Before the Ghetto : The Medici and the Segregation of the Jews in Sixteenth-Century Tuscany
Overview
Established in 1570 by Cosimo I de Medici, the Florentine Ghetto was officially justified by alleged Jewish violations of banking regulations and canon-law provisions (condotte). Yet an extensive investigation by the Magistrato Supremo found such infractions to be rare and minor, offering little grounds for broad restrictions. Tuscanys Jewish community, numbering about seven hundred and dispersed across the grand duchy, maintained close social and economic ties with Christians, notably through moneylending services that provided affordable credit to lower-income groups. Devised by the anti-Jewish Medici bureaucrat Carlo Pitti, the ghetto was framed as a political achievement that aligned the Medici state with the Counter-Reformation Church and as a profitable investment for the ruling elite. This volume explores this pivotal moment in Tuscan Jewish history, offering the first annotated edition of the official documents that led to the communitys urban segregation.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9781915487001
- ISBN-10: 1915487005
- Publisher: Harvey Miller
- Publish Date: October 2026
- Shipping Weight: 1.05 pounds
- Page Count: 302
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