BLOODPASSOVER
The Jews of Europe
and Ritual Murder

Ariel Toaff

Cover: Stone medallion depicting the purported martyrdom ofSimonino di Trento, Palazzo Salvatori, Trent.
Inscription on the medallion: “In the interior recesses of this building,where a synagogue once stood, but where a shrine has now been built,
the blessed martyr Little Simon of Trent was killed with horrible
tortures, in the dead of night, by the Jews, at the age of twenty-ninemonths, on the 10th of April 1475 of our era.”

BLOOD PASSOVER
The Jews of Europe and Ritual Murder
by Ariel Toaff
Translated by Gian Marco Lucchese and Pietro Gianetti.
Published by Lucchese-Gianetti Editori LLC.
2016 revised edition.
(c) 2007 by Gian Marco Lucchese and Pietro Gianetti.
Formal abandonment of copyright: December 24, 2014.
Revised. Please use this version.
Last revision: August 1, 2016.
Annuls and replaces all previous versions.

Table of Contents
Foreword by Original Translators ......................................................... 4
Preface .................................................................................................. 8
Chapter One ........................................................................................ 19
Chapter Two ....................................................................................... 50
Chapter Three ..................................................................................... 67
Chapter Four ....................................................................................... 96
Chapter Five...................................................................................... 116
Chapter Six ....................................................................................... 142
Chapter Seven ................................................................................... 166
Chapter Eight .................................................................................... 185
Chapter Nine ..................................................................................... 203
Chapter Ten....................................................................................... 223
Illustrations ................................................................................. 234
Chapter Eleven .................................................................................. 247
Chapter Twelve ................................................................................. 260
Chapter Thirteen ............................................................................... 285
Chapter Fourteen............................................................................... 298
Chapter Fifteen ................................................................................. 315
Documentary Appendix .................................................................... 335
Bibliography ..................................................................................... 351

3

FOREWORD BY ORIGINAL TRANSLATORSThe following translation was performed free of charge to protest an
injustice: the destruction by the ADL of Ariel Toaff’s Blood Passoveron Jewish ritual murder. The author is the son of the Chief Rabbi ofRome, and a professor of Jewish Renaissance and Medieval History at
Bar-Ilan University in Israel, just outside Tel Aviv.
Dr. Toaff is uniquely qualified to write this book, being thoroughlyfamiliar with the derivative literature in English, French, German and
Italian, as well as the original documentary sources in Latin, Medieval
Italian, Hebrew and Yiddish. This is not something he worked on in
secret. On the contrary, he worked on it openly with his university
students and colleagues in Israel for several years; one of his students
was even going to publish a paper on the subject. The author isextremely careful about what he says, and his conclusions must be
taken seriously. It reads like a detective story.
If it had been published in Israel, in Hebrew, no one would havecared. There are large bodies of literature in Hebrew that Jews do notwish Gentiles to know about. But Dr. Toaff’s announcement of its
publication in Italy, in Italian, raised a worldwide firestorm of fury.
Under unbearable pressure, the book was withdrawn from publication.
Come in out of the darkness, and strike a blow for the light.
READ AND PASS ON.

ON THE NAMES
Candia – Venetian Crete
Serenissima – the city of Venice
Veneto – region northeast of Venice
Mestre – closest mainland city to Venice
Podestà – magistrate
Ratisbona – Regensburg, Germany
Salamoncino, Simonino, Simoncino – diminutives of Solomon,
Simon.
Avogaria di Comun – similar to district prosecutor’s office
We have semi-Italianized the names of certain German Jews living
in Italy. Ex.: Samuele da Nuremberg. This is to distinguish them from
Germans living in Germany, ex.: Andrea of Rinn.
4

ON THE TRANSLATION
Prof. Toaff writes with a very large vocabulary, using many words
from the Veneziano and Veneto dialects.
His sources include not only the modern derivative literature in
English, French, Italian, French and German, but the original
documentation in Hebrew, Yiddish, Latin and medieval Italian,sometimes a thousand years old.
He does not translate or italicize the medieval Latin or Italian in his
footnotes. These are sometimes in a mixture of languages as well.
In most cases, the material contained in the footnotes is simply
paraphrased in the text. Where we have attempted to translate thismaterial, it appears in [square brackets]. All translators’ notes are in[square brackets].
Ex.: “Chi cerca dove non deve, trovarà qualcosa che non gli
piace.” [“He who looks where he shouldn’t, will find something he will
not like”.] [Sicilian proverb.]
We will continue to translate the Latin in the footnotes and will
issue periodic updates and revisions, all bearing the latest revision date.
Our aim is to produce an absolutely perfect complete translation,
including the Latin where it is of any interest.
This is a long-term project.
The present translation retains the original footnote numeration,
but places the footnotes at the end of each chapter, instead of lumping
them together at the end of the book.

ON THE TEXT
Prof. Toaff has since partially recanted, and now maintains that:– yes, Jews are a corrupting and disruptive element in society;– yes, Jews lend money at 40% and seem to do little else;– yes, Jews buy and sell justice with huge bribes;– yes, Jews pull off all sorts of fraudulent bankruptcies andswindles;– yes, Jews resort to poisoning and assassination when thwarted;– yes, Jews are obsessed with hatred for Christians and theChristian religion;– yes, Jews kidnapped and castrated Christian boys on a large scale5and sold them into slavery in Islamic Spain for centuries;– yes, Jews used [and still use?] human blood in all sorts of quack
remedies, despite the Biblical prohibition, even for minor complaints;– yes, Jews used [and still use?] Christian human blood in theirmatzoh balls at Passover;– yes, Jews used [and still use?] Christian human blood in theirwine at Passover;– yes, the blood had to be from Christian boys no more than 7
years of age;
– yes, the blood had [has?] to be certified kosher by a rabbi;– yes, there was [is?] a large and profitable trade in fake blood
products and animal blood, which was [are?] unsuitable to the purpose;– yes, Christians tried to sell the blood of Christian boys to Jews,
but were rejected because the Jews feared it was animal blood; but no,no Christian boys were ever killed to obtain the blood. Never, never!
Or hardly ever. It all came from “voluntary donors”!
Anybody having read the book will simply laugh.
The only “saving clause” is that these charges are made against
Ashkenazi Jews only. It would be interesting to see how much filthy“Sephardic linen” the Ashkenazi could air in public if they so chose.

ON THE TITLE
It makes little practical difference, but we feel that the title “Blood
Passover” is preferable to “Bloody Passover”, for several reasons.
The title is, after all, “Pasque di Sangue”, not “Pasque
Sanguinose”.
A “recipiente di sangue” would be a “blood receptacle”, something
intrinsically intended to receive and hold blood, a recipient inextricably
bound up with blood by its very nature, by design, as its essence (likethose tubes they use when you have a blood test). There is a clear
identification between the two nouns, A=B.
A “recipiente sanguinoso”, a “bloody receptacle”, would be simply
a recipient, of any nature whatever, which had merely become soiled orsmeared with blood for some reason, the blood being something
fortuitous, accidental, and foreign to its essential nature (for example, if
someone hit you in the mouth with an ashtray); wash the blood off, and
it is no longer a “bloody receptacle”.
We believe that it was Prof. Toaff’s intention to coin a phrase, like“blood money”. It is obvious that “blood money” implies far more than6

simply “bloody money”: it is something specific, something very
distinct; a very narrow meaning.

ON THE LATIN
It is obvious that this is not correct classical Latin, nor is it standard
medieval Latin, as written by someone trained in literature.
This is the ugly jargon of Venetian notaries, cram-packed with
Italian and Venetian words and “saids”, “afore-mentioneds”, “abovementioneds”, “afore-saids”, and all the rest of it.
In Venetian, ordinary words which appear to be the same as Italianoften have radically different meanings. We believe that this may bereflected in some of the Latin given here. This would account for someof the astonishing “translation errors” into Latin.
It is obvious that medieval Latin had evolved to such an extant as
to become for all practical purposes an entirely different language incertain regions and among certain classes of people, almost like
Venetian itself.
We have done our best with this material, but to do it justice would
require a level of erudition on a level with Prof. Toaff’s own. If you
show it to your Latin teacher he will simply tell you that it is not correct
and will either fail to understand it easily or will mistranslate it very
badly, unless he has the full context.
Prof. Toaff is that great rarity in the modern world: a sincere anddisinterested lover of truth. It is obvious that he loves all this detail for
its own sake, although at times it is hard to tell where he is headed withsome of it.
It is to Prof. Toaff himself that the present humble and inadequate,
but entirely disinterested effort, is sincerely dedicated. Indeed, we lookforward to reading some of Prof. Toaff’s other books.
We feel that “Blood Passover” is a masterpiece of literature and amasterpiece of history, which deserves to be widely read, not flushed
down the Memory Hole in some sort of International ADL Police State.
– Gian Marco Lucchese and Pietro Gianetti, 2007

7

PREFACE
Ritual homicide trials are a difficult knot to unravel. Most researchers
simply set out in search of more or less convincing confirmation ofpreviously developed theories of which the researcher himself appears
firmly convinced. The significance of any information failing to fit thepreconceived picture is often minimized, and sometimes passed overentirely in silence. Oddly, in this type of research, that which is to be
proven is simply taken for granted to begin with. There is a clear
perception that any other attitude would involve hazards andrepercussions which are to be avoided at all costs.
There is no doubt that the uniformity of the defendant’sconfessions, contradicted only by variants and incongruities generally
relating to details of secondary importance, was assumed by the judges
and so-called “public opinion” to constitute “proof” that the Jews,
characterized by their great mobility and widespread dispersion,practiced horrible, murderous rituals in hatred of the Christian religion.
The stereotype of ritual murder, like that of profanation of the Host andcannibal sacrifice, was present in their minds from the outset,
suggesting to both judges and inquisitors alike the possibility of
extorting symmetrical, harmonious and significant confessions,triggering a chain reaction of denunciations, veritable and proper
manhunts and indiscriminate massacres.
While attempts have been made, in certain cases, to reconstruct theideological mechanisms and underlying theological and mythologicalbeliefs, with their theological and mythological justifications, which
rendered the persecution of the Jews possible as the practitioners ofoutrageous and blood-thirsty rituals, particularly in the Germanspeaking countries of Europe, little or nothing has been done toinvestigate the beliefs of the men and women accused – or who accused
themselves – of ritual crucifixion, desecration of the host,haematophagy [eating of blood products] and cannibalism.
On the other hand – if an exception be made for the firstsensational case of ritual crucifixion, which occurred in Norwich,
England, in 1146, or the equally well-known “blood libel” case at
Trent, Italy, in 1475 – the trial records and transcripts (usually referredto under the generic term “historical documentation”) constitute, in
actual fact, very poor and often purely circumstantial evidence, highly
condensed in form and very sparse in detail, totally insufficient for8research purposes. Perhaps for this very same reason, that which is
missing is often artificially added, assumed or formulated as ahypothesis, in the absence of any explicit probative evidence one way
or another (i.e., in the desired direction); in the meantime, the entire
matter is immersed in a tinted bath, in which the emerging image issuperficial at best, enveloped in a cloud of mystery, with all the relatedparaphernalia from a distant past, and must remain foreverincomprehensible to researchers intent on examining these problems
through the application of anachronistic interpretive categories. These
efforts – obviously unreliable – are generally performed in good faith.
Or, more exactly, almost always in good faith.
Thus, in Anglo-Saxon (British and American) historicalanthropological research on Jews and ritual murder (from Joshua
Trachtenberg to Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia), magic and witchcraft
traditionally feature among the favorite aspects under examination.
This approach, for a variety of reasons, is enjoying an extraordinary
rebirth at the present time.1 But that which seems to obtain a highdegree of popularity at the moment is not necessarily convincing to
meticulous scholars, not content with superficial and impressionistic
responses.
Nearly all the studies on Jews and the so-called “blood libel”
accusation to date have concentrated almost exclusively on
persecutions and persecutors; on the ideologies and presumed motivesof those same persecutors: their hatred of Jews; their political and/or
religious cynicism; their xenophobic and racist rancor; their contempt
for minorities. Little or no attention has been paid to the attitudes of thepersecuted Jews themselves and their underlying patterns of ideologicalbehavior – even when they confessed themselves guilty of the specificaccusations brought against them. Even less attention has been paid tothe behavioral patterns and attitudes of these same Jews; nor have thesematters been considered worthy even of interest, attention or serious
investigation. On the contrary: these behavioral patterns and attitudes
have simply been incontrovertibly dismissed as non-existent – asinvented out of whole cloth by the sick minds of anti-Semites andfanatical, obtusely dogmatic Christians.
Nevertheless, although difficult to digest, these actions, once theirauthenticity is demonstrated or even supposed as possible, should be
the object of serious study by reputable scholars. The condemnation, or,alternatively, the aberrant justification of these rituals cannot be
imposed upon researchers as the sole, and banal, options. Scholars mustbe permitted the possibility of attempting serious research on the actual,or presumed, religious, theological and historical motivations of the9Jewish protagonists themselves. Blind excuses are just as worthless as
blindly dogmatic condemnation: neither can demonstrate anythingother than that which already existed in the mind of the observer tobegin with. It is precisely the possibility of evading any clear, precise
and unambiguous definition of the reality of ritual child murders rooted
in religious faith which has facilitated the intentional or involuntary
blindness of Christian and Jewish scholars alike, both pro- and antiJewish.
Any additional example of the two-dimensional “flattening” ofJewish history, viewed exclusively as the history of religious orpolitical “anti-Semitism” at all times, must necessarily be regretted.
When “one-way” questions presuppose “one-way” answers; when thestereotype of “anti-Semitism” hovers menacingly over any objective
approach to the difficult problem of historical research in relation toJews, any research ends up by losing a large part of its value.
All such research is thus transformed, by the very nature of things,
into a “guided tour” conducted against a fictitious and unreal
background, in a “virtual reality show” intended to produce the desired
reaction, which has naturally been decided upon in advance.2
As stressed above, it is simply not permissible to ignore the mental
attitudes of the Jews who were tried, tortured and executed for ritualmurder, or persecuted on the same charge. At some point, we must ask
ourselves whether the “confessions” of the defendants constitute exact
records of actual events, or merely the reflection of beliefs forming partof a symbolic, mythical and magical context which must bereconstructed to be understood. In other words: do these “confessions”
reflect merely the beliefs of Gentile judges, clergy and populace, with
their private phobias and obsessions, or, on the contrary, of the
defendants themselves? Untangling the knot is not an easy or pleasanttask; but perhaps it is not entirely impossible.
In the first place, therefore, we must investigate the mental
attitudes of the Jews themselves, in the tragic drama of ritual sacrifice,together with the accompanying religious beliefs and superstitious andmagical elements. Due attention must be paid to the admissions which
made historical and local context, identifiable within a succession ofGerman-speaking territories on both sides of the Alps, throughout thelong period from the First Crusade to the twilight of the Middle Ages.
In substance, we should investigate the possible presence of Jewish
beliefs relating to ritual child murders, linked to the feast of Passover,while attempting to reconstitute the significance of any such beliefs.
The trial records, particularly the minutely detailed reports relating to
the death of Little Simon of Trent, cannot be dismissed on the10assumption that all such records represent simply the specificdeformation of beliefs held by the judges, who are alleged to havecollected detailed but manipulated confessions by means of force andviolence to ensure that all such confessions conformed to the antiJewish theories already in circulation at the time.
A careful reading of the trial records, in both form and substance,
recalls too many features of the conceptual realities, rituals, liturgicalpractices and mental attitudes typical of, and exclusive to, one distinct,
particular Jewish world – features which can in no way be attributed tosuggestion on the part of judges or prelates – to be ignored. Only afrank analysis of these elements can make any valid, new and originalcontribution to the reconstruction of beliefs relating to child sacrificeheld by the alleged Jewish perpetrators themselves – whether real or
imagined – in addition to attitudes based on the unshakeable faith intheir redemption and ultimate vengeance against the Gentiles, emerging
from blood and suffering, which can only be understood in this context.
In this Jewish-Germanic world, in continual movement, profoundcurrents of popular magic had, over time, distorted the basic frameworkof Jewish religious law, changing its forms and meanings. It is in these“mutations” in the Jewish tradition – which are, so to speak,authoritative – that the theological justification of the commemoration[in mockery of the Passion of Christ] is to be sought, which, in addition
to its celebration in the liturgical rite, was also intended to revive, in
action, vengeance against a hated enemy, continually reincarnatedthroughout the long history of Israel (the Pharaoh, Amalek, Edom,
Haman, Jesus). Paradoxically, in this process, which is complex andanything but uniform, elements typical of Christian culture may beobserved to rebound – sometimes inverted, unconsciously but
constantly – within Jewish beliefs, mutating in turn, and assuming new
forms and meanings. These beliefs, in the end, became symbolicallyabnormal, distorted by a Judaism profoundly permeated by theunderlying elements and characteristic features of an adversarial anddetested religion, unintentionally imposed by the same implacable
Christian persecutor.
We must therefore decide whether or not the alleged “confessions”
relating to the crucifixion of children the evening before Passover; thetestimonies relating to the utilization of Christian blood in thecelebration of the feast of the Passover, represent, in actual fact, mere
myths, i.e., beliefs and ideologies dating far back in time; or actual
ritual practices, i.e., events which actually occurred, in reality, and wereactually celebrated, in prescribed and consolidated forms, with theirmore or less fixed baggage of formulae and anathemas, accompanying
11the magical practices and superstitions which formed an integral part ofthe mentality of the Jews themselves.
In any case, I repeat, we should avoid the easy short-cut ofconsidering these trials and testimonies only as projections – extorted
from the accused by torture and other coercive methods, both
psychological and physical – of the stereotypes, superstitions, fears andbeliefs of the judges and populace. Such a method would trigger aprocess inevitably leading to the dismissal of these same testimonies as“valueless documents with little basis in reality”, except as “indicationsof the obsessions of a Christian society” which saw, in the Jew, merely
a “distorted mirror image” of its own defects. This task appears to haveseemed absolutely prohibitive to many scholars, even famous ones,
well-educated men of good will, having concerned themselves with thisdifficult topic.
First, Gavin Lanmuir, who, starting from the facts of Norwich,
England, considers the crucifixion and ritual haemotophagia, whichappear in two different phases of history, as simply the cultivated andinterested inventions of ecclesiastical groups, denying the Jews any roleat all except a merely passive one, devoid of responsibility.3
Lanmuir was later followed by Willehad Paul Eckert, Diego
Quaglioni, Wolfgang Treue and Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia, who, althoughexamining the phenomenon of ritual child murder from different pointsof view, intelligently and competently, starting with the late Middle
Ages, paying particular attention to the Trent trial documentation,
considered it all tout court and often a priori a baseless libel, an
expression of hostility on the part of the Christian majority against the
Jewish minority.4
According to the point of view adopted by these researchers, theinquisitor’s interrogation methods and tortures served no purpose otherthan to orchestrate a completely harmonious confession of guilt, i.e., ofadherence to a truth already existing in the minds of the inquisitors. The
use of leading questions and a variety of stratagems, including, inparticular, refined torture, were intended to force the defendants toadmit that the victim had indeed been kidnapped and tortured according
to Jewish ritual, and finally killed in hatred of the Christian faith. The
confessions are said to be obviously unbelievable, since the murders
were allegedly committed to permit the ritual use of Christian blood, in
violation of the Biblical prohibition against the ingestion of blood, aprohibition scrupulously observed by all Jews. As to torture, it is best torecall that its use in the municipalities of northern Italy, at least fromthe beginning of the 13th century, was regulated, not only by tractate,
but by statute as well. As an instrument for determining the truth,
12torture was permitted in the presence of serious and well-justified clues
in cases in which it was considered truly necessary by the podestà[magistrate] and judges. All confessions extorted in this manner, to beconsidered valid, had to be corroborated by the inquisitor, later, undernormal conditions, i.e., in the absence of physical pain or even thethreat of renewed torture.5 These procedures, while unacceptable in oureyes today, were therefore in fact normal, and seem to have been
observed in the case of the Trent trials.
Israel Yuval, following in the footsteps of Cecil Roth’s stimulating
pioneering study,6 is more critical and seems more open-minded. Yuval
stresses the link between the “blood libel” accusation and thephenomenon of the mass suicides and child murders among theGerman Jewish communities during the First Crusade. The picture
which emerges is one of Ashkenazi Jewry’s hostile and virulent
reaction against surrounding Christian society, a reaction finding
expression, not only in liturgical invective, but above all, in theconviction that the Jews themselves were capable of compelling God to
wreak bloody revenge against their Christian persecutors, thus bringing
redemption closer.7 More recently, Yuval very relevantly demonstrated
that the Ashkenazi responses to ritual murder accusations were
surprisingly weak.
These responses, whenever they were recorded, contained not theslightest rejection of the probative evidence; rather, they consisted of amere tu quoque of the accusation against Christians: “Nor are you,yourselves, exempt from guilt of ritual cannibalism”.8 As Yuval wrote,
David Malkiel had already noted the manner in which phenomenal
prominence was given to the scene, described in a secondary Midrasheven in the illustrations of the Passover Haggadah of the German
Jewish communities, of the Pharaoh taking a health-giving bath in the
blood of cruelly massacred Jewish children.9 The message, which cast
not the slightest doubt upon the magical, therapeutic effectiveness ofchildren’s blood, seemed intended to turn the accusation around. “It is
not we Jews, or, if you wish, not just we Jews, who have committed
such actions; the enemies of Israel in history have been guilty of thesethings as well, in which case it was Jewish children who were theinnocent victims”.
Any showing that these murders, celebrated in the Passover ritual,
represented, not just myths, i.e., more or less consistently widespread,consistent religious beliefs, but, rather, actual rites, pertaining toorganized groups and forms of worship which were actually practiced,
requires a respect for due methodological prudence. The existence of
this phenomenon, once it is unequivocally proven, must be viewed
13within its historical, religious and social context, not to mention thegeographical environment in which it is presumably said to have foundexpression, with all the related and peculiar characteristics whichcannot be replicated elsewhere. In other words, we must attempt tosearch for the heterogeneous elements and particular historicalreligious experiences which are alleged to have made the killing ofChristian children for ritualistic purposes appear plausible, during acertain period, within a certain geographical area (i.e., the Germanspeaking regions of trans-Alpine and Cisalpine Italy and Germany, or
wherever there were strong ethnic elements of German Jewish origin,
any time between the Middle Ages and the early modern era), as theexpression of collective adjustment of Jewish groups and a presumed
desire on the part of God in this sense, or as the irrational instrument ofpressure to reinforce that desire [on the part of God], as well as in themass suicides and child murders “for the love of God”, during the First
Crusade.
In this research, we should not be surprised to find customs andtraditions linked to experiences which did not exist elsewhere:
experiences which were to prove more deeply rooted than the standardsof religious law itself, although diametrically opposed in practice,accompanied by all the appropriate and necessary formal and textual
justifications. Action and reaction: instinctive, visceral, virulent, inwhich children, innocent and unaware, became the victims of God’s
love and vengeance. The blood of children, bathing the altars of a God
considered to be in need of guidance, sometimes, of impatientcompulsion, impelling Him to protect and to punish.
At the same time, we must keep in mind that, in the Germanspeaking Jewish communities, the phenomenon, where it took root, wasgenerally limited to groups in which popular tradition, which had, overtime, distorted, evaded or replaced the ritual standards of Jewish
halakhah, in addition to deeply-rooted customs saturated with magicaland alchemical elements, all combined to form a deadly cocktail whenmixed with violent and aggressive religious fundamentalism. There canbe no doubt, it seems to me, that, that, once the tradition became
widespread, the stereotypical image of Jewish ritual child murder
continued inevitably to take its own course, out of pure momentum.
Thus, the Jews were accused of every child murder, much more often
wrongly than rightly, especially if discovered in the springtime. In thissense, Cardinal Lorenzo Ganganelli, later Pope Clement XIV, wascorrect in his famous report, in both his justifications and his“distinctions”.10
The records of the ritual murder trials should be examined with14

great care and with all due caution. In connection with the witchcraft
trials, Carlo Ginzburg pointed out that the defendants (or victims), in a“show trial” of this type, “...ended up by losing all sense of their own
cultural identity, as a result of the acceptance, in whole or in part, byviolence or apparently out of spontaneous free choice, of the hostilestereotype imposed by their persecutors [i.e., a sort of Medieval“Stockholm Effect”]. Anyone who fails to conform by simply repeating
the results of these findings of historical violence must seek to work
upon the rare cases in which the documentation is not just formally set
forth in question and answer form; in which, therefore, one may findfragments relatively immune from distortions of the culture which thepersecution was intent upon blotting out”.11
The Trent trials are a priceless document of this very kind. The
trial records – especially, the cracks and rifts in the overall structure
permitting the researcher to distinguish and differentiate, in substance,
not just in form, between the information provided by the accused andthe stereotypes imposed by the inquisitors – are dazzlingly clear. This
fact cannot be glossed over or distorted by means of preliminary
categorizations of an ideological or polemical nature, intended toinvalidate those very distinctions. In many cases, everything thedefendants said was incomprehensible to the judges – often, because
their speech was full of Hebraic ritual and liturgical formulae
pronounced with a heavy German accent, unique to the German Jewish
community, which not even Italian Jews could understand;12 in othercases, because their speech referred to mental concepts of an
ideological nature totally alien to everything Christian. It is obviousthat neither the formulae nor the language can be dismissed as merely
the astute fabrications and artificial suggestions of the judges in thesetrials. Dismissing them as worthless, as invented out of whole cloth, as
the spontaneous fantasies of defendants terrorized by torture andprojected to satisfy the demands of their inquisitors, cannot be imposedas the compulsory starting point, the prerequisite, for valid research,
least of all for the present paper. Any conclusion, of any naturewhatsoever, must be duly demonstrated after a strict evaluation andverification of all the underlying evidence sine ira et studio, using all
available sources capable of confirming or invalidating that evidence ina persuasive and cogent manner.
The present paper could not have been written without the advice,criticism, meetings and discussions with Dani Nissim, a long-timefriend, who, in addition to his great experience as a bibliographer andbibliophile, made available to me his profound knowledge of thehistory of the Jewish community of the Veneto region, and of Padua in15

particular. The conclusions of this work are nevertheless mine alone,
and I have no doubt that that the above named persons would verylargely disagree with them. I have engaged in lengthy discussions of
the chapters on the Jews of Venice with Reiny Mueller, over the courseof which I was given highly useful suggestions and priceless advice.
Thanks are also due to the following persons for their assistance in the
retrieval of the archival and literary documentation; for theirencouragement and criticism, to Diego Quaglioni; Gian Maria
Varanini; Rachele Scuro; Miriam Davide; Elliot Horowitz; Judith
Dishon; Boris Kotlerman and Ita Dreyfus.
Grateful thanks are also due to those of my students who
participated actively in my seminars on the topic, held at the
Department of Jewish History at Bar-Ilan University (2001-2002 and2005-2006), during which I presented the provisional results of myresearch. First and foremost, however, I wish to thank Ugo Berti, who
persuaded me to undertake this difficult task, giving me the courage toovercome the many foreseeable obstacles which stood in the way.
***

NOTES TO PREFACE
1

J. Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition. A Study in Folk
Religion, Philadelphia (Pa.), 1939; Id., The Devil and the Jews,
Philadelphia (Pa.), 1961; R. Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder.
Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany, New Haven (Conn.) –London, 1988.
2
For example, the recent volume by S. Buttaroni and S. Musial,
Ritual Murder. Legend in European History, Krakow – Nuremberg –Frankfurt, 2003, opens with a preamble which is, in its way,conclusive: “It is important to state from the very beginning that Jewish
ritual murder never took place. Today, proving such theories wrong is
not the goal of scientific research” (p. 12).
3
See, in particular, G.L. Langmuir, Toward a Definition ofAntisemitism, Berkeley – Los Angeles (Calif.) – Oxford, 1990,
containing his major contributions in this field, reached in the previous
years.
4
W.P. Eckert, Il beato Simonino negli “Atti” del processo diTrento contro gli ebrei, in “Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche”, XLIV(1965), pp. 193-221; Id., Aus den Akten des Trienter Judenprozesses, in
P. Wilpert, Judentum im Mittelalter, Berlin, 1966, pp. 238-336; D.
Quaglioni, I processi contro gli ebrei di Trento (1475-1478), in
16

“Materiali di lavoro”, 1988, nos. 1-4, pp. 131-142; Id. Il processo diTrento nel 1475, in M. Luzzati, L’Inquisizione e gli ebrei in Italia, Bari,
1994, pp. 19-34; W. Treue, Ritualmord und Hostienschändung,
Untersuchungen zur Judenfeindschaft in Deuschland im Mittelalter andin der frühen Neuzeit, Berlin, 1989; R. Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475. A
Ritual Murder Trial, New Haven (Conn.), 1992.
5
In this regard, see E. Maffei’s recent Dal reato alla sentenza. Il
processo criminale in età communale, Rome, 2005, pp. 98-101.
6
C. Roth, Feast of Purim and the Origins of the Blood
Accusations, in “Speculum”, VIII (1933), pp. 520-526.
7
I.J. Yuval, Vengeance and Damnation, Blood and Defamation.
From Jewish Martyrdom to Blood Libel Accusations, in “Zion”, LVIII(1993), pp. 33-90 (in Hebrew); Id., “Two Nations in Your Womb”.
Perceptions of Jews and Christians, Tel Aviv, 2000 (in Hebrew).
8
Id. “They Tell Lies. You Ate the Man”. Jewish Reactions to
Ritual Murder Accusations, in A. Sapir Abulafia, Religious Violence
Between Christians and Jews. Medieval Roots, Modern Perspectives,
Basingstoke, 2002, pp. 86-106.
9
D.J. Malkiel, Infanticide in Passover Iconography, in “Journal of
the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes”, LVI (1993), pp. 85-99.
10
C. Roth, The Ritual Murder Libel and the Jews. The Report by
Cardinal Lorenzo Ganganelli (Pope Clement XIV), London, 1935. The
Ganganelli Report was recently republished by M. Introvigne,
Cattolici, antisemitismo e sangue. Il mito dell’omicidio rituale, 2004.
11
C. Ginzburg, Storia notturna. Una decifrazione del sabba, Turin,
1989, p. XXVII.
12
The expressions in Hebrew (ritual and liturgical) appearing inthese depositions can usually be reconstructed with precision, fitting
easily into the context of the ideological and religious discourse of theworld of Ashkenazi Jewry to which these Jews belonged. There is,therefore, no question of any Satanic language redolent of witchcraft,or “pseudo-language” invented by judges to demonize the Jews, assuggested by many writers (A. Esposito and D. Quaglioni, Processi
contro gli ebrei di Trento, 1475-1478, I: I processi di 1475, Padua,
1990: “The introduction into the depositions of the Jews of curses
against Christians and their religion, rendered into transliterated
Hebrew, more often in pseudo-Hebrew, then translated into Italian, isthought to have had the function of stressing the ritual nature of theinfanticide on the one hand, and of creating a thick fog of mystery on
the religious practices of the Jews and conveying the impression of an
obscure witchcraft-like and Satanic rite”).

