Before the Ghetto

Established by Cosimo I De' Medici in 1570, the Florentine Ghetto was offcially justifed by alleged Jewish violations of banking regulations and canonlaw provisions (condotte). Yet an extensive investigation by the Magistrato Supremo (15681570) 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.

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Illustrations
Preface

Introduction
Piergabriele Mancuso and Davide Baldi Bellini

Essays

Cosimo I de Medici, Carlo Pitti, and the Creation of the Ghetto of Florence
Piergabriele Mancuso

A Counter-narrative: Jewish Life in Tuscany Before 1570
Stefanie B. Siegmund

The San Miniato and Other Jewish Families in Empoli and Tuscany Before the Ghetto
Andrea Bruscino

Per domos ac synagogas -Requisitions of the Talmud in Medici Tuscany (15531554)
Liana E. Funaro

Documents -Magistrato Supremo, Volumes 44494450

Editorial Criteria
Libro di Capitoli dEbrei
(Book of Charters on the Jews)
Documents 1118

Processo contra li hebrei che nel dominio di Sua Altezza stavano et habitabano di continuo, che hogi stato loro prohibito. 1570
(Proceedings Against the Jews Who Formerly Stayed in His Highnesss Dominion and Lived There Continuously Which is Now Forbidden to Them. 1570)
Documents 119222

Contributors

Index