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The Jews of Early Modern Venice

edited by Robert C. Davis and Benjamin Ravid

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In this authoritative volume, specialists from many fields of Jewish studies provide an introduction to the history of the ghetto of Venice and up-to-date scholarship on the subject from the perspectives of various disciplines—including political, economic, women's, institutional, social and cultural history, religious studies, and musicology. While the book's coverage extends throughout Venetian history and to the broader contexts of Italy, the main focus is the period when Jewish life in the city was at its most vigorous—from the early sixteenth to early eighteenth centuries, a period which...

In this authoritative volume, specialists from many fields of Jewish studies provide an introduction to the history of the ghetto of Venice and up-to-date scholarship on the subject from the perspectives of various disciplines—including political, economic, women's, institutional, social and cultural history, religious studies, and musicology. While the book's coverage extends throughout Venetian history and to the broader contexts of Italy, the main focus is the period when Jewish life in the city was at its most vigorous—from the early sixteenth to early eighteenth centuries, a period which saw the creation of both the cultural heritage and the physical architecture that came to characterize the ghetto.

The eleven essays constituting the volume are divided into three sections. The first section, titled "Settlement," provides a historical overview and topographical prologue. The second section, "Ethnicities and Identities," examines the varied social groups that combined to make up the ghetto community. The final section, "Cultures," looks at the traditions of faith, thought, and art which were produced in the Venetian ghetto over the centuries.

As the editors point out, the ghetto and its community "paradoxically was at the same time an integral part of the city of Venice while also rigorously excluded from it." The constraints of the ghetto and the concomitant interaction of various Jewish traditions produced a remarkable cultural flowering.

Reviews

Reviews

[The Jews of Early Modern Venice] is a particularly good study of how a minority group can fit into a general culture, yet retain its identity and develop new forms of culture.

The Jews of Early Modern Venice is a rich anthology of essays on ethinicity and identity, commerce and culture, and other matters relating to a time well before the great wooden gates of the ghetto of Venice were taken down.

[This volume] contributes to an enhanced understanding of the varied social groups, the traditions of faith and thought, and the art produced in the Venetian ghetto... These essays demonstrate the remarkable cultural and religious complexity of Jewish life in early modern Venice.

We have reason to welcome this collection of essays on the Jews of Venice... [The Jews of Early Modern Venice] offers a unified portrait that poionts the way toward understanding modes of acculturation: how Jews might be insiders and outsiders at the same time.

This unusually coherent collection of essays on the theme of Jewish community life in early modern Venice deserves a wide readership.

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About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
336
ISBN
9780801865121
Illustration Description
4 halftones
Table of Contents

Introduction
Part I. Settlement
The Venetian Government and the Jews
The "City of the Jews"
Part II. Ethnicities and Identities
Jewish Banks and Monti di Pietà, Brian Pullan
Jews in International Trade

Introduction
Part I. Settlement
The Venetian Government and the Jews
The "City of the Jews"
Part II. Ethnicities and Identities
Jewish Banks and Monti di Pietà, Brian Pullan
Jews in International Trade: The Emergence of the Levantines and Ponentines
Jews, Crypto-Jews, and the Inquisition
The Ghetto Republic
Jewish Women and Family Life, Inside and Outside the Ghetto
Part III. Cultures
A Cultural Profile
Medicine and Scientific Thought: The World of Tobias Cohen
Jewish Musical Culture: Leon Modena
Processions, Piety, and Jewish Confraternities

Author Bios
Featured Contributor

Robert C. Davis

Robert C. Davis is a professor of Italian Renaissance and early modern Mediterranean history at the Ohio State University. His publications include The Jews of Early Modern Venice, The War of the Fists, and (coedited with Judith Brown) Gender and Society in Renaissance Italy.