17Ritual homicide accusations in the 15th century

18CHAPTER ONE
AT VENICE WITH HOLY ROMAN
EMPEROR FRIEDRICH III (1469)
It was in February of 1469 that Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III,
traveling from Rome, made his solemn entrance at Venice with a longretinue for which that which was to be his third and last official visit to
the city which he so loved and admired.1 It was to be his first visit to
the City of Venice since his triumphant reception immediately
following his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope in Romein 1452.2
As was customary on these magnificent occasions, Friedrich spententire days in diplomatic meetings and in receiving the official visits ofambassadors, and in conferring diplomas, stipends and privileges of allsorts upon beneficiaries selected from long lists of names prepared byhis officials, as dictated by imperial interests and his own. In thosedays, intriguers, wheeler-dealers and adventurers attached to themonarch’s court, or who thought they were, toiled with a calculatedindustriousness to intercede in favor of various persons seeking official
ratification of their own professional and economic success; of priests,
patricians and academics bent upon crowning their own cursus
honorum through the attainment of some precious imperial investment,or those of a variety of ethnic and religious communities intent onachieving confirmation of their ancient or recent privileges, not tomention merchants and intriguers intent on covering up affairs of
dubious honesty and scraping up advantages for themselves during thesolemn visit.3
Friedrich was known as a fanatical and often naive collector ofrelics of all types. It is not therefore surprising that the objectives of his
trip to Venice should have included a passionate and unrestrained hunt
for relics, hawked about in abundance by wheeler-dealers andimpertinent intermediaries at high prices, a fact noted with malicious
humor by Michele Colli, a salt superintendent, in a report sent from
Venice to the Duke of Milan, in which he cast doubt on Friedrich’s
alleged competence where relics were concerned. According to the
Milanese official, the Emperor, in this type of business, which hepresumed to carry out directly and without regard to price, was a sucker
19

to be plucked assiduously, adding, to accentuate the ridicule, halfseriously half facetiously, that “certain Greeks sold him dead bones
including the tail of the ass that brought Christ to Bethlehem”.4
On this occasion, some supposed relics of Saint Vigilius foundtheir way to Venice in the hands of a loving and faithful subject ofFriedrich, Giovanni Hinderbach, a famous humanist and man of the
Church who had traveled from Trent to the City of the Lagoons, notonly to present the Emperor with the highly-valued relics, but above allas an act of gratitude, on the occasion of his receipt of his much soughtafter investiture of the temporality of the episcopate of Trent. Again, it
was Colli who informed the Duke of Milan that “His Illustrious
Majesty invested the Bishop of Trent with a thousand temporalsolemnities and celebrations”.5 But Hinderbach was not the only person
to have undertaken the uncomfortable journey from Trent to Venice
during the German Emperor’s distinguished presence in the city.
Tobias da Magdeburg was an obscure Jewish herb alchemist who,
after traveling down from his native Saxony and finding exile among
the mountains of the region of Trent, practiced the art of medicine andsurgery with some success, at least on the local market. A few years
later, he was to meet Hinderbach under much unhappier circumstances,
under indictment for participation in the cruel ritual murder of Little
Simon, later sainted as Simon of Trent. Imprisoned in the castle of
Buonconsiglio and admitting his guilt, he was to meet a cruel death at
the stake, accompanied by the confiscation of all his goods.6
Maestro Tobias appears to have been acting in accordance withother motives during the Emperor’s official visit to Venice,particularly, the possibility of meeting large groups of German Jews
arriving from the other side of the Alps along with Friedrich’s baggage
train, many of whom Tobias looked forward to seeing again after years
of involuntary separation. There was no shortage of German Jews at
Venice in February of 1469: disciplined, humble, but totally selfabsorbed and self-interested.
In his depositions before the judge of Trent in 1475, Tobias was
not exaggerating when, after recalling his own presence in the cityduring “His Most Serene Highness’s visit to Venice”, he stressed thatmany Jewish merchants, in crossing the Alpine barrier, had actually
traveled from the German territories to the City of the Lagoons for the
purpose of acquiring a wide variety of high-priced goods without
paying taxes or duty of any kind, passing them off as goods owned by
the Emperor, in whose baggage train they were said to have found their
way back to Germany. This astute and bold stratagem was well worth
the physical and economic cost of the difficult trip to the city of the20

Doges.7
But Tobias’s presence in Venice was not due to any mere nostalgia
for the people among whom he had been born and grew up. As aphysician, and as a Jewish physician in particular, he knew that theEmperor, during his visit, would, as he was normally accustomed to do,
grant doctoral degrees in medicine to a swarm of more or less highly
recommended candidates, including a few Jews. In fact, it was duringthat same February of 1469 that Friedrich granted a license permitting
the College of Physicians of San Luca, an institution of higher learningteaching students of various origins – not just Venetians – to confer theinsignia of Imperial Authority upon eight medical graduates per year.8
Enea Silvio Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II, recalled the manner inwhich Friedrich graduated a swarm of medical students during his
second visit to Italy.
The number of Jews on the Emperor’s lists of candidates remains
unknown. Nor do we know who filed the petitions to inscribe these
Jewish candidates, or the methods used, or the reasons for doing so. We
only know that many Jewish physicians, of various origins, in addition
to Tobias, a resident of Trent, were in Venice during the Emperor’svisit, attracted by an opportunity of obtaining some much sought-after
title from Emperor Friedrich in person; nor do we know how many ofthem had already spent considerable periods of time in the City of the
Lagoons in search of fame and fortune.9 Among them were the Jews
Moschè Rapp, Lazzaro10 and the better-known Omobono (Simcha
Bunem or Bunim), keeper of the pharmacy “della Vecchia” at San
Cassian, with a house at San Stae, only a few steps from the Albergo
dei Bresciani (“magister Homobon, Jewish physician, at the Speziaria
de la Vecchia at San Cassian, with his house near San Stae, not far
from the Casa de Bressani, at Venice”).11 Accompanying them was thephysician Moisè da Rodi, whose presence is attested to with certainty
in 1473,12 but who probably arrived in Venice even earlier, and“Maestro Theodoro (Todros), Jewish physician”, who reached Venicein 1469 with Friedrich.13
The best-known of all, however, was, without doubt, the rabbi andbarber surgeon Jehudah messer Leon, certainly a product of Ashkenazi
Jewish environment, if his origins at Montecchio in the Vicentino
region are indeed a fact.14 This same Leon, who resided in Venice
starting in 1469 at the earliest, where his son David was born, wasofficially granted his degree in medicine during the Emperor’s visit,
although formally the diploma was only signed a few days later by theimperial notary at Pordenone (but still in the month of February).15
Similarly, years later, in August of 1489, the Emperor, still at21

Pordenone, is said to have granted a doctorate in medicine to two
Jewish candidates, both of them from Sicily and belonging to the Azeni
family at Palermo, David di Aronne and Salomone di Mosè.16
The petitions of the Jews to the Emperor, who had always beenhighly esteemed for his benevolent attitude, filed during his stay in
Venice during the winter of 1469, were submitted by an ambassador
admitted to Friedrich’s presence for that particular occasion. The
occasion was described as follows, early in the 16th Century, withsome satisfaction although with undoubted exaggeration, by thechronicler Elia Capsalia, rabbi of Candia, who had studied medicine at
the Talmudic academy of Padua:“The Emperor (Friedrich III) was very favorable to the Jews.
During his visit to Venice (in 1469), when his vassals and subjects
presented him with (gastronomic) gifts, he never refused to eat them
before his servants and functionaries had tasted them first, as is thecustom among emperors. Whenever the Jews brought him gifts of thiskind, Friedrich never hesitated to eat any of the dishes immediately,saying that he had complete faith in the loyalty and honesty of his
Jewish subjects.
“Later, Frederic, traveling from Venice, went to Padua to gain an
impression of that city. On that occasion, the Serenissima prepared acarriage for him and placed it on the city walls: the horses pulled thecarriage from which the Emperor admired the entire city. This wasdone so that he might easily verify the thickness and solidity of thewalls (of Padua). Friedrich signed a pact with Venice and remained its
faithful ally for the entire time he lived”.17
In all probability, the ambassadorship of the Jews conferring withFriedrich III as described by Capsali was headed by David
Mavrogonato (in Italian, Maurogonato), an adventurer and not overlyscrupulous businessman in the service of the Republic of Venice, aperson of enormous financial resources and great influence, a native of
Candia who was often sent on hazardous missions to the lands of the
Aegean and the Great Turk, where he was to run many risks and die acruel death; on the other hand, he was certainly capable of procuring
sumptuous stipends and profitable privileges for himself.18
Maestro Tobias da Magdeburg, the humble physician from Trent,
had seen Mavrogonato at Venice during the days of the imperial visit,
although he did not know Mavrogonato’s name. He had observed
Mavrogonato with respect and reverential fear; he knew approximately
where he lived, although he did not know the exact address; but he waswell aware that he would never have been able to approach
Mavrogonato without undergoing the suspicious appraisal of22

Mavrogonato’s bodyguards. Perhaps Tobias thought that
Mavrogonato’s recommendation would help get him, Tobias, includedin the list of people enjoying the Emperor's favor, or those about toreceive a Doctorate, but he was unable, or did not dare, to ask for it.
The personage and appearance of Mavrogonato nevertheless remained
imprinted in his memory after many years; in 1475, in speaking to thejudges at Trent, he envisioned Mavrogonato as follows, erroneously
imagining that he might be still alive:“He might have been forty four or forty five years old; he wore hishair long and wore a black beard, like the Greeks. He wore a black
cloak that came down to his feet, and covered his head with a black
cap. In substance, he dressed like the Greeks”.19
But who was David Mavrogonato really? An ambiguous andmysterious character, Mavrogonato appeared in Venice in 1461 on his
own initiative to reveal a conspiracy being hatched on the island of
Candia against the Serenissima. The Council of Ten did not hesitate totake the Jewish merchant into its service and send him back to Candia
on a secret mission to spy on the conspirators and report them to the
Venetian authorities, after gathering the evidence required for theirarrest.20 Mavrogonato carried out the mission to perfection, although
his tireless commitment finally ended by blowing his cover, renderingcontinued residence on his native island impossible, since, as heclaimed, both Greeks and Jews “pointed him out with their fingers”,
considering him a vile informer, or malshin in Jewish juridical
terminology, a term with lethal penal implications.21 We also know that
Mosè Capsali, rabbi at Constantinople, had threatened Mavrogonato
with excommunication at the request of the Jews of Candia.22
The privileges requested early in his career by Mavrogonato in
return for services rendered were granted without delay and withexpressions of profound gratitude by the Council of Ten in Decemberof 1463. These rights, which extended to his sons Jacob and Elia andhis descendants in perpetuity, included, among other things, exemption
from the wearing of the distinctive sign required of the Jews, andauthorization to move about armed wherever he wished. He was not,however, granted the privilege, odd in appearance, but perfectly
consistent with the type of persons with whom he had to deal, of
striking two names off the list of banned persons wanted by the
Serenissima for the crime of homicide.23 Mavrogonato, Judeus de
Creta et mercator in Venetiis, knew full well who might have benefited
from such a clause, and had very definite ideas about certain people
condemned in absentia who might thus have been permitted to return to
the territories under Venetian domination. At this point, the23

entrepreneurial Jew from Candia, a permanent resident of Venice since
the beginning of 1464, traveling frequently and easily, supervising his
goods and entering and leaving the port en route for Candia andConstantinople, was officially a spy in the service of the Republic andat its disposal for other, more or less hazardous, secret missions.
In effect, Mavrogonato is thought to have been sent to Candia andConstantinople at least four times, in 1465, the next year, in 1468 andin 1470, during the first Venetian-Turkish War.24 It is possible that, in
1468, on the eve of Friedrich’s imperial visit to Venice, Mavrogonato
may have accompanied a vessel, loaded with goods owned by himself,from Candia to the Venetian landing place. In June of 1465, a decree
signed by the Council of Ten officially admitted that Mavrogonato had
been sent to the capital of the Great Turk to spy on the enemy; in 1466,
he was referred to the “Jew from Crete, called David”, called upon by
Venice to participate in the peace negotiations with the Sultan
Mahomet II.25
David Mavrogonato died as mysteriously as he had lived, probably
during his fourth mission. On 18 December 1470, the Doge of Venice,writing to the Duke of Crete, mentioned the death of his secret agent,
but without providing any details as to the circumstances of his death.26
Mavrogonato may have accepted the dangerous assignment of plotting
the Great Turk’s assassination in one way or another, and may for somereason have failed in the mission, meeting an unexpected death in theprocess. Other, later, clues are also thought to point in this direction.
Among the requests filed by Mavrogonato with the Council of Ten
after his first secret mission to Candia in the years 1461-1462, was thatof being permitted to avail himself of a bodyguard, assigned to his
personal defense (“that you might deign to grant him the privilege [...]of keeping [...] some person near him for the safety of his person, sothat no violence or ignominy may be done to him by some villain orother evil person”).
Once his petition had been accepted by the Venetian legal
authorities in February 1464, the merchant from Candia made haste toappoint a person originally described as a sort of bodyguard, butreferred to in the document as Mavrogonato’s “associate”, adesignation quite distinct in scope as well as quality. This bodyguard,
or “associate”, was to share in almost all the privileges granted by thecity of Venice to Mavrogonato, including that of being authorized toengage in business of any kind, on a basis of equality with Venetianmerchants, and being permitted to move about the city and territory
wearing the black hat of a Christian gentlemen instead of the crocuscolored beret of the Jews (for this reason, Mavrogonato, in Venice and24its domains, was known as “Maurobareti”).27 Mavrogonato was anexperienced and rich businessman, but not a muscular street fighter orexpert in the martial arts; these latter services were to be provided by a
man bearing the name of Salomone da Piove di Sacco, known
throughout Venice and the entire Veneto region as a banker, merchantand rough-and-ready financier, as bold as he was unscrupulous.28
Starting in 1464 and continuing thereafter, Mavrogonato is thought tohave entrusted his affairs to Salomone da Piove di Sacco during his
enforced and prolonged absences from Venice, including themanagement of his lordly dwelling at San Cassian and his joint interestin commercial ventures undertaken on the maritime routes to the great
markets of the Levant.
Finally, Mavrogonato is also believed to have entrusted Salomone
da Piove with some of his own precious secrets as a diplomatic spy inthe pay of Venice. On the eve of his first, risky trip to Constantinople inJune 1465, David Mavrogonato informed the Council of Ten that hehad indeed confirmed Salomone as his business agent at Venice “due tothe complete faith which I have in him”.29
Salomone’s ancestors had arrived in Italy in the last part of the
14th century from the Rhine region in Germany, perhaps from the same
important seat of the archbishop of Cologne. The family had graduallyextended its offshoots from Cividale del Friuli, where Marcuccio(Mordekhai) and Fays – Salomone’s father and grandfather
respectively – had operated in the local money market, to Padua,
where, in the mid-15th century, the same Salomone managed the bankof San Lorenzo in the city district of the same name.30
Salomone and his clan formed part of a migratory flow extending
to all regions of northern Italy since the very late 14th century,
involving the massive transalpine migration of entire German-speaking
communities, both Christians and Jews, from the Rhineland, Bavaria
and upper and lower Austria, Franconia and Alsace, the Kärnten, Styria
and Thuringia, Slovenia, Bohemia and Moravia, Silesia, Swabia andSaxony, Westphalia, Württemburg in the Palatinate, Brandenburg,
Baden, Worms, Regensburg and Spira. A heterogeneous Germanspeaking population, made up of rich and poor, entrepreneurs andartisans, financiers and scoundrels, men of religion, adventurers andrascals, traveling from the transalpine territories via the mountaincrossings in a process of long duration, towards the lagoons of Venice,as well as the cities and lesser centers of the terra firma of the Veneto
region.31
This was a large-scale phenomenon containing a large Jewish
component which had already come to the fore in the regions of25

northern Italy, in consequence of the persecutions following the Black
Death in the mid-14th century as well as sporadically during the
century before.
Ashkenazi, i.e., German, Jewish communities of diverse numericalconsistency, formed in a myriad of localities, large and small, from
Pavia to Cremona, from Bassano to Treviso, from Cividale to Gorizia
and Trieste, from Udine and Pordenone to Conegliano, from Feltre andVicenza to Rovigo, from Lendinara to Badia Polesine, from Padua andVerona to Mestre.32 Here they stayed, a stone’s throw from Venice, anenterprising Jewish community of considerable economic weight,
whose members came mostly from Nuremberg and the adjacent areas.
In 1382, a few Jews from Mestre obtained authorization to move to
Venice to practice money-lending, but were expelled a few years later,in 1397, for failing to comply with the conditions under which thegovernment of Venice had admitted them to the city.33
The Serenissima thus returned to its traditional policy of refusing
to grant permanent residence to Jews on the banks of the Great Canal,
except under exceptional circumstances and for periods of shortduration. This policy, frequently quite contrary to actual practice,witnessed Jews crowding the streets of certain city districts during the
day and remaining there in great numbers even after dark, lodged inhouses and inns, sometimes for long periods of time. There was noshortage of Jews in Venice: mostly physicians, influential merchants
and bankers, having established themselves more or less permanently at
Venice. The numerical consistency of this community, heterogeneous
in professions but more or less homogenous in ethnic origin,originating from the transalpine German-speaking territories, has, until
today, been considered from an unjustly simplistic point of view.
Beginning in the second half of the 15th century, they tended to gather
in one particular strategic area, a sheltered location in the international
market at Rialto, the node of the great trading systems linking the cityof Venice, by land and sea, to the centers of the plains of the Po Rivervalley and the German-speaking regions which constituted a constantpoint of economic, social and religious reference, towards which theeyes of these Ashkenazi Jews continued to be directed.34 These areas
included the districts of San Cassian, where a kosher butcher’s shop
soon opened, preparing meat according to the Jewish custom, Sant
Agostino, San Polo and Santa Maria Mater Domini. At San Polo, they
probably also attended the German-rite synagogue, authorized by the
Venetian government in 1464 to serve “the Jews who reside in thecapital or who meet there to carry on their businesses”, with a decree
which nevertheless limited their liturgical collective meetings to the26participation of ten adults of the male sex.35
Moreover, the Jewish community at Venice, like the others ofmore or less distant Ashkenazi origin to be seen in the more immediateand smaller centers of northern Italy, formed part of a German-Jewish
koinè, consisting of German-speaking Jews on both sides of the Alps,
linked by liturgical usages and similar customs, sharing the same
history, often marked by events both tragic and invariably
mythologized, as well as by the same attitude of harsh hostility to thearrogant Christianity of surrounding society, the same religious texts ofreference, the same rabbinical hierarchies, produced by the Ashkenazi
Talmudic academies to whose authority they intended to submit, andthe same family structures.36 These communities made up a
homogenous entity from the social and religious point of view, whichmight be called supranational, in which the Jews of Pavia identified
themselves with those from Regensburg, the Jews from Treviso with
the Jews of Nuremberg, and the Jews of Trent with those from Cologne
and Prague, but certainly not with those from Rome, Florence, or
Bologna.
Relations with the Italian Jews who often lived alongside them,where such relations existed, were markedly fortuitous, based oncontingent common needs of an economic nature, and the common
perception of being viewed as identical by the surrounding Christianenvironment.
Many of these Ashkenazi Jews did not speak Italian, and if or
when they did speak it, it was difficult to understand them due to theheavy German inflection of their pronunciation and the many Germanic
and Yiddish terms with which their phrases were cram-packed. Not
only the Hebrew language, but the common liturgical usage of German
and Italian Jews, was pronounced in a radically different way, so thatthe two groups considered it impossible to pray together.37 It is nottherefore surprising that Italian Jews were not on terms of muchfamiliarity with German Jews.
Despite their close proximity, the Italian Jews had little knowledgeof the German ones, distrusted their aggressive economic audacity,which generally had little respect for the nation’s laws, and dissented
from their religious orthodoxy, which they considered exaggerated anddepressing. Sometimes, rightly or wrongly, they feared them.
The Italian Jewish koinè, i.e., of distant Roman origin (Jews activein the money trade only moved from Rome to seek permanent
residence in the municipalities of central and northern Italy starting inthe second half of the 13th century), lived side by side with the German
Jewish koinè, of more recent origin, but without assimilating, without
27

merging and without being influenced, except to a minor and quite
secondary degree. They were distant brothers, even if they were not“brothers who hate and fear each other”.
The first group of “Roman” Jews, i.e., Jews of Italian origin,flowing into the centers of the plane of the Po from their precedingseats in the Patrimonio of San Pietro, in Umbria, in the Marcad’Ancona, in the Lazio and in Campagna to carry on the authorized
money trade, i.e., regulated by permits, did not reach these regions
simultaneously with the arrival in those regions of the Germantransalpine Jews, active in the same profession. They in fact preceded
them by several decades. The first Jewish money lenders at Padua and
Lonigo, in the Vicentino region, were Italians, and initially settled there
between 1360 and 1370. Jews of German origin only reached theregion in consistent numbers at a later time, at the end of the century,
and, in particular, at the beginning of the 15th century.38 A comparisonof the clauses of the permits granted to the German Jews compared tothose granted to the Italian Jews, often active in the same areas, reveals
obvious traces of profound differences in religious usage andmentalities, sediments of particular and diverse historical experiences.
The attitudes and ceremonial components, the fears and mistrust, themeaning and dimensions of life, the relations with the surrounding
Christian society of these German Jews, immersed in the new Italianreality in which they felt profoundly foreign, remained influenced andmarked by their experiences in the Germanic world from which they
originated, and which they had only left physically.
The principal concern of these immigrants seemed to be,understandably, that of ensuring their physical safety and the protectionof their property against the dangers represented by a surrounding
society which considered them treacherous and potentially hostile.
Almost obsessively, the chapters of the permits repeatedly mention the
exemplary punishments to be threatened to anyone causing harm or
injury to the Jews, or subjecting them to trouble or vexations. The
permit granted by the municipality of Venzone to the money lender
Benedetto da Regensburg in 1444 contained the condition that wet
nurses and Christian personnel in the service of the Jews were not to bemolested or offended, nor could they be made to work on Sunday or the
feast days of the Christian calendar.39 The transalpine Jews wereparticularly sensitive to the possibility of being falsely accused and, inconsequence, of suffering from legal proceedings and expropriations,as shown by their preceding experience in the German territories, thescars of which they still bore. In 1414, Salomone da Nuremberg and his
companions requested and obtained a concession from the government28

of Trieste stating that, if Jews were accused of any crime or offense
before the judges of that city, they would not be subjected to torture to
extort confessions without at least four citizen witnesses, trustworthy
and of good reputation, against them.40
The permits signed by the municipalities of Lombardy andTriveneto with the Ashkenazi Jews were characterized by a constantconcern that they be guaranteed the freedom to observe their religious
ritual and ceremonial standards with zealous scrupulousness. The
religious clauses inserted in the chapters were more detailed in thissense than those found in the contemporary permits granted to Jewish
money lenders of Italian origin, undoubtedly an indication of greater
adherence to the observation of religious precepts on the part of the
Ashkenazi community than the Italian one. It was significant in thisregard that the appearance of the clause relating to the undisturbed
provision of kosher meat, i.e., meat butchered according to ritual law,
appears for the first time in the permits granted to German Jews at theend of the 14th century (from Pavia in 1387 to Udine in 1389, from
Pordenone in 1399 to Treviso in 1401), approximately twenty years
before this made its initial appearance, certainly in imitation of, andunder the influenced by, the Ashkenazi prototype, in the permits of the
Italian Jews.41
The religious clauses inserted in the permits of the German Jews
include, in addition to the right to supply themselves with kosher meatto observe their festivities freely, the right not to be compelled toviolate the standards of Hebraic law in the exercise of their lending
activities or having to appear in court on Saturday or the feast days ofthe Hebraic calendar. The same clauses furthermore permitted thesafeguarding of the other Jewish alimentary norms, such as thesupervised preparation of the wine, cheeses and bread (a clause usually
missing from the permits granted to Italian Jews); the right to “attend
synagogue” (Pavia 1387); to use a piece of land as a cemetery and topermit Jewish women to take regular baths of purification, after the endof their menstrual periods, in the city baths on particular days set aside
for them (Pordenone, 1452).42
But the most characteristic clause, absolutely generalized in thepermits of Jews of German origin, but significantly absent from thepermits of the Italian Jews, was that referring to protection against
forced conversions to Christianity. In particular, the Ashkenazi
appeared obsessed with the possibility that their children might bekidnapped, subjected to violence or swindled with snares and tricks to
drag them to the baptismal font. That this possibility was anything but
remote seemed obvious to anyone having had this type of traumatic
29

experience at first hand on the banks of the Rhine or the Main. Permits
issued in Friulia, Lombardy and Veneto granted to German money
lenders, as early as the end of the 14th century, explicitly prohibitedfriars and priests of any order from proselytizing among Jewish
children not yet having reached their 13th birthday.43 In 1403, UlrichIII, bishop of Bressanone, granted the Jews of the Tyrol protection fromany possible ecclesiastical claims to a right of forced conversion of
Jewish children. This protection could, and did, include the dangers
represented by baptized Jews, zealous and implacable in plotting theruin of the Jewish communities from which they originated.44 In 1395,
Mina da Aydelbach, representing the Jewish families of German origin
residing in Gemona, first stopping place on the main road to thelagoons of Venice after the mountain crossing of Tarvisio, obtained, in
the initial clauses of their permits, explicit provision for the immediate
removal from the city of so-called “Jews turned Christian”, who weresaid to constitute elements of scandal and disturbance.45
The die was already cast between the Italian and German Jews,
settled in the lands beyond the River Po, by the mid-15th century. Witha few exceptions, the piazza was henceforth solidly in the hands of
Yiddish-speaking Jews who, in the best of cases, spoke badly mangled
Italian.46 In former times, they had crossed the Alps fearfully andalmost on tip-toe, in search of sufficiently modest and desirable
dwellings so as to live and survive comfortably, but they also, whenneed arose, proved themselves enterprising in financial matters,
courageous and even bold in their commercial undertakings, nonchalantand often arrogant and impudent in their relations with the government,
only obeying the law when it was strictly necessary or too dangerous to
do otherwise. Victory was now theirs, and it was because of these samebankers and merchants that many of them had been able to accumulate
huge sums of capital in a relatively short lapse of time, such as to bearno comparison with the fortunes possessed by Christian mercantile
families and patricians who were both more distinguished and of higher
rank.
The chronology is relatively precise. In 1455, all Italian Jews
active in the money trade were expelled from Padua and compelled to
shut down their banks, while the “Teutonic” Jews, divided from, andnow entirely separate from, the Italian Jews, gained the upper hand in
the local money market [Padua], the most important in the terra firmaof the Veneto region, as early as ten years before. At Verona, alllending banks owned by Italian Jews had already been closed in 1447,
while, in 1445, the permits of the Jewish bankers of Vicenza were notrenewed.47 With the Italian Jewish banks shut down in all the principal
30

centers of the Veneto region, a few district lending banks, few innumber but of great economic potential, particularly because of thehigher interest rates charged by them in comparison to the rates
formerly charged by banks controlled by Italian Jews, remained open toserve the needs of the clientele in the cities and in the countryside. 48
These were the banks of Soave and Villafranca in the district ofVerona, Mestre for Venice, and Este, Composampiero and, above all,
Piove di Sacco in the Padua district.49
The forced and almost simultaneous dismantling of the Jewishbanks of Padua, Verona and Vicenza led, as an immediate
consequence, to the almost total extinction of the Hebraic communityof Roman origin, which was compelled, for the most part, to flow into
the centers on the nearer side of the Po; on the other hand, however, it
allowed other money lenders, from Treviso and the territories ofFriulia, who took over the assets and management of the few remaining
lending banks, to make extraordinary fortunes. As we have seen, thesebanks benefited from an extremely broad catchment area and could rely
on a numerous and heterogeneous clientele. Their economic success
was therefore guaranteed and proved to be exceptional in scope. The
lucky few bankers remaining on the piazza were almost all Ashkenazi,
the same Jews who had hastened or more or less directly procured thefinancial ruin of the Italian Jews. The most prominent among them was,in the end, Salomone di Marcuccio, owner of the Banco di Piove di
Sacco and, after 1464, David Mavrogno da Candia’s official businessassociate, with a more or less official residence at Venice.50
Rich and influential, Salomone, although not a man of great
culture, was not averse to sponsorship ventures, in which field heestablished himself with flare and good taste. At Piove, where the local
community was practically one of his fiefdoms, in 1465, he became
associated with the German printer Meshullam Cusi, whose presence at
Padua is attested to in the same year. Cusi undertook the initial printingof one of the first Hebraic cunabulae, certainly one of the mostimportant and monumental, at Piove, towards the end of 1473. This
was a classic ritualistic code, Arba’a Turim, a work of the German
rabbi Ya’akov b. Asher (1270 circa 1340), whose family originatedfrom Cologne but had carried on its activities for the most part at
Barcelona in Catalonia, and later at Toledo in Castille.
The four volumes, printed on Cusi’s presses with great care andheedless of cost, were completed in July 1475 and constituted one of
the most splendid and elegant examples of Hebraic printing.51 Certain
copies of great beauty were printed on parchment and intended for ahighly sophisticated readership, particularly from the economic point of31

view, one of the most important of whom was to be Salomone da
Piove. The printing costs linked to the supplies of machinery, type,materials and labor, were to fluctuate between seven hundred and one
thousand ducats, a large sum which Cusi might not have had available,
without the direct or indirect joint involvement of the Jewish banker di
Piove.
We believe that consideration should be given to the possibility
that Salmone may have also undertaken another artistic-literary projectof great importance, at proportional economic cost. The precious
miniatures of the so-called “Rothschild Miscellany”, one of the most
sumptuous and famous of all Jewish legal codes, were executed in thedecade between 1470 and 1480, probably in Leonardo Bellini’s
workshop at Venice. The artistic decoration of the manuscript costalmost one thousand ducats, a sum equivalent to half the taxes paid by
the entire Jewish community of the Duchy of Milan during the same
period.52 Salomone may well have been the only Jewish sponsor living
more or less permanently in the city of the lagoons able to make an
investment of such magnitude without difficulty. For purposes ofcomparison, we know that in 1473, Salomone, still active on the piazzaof Venice, together with one of his sons, Marcuccio, his first born, wasable to pay a gigantic sum, equal to 300 ducats in cash and another 360
in credits, intended for the restoration of the perimeter wall of the old
Arsenal.53
Between 1468 and 1469, in view of Emperor Friedrich’s
forthcoming visit to Venice, Salomone hosted a plenary meeting at
Piove of the German rabbis of the Jewish community of northern Italy,
presided over by their most authoritative exponent, the jurist Yoseph
Colon, then active in the community of Mestre.54 The petitions said tohave been presented by the Jewish ambassadorship to the solemn andmagnificent Emperor during the anticipated audience described by
Rabbi Elia Capsali di Candia in his chronicles may have been drawn up
on that occasion.
During the summer of 1470, David Mavrogonato set sail from
Venice to return to Candia for what was to be his last mission. He hadlong since prudently avoided reappearing on his native island. He wasprobably accompanied on this voyage by Salomone da Piove himself,
who, at the end of June, left his son Salamoncino with a power ofattorney for the purpose of collecting a huge loan from the bank
Soranzo at Venice, a transaction which he would normally haveconducted directly.55 As we know, this was a voyage from which
Mavrogonato is thought never to have returned alive, meeting with his
tragic demise a few weeks later, certainly before September of that32

