What is it about?
Jewish life in Southern Italy during the Renaissance was directly affected by the battle over administrative and economic control fought by the central royal power and peripheral actors such as feudal lords, and municipalities. This study focuses on the contraction of Jewish space in southern cities as a result of broader economic policies promoted by the central state.
Featured Image
Photo by Christos Christou on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Disagreeing with older historiography, this study argues that the strengthening of the central state under the Aragonese rule did not favor Jewish life in the Kingdom of Naples. The alliance between the Jewish leaders and the king weakened the bonds that tied Jews to the municipal communities they were part of.
Perspectives
My research helps to rethink ways in which minorities exercised agency in pre-modern Europe. The hope is that of encouraging researchers to focus less on laws and rules and the world they hoped to build, and more what people did ignoring, bending, and exploiting those very same regulations. At times the side-effects and byproducts have a greater impact on history than the causative agent at the center of mainstream historical narratives.
Vincenzo Selleri
Farmingdale State College
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Iudeca: Jewish Communities and Jewish Space in Fifteenth Century Southern Italy, November 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004714274_009.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
