Research Catalog

Title

The Medici state and the ghetto of Florence : the construction of an early modern Jewish community / Stefanie B. Siegmund.

Author

Siegmund, Stefanie B. (Stefanie Beth)

Publication

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2006.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxiv, 624 pages : illustrations, map; 24 cm.

Summary

Discusses the 1570 expulsion of Tuscan Jews by Cosimo de' Medici; however, rather than an expulsion from the country, it was a transfer to Firenze, where a ghetto was constructed. The expulsion did not reflect popular antisemitism, since the Jews lived in harmony with their Christian neighbors. The Medicis, including Cosimo's successor Francesco, had political as well as financial motives for ghettoizing the Jews, who became a politically controllable community within physical boundaries, parallel to a Christian parish. Without minimizing individual Jewish suffering at the transfer, stresses the establishment of a Jewish community, which had not existed in the region before. Urges that such a reinterpretation of the ghetto be considered in relation to other early modern state-building efforts. Notes the use of Catholic concepts and symbols by the Medicis in order to achieve political goals.

Series Statement

Stanford series in Jewish history and culture

Uniform Title

Stanford series in Jewish history and culture.

Subject

• Medici Familie ca. 13.Jh.-18.Jh
• Bencivenni Medici Familie
• Geschichte 1560-1699
• Jews > Italy > Florence > History
• Jewish ghettos > Italy > Florence > History
• Ethnic relations
• Jewish ghettos
• Jews
• Entstehung
• Getto
• Juden
• Judiska getton > historia > Italien > Florens
• Segregation > historia > Italien > Florens
• Florence (Italy) > Ethnic relations
• Italy > Florence
• Florenz
• Toskana
• Florens > historia > 1421-1737
• Florens > politik och förvaltning > historia > 1421-1737
• Juden

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [565]-589) and index.

Contents

Residential segregation in religious and political contexts -- State-building and the status of the Jews -- Before the ghetto : the settlement and connections of Jews in Tuscany -- Staging the expulsion : the proceedings against the Jews -- Locating, financing, and constructing the ghetto -- Populating the ghetto -- A new Tuscan commune : centralization and semi-autonomy in the Medici state -- Measuring lengths and distances in the ghetto and city : economic parameters -- From virilocal to local : marriage in the Florentine ghetto -- The developing early modern Jewish community and the continuing redefinition of Jewishness.

ISBN

• 0804750785
• 9780804750783

LCCN

• 2005015409
• 9780804750783

OCLC

• ocm60550589
• 60550589
• SCSB-14413377

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library