year. From that time onwards, Mavrogonato’s name and memory were
to be systematically omitted from all documents signed by his former
associate, Salomone da Piove, as well as by Salomone’s sons, althoughreference to the privileges obtained by the influential merchant from
Candia appears to have become an established custom. This is not
surprising and cannot be merely accidental. Salomone certainly knew
the truth about that last voyage to Constantinople in which
Mavrogonato is believed to have met with unexpected death. Did
Salomone know too much? Did he wish to forget, or rather, cause
others to forget, that he had been with him on that tragic maritime
voyage? What is certain is that Salomone da Piove was close to David
Mavrogonato until the end. Perhaps too close.
It is not therefore surprising to learn that, at around this same time,
Salomone personally took over a bold project, perhaps planned
beforehand by his associate and collaborator from Candia, “to take thelife of the Great Turk”, thus doing the government of Venice a greatfavor.56 To provide for the assassination of Mahomet II, the nonchalantfinancier informed the Council of Ten that he had sent a Jewish doctor
named Valco, whose Italian name was probably derived from the wellknown family of doctors, natives of Worms, called Wallach, Wallich or
Welbush, to Constantinople, at his expense.57“Salomon, as appears in the books of Your Majesties the Councilof Ten, due to his wish to do a great ourselves and all of Christianity agreat service by attempting to take the life of the Great Turk, chose, at
his expense, to send for a Maestro Valco, a Jewish doctor, whom hesent with his own money”.58
Even before that, we know that the Venetian authorities had beenglad to avail themselves of the services of a Jewish barber-surgeon,
Jacob da Gaeta, the Sultan’s personal physician, an expert spy anddouble agent, greedy for gain and treacherous, with whom
Mavrogonato had maintained frequent contacts.59 It also appears that
Maestro Jacob had reached Venice in secrecy, together with Gaeta, on
the same vessel from Ragusa, in very late 1468, on the eve of theimperial visit and the Venetian congress of Jewish physicians, held onthat occasion.60
Maestro Valco, paid by Salomone, moved to Constantinople, andwent quickly to work, but apparently with little result. Mahomet II was
still alive and kicking when the Jewish banker from Piove finally died,between the end of 1475 and the very early part of the following year.
But Salomone was occupied with certain other matters, much more
serious and more disagreeable then merely “taking the life of the GreatTurk” during that period, which was to prove fraught with danger for33

all the Jewish communities of northern Italy. The Trent trials of theJews accused of little Simon’s martyrdom had ended with thecondemnation and execution of the principal defendants, who wereburnt at the stake or decapitated in June of 1475. Other defendants,
including the women of the small community, were waiting to learn
their final fate, after which the trial proceedings were suspended in
April by order of Sigismundo IV, Count of Tyrol, and were then newlyinterrupted the following July by order of Pope Sixtus IV after a brief
recommencement, requested by several parties for purposes ofintervening in the affair. The Pope then personally sent a special
commissioner to Trent, the Dominican, Battista de’ Giudici, bishop of
Ventimiglia, with the task of investigating and reporting on the facts.
De’ Giudici, who had initially taken up lodgings at Trent, later moved
to the nearby, but more secure, seat of Rovereto, in territory belonging
to Venice, where they met with the lawyers, all of top rate importance,
whom the Jews of Padua had decided to make available to thedefendants.61 Salomone da Piove played a prominent role in the affair,
requesting the Pope to appoint an apostolic inquisitor and probably
meeting Battista de’ Giudici at Padua, on de’ Giudici’s way to Trent.62
In accordance with de’ Giudici, with whom he maintained intense
epistolary relations, as well as through another Jew from Piove,belonging to the Cusi family of typographers, having strategically
moved, to Rovereto, Salomone provided a safe conduct to a Paduan
Jew, a native of Regensburg, and sent him to Innsbruck with themission of pleading the cause of the Trent defendants still in prison,
before Sigismundo, Count of Tyrol, and, if possible, of obtaining theirrelease. Salomone Fürstungar, his agent on this delicate mission, wasan unscrupulous intriguer who camouflaged himself by dressing, not asa Jew, but “in the German-style, with a short overcoat and a cap on hishead”, returned from Tyrol disappointed and empty-handed. His bitter
failure was also an indication of the failure of the efforts of all theGerman-origin Jewish communities from the Veneto region to avoid
the tragic consequences of the Trent affair for the defendants who werestill alive.63 Salomone da Piove is said to have died shortly
afterwards.64
The leadership of this conspicuous group, committed, as always, toavoiding the political and financial effects and repercussions of theTrent trials on their Jewish brethren, thus passed into the hands ofManno di Aberlino (Mandele ben Abrahim) of Vincenza, maximum
exponent of the influential Ashkenazim community of Pavia.65 A
prestigious banker with vast financial resources, he had been appointed
collector of Jewish taxes to the Lombard communities by the Duke of34

Milan in 1469. Manno was related to Salomone da Piove, whose firstborn son Marcuccio had married one of his brother Angelo’s
daughters.66 Manno was to meet Salomone da Piove at fairly frequentintervals at Venice, where he had more or less officially opened amoney lending shop, of secondary importance compared to the greatbank at Padua but still of strategic importance.67

Letter in Hebrew sent by the banker Manno (Mandele) of Pavia to thephysician Omobono Bonim of Venice, March 1476 (State Archive ofTrent, Archivio Principesco Vescovile, S.L., 69, 68).

When Salomone Fürstungar, just recovering from the setback at
Innsbruck, thirsting for revenge or just to reshuffle the cards, took to
considering murdering the captain of the guards of the podestà of Trent
and even bishop Hinderbach himself, hiring an assassin for the task, aperson above suspicion, a priest named Paolo da Novara, theindustrious Manno offered to finance the bold initiative, without regard
to cost.68 Manno asked the priest, Paolo da Novara, who was probably
contacted through his brother Bartolomeo, a druggist at Piove di
Sacco,69 to poison the persons responsible for the Trent trial and toobtain the arsenic required to do so from the Venetian physician
Omobono (Bunim), owner of the “della Vecchia” pharmacy at San
Cassian, who is also believed to have issued instructions on how to use
the arsenic. As a reward, Paolo was to receive four hundred ducats, halfof it immediately, and the other two hundred to be withdrawn over thecounter at Manno’s bank at Venice.70 But the conspiracy, the mostprominent members of which were all Jews from Pavia, Padua, Novara,
Soncino, Parma, Piacenza, Modena, Brescia, Bassano, Rovereto, Riva
and Venice, failed miserably, with the arrest and confession of the35fanciful and avaricious priest.71***

NOTES TO CHAPTER ONE
1

Cfr. P. Ghinzoni, Federico III Imperatore a Venezia (dal 19
febbraio 1469), in “Archivio Veneto”, n.s., XIX (1889), no. 37, pp.
133-144.
2
On the Roman coronation of Friedrich III in 1452 see, recently,
Ph. Braunstein, L’événement et la mémoire: regards privés, rapports
officiels sur le couronnement romain de Federic III, in “La circulation
de nouvelles au Moyen Age”, Société des Historiens Médievistes del’Enseignement Supérieur Public, Publications de la Sorbonne, Ecole
Française, Roma, C. (1994), pp. 219-229. Friedrich had also been in
Venice in 1436, returning from a pilgrimage. The imperial retinue in1452 was particularly numerous, as shown by the Cronaca di Zorzi
Dolfin, cited by Marin Sanudo (“[...] con bocche 1.500 a spexa dellaSignoria e a Trivixo erano cavalli 1.200 che lo aspettavono; la spexa
era al giorno ducati 1000 per dodici giorni” [“with 1,500 mouths tofeed at His Lordship’s expense and 1,200 horses at Treviso waiting forhim; the expenses amounted to 1,000 ducats per day”]. The dance inthe hall of the Greater Council was held “cum infinite donne della terra,250”) [“with infinite numbers of ladies from the mainland, 250”]. For
this passage from the Cronaca del Dolfin, see the Biblioteca Marciana,
Venice, Italian manuscripts, cl. VII, cod. 794 (8503), c. 310r. See also
Marin Sanudo, Le vite dei dogi (1423-1474). I: 1423-1457, by A.
Caracciolo Aricò, Venice, 1999, pp. 471-473. During his visit to
Venice in 1469, where “li fo fatti grandissimi apparati” [“where great
displays of magnificence were prepared for him”], Friedrich’s retinue
was reduced and consisted of eight hundred dignitaries. Friedrich, on
this third visit, was sumptuously received at the Palazzo Ducale “et,venendo a veder Rialto, errano sopra li banchi posti assaissimi ducati et
do garzoni picholi in camixa con una palla per uno in mano, che l’uno
et l’altro si butavono li ditti ducati, si come si butta formento” [“and,when he came to see the Rialto, large quantities of gold ducats had
been placed on stands in a high place, where two little boys in shirt
sleeves, each with a paddle in his hand, were tossing the ducats about,as if they were grain”]. (see Marin Sanudo, Le vite dei dogi. II: 14571474, Venice, 2004, pp. 109-111).
3
On this visit, and probably on the preceding visit in 1452 as well,it seems that some Venetian patricians were awarded the rank of knight36

by Friedrich (Sanudo, Le vite dei dogi, cit., vol. II, p. 109: “li fo fatto
festa in sala del Gran Conseio [...] et sopra il soler lo Imperador fece
alchuni zentilomeni cavalieri”) [“The Emperor was greeted in the
Greater Council with great pomp and ceremony [...] and on the terrace
he dubbed several gentlemen knights”].
4
On Michele Colli’s report to the Duke of Milan cfr Ghinzoni,
Federico III imperatore a Venezia, cit., p. 151. See also D. Rando, Dai
margini la memoria. Johannes Hinderbach (1418-1486), Bologna,
2003, pp. 345-346. Michele Colli was probably a member of theentourage of Andrea Colli, Milanese ambassador at Venice, of whom
he was a relative.
5
Cfr. Rando, Dai margini la memoria, cit., p. 346. In 1452,
Hinderbach had taken advantage of Friedrich’s stay at Padua, on theway to Rome, where he was to be crowned Emperor, to obtain his own
doctorate in a solemn ceremony, held in the cathedral, in the presenceof large numbers of prelates, noblemen and academics, “quo actu
nullus numquam insignior habitus, cui tot et tanti principes et nobiles
interfuissent” [“in which act there was never anything moremagnificent, there were so many princes and noblemen there”] (cfr. V.
von Hofmann-Wellenhof, Leben und Schriften des Doctor Johannes
Hinderbach, Bischofs von Trent, 1465-1486, in “Zeitschrift desFerdinandeums für Tirol und Vorarlberg”, s. 3, XXXVII, 1893, pp.
259-262).
6
For the text of the depositions of Tobias da Magdeburg before theTrent judges during the 1475 trials for the death of Simon, son ofAndrea Lomferdorm, see A. Esposito and D. Quaglioni, Processi
contro gli ebrei di Trento, 1475-1478. I: I processi del 1475, Padua,
1990, pp. 307-348. See also G. Divina’s argument in Storia del beato
Simone da Trento, Trent, 1902, vol. II, pp. 8-12; pp. 45-47. Quaglioni(“Orta est disputatio super matheria promotionis inter doctores”.
L’ammissione degli ebrei al dottorato, in “Micrologus. Natura, scienza
e società medievali”, IX, 2001 [Gli ebrei e le scienze], pp. 249-267)
examines in detail the deposition of the physician Tobias at the Trent
trial, whose confession was extorted “con torture raffinatissime che
conducono l’inquisito in punto di morte” [“with exceedingly refined
methods of torture which practically kill the person underinvestigation”], but he nonetheless considers it a document rich indetails of indubitable truthfulness.
7“Tempore quo Serenissimus Imperator erat Venetiis, modo
possunt esse VI vel VII anni, ipse Thobias reperit se Venetiis [...] etdicit quod tunc erat ibi magna multitudo Iudeorum, qui tunc venerant
Venetiis post Serenissimum Imperatorem, causa emenda merces, ad37

finem ut non haberent causam solvendi gabellas pro mercibus predictis,
quia illas tales mercea postea mittebant cum preparamentis seu caribus
prefati Serenissimi Imperatoris, dicendo quod erant bona prefati
Domini Imperatoris” [Approximately: “During the Emperor’s stay at
Venice, perhaps about 6 or 7 years ago, this Tobias found himself at
Venice, too [...] and he said that there were great multitudes of Jews
there, who followed the Emperor to Venice to sell goods, since they
didn’t have to pay any duty on those goods, because they took the
goods with them in the Emperor’s baggage train, saying they belonged
to the Emperor:”] (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, pp.
328-329).
8
The privilege granted by Friedrich to the Board is dated 16
February 1469 (cfr. R. Palmer, The “Studio” of Venice and its
Graduates in the Sixteenth Century, Triest-Padua, 1983, p. 58). With
regards to the imperial visit to Italy in 1452, Enea Silvio Piccolomini,
in his Historia Australis reported that “multos [doctores Federicus] in
Italia promovit, quibus aurum pro scientia fuit” (cfr. M.J. Wenninger,
Zur Promotion jüdischer Ärzte duch Kaiser Friedrich III, in“Aschkenas”, no. 2, p. 419). The Diario Ferrarese reports thatFriedrich III, visiting Ferrara in 1452 after the Roman coronation, wasreceived in a solemn ceremony by the Marchese Borso d’Este and thebishop of Ferrara, “con tutta la chierexia et multi doctori ferraresi”[“with the whole hierarchy and many learned men from Ferrara”], cit.,in R. Bonfil, Rabbis and Jewish Communities in Renaissance Italy,
Oxford, 1990, p. 87.
9In this regard, see D. Nissim’s recent publication, Un “minian”
di ebrei ashkenaziti a Venezia negli anni 1465-1480, in “Italia”, XIV(2004), pp. 41-47.
10
On Mosè Rapa (Moshè Rapp), whose documentary evidence
dates back to 1475, cfr. “Hebräische Bibliographie”, VI (1863),
footnote p. 67. On Raspe and the other physician “Lazzaro”, recorded
at Venice in December 1465, see also I. Munz, Die Jüdischen Ärzte im
Mittelalter, Frankfurt A.M., 1922.
11
On Maestro Omobono and his involvement in the Trent trials,
see Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, p. 169. For
other information relating to him, cfr. D. Carpi, L’individuo e lacolletività. Saggi di storia degli ebrei a Padova e nel Veneto nell’etàdel Rinascimento, Florence, 2002, pp. 221-224. Carpi reports that
Leone, son of the “magistri Hominisboni medici ebrei de Veneciis”[“Omobono, the master Jewish doctor from Venice”], in 1471 had hada certain Marco di Salomone Ungar incarcerated at Padua for debt.
Omobono lived “appresso la Casa dei Bresciani” and G. Tassini
38

(Curiosità veneziane, Venice, 1863, pp. 96-97), notes in this regard that
“alcuni paesi della Repubblica, come Brescia, godevano il diritto ditenere in Venezia particolare alberghi coll’oggetto di alloggiare i propri
nunzi, con l’andare del tempo transformate in communi osterie etaverne” [“a few regions of the Republic, such as Brescia, enjoyed theright to keep private inns in Venice for the purpose of lodging theirown nuncios, and in time these inns became transformed into ordinary
eating houses and taverns”]. For the correspondence of the name
Omobono or Bonomo with Simcha Bunem or Bunim among the
Ashkenazi Jews, see V. Colorni, Judaica Minora, Saggi sulla storia
dell’ebraismo italiano dall’antichita all’età moderna, Milan, 1983, p.
787.
12
Cfr.P.C. Ioly Zorattini, Processi del S. Uffizio contro ebrei e
giudaizzanti. I: 1548-1560, Florence, pp. 339-340.
13
Cfr. R. Sege, Cristiani novelli e medici ebrei a Venezia: storie diInquisizione tra Quattro e Cinquecento, in M. Perani, Una mannabuona per Mantova. Man tov le-Man Tovah. Studi in onore di Vittore
Colorni per il suo 92° compleanno, Florence, 2004, pp. 383-389.
14
In the ample bibliography on Jehudah messer Leon, see, inparticular, D. Carpi, Notes on the Life of R. Judah Messer Leon, in E.
Toaff, Studi sull’ebraismo italiano in memoria di C. Roth, Rome, 1974,
p. 37-62; V. Colorni, Note per la biblografia de alcuni dotti ebrei
vissuti a Mantova nel secolo XV, in “Annuario di Studi Ebraici”, I,(1935), pp. 169-182; M. Luzzati, Dottorati in medicina conferiti aFirenze nel 1472 da Judah Messer Leon da Montecchio a Bonaventura
da Terracina e ad Abramo da Montalcino, in Medicina e salute nelle
Marche dal Rinascimento all’età napoleonica, in “Atti e memorie”,
XCVII (1992), pp. 41-53. The hypothesis that Jehudah messer Leon
was a native of Montecchio Maggiore in the Vicentino is advanced by
I. Rabbinowitz, The Book of the Honeycomb’s Flow by Judah Messer
Leon, Ithaca (N.Y.)-London, 1983, p. XX, and recently made by H.
Tirosh-Rothschild, Between Worlds. The Life and Thought of R. Davidb. Judah Messer Leon, Albany (N.Y.), 1991, p. 25, and by G. Busi, Il
succo dei favi. Studi sull’umanesimo ebraico, Bologna, 1992, p. 19.
15
The text of the imperial diploma granted to Jehudah messer
Leon, dated 21 February 1469, and published in full by Carpi, Notes on
the Life of R. Judah Messer Leon, cit., pp. 59-60.
16
The imperial privileges granted to the two Jewish Sicilian
physicians, dated 4 August 1489, the their text, has been published by
Wenninger (Zur Promotion jüdischer Ärtzte, cit., pp. 413-424).
Salomone Azeni was almost certainly identical with Salomone
Siciliano, active at Padua in the last decade of the Fifteenth Century
39

(cfr. Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., pp. 222, 224).
17
E. Capsali, Seder Eliyahu Zuta, by A. Schmuelevitz, Sh.
Simonsohn and M. Benayahu, Jerusalem, 1977, vol. II, p. 260. On thismatter, cfr Nissim, Un “minian” di ebrei ashkenaziti a Venezia, cit.,
pp. 42-43. On Capsali’s work, see, recently, G. Corazzol, Sulla
Cronaca dei Sovrani di Venezia (“Divre’ hayamim le-malke’
Wenesty’ah”) di Rabbi Elia Capsali da Candia, in “Studi Veneziani”,
XLVII (2004), pp. 313-330.
18
On David Magrogonato, “judeus de Creta et mercator in
Venetiis” [“Jew from Crete and merchant at Venice”], see, inparticular, D. Jacoby, David Mavrogonato of Candia. Fifteenth Century
Jewish Merchant, Intercessor and Spy, in “Tarbiz”, XXXII (1964), pp.
388-402 (in Hebrew); Id., Un Agent juif au service de Venise. David
Mavrogonato de Candie, in “Thesaurismata. Bollettino dell’Istituto
Ellenico di Studi Bizantini e Post-Bizantini”, IX (1972), pp. 68-77,(republished in Id., Recherches sur la Méditerannée orientale du XIIeau XVe siècle, London, 1979, pp. 68-96); M. Manoussacas, Le receuilde privilèges de la famille juive Mavroganto de Crète (1464-1642), in“Byzantinische Forschungen”, XII (1987), pp. 345-366; Carpi,
L’individuo e la colletività, cit., pp. 41-43.
19“Et erat etatis annorum XL quatuor vel quinquaginta, cum
capillis et barba nigra prolixa, more Greco, et indutus clamide nigro
usque ad pedes, cum caputio nigro in capite, dicens quod aliquando
induebat se veste sicut portant Greci” [“He was about 44 or 45 years
old, with black hair and a long black beard, in the Greek style, andwore a black cap on his head, saying that he preferred to dress like a
Greek”], (cfr. Esposito e Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 329). On
the indubitable identification of the personage in question with David
Mavrogonato, see D. Nissim, Il legame tra I processi di Trento contro
gli ebrei e la tipografia ebraica di Piova di Sacco del 1475, in “Annalidell’Istituto Storico Italo-Germanico in Trento”, XXV (1999), pp. 669678.
20
Cfr Jacoby, Un agent juif, cit., pp. 69-70; Manoussacas, Le
recueil de privilèges, cit., p. 345.
21
“Praedictus David [...] passus fuit et publicum odium, quod ipse
in tota insula tam per Christianos quam per Judeos acquisisset, cum jam
digito mostraretur ab omnibus.” [“The aforementioned David [...]
became an object of public hatred, known to both Jews and Christians
all over the island, who pointed him out with their fingers”]. This
document, dated 29 December 1463, together with other privileges
granted Mavrogonato by Venice, is located in the Archivio di Stato di
Venezia (henceforth: ASV), Inquisitorato agli Ebrei, envelope 19, doc
40

no. 3.
Late printed copies of these privileges, entitled Per David
Mavrogonato contro Senseri Ordinari di Rialto e Stampadell’Università tutta degli Ebrei di Venezia are located in the ASV,
Inquisitorato agli Ebrei (envelopes 39 and 5 respectively). See also, in
this regard, Manoussacas, Le recueil de privilèges, cit., p. 346.
22
Cfr. Jacoby, Un agent juif, cit., pp. 81-82.
23“Se degni concierderli ch’el porta segno del O. per sua saludech’el possa portare Arme [...]. Item li sia concesso poder cavar deBando per puro omicidio do Persone solamente.” [“If he be deemedworthy to be granted the right to bear the insignia of the O. [O. =possibly “Uomo da bene”, gentleman or Christian] for his health and tobear arms [...]; that he be granted the right to cause certain persons
wanted for homicide to be stricken from the list of banned persons”].
This last clause appears in the printed document in the ASV,
Inquisitorato agli Ebrei, envelope 39, while it is missing from themanuscript text of the privileges (ibidem, envelope 19, doc no. 4).
24
Cfr. Jacoby, Un agent juif, cit., pp. 75-77.
25
Cfr. Manoussacas, Le recueuil de privilèges, cit., p. 345. See
also Sanudo’s comments on the year 1466: “In questo mezo Vettor
Capello, Capetanio Zeneral nostro, havendo hautto pr via di quel David(Mavrogonato) hebreo il salvoconducto dal Signor turcho di poter la
Signoria mandarli uno ambassado [... per] veder i tratar qualcheacordo” [“In this way, Vettor Capello, our Captain General, having
obtained through David (Mavrogonato) a safeconduct from the Great
Turk to send an ambassador [...to] attempt to reach some agreement”],(Sanudo, Le vite dei dogi, cit., vol. II, pp. 88-89.
26
In a letter dated 18 December 1470 and addressed to the Duke ofCrete, the Doge referred to Mavrogonato’s death (“qui denique eundo
in servitiis nostri admisit vitam”) [“who was furthermore acting in ourservice at the risk of his life”], praising his loyalty to the Republic (cfr.
Jacoby, Un agent juif, cit., pp. 76-77).
27
Among the privileges granted on 2 July 1466 by the Consiglio
dei Dieci to David Mavrogonato, his children and descendents, inaddition to his bodyguards, Andrea Cornaro also reported that of “dinon portar beretta giallo or altro segno, che portano li Hebrei nel
capello, ma portino il capello negro come li Christiani, per la qual cosa
d’alhora in qua detti Hebrei Mavrgonato si dicono Mauroberti (recte:
Maurobereti) per sopranome, che vuol dire baretta negra” [“of not
wearing a yellow cap or other sign usually worn by Jews on their hats,
but to wear a black cap like the Christians, for which reason
Mavrogonato was thereafter called by the last name of Mauroberti
41

(recte: Maurobareti), which means black cap”] (cfr. Jacoby, Un agent
juif, cit., p. 79).
28
“David praedictus dixit et declaravit quod socius suus, signi non
portandi et arma [ferendi], est Salamon qn. Marcu, cuius auxilio etconsilio usus fuit in praedictus et omnia (recte: circa) praedicta” [“theaforementioned David said and declared that Salomone, son of the late
Marcuccio, was his assistant and advisor in all the aforementioned
activities, being entitled to carry a weapon and go about without any
insignia”] (ASV, Inquisitorato agli Ebrei, envelope 39, Per David
Maurogonato contro Senseri Ordinarj di Rialto, dated 1 February 1464
[1463 more veneto].
29
On 17 June 1465, David Mavrogonato announced to two
representatives of the Consiglio dei Dieci “quod relinquit pro eo etagendis suis in Venetiis Salomonem de Plebisacci hebreum, quia de eo
se confidet” [“that the Jew Salomone da Piove was acting on his behalf
and as his agent, since he had complete confidence in him”]; (thedocument, published in the original by Manoussacas, is cited by
Jacoby, Un agent juif, cit., p. 74 and by Carpi, L’individuo e lacollettività, cit., p. 42). The privileges granted by the authorities at
Venice to Salomone da Piove are indirectly confirmed in a parte,
approved by the Consiglio del Comune di Padova on 22 January 1467.
In this, the Paduan rulers claimed that they were applying the standardsof the Statutes against Salomone (“casum querelle seu accuse contra
Iudeum de Plebe”) [“because of the quarrels caused by his accusations
against Salomone da Piove”], notwithstanding the protection which heenjoyed in Venice (Archivio di Stato di Padova [henceforth: ASP],
Consiglio del Commune, Atti, 7, c. 202v).
30
On Salomone di Marcuccio da Piove di Sacco and his family,
see D. Jacoby, New Evidence on Jewish Bankers in Venice and the
Venetian Terraferma (c. 1450-1550), in A. Toaff and Sh.
Schwarzfuchs, The Mediterranean and the Jews. Banking, Finance andInternational Trade (XVI-XVIII Centuries), Ramat Gan, 1989, pp. 151178; Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., pp. 27-60; D. Nissim, I
primordi della stampa ebraica nell’Italia settentrionale. Piove di
Sacco-Soncino (1469-1496), Soncino, 2004, pp. 9-13.
31
In this regard, see, among others, Ph. Braunstein, Le commerce
du fer à Venise au Xve siècle, in “Studi Veneziani”, VIII (1966), pp.
267-302; Le prêt sur gage à Padoue et dans le Padouan au milieu du
XVe siècle, in G. Cozzi, Gli ebrei e Venezia (secoli XIV-XVIII), Milan,
1987, pp. 652-653; M. Toch, The Formation of a Diaspora. The
Settlement of Jews in the Medieval German Reich, in “Aschkenas”, VII(1997), no. 1, pp. 55-78. For an illustration of this phenomenon, see42

also L. Boeninger, La Regula bilingue della scuola dei calzolai
tedeschi a Venezia del 1383, Venice, 2002.
32
Cfr. A. Toaff, Migrazioni di ebrei tedeschi attraverso i territori
triestini e friulani fra XIV e XV secolo, in G. Todeschini and P.C. Ioly
Zorattini, Il mondo ebraico. Gli ebrei tra Italia-nord-orientale e Impero
asburgico dal Medioevo all’Età contemporanea, Pordenone, 1991, pp.
3-29; A. Toaff, Gli insediamenti ashkenaziti nell’Italia settentrionale,in Storia d’Italia. Annali. XI: Gli ebrei in Italia, tome I: Dall’Alto
Medioevo all’età dei ghetti, by C. Vivanti, Turin, 1996, pp. 153-171.
33
Cfr. R.C. Mueller, Les prêteurs juifs de Venise au Moyen Age, in“Annales ESC”, XXX (1975), pp. 1277-1302; Id., The Jewish
Moneylenders of the Late Trecento Venise. A Revisitation, in“Mediterranean Historical Review”, X (1995), pp. 202-217.
34
Cfr. E. Concina, Parva Jerusalem, in E. Concina, U. Camerino
and D. Calabri, La città degli ebrei. Il ghetto di Venezia: architettura eurbanistica, Venice, 1991, pp. 24-25.
35
Cfr. E. Ashtor, Gli inizi della communita ebraica a Venezia, in“La Rassegna Mensile di Israel”, XLIV (1978), pp. 700-701 (the essay
has been republished in U. Fortis, Venezia ebraica, Rome, 1982, 1739). See also Nissim, Un “minian” di ebrei ashkenaziti a Venezia, cit.,
pp. 44-45.
36
Cfr. Toaff, Migrazioni di ebrei tedeschi, cit., pp. 7-8, 15-21; Id.,
Gli insediamenti ashkenaziti nell’Italia settentrionale, cit., pp. 157-159,
165-171.
37
Still at the beginnings of the Seventeenth century, Leon (Jehudah
Arieh) da Modena, rabbi at Venice, observed, in this regard, that “nella
pronuntia di essa lingua Hebrea sono talmente poi tra di loro differenti,
che a pena sono intesi i Thedeschi da gl’Italiani” [“they pronounce theHebrew language so differently that Italian Jews can hardly understandthe German ones”]. (Leon da Modena, Historia degli riti hebraici,
Paris, 1637, p. 36). An informative document in this regard is theinventory of goods transported by an Ashkenazi Jew, a native of one of
the Jewish communities of northern Italy and traveling to Schwedt inthe diocese of Brandenburg, not far from Frankfurt am Oder, in the lastquarter of the 15th Century, on his travels. The interesting list appears
drawn up in Hebrew and Yiddish, while the Italian terms aretranscribed in Hebrew letters (cfr. A.K. Offenberg, How to Define
Printing in Hebrew. A Fifteenth-Century List of Goods of a Jewish
Traveller and his Wife, in “The Library”, Oxford, VI s., XVI (1994),
pp. 43-49).
38
Cfr. A. Toaff, Convergenze sul Veneto di banchieri ebrei romani
e tedeschi nel tardo Medioevo, in Cozzi, Gli ebrei e Venezia, cit., pp.
43595-613. See also Ph. Braunstein (ibidem, p. 690), which accepts myown conclusions as stated above.
39
Cfr. M. Lucchetta, Benedetto Jew of Ratisbona de fu maestro
Josef banchiero pubblico di Venzone, Udine, 1971. See also M. Davide,
La communità ebraica nella Venzone del Quattrocento, in “Ce fastu”,
LXXX (2004), pp. 167-186.
40
Cfr. M de Szombathely, Libro delle Riformazioni or Libro dei
Consigli (1411-1429), Trieste, 1970, pp. 4-6.
41
Cfr. Toaff, Gli insediamenti ashkenaziti nell’Italia
settentrionale, cit., pp. 162-163.
42
Cfr. Id., Migrazioni di ebrei tedeschi, cit., pp. 11-14.
43
Cfr. Id., Gli insediamenti ashkenaziti nell’Italia settentrionale,cit., pp. 160-161.
44
Cfr. A. Sinnacher, Beyträge zur Geschichte der bischöflichen
Kirche Säben und Brixen in Tyrol, Brixen, 1826, pp. 3-21; R. Palme,
Sulla storia sociale e giuridica degli ebrei in Tirolo nel tardo Medievo
e all’inizio dell’età moderna, in “Materiali di Lavoro”, 1988, nos. 1-4,
119-130.
45
Cfr. L. Billiani, Dei Toscani ed ebrei prestatori di denaro a
Gemona, Udine, 1895, pp. 123-126.
46
The most important (and perhaps not the only) exception seems
to be that of Vicenza, in which the Italian (Roman) element gained theupper hand over the Ashkenazi during the Fifteenth Century. See R.
Scuro, Alcune notizie sulla presenza ebraica a Vicenza nel XV secolo,in G.M. Varanini and R.C. Mueller Ebrei nella Terraferma veneta delQuattrocento, Florence, 2005, p. 106.
47
The processes and events which, in the mid-Fifteenth Century,
led to the forced transfer of money lending in this zone from ItalianJews to German Jews have been studied in many precise research
papers. See, among others, Braunstein, Le prêt sur gage à Padoue, cit.,
pp. 651-669; G.M. Varanini, Appunti per la storia del prestito dedell’insediamento ebraico a Verona nel Quattrocento, in Cozzi, Gli
ebrei e Venezia, cit., pp. 615-628; G.M. Varanini, Il commune diVerona, Venezia e gli ebrei nel Quattrocento. Problemi e linee diricerca, in Id., Communi cittadini e stato regionale. Ricerche sulla
Terraferma veneta nel Quattrocento, Verona, 1992, pp. 279-293; M.
Nardello, Il prestito ad sua a Vinceza e la vicenda delgi ebrei nei secoli
XIV e XIV, in “Odeo Olimpico”, XIII-XIV (1977-1978), pp. 123-125;
Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., pp. 34, 130-132; Scuro, Alcune
notizie sulla presenza ebraica a Vicenza, cit., pp. 103-121.
48
See Braunstein’s intelligent contributions in this regard, Le prêtsur gage à Padoue, cit., pp. 662-663.
44

