative biography, though it will enhance it, but rather as a visual supplement. Here we bring to light previously unknown or little-known documents from significant chapters of his life, including his medical diploma, his semikhah and his portrait. It is a rarity to possess such a group of documents for any one figure in the pre-modern era.

Published in 1987, this volume contains the first census of 16th century Hebrew editions preserved in the public libraries of Emilia Romagna, in northern Italy. Rich in testimonies of the Jewish past, Emilia Romagna is home, among other things, to the important collection of Hebrew printed books and manuscripts that once belonged to the Christian scholar Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi, now in the Palatine Library in Parma. The catalog describes 538 editions, which bear witness to the golden age of Hebrew printing in the Italian peninsula. The work is completed by an appendix with copies of incunabula identified for the first time during the census.

Lo scopo che questo studio si propone è di analizzare due aspetti particolari della concezione del rabbino Isacco Lampronti: da un lato il suo atteggiamento verso la cultura tradizionale ebraica, dall'altro la sua posizione nei confronti delle innovazioni intellettuali del suo tempo. Infatti Lampronti visse a cavallo fra due epoche distinte, una che potremmo definire ancora barocca e per certi versi antica, ed un'altra che viene indicata come periodo dei lumi e chiamata solitamente primo periodo moderno, per cui la sua opera e la sua concezione del mondo, diremmo la sua welthanschauung, dovrebbe riflettere appunto questo passaggio da un periodo all'altro. Lampronti nacque a Ferrara nel 1679, e studiò sia nella sua città natale che a Lugo prima di trasferirsi a Padova per studiare medicina in quella università. Dopo aver studiato anche a Mantova presso il celebre rabbino Yehudah Briel, tornò a Ferrara dove funse sia da rabbino che da medico, fino alla sua morte avvenuta nel 1756. 1 In verità, il voler analizzare quanto di moderno ci sia nell'opera di un intellettuale e quanto invece appartenga ad un apparato più tradizionale, può apparire impresa audace, in quanto ovviamente non sempre è possibile demarcare con certezza ciò che può essere definito moderno, oppure antico o medievale, ma anzi spesso e volentieri le due prospettive si mescolano fra di loro e si intrecciano. A questo proposito, un importante studioso dell'ebraismo italiano Giuseppe Baruch Sermoneta così scriveva:

Il comportamento femminile nella società e in famiglia nel Rinascimento italiano (XVI secolo) era disciplinato da un rigido codice etico che pervadeva la vita quotidiana delle donne regolandone ogni aspetto. In grande maggioranza, esse passavano direttamente dalla casa paterna a quella maritale, essendo l'uomo a farsi carico della loro protezione. Sottoposte a un regime giuridico avente il fine di preservare la reputazione sociale della famiglia d'appartenenza, le donne erano ...

While there is an extensive body of research on Christian authors of the Renaissance period writing on Muslim history, my German-language study represents the first scholarly work on their Jewish counterparts. Based on various Hebrew chronicles from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this book covers more than a millennium of Muslim history-from the rise of Islam in the seventh century CE to the authors' own times-as viewed through a Jewish lens. The chroniclers at the center of my study stand out among premodern Jewish writers as they consciously reflect on the relationship between non-Jewish and Jewish history. What is more, they undertake a rare task among their coreligionists in writing a history of Muslim empires and their rulers. Similar to vernacular histories written by Christian authors, they offer short accounts of the lives and deeds of numerous caliphs and sultans from Muḥammad's first successors (rashidūn), via the Abbasids, Fatimids, Ayyubids, and Mamluks, down to the Ottoman sultans. That said, their writing style has more in common with that of medieval chronicles than with contemporary humanist historiography. What is unprecedented in their works is the subject matter, or to be precise, the extent to which they write on Gentile history. Their lengthy and detailed accounts of Muslim ruling dynasties have no parallel in earlier Jewish literature-and only a few among later Jewish historians prior to the nineteenth century.

PhD dissertation on the private library of R. Rapahel ben Jacob ha-Cohen of Prato (Italy, c. 1515-1541) published with 23 codicological and palaeographical descriptions.

Thèse de doctorat remaniée et publiée avec notices codicologiques et paléographiques des 23 manuscrits copiés  par Raphaël ben Jacob ha-Cohen de Prato (actif Bologne Pise Ferrare, c. 1515-1541)

Scholars have long been puzzled as to the correct interpretation of Miqneh Abram (Peculium Abrae, Abraham de Balmes, Venice 1523), a grammar of the Hebrew language in Hebrew and Latin. I argue that the treatise is strongly influenced by the Modistic school, and it should be read in view of Thomas of Erfurt's Grammatica Speculativa from the beginning of the fourteenth century. The claim is demonstrated through the analysis of the term harkavah (compositio) in Miqneh Abram, a fundamental term in De Balmes's theory of syntax. Thomas's definition and division of the term constructio are used in order to decipher De Balmes's obscure definition and division of harkavah.

חלק גדול מהחיבור מקנה אברם (Peculium Abrae, אברהם דבלמש, ונציה 1523), דקדוק של השפה העברית בעברית ובלטינית, נותר עד היום בלתי מובן. אני טוען שהחיבור מושפע מהאסכולה המודיסטית, ויש לקרוא אותו לאור חיבורו של תומאס מארפורט, Grammatica speculativa, מתחילת המאה הארבע־עשרה. להדגמת הטענה אני מביא את ניתוח המונח הרכבה (compositio) במקנה אברם, מונח יסודי בתורת התחביר של דבלמש. אני נעזר בהגדרה ובחלוקה של המונח constructio בחיבורו של תומאס כדי להסיר את הערפל מההגדרה ומהחלוקה של ההרכבה בחיבורו של דבלמש.