49

It is significant that, on 12 January 1461, the Consiglio delCommune di Padova lamented the fact that, with the formal coverageof the banks of Piove di Sacco, Monselice and Este, the Jewish money
lenders continued to operate illegally on the market at Padua, charging
interest at rates over 40% (“contra Statuta nonnulli Iudei per quamdam
viam indirectam fenerari incipient in civitate Padue hoc modo, videlicit
quod in Padua accipiunt pignora et mutuant pecunias et postea fieri
faciunt bulletinem per Iudeos fenerantes in Montessellice vel Plebe aut
in Este, fingendo quod Iudeus de Plebe aut de Montesselice vel de Este
sit ille qui mutuet tales pecunias, cum quibus Iudeis de ei habitantes
Padue ses intelligunt cum lucro quadraginta pro centenario ut ultra”)[“notwithstanding the laws stipulating that no Jew may lend at usury inthe city of Padua, either directly or indirectly, particularly, that they
accept collateral in Padua and lend money at usury and then fabricate
vouchers from Jewish money lenders at Piove or Montesselice or Este,
pretending that it is those Jews who are actually lending the money inPadua, thus making a profit of forty percent or more”]. The rulers ofPadua protested before the Doge of Venice, objecting to the fact that
Jewish money lenders had been granted the right to operate in thismanner thanks to letters patent issued in their favor by the authorities of
Venice (“quod sua Excelsitudo dignetur revocare dictas litteras
concessas prefatis Iudeis, quia, stantibus dictis litteris, dicti Iudei per
hanc viam mutuabunt pecunias sub uxuris; nam si mutuarent publice etpalam sicut facere soliti errant, non haberent nisi .XV pr centenario”[“may his Excellency deign to revoke the said letters granted to theabove mentioned Jews, because, being in the possession of such letters,
these Jews are enabled to lend money at usury; while if they did sopublicly and openly as they usually do, they would not even earn 15
percent”]. ASP, Consiglio del Comune, Atti, 7., cc. Cv-6r).
50
Salomone, in 1441, when he was still called “da Cividale” andnot yet “da Piove di Sacco”, had set up banks at Verona and Soave,transferring them to Padua in 1442 (cfr. A. Castaldini, Mondi paralleli.
Ebrei e Cristiani nell’Italia padana dal tardo Medioevo all’Età
moderna, Florence, 2004, p. 59).
51
This is attested to by numerous studies by D. Nissim. Amongothers, particular attention should be paid to D. Nissim, Nel quinto
centenario delle prime stampe ebraiche (1475-1975), in “Atti e
Memorie dell’Academia Patavina di Scienze”, Lettere ed Arte,LXXXVI (1975-1976), part III, pp. 43-52; Id., Spigolature dibibliografia ebraica, in A. Toaff, Studi sull’ebraismo italianopresentati ad Elio Toaff, Rome, 1984; pp: 129-155; Id., I primordi dellastampa ebraica nell’Italia Settentrionale, cit.
45

52

The hypothesis, sustained by Nissim (Famiglie Rapa e Rapaportnell’Italia settentrionale, sec. XV-XVI. Con un’ appendice sull’origine
della Miscellanea Rothschild, in A. Piattelli and M. Silvera, Minhat
Yehuda. Saggi sull’ebraismo italiano in memoria di Yehuda Nello
Pavoncello, Rome, 2001, pp. 190-192), is based on the studies of U.
Bauer-Eberhardt (Die Rothschild Miscellanea in Jerusalem:
Hauptwerke des Leonardo Bellini, in “Pantheon”, XLII, 1984, pp. 229237), expressing the opinion that the miniatures in the Rothschild
Miscellany, currently preserved at the Israel Museum of Jerusalem,
were probably executed at Venice in Leonardo Bellini’s workshop, andperhaps by the same master. But see L. Mortara Ottolenghi, The
Rothschild Miscellany MS 180/51 of the Israel Musem in Jerusalem.
Jewish Patrons and Christian Artists, in “Hebrew Studies”, British
Library Occasional Papers, 13, London, 1991, pp. 149-161. In contrast
to Bauer-Eberhardt and Nissim, the illustrious Canadian scholar
attributes the miniatures to the schools of two major Christian artists ofCremona, Bonifacio Bembo and Cristoforo de Predis (circa 14601480), identifying the client as the Jew Furlano da Cremona, i.e., thebanker Mosè di Consiglio Sacerdoti. According to Nissim, who
believes that he has succeeded in identifying the client as Salomone di
Marcuccio da Piove, a resident of Venice; the reason why the latter’sname does not appear in the manuscript, where the name of the rabbi
Moshè b. Jekutiel Coen Rapa, his protégé, does appear, could be
explained by Salomone’s sudden and mysterious death, occurring in
1475, when the code was not yet completed (written communicationfrom D. Nissim dated 11 November 2004).
53
Cfr. Segre, Cristiani novelli e medici ebrei a Venezia, cit., pp.
388-389.
54
Cfr. Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, pp. 44-45.
55
Cfr. ibidem, p. 39. It is important to note that on 25 March 1470,
a few months before David Mavrogonato’s last voyage, theSerenissima charged Salomone da Piove with effecting, for his account,a loan of 100 ducats to Mavrogonato (“David hebreo de Candia”). The
money was to be used by the Candian government to pay the captain of
the galleys of Alexandria (ASV, Collegio, Notatorio, reg. 11, 68r).
Venice’s intention was therefore that Mavrogonato should reachCandia, a location to which he never returned – probably for goodreason – after the first mission.
56
Salomone da Piove’s plan emerges clearly from a petition sentby his son Salamoncino to the Consiglio dei Dieci of Venice dated 9
July 1477. On the Venetian conspiracy against Maometo II, see, F.
Babinger, Ja’acub-Pascha, ein Leibartzt Mehmeds II, Leben und
46

Schicksale des Maestro Jacopo aus Gaeta, in “Rivista delgi Studi
Orientali”, XXVI (1951), pp. 87-113.
57
The famous family of Wallach di Worms, the members of whichwere physicians by tradition, have left us numerous testimonies, which
are particularly far-reaching starting with the early Cinquecento. Cfr.
Jewish Encyclopedia, New York-London, 1901-1906, s.v. Wallich(Wlk). The name Valk, Volk, Valke for Falco, Falcone is attested to in
the Middle Ages among the Jews of Cologne, Nuremberg and Frankfurt(cfr. A. Beider, A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names, Bergenfield,
N.J., 2001, p. 306).
58
Cfr. Babinger, Ja’aqub-Pascha, cit., pp. 106-107.
59
Cfr. ibidem, pp. 90-106; B. Lewis, The Privilege Granted by
Mehmed II to his Physician, in “Bulletin of the School of Oriental andAfrican Studies”, XIV (1952), pp. 550-563.
60
Cfr. Jacoby, Un agent juif, cit., pp. 76-77.
61
On these events, see Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol.
I, pp. 1-51. Among the defense attorneys acting for the Trent
defendants was Antonio Capodilista, one of the most illustrious jurists
in Padua (cfr. ibidem, pp. 447-454).
62
Cfr. Nissim, I primordi della stampa ebraica nell’Italia
Settentrionale, cit., pp. 12-13.
63“Salomon [Fürstungar] ivert ad Illustriss. Principem Ducem
Austriae [...] et Salomon dixit res male succebat, quia persuasum erat
Illustriss. Principi quod deberet pati quod iustitia haberet suum locum
et quod, si volebat quod justitia haberet suum locum, erat necesse quod
procedatur contra Judeos incarceratos, et hoc ut sciretur an praedicti
Judaei incarcerati essent culpabiles vel inculpabiles, et quod si
reperirentur inculpabiles relaxarentur, et si culpabiles punirentur. Et
quo ex ista ratione Illustriss. Princips noluerunt mandare quod praedicti
Judaei incarcerati relaxarentur”. [“Salomon [Fürstungar] turned to the
Prince Duke of Austria [...] and Salomon said that things were goingvery badly, because the Illustrious Prince was convinced that justice
should be done and that, if he wished justice to be done, it wasnecessary to proceed against the imprisoned Jews, and a determination
should be made as to their guilt or innocence, and that if they were
innocent, they should be released, and that if they were guilty theyshould be punished. And it was for this reason that the Illustrious
Prince did not wish to release the aforementioned Jews from prison”.]
Cfr. [Benedetto Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica sul martirio delbeato Simone da Trent nell’anno MCCCCLXXV dagli ebrei ucciso,
Trent, Gianbattista Parone, 1747, p. 145. Bonelli’s research, althoughoften invalidated by anti-Semitic prejudice in its conclusions, is always
47

documented and performed with scientific accuracy. See also Divina,
Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp. 77-94. “Salomone[Fürstungar] could not be recognized as a Jew because he wore a jacket
cut in the German manner and a short cloak and had a German-style
cap on his head” (cfr. ibidem, pp. 92-93).
64
In 1476, in a document from Verona, Salamoncino’s son isreferred to as “Salamoncinus quondam Salamonis de Plebe” (cfr.
Varanini, Appunti per la storia del prestito, cit., p. 627).
65
On Manno di Aberlino (Mendele b. Abraham), banker at Pavia
and one of the most important exponents of the Jewish community in
the Duchy of Milan, see Sh. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of
Milan, Jerusalem, 1982, vol. II, pp. 486, no. 1144, and p. 534, no. 1267.
Manno da Pavia’s geneology has been reconstructed by Carpi (Notes
on the Life of R. Judah Messer Leon, cit., p. 62). The Jews in the
Ashkenazi community of Northern Italy called Manno da Pavia “unode’ più ricchi hebrei” [“one of the richest Jews”].
66
Cfr. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, cit., vol. II, pp.
864-865, no. 2078.
67
In 1476, as shall see below, Manno offered to pay an assassin tokill the bishop of Trent, offering him a sum to be paid to him in part outof the bank in Venice. Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento,
cit., vol. II, p. 167.
68
“Dum ipse Presbyter Paulus esset Papiae, Man Judaeus ibi
habibator dedit sibi Presbytero Paulo certas litteras, quas deferre
debebat Venetias et illas consignare cuidamn Omnibono Judaeo, quae
litterae, prout Man dixit sibi Presbytero Paulo, continebant istud,videlicet quod Man mittebat ipsum Presbyterum Paulum ad
Omnibonum ut idem Omnibonus instrueret ipsum [...] de modo
venenandi praelibatum Reverendissimum D. Episcopum Tridentinum”[Approximately: “When Paolo the priest was in Padua, Manno the Jew,
who lived there, gave Paolo, the priest, certain letters which he was totake to Venice and deliver to a certain Omobono, a Jew. The letters said
that Manno was sending Paolo to Omobono and that Omobono was toinstruct the priest [...] on how best to poison the Most Reverend Bishopof Trent”] (cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., pp. 146-147).
69
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, p.
147.
70
The records of the Trent trials contain transcriptions, marred bymany errors, of a letter in Hebrew, signed by Manno da Pavia andaddressed to Omobono in the month of March 1476 (“all’esperto
medico Simcha Bunim Sal di Venezia”). The letter had been
confiscated from the priest Paolo da Novara, who intended to visit
48

Venice to meet the Jewish physician according to instructions received.
The letter carried information relating to the forthcoming payment of
90 ducats “nelle mani della persona in oggetto” [“into the hands of theperson in object”] (the beneficiary is a Christian), as part payment of anagreed sum. The message contains a covert allusion to the delicate
mission which the priest from Novara intended to undertake, and to
Omobono’s involvement in the conspiracy against Hinderbach: “Se illatore della presente lettera (sc. Paolo da Novara) ti parlara, prestagli
ascolto e poi decidi secondo la tua intelligenza” [“If the bearer of thepresent letter speaks to you, pay attention and then decide according to
your intelligence”] (Archivio di Stato di Trento [henceforth: AST],
Archivio Principesco Vescovile, s.l., 69, 68). Another letter, preservedin the same compendium, but written in Yiddish and dated 5 May 5236(=1476) contains confirmation of the physician Omobono di Venezia’s
major role within Ashkenazi society of northern Italy and of the fear
which he inspired among the Jews themselves: “Sappiate, miei cari che
Bunim (Omobono) il medico ci ha portato un invito, che ci obbliga arecarci a Padova, perche e lui stesso a convocarsi tutti colà [...], ma qui,grazie a Dio, non abbiamo paura di lui” [“Know, my dear friend Bunim(Omobono), the doctor has brought us an invitation, which obliges us to
go to Padua, because he’s inviting us all there personally [...] but here,
thank God, we are not afraid of him”].
71
On these events, see Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento,
cit., vol. II, pp. 146-177.

49

CHAPTER TWO
SALAMONCINO DA PIOVE DI SACCO,
PREDATORY FINANCIER
Salamoncino da Piove had four sons and a daughter. His family, in
addition to managing the Volto dei Negri lending banks of Piove di
Sacco and Padua, had major joint interests in other banks operating inVerona, Ferrara, Montegnara, Soave, Monselice, Cittadela, Bassanoand Badia Polesine and was active in the textiles and precious stone
trade. A secret and elite clientele, ranging from the Sforza at Milan to
the Soranzo of Venice,1 came to them for huge sums. Marcuccio,
Salomone’s first-born son, when not operating in Piove si Sacco andPadua,2 supported by his brothers, stayed at Venice to assist his father
in the company set up with David Mavrogonato, and to take over theirfunctions when they accompanied the merchant from Candia in his
maritime missions, which were conducted more or less secretly. He
was in the City of the Lagoons in the autumn of 1466, as well as in thefirst half of the following year; thus, he was there in 1468, at the
beginning of 1469, during the imperial visit of Friedrich III, and in1473.
While Salomone was considered a bold and nonchalantbusinessman, his first-born, Marcuccio, and above all his other son,
Salamoncino, darkened his reputation, at least in this respect.
Marcuccio was famous to all for his overbearing boastfulness. It wassaid that, in that of Padua, he used to brag of his strength, real orpresumed, with resounding threats: “There is no Christian who would
have had the temerity to touch me with one finger, and would not havegotten a good hiding from a couple of well-armed ruffians”.3
Marcuccio, who lived at Padua “facing the Parenzo or Volto dei
Negri” at least until the end of the winter of 1473, made his appearance
as an officially approved money lender at Montagnana in 1475. He wasstill to be found in that financial center at the beginning of the summerof 1494, when Bernardino da Feltre arrived there to preach. On thatoccasion, Marcuccio did not hesitate to strut about on the piazza with adefiant air where the violent and fiery Friar da Feltre was expected topreach. As a result, Marcuccio was soon recognized by a Christian who
insulted him, and the whole affair terminated in a sensational brawl,
50

with a mutual exchange of fisticuffs, at the culmination of which theinfuriated Marcuccio unsheathed his dagger threateningly. It is not
surprising that he was to find himself imprisoned in the prisons of the
Republic with relative frequency.4
Marcuccio could nevertheless still count on the influential
protection of the city of Venice, which protection he had inherited,
together with the privileges obtained by his father, Salomone da Piove.
In April 1480, the Council of Ten declared him a fidelis noster civis[loyal citizen] of Venice, under the terms of a law approved by the
Serenissima at the end of 1463 on the protection of Jewish money
lenders. We know that his father chose to live in Venice during thissame period, and it is not difficult to believe that this law was in some
way the product of some self-interested initiative.5
But it was Salamoncino, his brother, who maintained uncontested
primacy in this poorly regulated financial sector, where transactions
took place with the underworld and the law was only obeyed in thoserare cases in which its defenders refused large bribes. Salamoncino
took over the management of the bank at Piove di Sacco after 1464,
when his father took up a more or less stable residence at Venice forthe purpose of looking after Mavrogonato’s interests, although – as weshall see – he seems to have taken up provisional residence at Verona
in the years 1470-1480.6 In 1474, the Duke of Milan ordered an inquiryof Salamoncino and his suspected accomplices, all accused of illegallypurchasing and selling pearls, despite the legal provisions prohibiting
Jews from engaging in this trade.7
Salamoncino had already experienced serious legal problems. In
1472, two common criminals, Giovanni Antonio da Milano and
Abbondio da Como, were arrested in Venice under the accusation ofimporting large quantities of counterfeit silver coin from Ferrara andselling it in Venice, earning large profits.8 This fraudulent trade wasoperated through a front operation, a butcher shop owned by a certain
Nicola Fugazzone, “butcher at Venice”, at San Cassian, and a Jewish
intermediary, Zaccaria di Isacco, who had his provisional residence in
Venice, and was responsible to Salamoncino, money lender at Piove di
Sacco.9 The police authorities succeeded in laying their hands on all
members of the gang, and they were tried before the judges of theMunicipal Avogaria of Venice on 29 May 1472.
The two criminals, from Lombardy, Giovanni Antonio and
Abbondio, were sentenced to the cruel amputation of the right hand, theloss of an eye, a fine of five hundred ducats in gold each, and werebanned in perpetuity from Venice and all the territories of the
Republic.10 The sentence was carried out publicly on the same day, in51

the usual place, the Piazza San Marco, between the columns of San
Marco and San Todaro, where the waters of the lagoon washed thepavement. The butcher, Nicola, and one accomplice, Lorenzo Paolo,
were condemned to one year’s imprisonment, and banned from Venicefor eight years. Paolo was also fined one hundred ducats.11 The
intermediary, Zaccaria, considered Salamoncino’s “enforcer”, wassentenced to one year’s imprisonment, in addition to the fine of two
hundred gold ducats. After serving the sentence, he is said to have beenbanned from Venice and its territories for eight years.12
Salamoncino was obviously linked to the shady traffic at both
ends: at Ferrara, where his family had a bank, and where thecounterfeiters operated, sending the counterfeit coins to Venice, via
their couriers; and at Piove di Sacco, where Salamoncino usuallyresided, and where the counterfeit coins were usually shipped before
being distributed to retailers.13 Arrested and subjected to torture,
Salamoncino signed a confession and admitted that he had earned a
profit of ten percent from the trade in counterfeit coin.14 The Venetianjudges sentenced him to six months imprisonment and the huge fine ofthree thousand gold ducats: two thousand payable to the Arsenal, andthe remaining one thousand payable to the Avogaria di Comun.
Furthermore, the banker from Piove was banned for ten years from
Venice and the surrounding district, as well as from Padua and theterritory of Padua. In the event of violation of the ban, the penalty of
another year’s imprisonment and a further fine of one thousand gold
ducats was provided for.15 While, on the one hand, Salamoncino may
have more or less voluntarily submitted to the fine and perhaps to theimprisonment, at the same time, he is thought to have found a way –and it is not difficult to imagine how – to evade the ban, at least in part.
At the end of the year, he was already active again at Soave andVerona; five years later – as we shall see – he firmly resumed
management of the bank at Piove di Sacco and the Volto dei Negribank at Padua.16
The wolf had lost a few tufts of fur, but not his teeth. According torecords written by the Paduan orator, Giolamo Campagnola, in 1480,
Salamoncino was then presumably resident at Verona, and once again
found himself in prison, at the disposition of the Council of Ten, under
the accusation of selling clipped and counterfeit coin, a charge which
he was able to evade in part by shifting the blame onto an accomplice, amiserable brigand from Verona, who ended up at the stake.17
Salamoninco da Piove, Salamoncino’s father, was dead by the
beginning of 1477. Maestro Valco, the Jewish physician who hadreceived the assignment – obviously for pay – of assassinating52

Mahomet II at the behest of the Serenissima, had, in the meantime,
returned to Venice, presumably to render account to his instigator of
the progress of the plot. At Venice, or during the course of his voyage
from Constantinople, the physician had been informed that
Salamoncino was no longer alive. Understandably anxious about thecontinued existence of the mission, but, above all, because he feared forhis pay, which had been promised by the now-deceased banker, Valcoset out to track down Salamoncino, returning rapidly to Piove di Sasso.
At first, Salamoncino was thunderstruck; but, then, examining hisfather’s records, he found clear evidence of the contract signed with thehomicidal physician in the past. As a practical and alert person,
Salamoncino was immediately aware that Valco possessed thenecessary talents to carry out the hazardous mission of assassinating theGreat Turk successfully. At the same time, he weighed all the potential
benefits to be derived from future relations with the government of
Venice. At this point, Salamoncino did not hesitate to assume
responsibility for continuation of his father’s commitment from boththe strategic and financial points of view. On 9 July 1477, he officiallyinformed the Council of Ten of his resolution to do so, making it toappear an act of disinterested devotion to the Republic. Obviously, in
1470, Salomone da Piove, perhaps inheriting a project initially dreamed
up by Mavrogonato, suggested that Maestro Valco should carry out theplan “to take the life of the Great Turk”, by 1480 – a period of ten
years, believed sufficient for the task. Salamoncino, rejoining the ranksof the conspiracy, ensured the city of Venice that the task would indeed
be carried out during the stipulated time period, and that Mahomet II
would meet the death he deserved, at Valco’s hands, in less than two
and one half years.
“Maestro Valco, a Jewish physician [...] who returned and, finding
the said Salomon (a Jew who kept the banco da Pieve) to be dead,turned to Salamoncin, son of the said Salomon, and, having informed
him of the matter, and Salomon, examining the books, found this to be
the case.
“Not wishing to be a lesser servant of your most Illustrious
Lordship than he who was my father, and having learned from the said
Maestro Valco, Jewish physician, of that which had happened to theperson of the Great Turk [...], Salamonzin examined the said Maestro
Valco, and having witnessed his courage and intelligence and being
convinced of his determination, being the slave and servant of your
Most Illustrious Lordship,18 as was his father, without costing your
Most Illustrious Lordship one penny, offers to send the said Maestro
Valco, with all things requested by the said Valco, at Salamoncin’s own
53expense [...] and is certain that the said Maestro Valco will kill the said
Lord Turk by the end of 28 May, which matter will be to the glory ofthis Illustrious State and all Christianity.”19
It goes without saying that Salamoncino was not entirely
disinterested. In exchange for these services, “because, in so doing, heacts in danger of his life, which cannot be repaid with money”, if themission ended successfully, Salamoncino, following in Mavrogonato’s
footsteps, asked Venice for a few privileges, including an annual
provision of two thousand florins, the beneficiaries of which are said tohave included Salamoncino, Maestro Valco and their descendants inperpetuity, the entitlement of occupying themselves with some branchof trade (“request that the said Salamoncino and his brothers, with theirdescendants, be permitted to deal in trade in this terrain, as any
gentleman may do”), a privilege generally prohibited to Jews, and topurchase real property at Venice and its dominions, up to a total valueof twenty five thousand ducats.20 Salamoncino, who was certainly notlacking in healthy doses of impudence, in addition to an uncommon
dose of greed, furthermore requested that he be permitted to open
lending banks modeled on the example of those operating at Mestre,
and, in particular, one in the much-sought after piazza of the island of
Murano (“intending that one of these locations be understood to refer to
Murano”). He finally requested that he enjoy immunity from any
possible future bans issued by the Venetian authorities against him
personally or any member of his family.21
The Council of Ten officially accepted Salamoncino’s petitions,but on the condition that the granting of the privileges be subject to thepresentation of certain proof of the death of Mahomet II at the hands ofMaestro Valco. But things turned out differently. In 1480, Mahomet II
was still alive, despite the efforts of Valco and Simoncino to bringabout a contrary state of affairs, while Venice, concerned with thepressure of the Turkish armies on its confines, had already signed apeace treaty with the Sublime Porte a year before. The Sultan thenterminated his earthly existence in 1481 – in all probability, as theresult of perfectly natural causes. Salamoncino’s financial plans andthose of his family, linked to the ambitious plot, which had failed
miserably, therefore appeared definitely on the wane.
Either something or someone had moved the city of Venice togrant the benefits requested by Salamoncino, at least in part. In fact, weknow that the government of Padua, in 1495, under pressure from the
weavers’ guild, had requested Venice to abrogate the privileges
enjoyed by Salamoncino and his family at Piove di Sacco and Padua.22
Even more interesting is the confirmation that, much later, in 1557, a54

certain “Salomon, a Jew, a certain Marcuzio, known as ‘da Muran’ ”,
was called upon to testify in a trial held before the Holy Office at
Venice. This Salomon was certainly a descendant of Salomone da
Piove – or, to be more exact, a nephew of his son Giacobbe. The factthat he was known as the “Jew of Muran” is an indication, not to beundervalued, in support of the hypothesis that the plan to open alending bank on the island of Murano, strongly desired by
Salamoncino, had in some way succeeded, for reasons unknown to us.23
During the second half of the 15th century, the family of Salomone
da Piove and the Camposampiero was experiencing the ups and downsof the loan market sector at Padua, enjoying undisputed hegemony
within the local Jewish community.24 It was in 1453, precisely in thepalace of Salomone di Marcuccio da Cividale (who is later believed tohave become the famous Salomone da Piove), at Padua, in the Santo
Stefano district, that Salomone Levi had taken over the ownership ofthe bank of Camposampiero, thus initiating his fortunate career as ahigh-ranking banker.25
But the unforeseen and disagreeable presence of a certain someone
constituted grounds for disturbance and concern. After the Jewishbanks of Padua were officially closed in 1455, a Swiss Jew appeared in
the city in the early summer of 1464, not concealing his own intentions
and, above all, without having asked and obtained the implicit andapparently indispensable authorization of the powerful bankers of
Piove and Camposampiero. The Swiss Jew was Aronne di Jacob, a Jew
from Wil, north of Zurich, a short distance from Schaffhausen, on the
Rhine, a village located at the boundary between the Swiss
Confederation and Germany. Aronne had decided to move to thestrategic Venetian financial center in search of money and fortune,
dragging his two brothers, Vita and Benedetto, along with him.26
Furthermore, around 1471, just as other Jewish bankers had alreadydone in the district, in 1468, Aronne obtained authorization to carry on
activity as approved lender at Padua, three days in the week, ultimately
freeing himself from this de facto restriction. He thus began to operate
the bank “del Duomo” with undeniable success, despite the powerfulcartel of his adversaries.27
It should not surprise us that in the spring of 1472, an anonymous
denunciation, easily attributable to the entourage of bankers of Piove
and Camposampiero, noted that Aronne’s bank, against all theregulations, had kept its doors open on Sunday, in open violation of theChristian religion.28 In the summer of 1473, Salomone da Piove, in a
dispute with Mattia, lender of the Paduan bank of San Lorenzo,
appointed as arbiter a friend of the family, i.e., Jacob, the son of55

Salomone da Campsosampiero. Representing the adverse party was
Aronne, who did not bother to conceal his own enmity towards thepowerful bankers of Piove and Camposampiero.29
A few years later, in 1476, the Swiss Jew saw himself compelled tosell the two banks owned by him, the “del Duomo” bank at Padua andthe bank at Monselice, to Abramo di Bonaventura, a Jew of Ashkenazi
origin from Ulm, Germany.30 Abramo hastened to fall in line with thePaduan cartel of Jewish bankers, particularly, Jacob, Salomone di
Padova’s son, and Simone, Salomone da Camposampiero’s son, whoalready controlled the two most important banks in the town center ofPadua – the Volto dei Negri bank and the bank of San Lorenzo – since1472. Exactly who formed this powerful cartel emerges clearly fromthe negotiations between the Republic of Venice and the Paduan Jewishbankers in 1486, including Jacob da Piove, Simone da Composampiero,
Abramo da Ulm and Isacchetto Finzi.31
Aronne appears not to have been very successful in the difficult
business of lending money at interest, both at Padua and Monselice.
Obstacles were placed in his way on many occasions, and it was aconsolation to him that he had not been broken or killed. Aronne hadalready restricted his activity to that of “rag paper making” as early as1473;32 a few years later, he attempted to invest the modest sums hehad been able to scrape together from the sale of his bank in a safemanner. Aronne, the Swiss Jew from Wil, had arrived at Padua as an
outsider, bold and without resources, at least in the eyes of Piove andCamposampiero. Salomone da Piove’s impatient and fiery sons had
their pockets full and were waiting for Aronne to hit bottom.
In 1481, Salamoncino da Piove dreamed up a colossal swindle –this time to the detriment of other Jews – to rake in money by thewheelbarrow full. In cahoots with David di Anselmo, known as “David
Schwab”, he secretly decided to transfer the savings invested by
Paduan Jews in the Bank at Soave, to the bank at Piove di Sacco,
owned by David di Anselmo. These savings amounted to a huge sum,as much as 1,500 ducats in gold, belonging to Paduan Jews, from thelower middle classes, mostly small investors and savers. The victims of
the inevitable, deliberate, collapse of the Banco di Soave included
rabbis, students, widows and other poor people, among them theunfortunate Aronne da Wil, who had deposited the money collectedfrom the sale of his banks there in 1476. Aronne, acting on behalf ofthe other victims of the fraud as well, had the Banco di Soave agent –Jacob di Lazzaro – arrested; this same agent was still in jail at the endof 1485, when he finally succeeded in obtaining his release, after
withdrawing part of the money earlier stolen via Salamoncino’s bank56

and returning it to Aronne.33 But he was obviously the smallest fish of
the lot.
“David Schwab” went bankrupt “with his pockets full”, in an artfulfinancial crash thought up in league with the negligent bankers of
Piove, who had gotten their hands on a notable slice of the money
embezzled from the tills of the Banco di Soave. But Schwab was
pursued by a religious interdict (cherem), pregnant with consequences,handed down against him by Rabbi Anshel (Asher) Enschkin, who had
lost more than a thousand ducats entrusted to him for investment by
persons of modest wealth. Enschkin publicly unmasked Schwab, who
had declared bankruptcy “notwithstanding the fact that he still had all
the money”. The religious condemnation handed down by Enschkin,
was approved and subscribed by some of the most influential rabbis of
Germany.34
Nor did Aronne da Wil intend to stop attempting to bring an action
directly against Salamoncino da Piove and his Paduan accomplices. In
the spring of 1481, the two contending parties, by common accord,
decided to submit to the arbitration of two Jews of German origin,residents of the region of Padua. The two arbitrators were the rabbis
Isach Ingdam and Viviano da Vacheron, residents of the Duomo and
San Cancian districts, at Padua, respectively.35 Obviously the final
award, expressed in accord with the legal system in use at Venice, wasfar from satisfactory to Salamoncino, who was, on several occasions
during the following years, obliged to face his exasperating andimplacable rival in court. In the end, the Piove di Sacco banker lost hispatience – which he must not have possessed in excessive doses – anddecided to take the law into his own hands, freeing himself from what
he now considered an enemy to be eliminated.
In the winter of 1487, Salamoncino sent a hired killer to Venice,where Aronne was staying at that time, with the assignment of getting
rid of Aronne without a trace. In a night in January Isaia Teutonico,
known as Salamoncino’s servant and bodyguard, attacked theimpoverished Aronne from behind, just as Aronne was leaving the
Jewish hospice at San Polo, before he could reach his son-in-law’shome, a few islands away. Aronne was struck on the head with anedged weapon and left to die, on the ground, in a pool of blood.36
Aronne, despite a serious head wound and skull fracture, survived
the attack, and later denounced his unknown aggressor. A reward was
immediately placed on the attacker’s head, and his identity was quite
soon discovered by the police authorities.37 On 22 May 1488, thewould-be killer, Isaia, who had, in the meantime, prudently taken flight,
was tried in absentia and banned in perpetuity from Venice and its
57

territories. If he was captured, he was to suffer a particularly cruel fate:
dragged to the scene of the crime, he was to lose his right hand, after
which, with his own hand appended to his neck, he was to be conductedto the Piazza San Marco and publicly beheaded between the two usualcolumns.38
Once the attacker was identified, it was child’s play for the
Venetian city authorities to identify the instigator, the unscrupulous
businessman from Piove di Sacco, who had already served more than
one term in the prisons of the Republic. Finding himself unmasked,
Salamoncino spontaneously appeared at the Public Prosecutor’s office,admitting to commissioning the crime and paying the killer to commit
it. He then excused himself by saying that the victim had never ceased
importuning him, dragging him through one long, exhausting judicial
dispute after another until, driven to his wits’ end, he had decided tofree himself from the intolerable nuisance once and for all.39
Salamoncino got off with a relatively mild sentence, which is not
surprising in view of the type of relationship linking him, more or lessobviously and officially, with the Venetian authorities. In the end, he
was sentenced to six months in prison, in commutation of which hewould be banned from Venice and its territories for four years, inaddition to the payment of a fine of two hundred gold ducats, to be paid
partly to the Hospital of Piety.40
But Salamoncino was back at work as early as one year later, in
1489, managing his network of banks, at Piove di Sacco and Padua.41
In 1495, the municipality of Padua petitioned the Republic of Venice torevoke the chapters of the loan granted to Salamoncino as well as all
related privileges.42 But Venice refused. As mentioned by Marin
Sanudo in his Diaries, in 1499, “Salamonsin de Piove de Sacho” wasone of the Jewish bankers engaged in negotiations with Venice for theconcession of the huge sum of fifteen thousand ducats, to be pledged by
the Republic “in the Turkish matters”, i.e., the war effort against the
Sublime Porte.43 Salamoncino – who had intended to remain at Piove di
Sacco at least until 1504, according to Sanudo – was definitively
expelled from the city of Venice one year later, allowing the city tobreathe one last sigh of relief. Salamoncino’s memory, ambiguous anddisturbing, was then lost in the mists of the lagoons of Venice.

58

***

NOTES TO CHAPTER TWO
1

Cfr. D. Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività. Saggi di storia degliebrei a Padova e nel Veneto nell’età del Rinascimento, Florence, 2002,
pp. 39, 48.
2
On the activities of Marcuccio at Padova and Piove di Sacco, cfr
ibidem, pp. 45-50.
3Girolamo Campagnola da Padova, in an unpublished oration,
written after 1480 in celebration of the martyrdom of Simone da Trento
and of Sebastiano Novello at Portobuffolè, recalled Marcuccio’s
exasperating arrogance, at that time a money lender at Montagnana:“Quis Marcutio fratre (Salamoncini hebraeo), etiam carcere concluso,
audacior et insolentior unquam fuit? Ille mihi ait: scias, velim,
Christiani nominis esse neminem, qui mihi digiti, ut ajunt,offensiunculam faciat, quin alteram duorum sibi lacertorum non
reddam” [Approximately: “Is there anybody more audacious andimpudent than Marcuccio, the brother of Salmoncino the Jew, who
spends half his time in jail? He told me, look, no Christian would dare
do me any offense, without getting a good beating from two of hishenchmen”] (cfr. [Benedetto Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica sul
martirio del beato Simone da Trento nell’anno MCCCCLXXV dagli
ebrei ucciso, Trent, Grianbattista Parone, 1747, pp. 280-281).
4
On 27 February 1473 Marcuccio, at that time a resident of Padua,
together with his brother Salomoninco and their father Salomone da
Piove, were denounced for calumny and embezzlement by a law
student at the Studio (ASP, Notarile, Luca Talmazzo, 253, cc. 252r254r). On his long residence in Montagnara, documented since 1475,
his activity as an approved money lender and the events linked to thevisit of Bernardino da Feltre, see, in particular, V. Meneghin,
Bernardino da Feltre e i Monti di Pietà, Vicenza, 1974, pp. 489-502.
5
ASV, Consiglio dei Dieci, Lettere, file 2 (1476-1483). The headsof the Consiglio called Marcuccio “fidelis noster civis Marcuonus(recte: Marcutius) ebreus quondam Salomonis de Plebesaccii”[“Marcuccio, loyal citizen of our city, (son of) the late Salomone diPlebe di Sacco”], then a resident of Montagnana. The privileges
Marcuccio enjoyed, and his father as well, constituted an extension of
those granted by Venice to David Mavrogonato and his family in thepast. The Doge, in a letter to the rulers of Candia in 1532, referring toMeir Mavrogonato, a descendent of David, recommended theapplication in his regard of the privileges which he enjoyed, “essendo59

trattato come li cittadini Venetiani nelle datiii et alter fattioni, et esento
lui et figlioli dell’angarie che fanno l’Hebrei, secondo la forma delli soi
privilegge” [“being treated like the citizens of Venice in all respects,
and free of the annoyances suffered by Jews, according to the mannerof their privileges”] (cfr. D. Jacoby, On the Status of Jews in the
Venetian Colonies in the Middle Ages, in “Zion”, XXVIII, 1963, pp.
57-69 [in Hebrew].
6
On Salamoncino’s mercantile and financial activity at Piove di
Sacco, Padua and Verona, see D. Jacoby, New Evidence on Jewish
Bankers in Venice and the Venetian Terraferma (c. 1450-1550), in A.
Toaff and Sh. Schwarzfuchs, The Mediterranean and the Jews.
Banking, Finance and International Trade (XVI-XVIII Centuries),
Ramat Gan, 1989, pp. 155-156; Capri, L’individuo e la collettività, cit.,
pp. 54-58; G.M. Varanini, Appunti per la storia del prestito edell’insediamento ebraico a Verona nel Quattrocento, in G. Cozzi, Gli
ebrei e Venezia (secoli XIV-XVIII), Milan, 1987, p. 621.
7
Cfr. Sh. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, Jerusalem,
1982, vol. I, p. 633, no. 1538. The document is dated: Lonate, 30
October 1474.
8
ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3653 (II), cc. 8v-9r (29 May1472). I wish to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Rachele Scuro for her
invaluable assistance in transcribing the documents and my friend
Reiny Mueller of Venice for his archiving tips, which were always
illuminating. “Joannes Antonius de Mediolano et Abundius de Cumis[...] confessi fuerunt se pluries conduxisse e Farraria Venetias multam
quantitatem monetarum argenti falsarum verum grossestos et grossones
ad similitudinem stampe Dominii Nostri, quas monetas scienter
accipiebant a fabricatoribus illarum et illas, reductas Venetias,
dispensabant diversis personis, a quibus habebant ad incontrum ducatos
auri et argenti cum certa sua utilitate”. On the crisis of May 1472 andthe “monetary war” being waged between Venice and Milan, see, inparticular, R.C. Mueller, L’imperialismo monetario veneziano nel
Quattrocento, in “Società et Storia”, VIII (1980), pp. 227-297 (292294); Id., Guerra monetaria fra Venezia e Milano nel Quattrocento, in
La Zecca di Milano, Records of the Congress, Milan, May 1983, pp.
341-355.
9
ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3653 (II), c. 9rv (29 May1472): “Nicolaus Fugaconus, becharius de Veneciis et socii quos
processum fuit [...] pro eo quod etiam ipse habuit commertium cum
Abundio infrascripto, conductore monetarum falsum, a quo recepit satis
bonam quantitatem dictarum falsarum pecuniarium, cum utilitate .XIII
pro centenario, et fuit medius ad faciendum quod Salamoncinus
60supascriptus haberet de dictis monetis cum infrascripto Zacharia, etiam
judeo [...] quod procedatur contra Nicolaus Fugaconus, Laurentium
Paulo et Zachariam iudeum qui, spiritu avaritie ducti, scienter
acceptaverunt, cum certa utilitate, monetas argenti falsas ex Ferraria
Venetias conductas, illas dispensando pro bonis”.
10
ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3653 (II), cc. 8v-9r (29 May1472): “[...] quod Johannes Antonius infrasciptus hodie postprandium
hora solita conducatur in medio duarum colunnarum, ubi per ministrum
iustitie sibi ascindatur manus dextera et eruatur unus oculus et solvat
ducatos quingentos auri [...] et postea banniatur perpetuo de Venetiis etde omnibus terris et locis Dominii Nostrii, tam a parte terre quam maris[...] et quod iste Abondius hodie post prandium hora solita conducatur
in medio duarum colunnarum, ubi per ministrum iustitie ascindatur
manus dextera eruatur unus oculus et solvat ducatos. Vc. Auri [...] etpostea banniatur perpetuo de Venetiis et de omnibus terris Dominii
Nostri, tam a parte terre quam maris”.
11
ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Rapse, 3653 (II), c. 9v: “[...] quodiste Nicolaus Fugaconus compleat annum in carcere et deinde banniatur
per annos octo de Venetiis et districtu [...] et quod banchum bechariereservetur, et Laurentius Paulo compleat annum unum in carcere etsolvat ducatos centum Advocatoribus et deinde banniatur per annos
octo de Venetiis et districtu”.
12
ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3653 (II), c. 9v: “Zacharias
iudeus quondam Isahac, hospes in Venetiis, compleat annum unum incarcere et solvat ducatos ducentos auri [...] et deinde banniatur perannos octo de Venetiis et districtu”.
13
Salomone di Marcuccio da Piove and his children were the
proprietors of the “Banco dei Carri” on the town square of Ferrara in1473 (cfr. P. Norsa, Una famiglia di banchieri: la famiglia Norsa,
1350-1950, Napoli, 1953, p. 15).
14
ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3653 (II), c. 9r (c. 114r of themodern pencil numeration at the bottom of the page, 29 May 1472):“Salamoncinus Salamonis, hebreus de Prebesacci, contra quem fuit etest processum [...] quod spiritu avaritie ductus, non contentus de usuris[...] scienter se inmiscuit in acceptando et dispensando de monetis
falsis, cum utilitate ducatorum .x pro centenario, sicut ad torturam
confessum est”.
15
The Trial “contra Salamoncinum filium Salomonis fenetoris in
Plebesacci” concluded with the sentence “quod iste Salamoncinus stetmenses sex in carceribus clausus, et solvat ducatis duomille nostro
arsenatui et mille Advocatoribus nostris, qui dent quantum accusatori,
et non incipiat tempus carceris nisi cum integritate persolverit et deinde61banniatur per annos decem de Venetiis et districtus et Padua etterritorio paduano, et si tempore banni contrafecerit stet anno in carcere
et solvat ducatos mille et iterum remittatur ad bannum et sic publiceturin schalis Rivoalti”. Salomone, his father, being compelled to take overthe management of the Banco di Piove di Sacco, on 16 July 1472
conferred the position upon Moisè di Elyakim de Alemannia for theduration of ten years (cfr Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., p. 40).
Salomone, who is thought to have passed on to a better life before
1476, truly could not have imagined that five years later, in 1477,
Salamoncino would already have returned to Piove.
16
Cfr. Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., pp. 47, 55.
17“Fama est Salamoncinum hebreum, decem Virorum issu, invinculis in presentarium detentum, cum adulterinae monetae majestatis
crimine alias damnatus esset. Ut se ab exitio per Christiani hominis
pernicem liberaret, pauperem quendam Veronensem ad cudendam
monetam circumvenisse; ab eo postmodo accusatum flammarum
subisse supplicium; utque alterum civem ab se furti crimine accusatum
in exilium compelleret, quidquid fide dignis testibus ostendere nonvaluit, magicis artibus conjectari, indiciarique curasse; quibus corvum
humanam emisse vocem, ipsumque furem nominasse fertur” ([Bonelli],
Dissertazione apologetica, cit., pp. 280-281). This quotation, together
with the fact that the manuscript oration of Girolamo Campagnola ispreserved at Verona, seems to confirm the arguments put forth by
Varanini (Appunti per la storia del prestito, cit., p. 621) that
Salamoncino was residing in Verona more or less permanently around1470-1480.
18
The expression may refer to the role of “Hofsklaven”, assigned
to the Jews under the Germanic Empire.
19
Salamoncino da Piove’s petition to the Consiglio dei Dieci,
dated 9 July 1477, has been published in its entirety in F. Babinger,
Ja’aqub-Pascha, ein Leibarzt Mehmeds II, Leben und Schicksale desMaestros Jacopo aus Gaeta, in “Rivista degli Studi Orientali”, XXVI
(1951), pp. 196-197. Similar privileges are said to have been requested
by Salamoncino’s brother, Fays, from Francesco II Gonzaga in 1495
(cfr. E. Castelli, I banchi feneratizi ebraici nel mantovano, 1386-1808,
Mantua, 1959, p. 215).
20This would have had to have been in obvious derogation fromthe law of 1423, otherwise rigid relating to the landed property of theJews (cfr. R.C. Mueller, Les prêteurs juifs de Venise au Moyen Age, in“Annales ESC”, XXX, 1975, p. 1302, no. 96).
21
Cfr. Jacoby, New Evidence on Jewish Bankers in Venice, cit., pp.
156-157; Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., pp. 54-55.
62

22

Cfr. Jacoby, New Evidence of Jewish Bankers in Venice, cit., pp.
156-157; Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., p. 55.
23
Cfr. P.C. Ioly Zorattini, Processi del S. Uffizio contro ebrei e
giudaizzanti. I: 1560-1560, Florence, 1980, pp. 270-272.
24
Cfr. Jacoby, New Evidence on Jewish Bankers in Venice, cit., pp.
151-178; Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., pp. 27-110.
25
Cfr. Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., p. 61.
26
On 27 March 1466, Aronne di Jacob signed a postal service
agreement with a porter from Padua, who was to look after his
epistolary relationships with his father-in-law and brother-in-law, bothof them resident at Wil (Vil), in Switzerland (ASP, Notarile, Giacomo
Bono, 216, c. 51r). As early in 1464 (14 June) Aronne was a resident ofPadua, in the district of San Cancian, lending money at interest,
benefiting from the banking services at Piove di Sacco (ASP, Notarile,
Francesco Giusto senior, 1591, c. 384r).
27
Cfr. D. Carpi, The Jews of Padua During the Renaissance(1369-1509), a doctoral thesis written in Jerusalem in 1967, p. 193. For
the money lending activity carried on by Aronne at Padua, probably
without official approval, in the past years, see ASP, Notarile, Nicolo
Brutto, 3117, c. 414r (10 June 1465); Notarile, Giannantonio da
Mirano, 2681, c. 214v (30 June 1466). Alessandro di Jacob was
associated with the three brothers, Aronne, Vita and Benedetto da Wil,in the affairs of the Banco del Duomo at Padua and the other bank at
Monselice, also under his ownership.
28
Cfr. Carip, The Jews of Padua, cit., p. 193.
29
On this controversy, see Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit.,p. 48. Aronne had already had a dispute with Salomone “hebreus
fenerans in Plebe Sacci”, but had in some way reached a settlement(“dictus Aron et dictus Salomon, nolentes ire per litigia sed parcere
litibus et expensis, devenerunt ad compositionem”). See ASP, Notarile,
Francesco Giusti senior, 1591, c. 384r. (14 June 1464).
30“Abram qm magistri Bonaventure ab Ulmo, hebreus fenerator
Padue in contrata Domi, habens loco Ixep Sacerdotis et Aronis qm
Jacob hebreorum ad fenerandum in Padua et Montselice, ut constat
ducalibus datis die XVI augusti MCCCCLXXVI” (ASP, Notarile,
Francesco Fabrizio, 2917, c. 271r). Abramo da Ulm was the father-inlaw of that Abba del Medigo di Candia of whom we will have occasion
to speak at length in the next chapter.
31
Cfr. Capri, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., p. 47, 53.
32
As early as 23 February 1473 Aronne appears as a “strazzarolo
in contra’ San Cancian” [“rag-paper maker in the San Cancian district”]
at Padua (ASP, Notarile, Luca Talmazzo, 253, c. 251r).
63

33

On the fraudulent insolvency of the Banco di Soave and thearrest of Jacob, David Schwab’s factor, see ASP, Notarile, Ambrogio
da Rudena, 779, c. 460r (3 November 1485). Jacob delivered 155 gold
ducats to Aronne “existentes penes Salabmonzium hebreum de Plebe[...] quos denarios dictus Jacob affirmavit fuisse et esse dictorum
bonorum intromissum ad dictum banchum Suapsis”. As early as 1470,
Aronne da Wil, turning to the Paduan tax authorities, asserted that hehad operated mostly for the accounts of other savers: “io non trafegodel mio altro che liere octozente [= 800 lire], e de questo, piasendo ale
spectabilità vostre, sempre me ne faro fede de questo, ma io trafegorobe de diversi zodii” (ASP, Estimo 1418, 92, c. 14r).
34
In this regard, see J. Hutner, Quattro responsi rituali relativi ad
un rabbino che aveva emesso un interdetto religioso che colpiva colui
che lo aveva defraudato, in Memoriale Volume in Honor of Rabbi J.B.
Zolti, Jerusalem, 1987, pp. 256-263 (in Hebrew).
35“Haron ebreus qm Jacob, habitator in contrata Domi, parte una,et Jacob qm Salamonis de Plebe, suo nomine et Fais et Salamonis (i.e.:
Salamoncini) fratrum, Isachetus qm Consilii de contrata Strate,
Enselmus filius quibuscumque differentiis existentibus inter dictas
partes se compromiserunt in magistrum Isach Ingdam hebreum,
habitatorem in contrata Domi elledum pro parte dicti Haron, et inmagistrum Vivianum de Vaischoron de contrata S. Canciani, electum
per superscriptos Jacob et socios, secundum morem, leges et stillum
alme civitas Veneciarum” (ASP, Notarile, Luca Talmazzo, 251, c. 58r.
(10 May 1481).
36
ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3656 (II), c. 72r. (22 May
1488). “Isaas iudeus theothonicus, solitus esse famulus Salamoncini
iudei de Plebesacci, absens, contra quem processum fuit [...] coramofficium suum in consilio prefatorum dominorum Advocatorum
comunis cum gravissima querella comparuisse Aron quondam Jacob
iudeus et exposuisset quod quodam siro, circa prima in secunda horam
noctis, dum veniret ab hospitio iudeorum de contracta sanctii Pauli etiret ad domum Jacob iudei, generi sui, parum procul ab ipso hospitio,
fuerit a quodam incognito proditorie a parte posteriori cum uno casepercussus et vulneratus una percussione de taleo supra caput cum
maxima effusione sanquinis et fracturam longa[m] per unum digitum,pro quo quidem delicto petebat iustitiam administrari”.
37“[...] et tandem posita est et capita fuit pars de talea sub die xxi
aprilis proxima et consequentis publicata in schalis Rivoalti, cuius
vertute data noticia officio prefatorum dominorum Advocatorum quod
dictus Isayas fuerit et est ille qui tale maleficium commisit gratia et ad
instantiam infrascripti Salamoncini [...] et sic captum fuit quod ipse
64Isayas retinetur [...] Fuit itaque proclamatus in schalis Rivoalti ad se
defenderum cum termine dierum octo, qui dum non comparuisset,
immo in sua contumacia perseverasset, fuit absens”.
38“[...] quod procedatur contra Isayam teothonicum iudeum, alias
solitum esse famulum Salamoncini iudei de Plebesacci, absentem sed
legitime citatum super schalis Rivoalti, ex eo quod, ad instantium dicti
Salamoncini, de mense januarii 1486 [= 1487] tempore noctis, percussit
Aronem iudeum proditorie una percussione de taleo super capite, cum
incisione et effusione sanguine ac offensione ossis [...] et captum fuitquod iste Isayas sit bannitus perpetuo de Venetiis et districtus et de aliis
terris et locis Nostri Dominii ad confinia furum, et si quo tempore
contrafecerit banno et captus fuerit, conducatur ad locum delicti
commissi ubi sibi manus dextera amputetur et deinde, cum ea appensa
ad collum, conducatur in medio duarum collunnarum ubi sibi caput a
spatulis amputetur sic quod moriatur”.
39
ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3536 (II), c. 72rv (c. 179rv
according to the modern numbering in pencil on a paper label (23 May
1488). “Salamoncinus quondam Salamonis, iudeus de Plebesacci,
contra quem processum fuit [...] super casu infrascriptis insultis etvulneris, illatis in personam infrascripti Aronis [...] venit ad officium
advocarie se ipsum manifestavit et quomodo ipse erat in societate
euisdem Isaie supscrascripti, ut quod eius Salamoncini causa motus
ipsum taliter vulneravetur [...] quia sepius et continue fuerat molestatus
Salamoncinus ipse in litibus ab ipso Arone”.
40“[...] quod dictus Salamoncinus, iam prope ea retentus, bene
retentus remaneat [...] et quod procedatur contra Salamoncinumquondam Salamonis de Plebisacci iudei, qui fuit mandator et auctor
dicte percussionis [...] captum fuit quod ipse Salamoncinus complere
debeat menses sex in carceribus clausus, solvat ducatos ducentos auri,quorum centum sint hospitali Pietatis, alii verum centum sint
Advocatorum comunis, sit postea bannitus per annos quatuor”.
41
In the summer of 1490, Salamoncino invested capital in the
Banco dei Finzi at Rovigo (cfr. E. Traniello, Gli ebrei e le piccole città.
Economia e società nel Polesine del Quattrocento, Rovigo, 2004, pp.
116-117).
42
Cfr. Jacoby, New Evidence on Jewish Bankers in Venice, cit., pp.
156-157; Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., p. 58. On 11 February
1495, a legal dispute was recorded between the municipality of Piovedi Sacco and “Salamoncinus, hebreus phoenerans in hoc loc
Plebiscacci”. The document summarizes the clauses of the items for theloan, granted in a timely fashion by the community to Salamoncino,including that of being able to accept any type of pledge as security for65loans, with the exception of objects of worship of the Christian religion(“[...] per formam capitulorum concessum est ipsi Salamoncino libere
praestari super quocumque pignore indifferenter, exceptis crucibus etcalcibus, sive rebus ecclesiasticus sacratis, tamquam phoenerator
publicus”). Cfr. P. Plinton, Codice Diplomatico Saccense, Rome, 1894,
no. 552.
43
Marin Sanudo, I diarii, by R. Fulin et al., Venice, 1879-1903, II,column 42 (22 May 1499), III, column 803 (1500).

66

CHAPTER THREEASHER, THE BEARDED JEW (1475)
Master Tobias da Magdeburg, the physician from Trent, who reached
Venice in February 1469 during Friedrich III’s visit, had otherinformation to be supplied to the judges investigating the death of little
Simon. His news was disturbing, linking the German Jews, reaching
Venice in the Emperor’s train, with the personage of the Candian
merchant, David Mavrogonato, and his mysterious dealings.
It seems that Mavrogonato, for the occasion of the imperial visit,
had brought with him, perhaps from Cyprus, a large consignment ofsugar and blood to be peddled on the Venetian piazza. These were
expensive ingredients, indispensable to the preparation of medications
and unguents considered of certain effectiveness and of great advantage
by the pharmacopoeia of the time, and it is not to be marveled at thatthe shrewd merchant from Candia intended to offer them for sale at
Venice, where all the Jewish physicians, surgeons, herb alchemists, andspecialists, both Christians and Jews, had agreed to meet on thatoccasion, attracted by the prospect of a flattering and profitable
imperial recognition. But, according to Maestro Tobias, those German
Jews who turned to Mavrogonato in great numbers – known by them as
the “Jew with the sugar” – to acquire the precious goods he had for
sale, were, in fact, seeking to purchase Christian blood, and, inparticular, the blood of Christian children, for use, not only in the
preparation of costly and miraculous medications, but in obscuremagical and religious rites as well.1 David Mavrogonato had nointention of dirtying his hands directly in negotiations of this kind, but
used, as a go-between, an unscrupulous local charlatan, a certain
Hossar (or Osser, a rendering, in the Ashkenazi pronunciation, of thename Asher, corresponding to the Italian Anselmo). This Jew, from
Cologne, was known all over Venice as “the Jew with the beard”.2
The name of this Hossar, dedicated to shady dealings between
Venice and the cities of the mainland and linked twofold to
Mavrogonato, appears in the depositions of another important
personality in the Trent trials. Israel, son of Mayer (Meir) ofBrandenburg in Saxony, was a young man twenty three years old,itinerant artist by profession, earning his money as a miniaturist, and, in67

the case in question, as a binder of manuscripts and Hebraic and Latin
codes. He, too, was arrested in 1475 in Trent under the accusation ofcomplicity in the killing of little Simon. He was to prove a bold andshrewd double-dealer, agreeing in appearance to convert to Christianity
and assume the new name of Wolfgang, not just to save himself from acertain and cruel condemnation to death, but above all, camouflaged byconversion, to assist the Jewish women accused and arrested for thecrime, obtaining their release or facilitating their escape.3 Oncediscovered and unmasked, he was publicly executed in January of
1476. His body, broken on the wheel, was left at the place of execution,a spectacle for public mockery and a feast for animals.
Israel Wolfgang had informed the judges at Trent that he had been
Salomone da Piove di Sacco’s guest in the spring of 1471, for the
Passover dinner, with the participation of the banker’s sons, David
Mavrogonato’s business associates, and their respective families. The
patron of the house was said to have made use of dried and pulverized
blood for ritual purposes, as was the custom among German Jews,
dissolving it in the wine and kneading into the unleavened bread. Under
these circumstances, Salomon’s son, Salamoncino, in the presence ofthe brother Marcuccio, is said to have informed young Israel that the
blood, probably extracted from the veins of a Christian child, had been
supplied “by a Jewish merchant, who had brought it from overseas,
perhaps from the island of Cyprus”, alluding, by means of thisperiphrasis [circumlocution], to Mavrogonato.4 What is more,
Salamoncino confirmed that the go-between in those sales was, as
usual, Hossar, or Asher, whose business it was to sell blood from
Venice to the other centers of the Republic in which there were active
Jewish communities.
The famous money lender Salomone di Lazzaro “from Germany”,
active at Crema and Cremona, was also an assiduous client of thisitinerant wanderer.5
Wolfgang knew Hossar personally, and visited Hossar in prison
near the Ponte di Paglia in Venice, where he was detained forattempting to sell “alchemical silver”, i.e., counterfeit money. The
reasons for this strange visit are not clear, nor did Wolfgang bother toexplain. Perhaps it would not be too far from the truth to think that heintended to supply himself with powdered gold and silver atadvantageous prices from the capable and expert dealer which Hossar
was reputed to be, for use in miniatures of any codes which he might becommissioned to paint by rich and influential persons. This might
explain the presence of the enterprising artist at Piove di Sacco, in
Salomone’s house, whose table would otherwise be inaccessible to a68young man of low rank and without resources, like him.
Wolfgang had furthermore come into contact with Hossar before,
and knew that that alchemist of dubious reputation lived near the
Rialto, in the direction of Mestre, and might be about forty years old,
dressed in black and wearing a beard of the same color. At Venice,Hossar was known by boys as “the Jew with the beard”. Hossar had abrother, some years older than he, called Big Salamoncino, due to his
stature, and perhaps to distinguish him from Salamoncino da Piove,
whose presence in the heart of the Jewish community of Venice and at
the official ceremonies in the synagogue must have been frequent.
According to Wolfgang, who made his depositions before the judges ofTrent in November 1475, Hossar-Anselmo, “the Jew with the beard”,
had died about six months before, perhaps in prison.6
The information supplied by Israel Wolfgang da Brandenburg in
his testimony is exactly, and very many ways, surprisingly, confirmedby the archive documents. Hossar-Asher “with the beard” (Anselmus
judeus a barba) was in fact tried at Venice on 3 September 1473 on an
accusation of selling two bars of false gold, i.e., silver covered with afoil of gold powder, to an artisan in that city, after having extorted afraudulent official registration from the essayer of Rialto, responsible
for the stamping and weighing of gold.7 Hossar “with the beard” wassentenced to six months in prison and stricken from the registry of bulk
gold and silver dealers at Venice.8 He was also said to have been
compelled to compensate the victim of the swindle for the economic
harm done, before serving his term of imprisonment.
Strangely, the clauses of the sentence hint at the eventuality of an
escape from prison by the Cologne-born Jewish alchemist, or his deathin prison.9 In effect, as reported by Israel Wolfgang to the judges at
Trent, Hossar died in the first few months of 1475, and it may be that
he was still in prison. It is therefore surprising that the Venetian judges
should provide in advance for such eventuality, almost as if they knew
for a fact that David Mavrogonato’s unscrupulous ex-right arm man –dedicated to mysterious illegal dealings at Venice, where he was known
by all, both Jews and Christians – had powerful friends in the mainland
financial centers capable of helping him break jail or of silencing him
for good, to prevent him from revealing his embarrassing secrets.
Salamoncino da Piove, who was perfectly well aware of the Germanalchemist’s activities, may have known him personally during his stays
in Venetian prisons, “near the Ponte di Paglia”, of which he was an
influential and assiduous inmate.
Just what the artful German herb alchemist [Hossar] was selling on
all those frequent trips which took him to the cities of the Veneto69

region, apart from medicinal blood and quack remedies of miraculous
effectiveness and bright and treacherous “silver of alchemy” – in the
manufacture of which he was considered a specialist – remains
unknown. It is, however, certain that, the merchandise to be found in
Hossar’s haversack – according to Salamoncino da Piove – included
one particular item, purchased from an itinerant merchant named
Abramo, stopping by Trent in 1471 on his way from Saxony to Feltreor Bassano, and that this particular item was considered particularly
valuable. According to Wolfgang’s later statements before the Trent
judges, Abramo’s clients included the physician, Tobias da Magdeburg.
Abramo’s red leather pouch, with its waxed bottom, in fact,
concealed a certain amount of blood, to be put up for sale – clottedblood – coagulated and reduced to curdles or powder, as was normal
practice, to cause it to harden over time.10
According to Maestro Tobias da Magdeburg, many of the Jewish
and German merchants who reached Venice in 1469 along withFriedrich III’s baggage train intended to supply themselves with theblood of Christian children for the Passover rite – blood which
Mavrogonato was said to have brought from Candia or Cyprus on thatoccasion. It does not appear that the Jews of that island had ever beenaccused of ritual murder at that time. Yet, Jewish Passovers at Candia
in the mid-15th century were anything but tranquil affairs, and were
often the source of scandal and clamorous indignation.
During Passover week, 1451, the Jews of the ghetto of Candia
were accused of crucifying suckling lambs (perhaps due to theimpossibility of procuring Christian children) [NOTE: This is notnecessarily Prof. Toaff’s opinion here; he is summarizing the Latin:
fortasse quia fideles pueros captare nequiverat], in contempt of theChristian religion, with a grotesque and sacrilegious anti-ritual.11 Thesymbolism of the suckling lamb placed on the cross seemed obviously
linked, in an intolerable and obscenely blasphemous manner, to thepassion of Christ, the Agnus Dei [Lamb of God]. The accusation does
not appear to have been completely groundless, in view of the ancient
Hebraic custom of roasting the Passover lamb skewered on the spit in a
vertical position, with the head upwards, to ridicule and deride thecrucified Christ; just how widespread this custom was, is difficult todetermine from either a chronological or geographical point of view.12
The Venetian criminal judiciary was immediately informed of theaffair by the Duke of Candia, Bernardo Balbi, while the Doge,
Francesco Foscari, hastened to appoint Gradenigo, “district mayor in
the Levant”, who was already on the island, with responsibility forinvestigating the matter (“to obtain the truth about the crucified lambs70

in any manner whatever”), identifying the guilty parties, and punishingthem with the maximum strictness. Edicts were posted “in the Piazza
and in the Giudaica di Candia”, promising cash rewards for anyone
supplying the inquisitor with information useful to the investigation andthreatening severe punishment to “any persons with knowledge of theabove mentioned case of the crucified lambs who conceal the same”.
The well-known Venetian politician and humanist, Lodovico
Foscarini, already podestà [magistrate] of Feltre in 1439, of Vicenza in
1445 and at the time, podestà of Verona, also occupied himself with thethorny mater. In a letter, presumably written between 1451 and thefollowing year, and addressed to Antonio Gradenigo, Foscarini praised
the Venetian inquisitor [Gradenigo] warmly for bringing his
investigation into the “sacrilegious sacrifice” to a close, zealously andwith undoubted success, and for his success in demonstrating the guiltof the Jews of Candia in the crucifixion of the lambs to a certainty.13
The outcome of the matter came to our attention through a Jewish
source which has until now been misinterpreted on this point: thechronicle of Elia Capsali. The Candian rabbi, based on a report on theevents written in Hebrew, reported that the investigation into the
crucifixion of the lambs was concluded on 26 January 1452, when theCouncil of the Forty informed Bernardo Balbi, the Duke of Candia,
that, as a result of inquisitor Gradenigo’s denunciation, nine notables of
the Jewish community had been placed in shackles for their
participation in the crime.
After a brief period of detention in the prisons of Candia, theprisoners were transferred in chains to Venice, where they wereinterrogated in expectation of the trial before the Avogaria di Commun.
Two of the prisoners died as a result of torture, while the survivor
remained in custody awaiting the decisions of the Major Council,
which met on 15 July 1452, on Saturday. To everyone’s great surprise,
the Jewish defendants were absolved, notwithstanding Gradenigo’s
indignant protests, with 220 votes in favor, 130 against and 80 “notconvinced”, i.e., abstaining; on 9 August following, the defendants
were released and left Venice. They finally landed in Candia after a 13day voyage and were joyfully and triumphantly received by the entire
Jewish community on the island.14[The report reads in part:]“In 1423, Francesco Foscarini was elected Doge of Venice [...]
Under his government, almost at the end of his term, in 1451, the Jewsof the community of Candia were falsely accused of the so-called‘calumny of the lamb’,15 by a nun named Orsa. The matter took an ugly
turn when Antonio Gradenigo, the inquisitor, visited Venice at the71

Avogaria di Commun to cause the Jews to be tried, setting forth theparticulars of the accusations made against them. On 26 January,
Bernardo Balbi, the Duke of Candia, received an order from Venice toarrest nine notables of the Jewish community, after which they were
held in prison for thirty five days. The Duke then ordered their transfer
to Venice in a ship captained by Giacomo Aponal di Candia, which
docked after a 49-day voyage, during which the prisoners remained inchains, suffering terribly. At Venice, the defendants were thrown into adark, unwholesome prison, separated from each other, and subjected tocruel and insupportable tortures and torments, which caused themiserable death of two of them ‘in the sanctification of the name ofGod’, but they confessed nothing. As a result, the case was presented tothe judge of the Great Council [...] and the Jews were therefore
absolved, thanks to the Lord’s assistance and His mercy towards them.
This happened on Saturday [...] on 15 July 1452 [...] and on 9 August
following, these same Jews left Venice, and reached here [Candia]
thirteen days later, expressing their praise and gratitude to God theBlessed.”But the matter was anything but over. The implacable Antonio
Gradenigo appealed against the sentence of absolution before the
Avogaria di Commun. According to him, the Jews of Candia hadbribed some of the magistrates, purchasing their favorable votes withmoney. Once again, Capsali reported that the allegation had been
examined by the Avogaria di Commun in March 1453. The subsequent
investigation led to the arrest of one of the counselors, Girolamo
Lambardo, on a charge of corruption and Lambardo’s subsequentcondemnation to one year in prison; he was also struck off the role ofthe Members of the Great Council for five years. The fate of the Jews
of Candia was again in the hands of the “Great Council”, which met on
16 May 1454 without reaching a decision. The meeting was adjourned
on 7 June following, when the charges were finally dropped after
innumerable rounds of voting, on 13 July.16“On a Saturday in the month of Tamuz of the year 5214 [=1454] inthe afternoon [...] our Messer Antonio Giustinian’s galley docked here
in the port of Candia, bringing us the happy news of our acquittal. May
He be Blessed who rewarded us with all well-being, rendering vain themachinations brought against us. The Lord has saved, not only ourfathers, but ourselves as well, our children and descendents. In fact,salvation has not only been granted to the Jewish community of
Venice, because the Lord has thus liberated our community of the Jews
of Candia and the other communities under the dominion of the
Serenissima, and under the government of the gentiles generally, from72

terrible danger [...] This sort of persecution is the work of the perfidiousHaman, seeking to exterminate women and children, old persons andnotables and sack our property in one single day (Esther 3:13).”17
Capsali’s report, richly detailed, finds precise confirmation in theofficial Venetian documentation, supplementing and clarifying thepicture.18 As early as September 1451, several months prior toconclusion of district mayor Antonio Gradenigo’s inquiry into the
crucifixion of the lambs at Crete during the Passover period of thatyear, Gradenigro appealed to the Greater Counsel that the defendants
be transferred to another, more pliable, level of the legal system, suchas the Quarantia Criminal [Council of Forty Judges] to ensure a more
expeditious conclusion of the matter.19 Gradenigo’s appeal uponacquittal of the Jews in the court of first instance was preceded by adecision of the Greater Counsel to the effect that, in the interests ofexpediting the case, the presence of three hundred magistrates should inthis case suffice instead of the four hundred judges provided for bylaw.20What is certain is that, at the end of June 1452, twelve Jews from
Candia were being held in a cell of the “New Prison” of Venice.
Capsali reports that nine (and not twelve) Jewish notables were arrested
in Candia; the idea that Capsali was simply mistaken seems
implausible.
Perhaps the other three Jews from Candia were arrested for othercrimes, unrelated to the foul charge of the “crucified lambs”. It would
not even surprise us to learn that David Mavrogonato, whose
adventures as an “intriguer” with limited scruples did not always end
happily, was one of them. These Jews at Candia were lodged in thesame cell with a Christian, probably in jail for another crime, a certain
Antonio da Spilimbergo. Spilimbergo was rather unhappy about being
the only believer in Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary in the forced
company of these vociferous and arrogant Jews, who were as loudmouthed as they were uncouth, and who did nothing but mutter theirincomprehensible prayers and chant from morning to night, in Hebrew,with an unpleasant Ashkenazi inflection. Their actions, which the poor
Antonio, out of ardent Christian zeal, presumed were highly heretical,
as well as their strange and repellent garb, drove him practically mad.
He therefore filed an urgent appeal with the commanding authorities
for transfer to the “Carcere Novissima” [new prison], a petition which
the authorities immediately granted, in a full understanding of
Spilimbergo’s plight.21
The text of the defendants’ final acquittal, on 7 June 1454, contains
important details relating to the case as a whole. The principal
73

defendants turned out to be the physician, Abba di Mosè del Medigo di
Candia, who, according to the denunciation of a converted Jew,
“crucified a lamb in mockery of Jesus Christ, at night, in his own room,
together with other Jews, on the very holy day of Holy Friday (of theyear 1451)”. Gradenigo’s inquiry shows that the Jews of Candia
repeated this contemptuous ritual every year, in the days preceding
Christian Easter.22
Abba del Medigo and the other defendants’ attempts to bribe thejudges were not in vain, as attested to by the relevant documents. As wehave seen from Elia Capsali’s report in March of 1453, one of themembers of the Greater Counsel, the nobleman Girolamo Lambardo,
was arrested and sentenced for selling his vote to the Jews. The minutesof the Greater Counsel confirm that an inquiry against Lambardo had infact been brought and had concluded with the condemnation of thenoble counselor for improperly attempting to extort money from
Abba.23
As early as February 1452, the ineffable Candian physician [Abbadel Medigo], already under indictment for vilification of the Christianreligion, was further accused of attempting to bribe one of the “districtmayors in the Levant”, Antonio Priuli, one of Gradenigo’s colleagues,
perhaps correctly considered more pliable than the implacableinquisitor of the crucified lambs.
But in fact, in a certain sense, Abba, rather than the author of thedesign to bribe judges and other high-placed persons involved in thetrial, had himself been the naïve victim of a clever swindle. Bonomo diMosè, a Jewish money lender active at Mestre, owner of the bank of
San Nicolà at Padua,24 was, out of piety or self-interest, accustomed tovisiting Abba frequently in the New Prison where the latter wasincarcerated. During one of these visits, Bonomo, who bragged of highplaced friendships in wealthy Venice, is said to have confessed to theimpatient and depressed Candiota [Abba del Medigo] that one of the“district mayors in the Levant”, Priuli to be exact, would gladly sell his
vote in exchange for a loan of fifty ducats without interest.
Having scraped up the sum, the good Abba promptly delivered it to
Bonomo, who misappropriated it, obviously without turning it over toPriuli, who was completely ignorant of the whole scheme. But thewhole scheme finally came unraveled and the swindle was discovered.
The money lender from Mestre, responsible for the swindle, wassentenced by the Avogadori to the payment of a fine of one hundred
gold ducats and one year in prison, after which he would be banned
from Venice and its territory for five years.25 Abba del Medigo, for hispart, was tried for trying to bribe a public official, but was ordered74acquitted.26
The island physician was less fortunate, however, at the end of
October of the same year, when his Christian fellow prisoners accused
him of serious offenses and blasphemies against the Christian religion.
According to the denunciation, Abba, in his cell, was alleged to haveunhesitatingly placed his filthy piss-pot right below the crucifix.
Soundly rebuked by the other prisoners, the intemperate Candiota wassaid to have replied with profanity, insulting them and shamelessly
ridiculing Jesus the Messiah and the blessed Holy Virgin. His
condemnation was inevitable and well-deserved: one year’s additional
prison time, in addition to the payment of a fine of one thousand lire to
the Avogadori di Commun.27
But who was this Abba del Medigo – the protagonist, despite
himself, in the affair of the crucified lambs? He certainly came fromone of the most illustrious Jewish families in Candia, being the son ofMosè “the Old Man”, rabbi and head of the community, and related to
the famous philosopher Elia del Medigo, a physician like himself. He
had married Ritte, otherwise known as Rivkah, with whom he had had
three children, Elia, Diamante and Yehudah, called Giuliano in Italianand known as Yudlin among the Ashkenazim of the Venetocommunity.
The latter had married Sofia, called Shifra in Hebrew, the aunt of
the chronicler Elia Capsali. The family lived at Padua, but after thedeath of Abba, which occurred rather early in 1485, he moved mostly
to Soave, where Elia and Yudlin del Medigo had obtained a money
lending permit, which was renewed in 1496.28
Elia Capsali remembered that he had stayed with his aunt Sofia at
Padua in the winter of 1508, on his way from Venice, and that he hadheard her say “that my relatives (del Medigo) were no longer at Padua,
because they had moved to Soave”.29 We know that Elia, Abba’s firstborn, was murdered in Venice under mysterious circumstances in 1505.
Implicated in the murder, one as the instigator and the other as anaccomplice, were two Jews, from Soncino and Feltre, the latter aresident of Monselice, who were condemned by the Avogadori diCommun to prison, the confiscation of their property and expulsion
from the territories of Venice, Padua and the surrounding district.30 It is
probable that Capsali stumbled across a copy of the trial documents
relating to the crucifixion of the lambs on the island of Candia, in
Padua, among Yudlin’s letters, who had died many years before, stating
the grounds for the acquittal, and that he used it among his sources.
Out of prudence, or perhaps simply desiring to respect the privacyof the Medigo-Capsali family, although half a century had already75

passed since these events, Elia preferred to omit any mention of thenames of the defendants in the trial for the crucified lambs – mainly,
any mention of Abba del Medigo, father-in-law of his aunt, Sofia, as
well as of the assassination of the son of the latter two, Elia, committed
at Venice by other Jews only a few years earlier.
Lodovico Foscarini was a friend of Gradenigo, the inquisitor forthe crucifixion of the Passover lambs, but he was no friend of the Jews,
least of all to Jewish physicians, whom he hated, feared and suspected,
and against whom he considered himself engaged in incessant warfare(perpetuum bellum).31
Foscarini, the patrician of the Veneto region, recalled the mannerin which the Jews, in their Passover ceremonies, solemnly swore on the
Torah scrolls to cause serious injury and harm to those faithful in Christand placed the Christians on guard against eating unleavened bread
prepared by Jews. He was also convinced that Jewish physicians were
the servants of the Devil and were dedicated to the magical arts and tonecromancy, poisoning their Christian patients in body and spirit. In a
letter written in the summer of 1462, Foscarini considered it
unacceptable that many governors, particularly, those from Venice,
tolerated the cheeky and arrogant presence of Jewish physicians andsurgeons, and thus facilitated their presence, and maintained that
presence for reasons of dubious honesty.32 Foscarini, then Lieutenant ofFriulia, had a short time before suffered two years imprisonment,
lamenting that, during this period, the Serenissima, profiting from hisabsence, had signed official agreements with Jewish physicians.33
One scandalous example of blasphemous shamelessness, according
to Foscarini, was a “gowned physician”, garnished in gold and adorned
with jewels, who had had the boldness to turn to certain noblewomen inmourning, maliciously deriding their religious belief, and in particular,
the sacrament of the Host. “I pity you, ladies, for your ignorance”, thelearned Jewish surgeon is alleged to have said on that occasion, in atone of open mockery, “in believing that your God, the Creator of
Heaven and Earth, would offer Himself to be consumed, and thus does
not therefore disdain to offer himself up as food to the jaws of obscene
ruffians and the filthiest of whores”.34 In view of the fact that the most
famous “gowned Jewish physician” living in Venice in Foscarini’s time
was Jehudah messer Leon da Montecchio, who is said to have been
granted the honor of the imperial doctoral privilege by Friedrich III
during the latter’s stay in Venice in February 1469, and that his
quarrelsome nature, accompanied by frequent and intemperate verbal
outbursts against both Jews and Christians, his true or presumed
adversaries, was common knowledge, identifying the “gowned
76physician” does not seem very hard to do.
In confirmation of this, reference may perhaps be made to a news
item from a Jewish chronicle, archived until a few years ago inmanuscript form, and perhaps compiled at Venice by an Ashkenazi Jew
around the middle of the Sixteenth century, which seems to be acompilation of local traditions of indubitable antiquity.35 The
presumable chronology of the events to which reference is made dates
back beyond the middle of the 15th Century. In Venice, the Jews wereprohibited from circumcising their sons in the city.36 The Jews
therefore had to go to nearby Mestre to perform this rite, which was
fundamental to their family life. It was then that a Jew, “among themost illustrious among those living in Venice”, wishing to circumcise
his new-born son in the city of the lagoons, thought up an astute
expedient which might lead to revocation of the discriminatory law. He
turned to an influential Venetian patrician with whom he stood onterms of familiarity and friendship, a gentleman who was, in thosedays, confined to bed with gout, and requested the gentleman to act as
godfather at his sons’ circumcision ceremony. The Christian nobleman
was not only pleased to accept the honorific charge which the honored
Jew had thought fit to entrust him with, but, being unable to reach
Mestre due to his illness, which kept him confined at home, he seems tohave decided to cause the child to be circumcised in the main room of
his own palace. This was the first case, the precedent-setter, thereafter
permitting the Jews of Venice to circumcise their sons in the City of the
Lagoons. If the report, as stated, contains a core of truth, it should not
be very difficult, in this case as well, to identify the Jewish notable as
Jehudah messer Leon, the influential imperial physician esteemed byJews and Christians alike, particularly among the higher classes, towhom a son, David was born in Venice, in approximately 1459.37
The Jewish community at Trent had formed relatively recently, andits numbers were always limited. When Maestro Tobias da Magdeburg,
physician, surgeon and expert in ophthalmology, decided to establish
himself at Trent in 1462, he found that there was no organized Jewish
community in the city. In the early years of the century, in 1403, bishop
Ulrich III had granted a Jewish money lender named Isacco and his
family the right to carry on the money trade at Bolzano and Trent. Thismay have been the same Isacco whose presence in the city is attested tolater, in 1440.38 It is nevertheless certain that other Jews came to join
him in the first quarter of the century, staying at Trent for longer or
shorter periods, such as the same Mosè di Samuele from Trent who, inthe summer of 1423, made his last will and testament at Treviso, where
had had in the meantime moved with his numerous family.39 The
77

Jewish community of Trent seemed consolidated by mid-century.
In fact, in 1450, Sigismondo, Count of Tyrol, decided to grant Elia
and the other Jewish residents of Trent equality of rights with those of
the Christian citizens of Trent.40
Nevertheless, when Maestro Tobias took up residence in the city,
he found only one Jewish family, that of the money lender Samuele(Zanwil) di Seligman, originating from Nuremberg in Bavaria, who had
settled in Trent one year before. The privileges accorded to Samuele inthe money-lending permit signed upon his entry into the city wererenewed by Giovanni Hinderbach in 1469, the year in which Friedrich
III officially invested him with the temporal office of the episcopate ofTrent, at Venice, in 1469.41 In the meantime, a third family had come toreinforce the Jewish community of Trent. Angelo da Verona, from
Gavardo in the Bresciano region, who had passed his youth atConegliano in Friuli,42 also moved to Trent, dealing alongside Samueleof Nuremberg in the local money market.43 Although he had lived in
Italy from birth, Angelo, too, was an Ashkenazi Jew; perhaps he nolonger spoke Yiddish as his native language, in contrast to Tobias andSamuele, who had arrived from the German territories only recently,
but he certainly understood it and spoke it, although rather badly.
Angelo’s parents, in fact, Salomone and Brünnlein (Brunetta),
were natives of Bern in the Swiss Confederation. The three Jewish
families of Trent were quite unrestrained and very definitely consideredthemselves a multiple of patriarchal nuclei. The married children lived
together with the parents, and several generations lived their everyday
lives under the same roof: grandfather and grandmother, uncles, aunts
and cousins, married women, widows and unmarried girls, servants,
scullery maids and teachers, travelers and persons of passage, more orless established and occasional guests, professional beggars andimpoverished relatives.
The Jews, whose habitations were contiguous, lived near thecommercial center, known as “the Canton”, in the western zone of thecity, which included the quarters of the Market and San Martino. Theirlending banks, which formed one whole with their houses, operated incontact with the shops and taverns of the German immigrants, whose
presence in Trent was rather large, amounting to several hundred
people.44 German was spoken along the small canal which traversed the
district, carrying turbid and muddy water, originating in the Adige.
Alongside the evil-smelling workshops of the Germanic
shoemakers and tanners were the banks and dwelling houses of theJews. One of these, that of Samuele da Nuremberg, was the location of
the synagogue.
78

In fact, Samuele’s family was beyond doubt the most religious, andthe most highly cultivated in terms of Hebrew culture. The scrupulous
observance of the standards of the Torah had induced the head of thefamily, in addition to setting aside certain areas as places of worship forthe entire community, to draw water from the canal, which passed by
the basement of the house, for use in a sort of ritual bath, where thewomen could easily immerse themselves for their own ablutions ofpurification after their menstrual period, without having to haverecourse to the public baths, where feminine modesty and shame could
not always be duly protected.45 Samuele himself, to great benefit, hadstudied in the famous Talmudic academies of Bamberg and Nuremberg
in the years 1440-1450, and had been the disciple of famous rabbis.
The oldest and most respected among the German Jews of Trent,
his uncle Mosè da Franconia, who had reached the respectable age ofeighty and was known by everyone in the city as “the Old Man”, also
found lodgings under his roof. Learned and authoritative, even if poorly
equipped with purely economic means, he had found stable hospitality,with his family, with the enterprising and wealthy nephew, after having
lived previously at Würzburg and Spira, one of the most importantcenters of Jewish culture in all of Germany. Samuele’s household werestrict followers of the rules relating to kosher food, which, among otherthings, prescribed the complete separation of meat and dairy products,
according to the dictates of the Bible, amplified and codified in the
rabbinical interpretation of the halakhah. To the judges in the Simon ofTrent murder trial, interested in knowing why he carried two knives ina sheath hanging from his side, both Samuele and Mosè “the Old Man”
patiently explained that which, in their eyes, was perfectly obvious.
One knife was to cut edible meat, while the other was to be used fordairy products.46
On 23 March, eve of Passover of 1475, year of the jubilee, themutilated body of Simonino, a two-year old child, son of the tannerAndrea Lomferdorm, was found in the waters of the ravine by-passing
Samuele’s cellar. This tragic discovery triggered the inquest which wasto lead to the accusation brought against the Jews of Trent as suspects
in the child’s abduction and murder, to their interrogation in the castleof Buonconsiglio and their condemnation, after confessing under
torture to being responsible for this tragic wickedness. Finally, thecondemned were publicly executed, burned at the stake or decapitated,while their property was to suffer bitter confiscation. The transcripts of
the Trent trials for the murder of Simon, later beatified, are said, as aresult, to constitute the most important and detailed document everwritten on the ritual murder accusation, a precious document retaining
79the words of the Hebrew defendants, in which the words of the accusers
and inquisitors did not always succeed in superimposing themselves
over, or confusing themselves with, the words of the defendants.
These texts are a glimpse into a different world: the world of the
Ashkenazi Judaism of the German territories and northern Italy, in all
its sociological, historical and religious particularity. This was a Jewish
world, enclosed upon itself, fearful and hostile towards outsiders, often
incapable of accepting its own painful experiences and overcoming its
own ideological contradictions. It was this world which, moving fromthe negative and often tragic reality in which they lived, sought an
improbable anchorage in the sacred texts which might illuminate ahope of redemption, which for the moment appeared beyond
credibility: a Hebraic world discharging its energies in religious rites
and antique myths, now re-enlivened with renewed and different
meanings and translated into an alienating, harsh and rigorous
confessional language, in which internal tensions and unresolved
frustrations lay hidden at all times. A world which, having survived themassacres and forced conversions of men, women and children,
continued to experience those traumatic events in a sterile effort toreverse the meaning of that world, rebalancing it and correcting history.
It was a profoundly religious world in which redemption could not
possibly be far off; in which God was to be involved despite Himself,and compelled to keep His promises, sometimes by force. It was aworld drenched with magical rites and exorcism, within whose mental
horizons popular medicine and alchemy, occultism and necromancy
were often mixed, finding a position of their own, influencing andreversing the meaning of ordinary religious standards.
The participants in this magical mental horizon included not only
the Jews, accused of witchcraft and infanticide, ritual cannibalism andevil spells, but their accusers as well, obsessed with diabolicalpresences and the continual search for virtuous talismans andstupendous antidotes, capable of curing and preserving the body andsoul from the wiles of men and demons. Giovanni Hinderbach, prince
bishop of Trent, the true organizer of the 1475 trials, had grown up in
Vienna in the years following the great massacre of the Jews, accusedof backing the Hussites (1421) and exposed by that same Duke Albert
II to bloody vengeance as partisans of the heretics.47 Even before poor
Simonino’s child murder, when he had not yet risen to his official fameas “punisher of the Jewish murderers”, Hinderbach had already foundways to show his lack of sympathy for them.48 In one case, thus, he had
not hesitated to express his self-satisfied approval of cannibalism, whenthe victims were Jews. During the military confrontation between
80Venice and Trieste in 1465, during which Friedrich III intended to
enforce his rights, Hinderbach, who was then acting as imperial
ambassador before the government of the Serenissima, sang the praisesof the Hapsburg militia, called upon to defend Trieste, for their courageand their demonstrated loyalty to the Emperor. By true right, observed
the pious bishop, the German soldiers, in case of necessity, rather thanlay down their arms, were to alleviate their hunger by eating the fleshof cats, rats and mice; and even that of local Jews, Jews resident in thecity.49
Friedrich III was, as Burcardo di Andwil informs us, in addition tomathematical sciences, a passionate cultivator of astrology andnecromancy, and for this reason is said to have remarked that he liked
to surround himself with Jews and Chaldeans, people highly partial tosuperstitious practices.50 But Friedrich’s faithful servant, Hinderbach,
was no less so. Magic and witchcraft in fact exercised an irresistible
fascination over the humanist bishop, who was a friend of Enea Silvio
Piccolomini.
Hinderbach
assimilated
Jews
outright
withnecromanticists, always ready to perform exorcisms and curses in theservice of the devil. Demons love blood; and the necromancers who
resuscitated cadavers used blood with little parsimony in theirdivination, mixing it with water taken from fountains and rivers.
Hinderbach had no hesitation in maintaining that the Jews wereenchanters and necromancers, “because they kill Christian children anddrink and consume their blood, as they did last year at Trent, and inmany other places it has been discovered and proven”.51 The practicalCaballah, which these Jews followed more or less in secret, was to be
assimilated in all respects to black magic and necromancy. It is to be
noted that, during the first festival of the sainted child, held at Trent in
1589 with a great confluence of people, a celebrative pamphlet, later
published in Rome, was compiled with the title of Ristretto della vita emartirio di S. Simone fanciullo della città di Trento. This work
maintained, in the wake of Hinderbach, that the child had been killedby the Jews, “followers of the Caballah, vain science under which namemagic and necromancy often hide”.52
From the records of the trial, we know that Brunetta (Brünnlein),widow of Samuele da Nuremberg, who was, in the end, burnt at the
stake as guilty of infanticide, persisted in her refusal to confess,
notwithstanding the torments to which he was subjected. To
Hinderbach, there appeared to be no doubt that the woman was ill andbewitched by Jewish necromancers. For this reason, every suggestive
pressure, exercised on the woman to persuade her to speak, had provenuseless; from shaving her head and removing her body hair, to81

ablutions in holy water.
But the remedy was finally found. The holy cure-all, according to
the bishop of Trent, constantly in search of miraculous enchantments
and narcotic unguents, had proven itself exceptionally effective in theprecedent Santa Lucia case, in which the victim was also possessed bydemons. Brünetta was placed in a bath of urine, laboriously produced
by a “virgin young boy” of Trent, and suddenly, after the extraordinary,
if rather evil-smelling ablution, the woman, without further ado, began
to sign her confession.53***

NOTES TO CHAPTER THREE“Et inter ipsos Iudeos fuit dictum [...] quod in civitate Venetarium
tunc erat quidam magnus mercator Iudeus de insula Candie, qui
portavit magnum quantitatem sanguinis pueri Christiani ad vendendum,
et etiam portaverat magnam quantitatem zuccari. Et quod dici audivit a
quodam Ioseph Forles, qui venerat post Serenissimum Imperatorem
Venetias, quod volevat emere de sanquine a dicto mercatore Hebreo. Etsimiliter dici audivit a quibusdam aliis, de quidibus non recordatur,
quod volebant emere de dicto sanguine, licet ipse non emerit. Dicit
tamen quod, crede suo, omnes alii Iudei, qui ibi aderant, emerunt dedicto sanguine” (cfr. A. Esposito and D. Quaglioni, Processi contro gli
ebrei di Trento, 1475-1478: I: I processi del 1475, Padua, 1990, pp.
328-329). The fact that the blood put up for sale, together with thesugar, by Mavrogonato was of “pueri Cristiani” [Christian boys]
appears to be an allusion by Tobias da Magdeburg or German Jews
having moved to Venice in the retinue of Friedrich III, with whom hehad spoken. There is nothing to cause us to believe, however, that the
information supplied by Tobias should, on the whole, be considered“exotic details” (cfr. R. Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475. A Ritual Murder
Trial, New Haven, Conn., 1992, p. 46), like the erroneous descriptionof the Jew from Candia as a “great merchant in the imperial entourage,
who sold sugar and blood” (ibidem). On the sugar manufacturies
transplanted from Venice to Crete starting at the beginning of the XIV
century and on the curative uses of sugar, particularly widespread in the
Jewish medieval medical treatises, see, in particular, S.W. Mintz,
Sweetness and Power. The Place of Sugar in Modern History,
Baltimore (Md.), 1985.
2“Et cum eo (qui vocabatur ‘el Judeo dal çuccaro’) conversabatur
Hossar Iudesu, qui habitat Venetiis et vocatur ‘el Zudio de la barba’,182

qui est de Colonia et ab omnibus cognoscitur” (cfr. Esposito andQuaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 329).
3
The figure of Israel Wolfgang da Brandenburg is interpreted
differently by Po-Chia Hsia (Trent 1475, cit., pp. 91-104: “Oscillating
between the different roles demanded of him, Israel was alternatively
the wandering Jew, the Christian convert, informant of the apostolic
commissioner, and the cooperative prisoner”. In my view, a lesssuperficial reading of his depositions permits an understanding of theconsistency among the apparent contradictions in his behavior.
4“Salamon parvus [= Salamoncinus] dixit sibi Wolfgango quadam
die in Plebe Sacchi, in Curia Domus praedicti Salomonis (Martuii),
quod Salomon, pater ipsius Salamon parvi, habuerunt dictum
sanguinem a quodam Judeo, qui illum detulerat de ultra Mari et, ut
credit, de insula Cypri” (cfr. [Benedetto Bonelli], Dissertazione
apologetica sul martirio del beato Simone da Trento nell’anno
MCCCCLXXV dagli ebrei ucciso, Trento, Gianbattista Parone, 1747, p.
64). The blood referred to was dried and reduced to powder, and it istherefore difficult to believe that it could have been confused withwine, and, in particular, with the Malvasia wine from Candia, in which
Mavrogonato seems to have dealt on a large scale. For the hypothesisof the Malvasia wine of Candia exchanged for blood, see D. Nissim, Il
legame tra i processi di Trento contro gli ebrei e la tipografia ebraica
di Piove di Sacco del 1475, in “Annali dell’Istituto Storico ItaloGermanico in Trento”, XXV (1999), pp. 672-673, promptly followed
by D. Carpi, who presents it as obvious (L’individuo e la collettività.
Saggi di storia degli ebri a Padova e nel Veneto nell’età delRinascimento, Florence, 2002, pp. 29, 43).
5
On Salomone di Lazzaro “de Alemannia” and his money lending
activity, cfr. C. Bonetti, Gli ebrei a Cremona, Cremona, 1917, p. 9;
G.A. Mantovani, La communità ebraica di Crema nel secolo XV e leorigini del Monte di Pietà, in “Nuova Rivista Storica”, LIX (1975), p.
378; Sh. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, Jerusalem, 1982,
vol. I, pp. 36-37, 220-221, 246-247 (nos. 48, 464, 524).
6
Wolfgang’s deposition on Hossar-Anselmo “de la barba” issummarized by G. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, Trent,
1902, vol. II, pp. 18-19.
7ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3653 (II), cc. 44v-45r (cc.
149v-150r, according to the modern numbering in pencil at the bottomof the page (3 September 1473). “Anselmus, iudeus a Barba, contra
quem processum fuit et est per antescriptos dominos advocatores in
Consilio Xlta, pro eo quod, ad finem defraudandi mercationis etmaiorus sui lucri, ausus est in fundo denariorum fundellorum, ubi
83sollitum est accipi sagium argenti, fundidit aliquantum limare aurri, ita
quod videbatur argentum ipsum tenere aurum [...] Sicque cum ipsis
fundelis accessit ad sagiatorum folee auri in Rialto, qui sagium fecit etfecit bulletinum ipsi iudeo, prout solitum est fieri, quem postea
argentum dictus Anselmus vendidit Joanne Antonio partitori, in
eiusdem danno et deceptione”. Further along in the same document it
states that that the judges had decided to proceed “contra Anselmum
iudeum pro istis duobus fundellis argenti fundatis, demonstrantibus
tenere aurium et non tenentibus, nisi in locis in quibus solit acceperi
sagium per sagiatorem comunis, vinditis Joanni Antonio partitori in
euisdem deceptionem et damnum maximum”. The victim of theswindle appears with the qualification partitor, i.e., a refiner ofprecious metals, assigned to the separation of gold from silver. It
should be noted that at Venice, metal assaying was executed byapproved assayers in the Zecca. In the Fifteen Century, four officials,
two for gold and two for silver, were assigned to their registration andweighing, and an additional three assayers, who were entitled tooperate in Zecca, in the “statione comune” at Rialto (the location
selected by Hossar for his fraud), or in their own shop. In this regard,
see F.C. Lane and R.C. Mueller, Money and Banking in Medieval andRenassance Venice. Coins and Moneys of Account, Baltimore (Md),
1985, index, s.v. Assay office and Gold, assaying of; A. Stahl, The Mintof Venice in the Middle Ages, Baltimore (Md), 2000, index, s.v. Assayand Gold Estimator.
8“Quod iste Anselmus menses sex in carceribus et perpetuo
perivetur possendi exercendi mercaturam auri et argenti grezorum
Venetiis”.
9“[...] quod non incipiat tempus carceriorum, nisi prius cum
integritate satisfacerit et restituerit denarios suos Joanni Antonio
partitori descripto. Verum si casus mortis ipsius Anselmi occurreret, aut
quod de carceribus aufugerit, et tot bona ipsius Anselmi noninvenientur, tunc argentum predictum, ad manus Advocatorum
perventum, obligatum sit integre satisfactioni infrascipti Joanni
Antonio”.
10
Cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, pp. 327-328.
“Dictus Abraham habebat dictum sanguinem in quodam coramine
rubeo et erat coagulatus et in frusticulis et erat in totum ad quantitatem
unius ovi.” Maestro Tobias had bought some of it “quantum est una
nucella pro uno rainense”. The fact (at any rate already known toanyone possessing a certain familiarity with this type of trade, which
was more widespread than one might imagine among both Jews andChristians, in the cities and above all the countryside, where it
84

constituted an indispensable ingredient for the preparation ofprodigious medications) emerges from the depositions of the otherdefendants in the Trent trial that the blood was placed on sale in theform of powder, coagulated or converted into lumps (“portabat illum
sanguinem ad vendendum, et illum tenebat in sinode seu çendado
rubeo, et erat ille sanguis coagulatus et pulverizatus”; “et dicit quodsanguis, quem dictus Ursus portabat ad vendendum erat in uno vase [...]
quod vas erat instagnatum a parte interiori, in quo vase erat sanguis
pulverizatus, et erat tantum de sanguine in dicto vase quantum esset
quarta pars unius amphiale val mosse, et dictus vas erat coopertum dequodam coramine albo”).
11
The information is found in Flaminio Cornaro, Creta sacra sivede epis de episcopis utriusque ritus graeci et latini in insula Cretae,
Venice, 1755, vol. II, pp. 382-383 (“Non satis quidem habuit perfida
Judaeorum natio Creatiae degens Christianos iniquis adeo molestijs
divexare, sed ut religioni etiam illuderent, teneros agnos [fortasse quia
fideles pueros captare nequiverat] in Jesu-Christi contumeliam cruci
affixerunt, cujus facinoris nuntium cum Venetias delatum esset,
Consilium XL virorum ad Criminalia, Cretensi regimini mandavit, ut
omni studio in impios, qui adhuc ignoti erant, inquieret”). In thisregard, see also H. Noret, Document inédits pour servir à l’histoire dela domination vénitienne en Crète de 1380 à 1485, Paris, p. 425, no. 1.
At any rate, the accusation relating to the passion of the lambs at Crete
may only with difficulty be classified as an “accusation du meurtre
rituel”, as it is perhaps interpreted by Jacoby (cfr. D. Jacoby, Les juifs àVenise du XIVe au milieu du XVI siècle, in H.-G. Beck, M.
Manoussacas and A. Pertusi, Venezia centro di mediazione tra Oriente
e Occidente, secoli XV-XVI. Aspetti e problemi, Florence, 1977, vol. II,
p. 172).
12
On this custom and its anti-Christian significance, see Y. Tabori,Pesach dorot, Tel Aviv, 1996, pp. 92-105; I.J. Yuval, “Two Nations inYour Womb”. Perceptions of Jews and Christians, Tel Aviv, 2000, p.
89 (in Hebrew). Again, at the beginning of the Seventeen Century, theInquisition ordered the persecution of those Jews from the communitiesof the plains of the Po of northern Italy who still retained thewickedness to crucify Passover lambs. The Holy Office recorded that
the Jews, although not subject to the jurisdiction of the Inquisition,
could be tried by those tribunals in particularly serious cases. One ofthese was “se beffassero i Christiani, et per disprezzo della passione di
Nostro Signore nella Settimana Santa, o in alto tempo crucifigessero
agnello, pecora o altra cosa” [“if they ridiculed Christians, or showed
contempt for the Passion of Our Lord during the Holy Week, or85

crucified lambs, sheep or anything else, at any time”] (Breveinformazione del modo di trattare le cause del S. Officio per li molto
Reverendi Vicarii della Santa Inquisitione, Modena, Giuliano Cassiani,
1608, p. 15).
13
“ ‘Ex delictis quae tu studiossime contra hebraeorum
pernitosissimam crudelitatem inquisivisti’, Foscarini wrote to
Gradenigo, ‘unum de sacrilega immolatione, ita universis patefacere
decrevi, quod nemo posthac sic tam amens qui dubitet vel tam
improbus qui neget nequissimos iudaeos agnos temporibus nostrispassim crucifigere’ ”. And further along, he invited him to persist in his
uncompromising struggle “contra iudeos agnum crucifigentes”[“against the lamb-crucifying Jews”] (cfr g. Gardenal, Ludovico
Foscarini e la Medicina, in Unamesimo e Rinascimento a Firenze,
Florence, 1983, pp. 251-263 [p. 262]. In this case as well, it seems
incorrect to consider, as Gardenal does (perhaps in the belief that“agni”, “agnello”, was a metaphor referring to Christian children),“questi sacrifici compiuti dagli ebrei nell’isola di Candia” [“thesesacrifices committed by the Jews on the island of Crete”] as true andproper ritual homicides. He is followed in this error by Esposito(“Antonio Gradenigo had investigated alleged human sacrifices
committed by Jews on the island of Candia”).
14
E. Capsali, Seder Eliyahu Zuta, by A. Schmuellevitz, Sh.
Simonsohm and M. Benayahu, Jersulem, 1977, vol. II, pp. 225-226.
15
In Hebrew, ’alitat ha-taleh, the slander of the lambs. In Biblical
Hebrew, Taleh is the suckling lamb, and this is the original reading of
the text, which at any rate appears in this form and with reference tothis occurrence in another section of Capsali’s chronicle (Seder Eliyahu
Zuta, cit., vol. I, p. 246). Other, corrupted or incomprehensible readings
appear in many manuscripts, such as ha-’lah, understood by M.
Benayahu as ha-’orlah, the foreskin. But “the slander of the lambs”,
without further explanation, makes no sense. At an earlier date, N.
Porges (Elie Capsali et sa Chronique de Venise, in “La Revue desEtudes Juives”, LXXVII, 1923, pp. 20-40 [p. 24]) had explained theword, considering it a corruption of ha-mazah, leaven, understanding
the term in the sense of Host. Therefore, at Candia, in 1452, the Jews
are said to have been accused of profanation of the Host. The
hypothesis of Porges, who was unaware of the inquiry for the
crucifixion of the lambs, is, today, uncritically accepted by others, who
arbitrarily add the Candia case in 1452 to the case record of thedesecration of the host (cfr. Simonsohn, in Capsali, Seder Eliyahu Zuta,
cit., vol, III, p. 77; M. Rubin, Gentile Tales. The Narrative Assault on
Late Medieval Jews, New Haven, Conn., 1999, pp. 115-116). Still more86

recently, there are those who refer to Capsali’s text as the “resocontodel processo intentato in 1452 contro nove ebrei di Candia con l’accusa
di omicidio rituale” [“report on the trial proceedings brought against
nine Jews of Candia on a charge of ritual murder”] (Cfr. G. Corazzol,
Sulla Cronaca dei Sovrani di Venezia [“Divre’ ha-yamim le-malke’
Wenesiy’ah”] di Rabbi Elia Capsali da Candia, in “Studi Veneziani”,
XLVII, 2004, p. 318).
16
Capsali, Seder Eliyahu Zuta, cit., vol, II, pp. 226-227. In thisregard, see also Porges, Elie Capsali, cit., pp. 24-26.
17
Capsali, Seder Eliyahu Zuta, cit., vol., II, p. 227.
18
In this case as well, we are in debt to our friend Reiny Mueller
for the invaluable archive information supplied in this regard, and to
Dr. Rachele Scuro for the transcription of the documents utilized bymyself.
19“Cum se Antonius Grandonico et socii sindici intromisit pro suo
officio certas causas quibus in isto Maiori Consilio datum est
principium et pro non dando tedium isti Maiori Consilio et tenere totam
civitatem impeditam pro simili re, vadit pars quod omnes dicte licet
melius videbitur et placebit et in illis capre finem, sicut multis vicibus
fuit servatum”. The proposal was approved by a large majority (ASV,
Maggior Consiglio, Deliberazioni, Libro Ursa [reg. 22] [1415-1454], c.
178v. [c. 184v according to the pencil numeration at the bottom], 5November 1451). One piece of information, perhaps connected with theaccusation of the crucifixion of the lambs, dates back to 1448. In Marchof that year, Antonio Gradenigo had thrown a Jew from Candia, Yospe[Yoseph] di Retimo, into prison, in Venice, under an unknown
accusation. Eight months afterwards, the prisoner complained to theofficials of the Quarantia, who were visiting the prisons, so that
Gredenigo might transfer him from prison to prison to compel him toconfess and had not concluded the preliminary investigation andhearing within eight moths, as required by the laws of Venice (“Capita
de XL [... in carceribus] reppererint inter ceteros Yoste [recte: Yospe]
ebreum de Rethimo, se gravantem ver virum nobilem Antonium
Gradenico, sindicum partium Levantis, teneri carceratum iam 8
mensibus contra id quod de iure facere potest, cum sic disponentibus
legibus et ordenibus nostris introducto casu suo ad consilium eum
expedire teneretur infra tres menses, ultra quem terminum eum minime
teneri poterat, subiugitique ipse Yospe quod idem ser Antonius hoc
tempore eum multociens permutavit de carcere suo modo, et videns nonposse ab eo habere nisi ut mera est rei veritas, non curat ipsum
expedire”). In fact, Gradenigo has presented Yospe’s case before the
Senate a good four times without obtaining his condemnation, as he87

desired. The Senate granted him another one-month postponement inwhich to conclude the inquiry and bring the Jew to trial, otherwise hewould have to be released (ASV, Senato Mar, reg. 3, c. 83v. 27 October
1448). I wish to express my thanks to Dr. Stefano Piasentini for thisinformation. It is however possible that Yospe’s imprisonment, desiredby Gradenigo, district mayor in the Levant, should be placed in relation
with the prohibition against the ownership of real property by the Jews
of Retimo outside the Jewish quarter, which was reiterated by theCounsel of Forty of Venice on 11 December 1448. On that occasion,
the judiciaries of the Serenissima were investigating the case in which
Jews from Retimo had made fictitious sales of their real property (Cfr.
D. Jacoby, An agent juif au service de Venise. David Mavrogonato de
Candie, in “Thesaurismata. Bolletino dell’Istituto Ellenico di Studi
Bizantini et Post-Bizantimi”, IX, 1972, pp. 86-87.
20“Cum advocatores notri comunis et etiam sindici aliquotiens
introducatur ad Maius Consilium aliquos casus et negocia pro officiis
suis, quod consilium pro maiori parte male congregatur et bonum sit
quod dicta negocia iudicentur et terminentur in numero competenti
propter importantium rerum, vadit pars quod quotienscumqueadvocatores comunis vel sindici habere voluerint Maisu Consilium pro
casibus et agendis officiorum suorum debeat dictum consilium esse
congregatum ad minimum ad numerum quadrigentorum et eum minori
numero non intelligature esse in ordine nec aliquid fieri possit absque
dicto numero IIIc vel ab inde supra”. The proposal was approved(ASV, Maggior Consiglio, Deliberazioni, Libro Ursi [reg. 22] [14151454], c. 182r [c.188r according to the pencil numeration at bottom], 24June 1452). In the specific case of the legal proceedings against the
Jews of Candia (and in particular against Abba del Medigo, as we shallsee below) the reduced attendance of three hundred voters was granted.
“Quoniam per experientiam visum est quod istud consilium pluries
locatum est ad petitionem advocatorum comunis et sindicorum pro
facto Abbe medici iudei et numquam potuit congregari ad numerum
ordinatum et per consequens ius et iustitia non potuit habere locum nec
dari expeditio dicto, qui dudum fuit et est in carceribus, scilicet vadit
pars quod factum dicti iudei entroduci et experiri in Maiori Consilio,
cum numero trecentorum et inde supra” (ASV, Maggior Consiglio,
Deliberazioni, Libro Ursa [reg. 22] 1415-1454], c. 189r. [c. 195r
according to the pencil numeration at the bottom], 5 May 1454.
21
Antonio da Spilimbergo maintained that those Jews of Candia
had reduced him to despair “quia illorum voces et mores [...] patarini
tamtum pati non potest” (ASV, Consiglio dei Dieci, mixed, reg. 14, c.
117v., 28 June 1452). I wish to thank my friend Reiny Mueller for this88

curious information.
22“Abas quondam Moisi ebreu absolutus est sed tamen contra
quem processum fuit [...] in eo et pro eo quod dum alias viris nobiles
ser Laurentius Honorandi et ser Antonius Gradonico, olim sindici adpartes levantis, se reperissent in civitate Candidae et ad eorum aures, ex
fama publica, pervenisset quod ebrei ibidem commorantes invilipendium catolice fidei christianae omni anno crucifigebant unum
agnum in sanctissimo die veneris sancti, ipsi sindici super fama publica
examinaverunt multos testes. Postea, post recessum suum per regiment
Crette, fuit examinata Marina Vergi olim ebrea et effecta tunc
christiana, ex qua testificatione inter alios nominatus fuit ipse Abbas inpropria domo quadam nocte crucifigisse unum agnum in ignominia
Jesu Christi [...] quod procedatur contra Abbatem quondam Moise delMedigo ebreum qui postposito omni timore huius christianissme rei
publice, in maximum opproprium fidei catolicae aurus fuit una cum
aliquibus aliis perfidis ebreis in civatate nostra Candidae in die veneris
sancti renovare misteria passionis domini Jesu Christi et crucifixeruntunum agnum quod etiam ipse Abbas in domo fecit ut est dictum”(ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3650 [II], cc. 9v-10r., 7 June 1454).
The decision of the Maggior Consiglio lead to the definitive acquittal of
the accused and in so doing reference was made to their release in first
instance (“ex quibus scripturis ipse Abbas et ceteri nominati ininfrascripta testificatione fuerunt per sindicos placiti, collegati etintroducti ad Maius Consilio et in tertio consilio absoluti”) and on
Gradinego’s second appeal, discussed above, on 21 May 1454, “in quo
nihil captum fuit”.
23
In two different notes, contained in the decision of the GreaterCouncil, mutilated and undated (but which must date back to March
1453), mention is made of the inquiry against Lambardo or Lombardo.
The first opens with the words: “Ut veniri possit in lucem si[Hyeronimus Lambardus] habuit tot denarios ab Abbate hebreo”. The
second starts in a rather similar manner, but offers further information:“Ut haberi possit veritas istius promissionis facte per Abbatem[e]breum viro nobili ser Hyeronimo Lombardo et denariorum sibi
datorum, ipse ser Hyeronimus retinetur ad pecticionem advocatorum
comunis et examinetur” (ASV, Maggior Consiglio, Deliberazioni,
Libro Ursa [reg. 22] [1415-1454], c. 193 [c. 199r according to the
pencil numeration at bottom], March 1453). In a document in the Raspe
dated June 1454, relating to the definitive acquittal of Abba delMedigo, mention is made of the “condemnatione facta contra virum
nobilem ser Hieronymum Lambardo” (ASV, Avogaria di Comun,
Raspe, 3650, [II], c. 10r).
89This is a reference to the “Bonhomo da Mestre”, recorded at
Padua in 1432 as the person “qui tenet banchum sancti Nicolae” (cfr.
A. Ciscato, Gli ebrei in Padova, 1300-1800, Padua, pp. 242-243). In
the Paduan documents, it is also stated that Bonomo di Mosè daAncona, money lender at Mestre (cfr. D. Carpi, The Jews of Padua
During the Renaissance, 1369-1509, doctoral thesis, Jerusalem, 1967,
p. 49 [in Hebrew]. His father, who appears in the documents as Moisè
Rab di Jacob and originated from Nuremberg, lived at Padu in 1460, in
the Mastellerie district, in a palace owned by the Capodivacca family of
patricians (ASP, Notarile, Paolo Carraro, 1943, c. 452r).
25“Bonomus ebreus filius Moisi contra quem processum fuit [...]
pro eo quod dum ipse Bonomus aliquotiens iret visitatum Abbam
ebreum cerceratum in carcere novo ad requisitionem dominorum
auditorum novorum sententiarum veluti sindicorum levantis etquandoque intercessissit nomine dicti Abbe cum viro nobili ser Antonio
de Priolis, uno dictorum auditorum quinquaginta ex quo ipse Abbas,
repertis ipsis denariis, etiam ipse mutuo eos dedit ipsi Bonomo ebreo,credens ut ipsos mutuo daret ipsis ser Antonio de Priolis, qui Bonomus
ipsos denarios pro se retinuit. Cumque post aliquos menses ipse Abba
vellet denario suos et hoc diceret ipse ser Antino de Priolis, ipse ser
Antonius turbatus ex hac gulositate predictum manifestavit dominis
advocatoribus comunis”. It was therefore decided “quod procedatur
contra Bonumum ebreum filium Moisi qui, posposito omni timore Dei
et dominii nobilem ser Antonium de Prioles sindicum levantis et eos
pro se retinuit.” The final decision was that “captum fuit quod ipse
Bonomus stare debeat uno anno in carceribus et solvat ducatos centum
auri et quod sit bannitus per quinque annos de Venetiis et districtu et si
in dicto tempore se permiserit reperiri quod stare debeat uno anno incarceribus et solvat ducatos ducentos auri et iterum banniatur” (ASV,
Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3650 [I], c. 28rv., 28 February 1452).
26“Abba ebreus cerceratus absolutus, sed tamen contra quem
processum fuit per dominos asvocatores comunis et offitium suum et
pro eo quod dum esset carceratus, ad instantium virorum nobilium ser
Antonii Grandonico et ser Antonii de Priolis auditorum et uti
sindicorum levantis, et Bonomus ebreus filius qui ipsum quandoquevisitabat in carceribus falso et contra scientiam ipsius ser Antoni sibi
dixisset quod prefatus ser Antonius de Priolis rogabat ipsum Abba ut ei
mutuaret ducatos quinquaginta; ipse Abbas potius pro subornando
quem ad aliud finem dedit ipsi Bonomo ducatos Lta aura, credens quod
ipse Bonomo eo daret ipsi ser Antonio sed ipse oes retinuit pro se”. The
Avogadori requested “quod procedarur contra Abbam ebreum,
carceratum ad instantiam sindicorum levantis, qui postposito omni
24

90

timore dominii nostri dedit Bonomo ebreo ducatos Lts Auri ut eos daretpro subornatione viro nobili ser Antonio de Priolis sindico”. Abba was,however, absolved by order, “et sic captum fuit de non et remansit
absolutus” (ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3650 [I], c. 29r, 1 March
1452).
27“Abba Moise del Medigo ebreus contra quem processum fuit per
dominos advocatores comunis et offitium suum in eo et pro quod, dum
esset carceratus per sindicos levantis, inculpatus de crucifixione agni,
parvipendens Dominum nostrum et spirito diabolico ductus quodam die
accepta zangula de loco suo eam in vilipendium crucifixi posuit sub
ymagine Jesu Christi crucifix dumque carcerati redarguerentur eum,
cepit dicere quod christiani adorabant picturas et tabulas et quod ibant
ad macellum sicut porci; postea cepit dicere quod domina notra virgo
Maria fuerat incantatrix et docuerat Jesum talia facere et quod habuerat
tres viros et alios filios” [Approximately: “Abba Moses del Medigo theJew, who was tried by the district prosecutors in the course of theirduties, when incarcerated by the district mayors in the Levant, underindictment for crucifying lambs in contempt of Our Lord, and led
onwards by the spirit of the Devil, on that day he moved his piss-pot
from its proper place in contempt for the Crucifix and placed it beneaththe image of Jesus Christ Crucified, and when the other jail-birds told
him off about it, he started to say that Christians adore pictures andplanks, and that they even slaughtered pigs, after which he started to
say that our Holy Virgin was a witch and that she taught Jesus to takerevenge and she had three husbands and other children”]. The Avogaria
requested “quod procedatur contra Abbam ebreum Moisis de Creta qui
existens carceratus proper fidem, dictus spiritu diabolico in maximam
ignominiam fidei catolice multa turpissima verba dixit contra virginem
Mariam et Jesus Christum accipiendo zangulam et eam ponendo ante
crucifium”. [“that Abba, the Jew from Crete, be tried who, being
incarcerated for his faith, led onwards by the spirit of the Devil, andspoke with the greatest ignominy of the Catholic Faith against theVirgin mary and Jesus Christ, taking his piss-pot and placing it beneaththe crucifix”] The sentence established that “captum fuit quod iste
Abbas stare debeat uno anno in carceribus et solvat libras mille
advocatoribus comunis” [“if he was captured the said Abba should
spend one year in jail and pay one thousand pounds to the municipal
prosecutor’s office”] (ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3650 (I), c.
49rv., 30 October 1452). On the custom of desecrating crucifixes andother sacred images, placing them in the latrines or using them as
eccentric coverings for piss-pots and chamber pots; see C. Cluse,
Stories of Breaking and Taking the Cross. A Possible Context for the91

Oxford Incident of 1268, in “Revue d’Histoire Ecclesiastique”, XV(1995), p. 218.
28
On the figure of Abbadi Mosè del Medigo and his family see, inparticular, Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., pp. 230-233.
29
Capsali, Seder Eliyahu Zuta, cit., vol. II, p. 253.
30
ASV, Avogaria di Comun, reg. 3660, cc. 107r-108r.: the trial of
Abramo di David da Soncino, the client, and Bonaventura di Abramo
da Feltre, the accomplice, guilty of the murder of “Elia greco”, son of
Abba del Medigo, “prestatore a Soave”, was held at Venice at the
beginning of the month of December of 1505. It appears that in 1506,
Abba’s widow, Ritte, was occupied in matters related to the estate ofthe deceased son (cfr. Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., p. 232).
The murder of Elia the Greek (but not the identification of Elia the
Greek with Elia, son of Abba del Medigo) is mentioned in M.
Melchiorre, Gli ebrei a Feltre nel Quattrocento. Una storia rimossa, in
G.M. Varanni and R.C. Mueller, Ebrei nella Terraferma veneta delQuattrocento, Florence, 2005, p. 101, no. 73.
31
Cfr. Jacoby, Les juifs at Venice, cit., p. 172.
32
Cfr. Gardenal, Ludovico Foscarini e la medicina, cit., pp. 251263. On the position of the Jewish physician in Renaissance Italy andthe frequent disputes in his regard, see, among others, A. Toaff, Il vinoet la carne. Una communita ebraica nel Medievo, Bologna, 1989, pp.
265-285; G. Cosmacini, Medicina e mondo ebraico. Dalla Bibbia al
secolo dei ghetti, Bari, 2001, pp. 143-211.
33
See, in this regard, M.J.C. Lowry, Humanism and Anti-Semitism
in Renaissance Venice. The Strange Story of “Décor Puellarum”, in“La Bibliofilia”, LXXXVII (1985), pp. 39-54 in view of the fact that
Foscarini had been incarcerated during the two-year period of 14601461, the city business permits granted by Venice to the Jewish doctors(and first of all to Yehudah messer Leon) should have been signed
during that period. Notwithstanding Foscarini’s protest, on the requestof the Doge Cristoforo Moro, the Cardinal Bessarione, Papal legate,
dated 17 December 1463, confirmed that these agreements wererespected.
34
Cfr. Gardenal Ludovico Foscarini e la medicina, cit., p. 260.
“Nuperrime quidam Iudeus togatus, auro circumdatus, demissis
capillis, severa facie ausus est nobillissiumis matronis in generosa
familia lacrimantibus oculis dicere: compatior ignorantiae vestae quia
creditis Deum factorem coeli et terrae ses manducandum preabere etnon dedignari lenonum impurissimorum et vulgatissimarum
meretricium ora.”
35
Cfr. M.A. Shulvass, Racconto delle tribolazioni passate in Italia,
92

in “Hebrew Union College Annual”, XXII (1949), pp. 1-21 (17) (inHebrew). The anonymous chronicle has been republished by I. Sonne,
From Paul IV to Pius V, Jerusalem, 1954, pp. 183-202 (pp. 200-201)(in Hebrew).
36
Fra Francesco Suriano, writing before 1483, noted with illconcealed pride that the Jewish women of Venice, when they gavebirth, often did not hesitate to ask the Virgin Mary for help, in aparadoxical, self-interested cult with magical connotations (F. Suriano,
Il trattato di Terra Santa e dell’Oriente, by G. Golubuvich, 1900, p. 9495): “Li Iudei similiter sono constrecti de reverirla (la Vergine Maria);
e secundo che ho udito da obstretricie digne di fede, ne l’alma cita de
Venetia e christiane che se sono retrovate alquante volte arcoglier loro
fioli nel parto de piu Hebree, le qual testificavono e dicevono che nonpartuire senza la sua invocazione e recommendazione; et vede che loro
mariti spargeano per la camara alquante monede d’argento furlane, lequal hano la sua ymagine. Ricevuta la gratia, e liberata dal parto,
scopano e bugliano fori de la fenestra quelle monede, e diceano: ‘fora
Maria, fora Maria!’ ” [“Similarly, the Jews are compelled to revere Her(the Virgin Mary); and according to what I have heard from trustworthy
midwives who went to assist several Jewesses in childbirth in theChristian city of Venice, they testified and said that the Jewesses nevergive birth without Her invocation and recommendation; their husbands
toss a few Friulian silver coins around the room, bearing Her image.
When they have received Her blessing and are freed from childbirth,they sweep them up and throw them out the window, saying ‘Get out,
Mary, Mary get out!’ ”]. The quotation appears in D. Nissim, Dueviaggi in Palestina, in “La Rassegna Mensile di Israel”, XL (1974), pp.
256-259 (259). However one wishes to take Franciscan’s picturesqueaccount, it seems to be a fact that, towards the end of the Fifteenth
century, Jewish women giving birth in Venice were very numerous. It
should be noted, without surprise, that such a practice was stillwidespread among Jewish women two centuries later, as testified to by
Giulio Morosini (Derekh Emunah, Via delle fede mostrata agli ebrei,
Rome Propaganda Fide, 1683, pp. 1050-1051).
37
Cfr. D. Nissim, Un “minian” di ebrei ashkenaziti a Venezia
negli anni 1465-1480, in “Italia”, XVI (2004), p. 43.
38
The little information on the origins of the Jewish community in
Trent, from the episcopal privilege of 1403 to the money lending
agreements and legal disputes of the mid-Fifteen Century, arecontained in G. Menestrina, Gli ebrei a Trento, in “Tridentum”, VI(1903), pp. 304-316, 348-374, 384-411. This information has beenutilized, without addition, by the following authors: C. Andreolli, Una
93

ricognizione delle communità ebraiche nel Trentinto tra XIV e XVII
secolo, in “Materiali di lavoro”, 1988, nn. 1-4, pp. 151-181; Po-Chia
Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., pp. 14-25, as well as D. Rando’s recent
monograph, Dai margini la memoria. Johannes Hinderbach (14181486), Bologna, 2003, pp. 457-491, and S. Luzzi, Stranieri in città.
Presenza tedesca e società urbana a Trento (secoli XV-XVIII),
Bologna, 2003, pp. 180-194. In this regard, see also F. Ghetta, Fra
Bernardino Tomitano da Feltre e gli ebrei di Trento nel 1475, in“Civis”, suppl. 2 (1986), pp. 129-177.
39
Mosè di Samuele da Trento and the wife of Dolce di Ezzelino(Anshel Asher) had five children, Samuele, Ezechia, Benedetto known
as Barukh, Perentina and Osella (Feige). Mosè’s testament was ratified
at Trent on 10 June 1423 (cfr. M. Davide, Il ruolo economico delledonne nelle communità ebraiche di Trieste e di Treviso nei secoli XIV e
XV, in “Zhakhor. Rivista di storia degli ebrei d’Italia”, VII, 2004, pp.
193-212 [206-208].
40
Cfr. Menestrina, Ebrei a Trento, cit., pp. 304-306.
41
Cfr. ibidem, pp. 307-308
42
Now Conegliano Veneto.
43
Angelo da Verona reached Trent in 1407. On that occasion,
Hinderbach seized from the money lender, whom he called “hebreum
qui venit huc (sc. a Trento), de Brixia sive eius territorio”, anilluminated manuscript of the Vitae sanctorum (cfr. “Pro Bibliothecaerigenda”. Mostra di manoscritti ed incunabili del vescovo di Trento
Iohannes Hinderbach, 1465-1486, Trent, 1989, p. 69.
44
Cfr. Luzzi, Stranieri in città, pp. 180-185.
45“Sarra ivit in canipam ipsius et se lavit in fossato ibi existente[...] quia passa fuerat menstrua Sarra diebus precedentibus, quia est de
more Iudeorum quod mulieres Iudee post menstruase lavent.”
Deposition of Samuele of Nuremberg of 7 June 1475. Sarah was thewife of Maestro Tobias da Magdeburg (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni,
Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 244).
46“Ipsi Iudei portant duos cultellos in una vagina, quorum uno
utuntur ad incisionem carnium, altero ad lacticinia” [“This Jew carried
two knives in a sheath, one to cut meat, the other to cut dairy
products”]. Deposition of Samuele of Nuremberg dated 7 June 1475
(cfr. ibidem, p. 246). “Moris est [...] portare duos coltellos in una
vagina, quorum uno utuntur ad lacticinia, altero vero ad carnes”.
Deposition di Mosè “the Old Man” of Würzburg, dated 4 April 1475
(cfr. ibidem, p. 354).
47
On the extermination of the five hundred Jews of the communityof Vienna in 1421, known in the Hebraic sources such as the Gezerah,
94

i.e., “the persecution”, see S. Krauss, Die Wiener Geserah vom Jahre
1421, Vienna, 1920; O.H. Stowasser, Zur Geschichte der Wiener
Geserah, in “Vierteljahresheft für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte”,
XVI (1922), pp. 104-118; Sh. Spitzer, Das Wiener Judentum bis zur
Vertreibung im Jahre 1421, in “Kairos”, II (1977), pp. 134-145.
48
On Hinderbach’s attitude towards the Jews, before and after the
events at Trent, see, in particular, I. Rogger and M. Bellabarbia, Il
principe vescovo Johannes Hinderbach (1465-1486) fra tardo
Medioevo e Umanesmo, Atti del Convegno promosso dalla Biblioteca
Communale di Trento (2-6 October 1989), Bologna, 1992; Po-Chia
Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., pp. 1-13, and above all, Rando, Dai margini lamemoria, cit., pp. 457-491.
49“Hiis diebus apud Tergestum Italiae civitatem a Venetis
obsessiam alias fuit, in qua milites ultamontanes equos, asinos, canes,
gattos, et sorices comederunt [...] quorum tanta fuit constantia fidei ut,
priusquam urbem ob inediam deserere aut dedere (vellent), ita apud se
statuerunt humanam prius Iudeorum, qui intus erant, [...] carnem vesci”[Approximately: “In those days, Trent, a city in Italy, was besieged by
Venice, and the ultramontane defenders ate horses, donkeys, dogs, cats,
and mice [...]; such was their constancy in the faith that, that when they
were about to have to give up the city, they decided to nourish
themselves on flesh of the Jews who lived there”] (cfr. Rando, Dai
margini la memoria, cit., pp. 168-169).
50
Burcardo di Andwil, Bellum Venetum, Bellum ducis Sigismundi
contra Venetos (1487), in Carmina varia by M. Welber, Rovereto,
1987, p. 105.
51
Cfr. Rando, Dai margini la memoria, cit., pp. 478-491.
52
Ristretto della vita e martirio di S. Simone fanciullo della città diTrento, Rome Filipp Neri alle Muratte, 1594, p. 4.
53
Cfr. Rando, Dai margini la memoria, cit., pp. 483-487.

95

CHAPTER FOUR
PORTOBUFFOLÈ, VOLPEDO,ARENA PO, MAROSTICA, RINN
On 6 July 1480, three Jews accused of ritual child murder, required forthe performance of their Passover rites, during the Passover period ofthat year, were executed at Venice. Servadio da Colonia, money lenderat Portobuffolè, Mosè da Treviso and Giacobbe of Cologne,1 having
confessed – sometimes spontaneously and sometimes under torture –were impaled and burned alive in public in the Piazza San Marco,
between the two columns of San Marco and San Todaro. Anotherdefendant, Giacobbe “with the beard”, committed suicide in prison to
avoid torture. Other Jews, from Portobuffolè and Treviso, werecondemned to various punishments of imprisonment for complicity inthe crime and thereafter banned from Venice and its territory. Tried andcondemned before the podestà of Portobuffolè, the Venetian Andrea
Dolfin, the defendants had appealed to the Avogaria di Commun, but,notwithstanding the fact that they were defended by some of the best
lawyers in Padua, their sentence was upheld.2
According to the indictment, a small wandering beggar about six
years of age, a native of Seriate in the Bergamo region, had been
abducted from the market place at Treviso, where he had been begging,by two Jews, who were alleged to have taken him to nearby
Portobuffolè, on the Livenza river, in an eventful journey, the stages ofwhich did not pass entirely unobserved by travelers and boatmen. Here,in the dwelling of the local money lender, Servadio, who was also theinstigator of the abduction, the cruel crime was said to have beencommitted for ritual purposes, in the presence and with the active
participation of other local and foreign Jews. After draining off theblood, the perpetrators burnt the body in the oven of a house owned by
Mosè da Treviso, another money lender at Portobuffolè. Denunciations
and informer’s reports, including Donato, Seradio’s servant, thenconverted to Christianity, are said to have led to the indictment of theJewish defendants and to their condemnation for the murder of thenameless little victim, immediately rebaptized under the name of
Sebastiano Novello, of obvious significance.
Portobuffolè, like so many other small centers of the Marca of96

Treviso and the territory of Venice, was, in the 15th century the seat ofa community of Ashkenazi Jews, the traces of which have remained in
Hebraic manuscript texts, copied in that small city in the years
preceding the Sebastiano Novello murder.3 The chronicle of this cruelexecution, as described by the diarist apologists of the time, inform usthat at least one of the defendants, Servadio, faced death in prayer,
accompanied by contemptuous remarks about Christianity.4 This detail
may be related to the legendary story of a stone slab, walled in the
Ashkenazim synagogue Scola Canton of the ghetto of Venice,containing a verse from the psalms (32:10: ‘Many sorrows shall be to
the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall encompasshim’). In the local Hebraic tradition, this phrase is said to have beenpronounced by Servadio himself, among the flames of the stake in the
Piazza San Marco. During these terrible moments, the condemned man
is said to have taken the time to point out the unhappy informer, his
servant Donato, baptized under the name of Sebastiano, to the Jews in
the crowd, who were present at this terrifying ceremony. The spectators
are said to have included Josef, cantor of the synagogue of Portobuffolè(who was perhaps the same Fays who acted as teacher in Servadio’s
dwelling), who is said to have interpreted the Psalm with a newmeaning, imparted by the person reciting it: “The bitter pains which I
suffer, will fall on the wicked”.5 Thus history and hagiography became
confused, while the authenticity and memory of the child’s true
martyrdom ricocheted back and forth between Christians and Jews.
Milan, summer of 1482. A brother of the Order of the Serviti,
Giovanni Guerra, and Simone, Jew of Tortona were publicly executedby order of the Duke. Guerra was said to have been accused ofbarbarously killing a child about nine years of age, near the farmhouse
Scorticavacca di Volpedo, near Tortona, on Holy Tuesday of that year;
the second defendant was accused of instigating the friar to commit thecrime, so as to obtain the blood of a Christian child, as required for the
Jewish Passover rites. Both defendants confessed. In the preceding
May, a special commission had left the Court of the Sforzas with theassignment of investigating the cruel death of Giovannino Costa, ayoung shepherd, who was accustomed to coming down from the hills to
Tortona to sell eggs and butter on market days.6
The diligent commissioner ordered the arrest of all the members of
the little Jewish community of German origin, including Madio(Mohar, Meir), the local money lender, and the requisition of allpledges deposited in the bank. The persons under investigation were
subsequently transferred to Milan. At the conclusion of theinvestigation, the culpability of the Jew Simone, the instigator, and the97

“scoundrel friar”, the unnatural, cruel executioner, was clearly
established. The other persons under investigation, including thebanker, were released, following a finding that they had had nothing to
do with the crime, and were permitted to leave Tortona.
From the official correspondence sent by the court of the Sforzas
to the podestà and the bishop of Tortona, we learn that:“A certain homicide being committed during the past Holy Days
against the person of a boy, at the instance of certain Jews in the
diocese of Derthona, the following persons are held in prison here: Fra
Giovanni Guerra of the Order of the Servants, and one Simon, a Jew,
who did not deny having committed the said excess, the horrible anddetestable nature of which, in the eyes of any faithful Christian, we
leave to you to judge [...]. The wicked friar, with many wounds, cruelly
killed the innocent boy in the region of Derthona to sell his blood to theJews”.7
The death of the presumed guilty parties and the prompt release of
the other suspected Jews were insufficient to restore equilibrium totheir relations with the community of Tortona. Many Jews emigrated
elsewhere, the others became Christian. Simon’s widow, executed at
Milan, was left with a daughter, who took the name of Michela.
Simon’s other four sons, two aged less than seven, and the other two
ten and twelve respectively, were made to take refuge with the Jews of
Piacenza, out of fear that they might be converted to Christianity. On
24 April 1483, the Duke of Milan, under pressure from the justly
impatient bishop of Tortona, Giacomo Botta, requested the podestà of
Piacenza to do everything possible to ensure that his two smaller sons
were returned with speed to Donna Michela to receive the holybaptism.8
In the collective memory of the Ashkenazi Jews of Northern Italy,
the crime of Volpedo was to appear rather similar to that of Trent; it istrue that Yoseph Ha-Cohen (Giuseppe Sacerdoti), one of the most
famous Jewish chroniclers of the 16th century, after sadly reporting theevents linked to the martyrdom of Simonino, observed that “in those
years, the Jews in the territory of Tortona were slandered because of a
Jew of the place, as had happened at Trent, and here, as well, the boy,
named Giovannino, was called a saint; and the people went fornicating
after him, and for us, it was only harm and disgrace”.9
The Volpedo case, involving a criminal wearing the cassock of abrother in the Holy Orders, was not an isolated one. In the summer of1481, a Minorite Franciscan friar was arrested at Cortemaggiore on acharge of accepting a commission from local Jews to commit a childmurder intended to provide them with Christian blood for their98

Passover, the generous commission amounting to four hundred gold
ducats. Placed in a cage and appended from the bell tower at Cremona,
the friar was left to die slowly of starvation, after which his body
became a feast for birds of prey.10 The documents say nothing of thefate of the Jews, the presumed instigators of this holy homicide.
Arena, April 1479. In this village on the banks of the Po river, achild disappeared along the road from Padua to Piacenza during the
Passover period of that year, while suspicion immediately fell on thelocal money lenders Bellomo di Madio (Simha Bunim b. Meir), and his
entourage. Finally, David, employed by Bellomo, decided to spill thebeans and reveal the particulars of this obscure crime. His patron had
commissioned Donato, a Jew from Padua, to abduct a Christian child“to prepare for the Jewish ceremonies”. Conveyed in secrecy to
Bellomo’s dwelling, the child, known only by the nickname “Turlulu”,
was said to have been cruelly crucified in a holy ceremony with theparticipation of all the local Jews and others from other neighboringvillages. The little victim’s body is finally said to have been thrown bynight into the muddy waters of the Po.11
This was considered sufficient to proceed with the arrest of theparties guilty of this brutal crime, as well as that of their accomplices,
both men and women, including Bellomo’s wife, who uselessly but
vehemently protested her husband’s innocence. Sacle (Izchak), a
money lender from the Borgo San Giovanni, in the Piacenza region,
who had, years before, been mentioned in the defendant’s depositions
at the Trent trial as an habitual consumer of Christian blood, and hadfor this reason been exposed to more than a few minor risks, was alsoarrested and taken to Pavia, where he was to be tried.12
In the meantime, Donato, the supposed author of the abduction andone of the principal perpetrators of the child’s crucifixion, at theconclusion of a difficult interrogation confessed everything and pointed
an accusing finger at Belomo and his family. The podestà of Pavia lostno time and proceeded with the seizure and confiscation of all the
goods of the Jews of Arena.
But then a sensation occurred. Turlulu, the crucified child, turned
up perfectly safe and sound. His body, examined by physicians andexperts with all due diligence, didn’t even have a scratch on it. At thispoint, Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza and his mother, the duchess Bona,
imperiously requested that Bellomo and Donato, the principal
defendants, accused of a ritual infanticide that never happened, weretransferred, without further delay, to Milan, together with theresurrected boy.
The protests of the Pavian authorities, who desired unperturbedly99

to proceed with preparations for the trial, as if nothing had happened,
produced no effect. The guileless Turlulu was presented on a seat in the
Senate, in Milan, unaware of the reasons for all the hullabaloo, having
himself become the principal personage in a sort of “virtual” ritual
homicide. His interrogation helped disperse the fog of mystery whichstill envelopes this grotesque tale. Finally, as might have been
anticipated, Bellomo and Donato were acquitted of all charges in theindictment for a crime which was never committed, were released fromjail and permitted to return to Arena.
The Duke of Milan and his mother did not fail to voice their own
profound disappointment to the rulers of Pavia in a missive, sent after
the release of the Jews, written without any moderation of discourse:“We are amazed, not without annoyance, by this scandalous invention,of which have just caused such great inconvenience to both people andsubjects”. He concluded the letter, celebrating his own sense of justiceand equanimity, “that we have caused the truth to be known about sucha scandalous imputation”. The Duke then demanded that the property
illegally seized at Bellomo and other Jews of Arena be immediately
returned.13
One month later, there was still no change in the situation, and, asa result of the protests from the Jews, the Duke of Milan repeated, withrenewed vigor, his request that the goods seized from them at the timeshould be returned. The response, from the podestà of Pavia, is aninimitable example of both impudence and insensitivity. He would
release the Jews’ property, and sign it back over to them, but the heavy
burden of procedural costs, plus the salaries of all judges, notaries andfunctionaries having concerned themselves with the case, would haveto be paid by the acquitted defendants. The ineffable podestà said that
he was fully convinced that the Jews would be open-minded and welldisposed to accede to the paradoxical statement that, “for so little
money, I am certain the Jews will not prove themselves too
unwilling”.14
The facts of the Arena case led the representatives of the Jewish
communities of Lombardy to appeal to Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza, sothat he might defend them from the ritual murder accusations whichwere spreading dangerously, like a spot of oil on water, throughout all
the territories at that time, threatening to conclude in the same tragicmanner as the Trent affair. Nor could the confessions, often extortedwith torture and violence, constitute valid proof linking the Jews tosuch horrendous crimes, as indicated by the outcome of the affair at
Arena Po (“the accused, at the said locality of Arena, as a result of thetremendous torments inflicted upon them in various parts of the body,100confessed to committing a crime of which they were innocent, andconfined in the Castello, and in the Casa del Capitanio di Giustizia, foracknowledging that what they had said was actually true, and if God, in
his grace, had not sent word that the boy had been found, they would
have fared worse than the defendants at Trent, which only God knows
whether it was true or not, and let us just hope that God makes ademonstration of the truth in due time”). The Arena case was not an
isolated one. The Jews, in their appeal of 19 May 1479, informed
Sforza that other, repeated, accusations of ritual infanticide, all proving
false and inconsistent, had been made over the last few months invarious cities of the Dukedom, from Pavia to Valenza, from Stradella to
Bormio.15“The following case occurred two months ago: in Valenza, findingthat a boy was missing, suspicion being aroused against the Jews of that
region, the Jews were badly threatened, and if, by the grace of God, theboy had not been found drowned in a ditch, they would certainly havesuffered worse. Similarly, a boy from Monte Castillo being lost, theJews of that region were accused, but the boy was later found [...].
“The same thing happened at Bormio, as well as at Pavia: a boy
remained outside the bridge of Ticino after nightfall and was taken in
by a gentleman, to stay at his house, so as to return him to his own
home; and as the boy was not immediately found, suspicion fell upon
the Jews, with much murmuring against the Jews; a house was searchedwith many threats, in such a way that the patron of the house fled infear and has still not returned. And if the boy had not then been found,the Jews would not have been without danger and serious trouble, as
happened to the Jews of Stradella, as well as at Pavia, which were
sacked, causing the people to grumble, at the risk of raising a great
scandal and disorder to the detriment and danger of the State of Your
Illustrious Lordship”.16
After stating the classical motives, which should have deprived theritual murder accusation of all credibility, particularly, in light of the
Biblical prohibition against killing and against the consumption ofblood, the representatives of the Jewish communities of Lombardy
added another motive, which to our minds seems odd. In the lands ofthe Great Turk, where powerful and wealthy Jews lived and prospered,owning large numbers of Christian slaves, both adults and children, it
was said to be an easy matter for Jews to procure the blood of Christianchildren without running any risk to their persons and property at all.
But this did not occur, and there was no news from those regionsof child murders committed by Jews for ritual purposes.
“There are, it is said there, innumerable rich Jews in the lands of101

the Turks, Moors and other infidels, who hold slaves and servants, andare able to have the [Christian] boys at their pleasure, to do what they
liked with them without respect or danger, which does not prevent themfrom doing such things in the lands of the Christians, at the price ofgreat danger, not only to their property but also to their person”.17
The argument could just as easily have been turned around. Even
the most inveterate anti-Semites knew in fact that the accusations ofritual murder and profanation of the Host were confined to relatively
small geographical areas, which included all Jewish communities of theGerman-language regions, as well as all the Ashkenazi regions in Italy,
at the foot of the Alps.18 Giovanni Hinderbach himself, in the
autographic preamble to the trials, explained the manner in which thechild murder committed by the Jews of Trent was in no way a novelty.
“In fact”, he added, “the impiety of the Jews has come cruelly tolight over the past few years in many cities and localities of Germany,
as well as in regions such as Swabia and Bavaria, Austria and Styria,
the Rhineland and Saxony, as well as in Poland and Hungary”.19 The
lands of the Great Turk were obviously excluded.
Not many years had passed since the incidents at Arena,
Portobuffolè and Volpedo, when a new ritual murder case came tolight, upsetting the lives of the Jewish communities of northern Italy.
During Holy Week, April of 1485, in Valrovina, in the territories of the
Marostica region, a five-year old child, Lorenzino Sossio, was foundmurdered, his body horribly mutilated.20 The macabre discovery, at thefeet of an oak tree in a pasture on the upland plain, was made by a local
goatherd, while a hermit (“a devout hermit, who had long been aspectator and had diligently observed everything”) informed theauthorities and populace that the killers had committed the horrendous
crime by mutilating poor Lorenzino in the foreskin,21 “inflicting upon
him by force of repeated punctures and wounds in the blood vessels”,
finally stoning the body and covering it with stones. The news was
immediately disseminated that the persons responsible for the ritualmurder were Jews, from Bassano, “having come to the Vicentino forbusiness or pleasure, but perhaps principally to commit the crime”.
Thus the chronicles reported the tragic fate of Lorenzino Sossio da
Valrovina, later beatified as Simoncino of Trent, de quo adest traditio
cum fuisse ab hebreis occisum [of whom tradition has it that he waskilled by the Jews].
“In 1485, 5 April in the Villa di Valrovina under Marostica in the
territory of the Vicentino region, the Jews stoned the Sainted
Lorenzino, 5 years old, and buried him several times under rocks; but
one of his arms always extended from the grave. Once discovered, the102

delinquents were punished, and all the Jews were expelled by the above
mentioned residents of the Vicentino from their City and District; andthe Serenissima Prince of Venice confirmed the sentence by Ducal
order in 1486”.22
Five years later, in the spring of 1500, the podestà of Vicenza,
Alvise Moro, informed the Venetian authorities that the “devotehermit”, sole eyewitness to the crime, after being incarcerated and duly
tortured, had revealed the name of the person guilty of Lorenzino’s
murder. The murderer was alleged to be Marcuccio, money lender at
Bassano (“which hermit is in prison here, and would like permission to
speak, wishing to know the truth: that if they took one Marcuzzo, aJew, they would find out something [...] take the Jew, accused of killingthe boy, and take Marcuzzo da Bassan, and you will learn the truth, iswhat the hermit said, in those very words”).23
Marcuccio was the son of Lazzaro Sacerdote of Treviso, whoworked at Cittadella and was a nephew of Salomone da Piove di
Sacco.24
Active at Bassano although highly unpopular locally, he had until
then enjoyed the protection of Venice, constant over time, the City
having renewed his ten-year money lending permit in April 1499.25 We
do not know whether the tardy revelations of the “devote hermit”
induced Marcuccio to leave Bassano and turn over the management of
the local money lending bank. But that was precisely what happened:
after the nephew of Salomone da Piove had become, it seems, theprincipal protagonist of a tardy trial, brought at Vicenza for the murderof the boy Marostica. However that may be, even in that region, themystery of the crime was not solved, nor were the guilty ever identified
with certainty.
In the light of what we have just observed, it seems obvious thatthe expulsion of the Jews from Vicenza in 1486 and the cessation of
their money-lending activities were not related to the presumed
martyrdom of the Saint Lorenzino.26 Of course, none of this will
discourage historians, scholars and local priests constantly on thelookout for more or less imaginary holy personages by means of whom
their own poverty-stricken, obscure village or locality may be exalted,
causing it to perform an otherwise inconceivable quantum leap of fame.
Twenty three years before, at Rinn, diocese of Bressanone, on theroad to Innsbruck, a company of Jewish merchants, returning from thefair at Merano, were traversing a small village in the Tyrol and bumped
into a three-year old child, Andrea Oxner. Having informed themselves
as to his family, the Jews knew that the mother was far from home, inthe fields at Ambras reaping wheat, and that little Andrea had been103

entrusted to the care of his godfather, the “Weisselbauer” of Rinn,
Hannes Mayr. Employing every possible stratagem and pretext, theJews induced this dishonest peasant to hand the child over to them,promising that they would take him away with them to live a life ofease and comfort. But they had no intention of traveling very far withhim. Stopping in a birch tree thicket, a little ways above Rinn, “theinnocent victim’s veins were barbarously and cruelly severed by thoseinhuman creatures, who then hung the bloodless cadaver from a tree”.
Having obtained the Christian blood which they needed, the Jewish
merchants hurried to leave the scene, crossing the northern confines of
the Tyrol on the road to Ellbogen.27
The martyred child’s body was discovered by the desperate
mother. The godfather, under intense interrogation, admitted entrusting
Andrea to the Jews on the promise that they would educate the child in
luxury and riches. He then confessed that he had been persuaded byinnumerable glasses of wine, drunk in the company of those foreigners,
and a hatful of gold coins which had been placed in his hand. The
impious Mayr’s fate was signed, more by God than by men. “Theperfidious peasant who sold the child was condemned to perpetual
imprisonment in his own house, linked with chains, where he lived
imprisoned and mad for a good two whole years”.28 Thus recites theimplausible hagiography of Andrea of Rinn, which is full of gaps andfor which there is no convincing contemporary documentation. The
report remains inextricably linked to local traditions whose relationshipto reality can only leave one perplexed and dubious.
Nevertheless, the cardinal Lorenzo Ganganelli, later Pope Clement
XIV, in his famous report of 19 January 1760, presented to theCongregation of the Holy Office, with which he intended in general toabsolve the Jews from the accusation of ritual infanticide, made an
exception in the case of Andreas of Rinn, as well as in the case of themartyrdom of Simon of Trent. The two cases were to be considered
exceptional events, not to be generalized, but were neverthelessconcrete and real:29“I therefore admit as true the fact of the sainted Simon, the boy ofthree years of age killed by Jews in hatred of the faith of Jesus Christ in
Trent in the year 1475 [...] I accept as true another crime, committed in
the village of Rinn, diocese of Bressanone, in 1462, against the sainted
Andrea, a boy barbarously killed by the Jews in hatred of the faith ofJesus Christ [...] I do not, however, believe, even admitting as true thetrue facts of Bressanone and Trent, that one can justifiably deduce that
this is a maxim, either theoretical or practical, of the Hebrew nation,
since two events alone are insufficient to establish a certain and104

common axiom”.30
The accused in the Trent trial in 1475, under torture, supplied
ample testimony of ritual homicides committed, according to them, inthe preceding years in the German-speaking lands from which theycame, and in the centers of northern Italy where communities of
Ashkenazi Jews had formed more or less recently. The defendants were
alleged to have assisted or participated in these murders directly; insome cases, they had only heard about them from others. Sometimes
they were able to remember the names of the other Jews who had taken
part.
Isacco da Gridel, near Vedera, immigrated from Voitsberg, avillage near Cleburg, was employed as a cook by Angelo of Verona,
one of the principal defendants in the trial for the death of Simonino. In
1460, Isacco attended the lower courses of a Talmudic school at
Worms, in the territory of the Rhineland, and it was there that heparticipated in a ritual murder, a little before Passover. A Jew by thename of Hozelpocher is said to have purchased a two-year old childfrom a Christian beggar at a very high price and to have taken the childto his dwelling in the Jewish quarter. The murder is said to have beencommitted here, in the spacious “stufa” [parlor] of the house, in acollective ritual, with the participation of about forty local Jews. The
blood is said to have been gathered in a glass receptacle, but is not said
to have reached the quantity of liquid contained in two egg shells.31
Joav of Ansbach in Franconia was a domestic servant in the houseof the Maestro Tobias da Magdeburg, the oculist physician of Trent.
Joav had recently immigrated from the city of Prince Bishop
Hinderbach, and had previously rendered service in the house of a Jew
named Mohar (Meir) at Würzburg for over fifteen years. During thisperiod, Joav testified to having seen the Christian servant, Elisabeth
Baumgartner, assigned to housework, which was forbidden to Jews on
Sabbath days, introduce Christian children into the dwelling, in secrecy
and during the night, on at least three occasions. The murders were said
to have been committed in the wood-shed, in a collective ritual whichthen concluded in the chapel-synagogue, in a ceremony with theparticipation of numerous local Jews. The blood was gathered in asilver chalice, while the children’s bodies were buried at night in aterrain owned by Mohar, outside the city.32 Mosè of Ansbach, theyoung teacher of Maestro Tobias’s children, for his part, informed thejudges that, in 1472, while he was working at Nuremberg, he hadlearned that a ritual murder had been committed approximately eight
years beforehand, in the dwelling of a certain Mayer Pilmon, in thepresence of and with the participation of all the males of the family.33
105

Mosè da Bamberg was a poor traveler who, having left Bayreuthwith his son on his way to Pavia, had stopped for a brief stay in the cityof Trent, as a guest in money lender Samuele da Nuremberg’s house,and had, to his disgrace, been present during the tragic days of themurder, confessing his knowledge of the murders to the judges. In
1466, on the road from Frankfurt on the Oder, in the Mark of
Brandenburg, while transporting some goods to be sold in that city, he
had stumbled across some professional child hunters. While travelingthrough a thick forest, Mosè had, in fact, encountered two Jews,
remembering only their first names, Salomone and Giacobbe, in the actof preparing to hurl into a nearby river the bodies of two boys,
massacred by them previously. Their prey had been captured in a small
peasant village at the foot of the forest.34 The two hunters showed theappalled Mosè their tin-plated iron bottles, filled with red liquid, andwere satisfied at the thought that they were going to rake in a tidy sum
through the sale of that liquid. But they needed the money to live.35
Whether or not this was all simply a Grimm Brothers fairy tale,which might well be told at the right time and place to frighten children
and give them sleepless nights, we don’t know. It is certain that thepoor Mosè da Bamberg could not precisely remember the identity ofthe two hunters and was unable to locate the forest in which the crimes
had been committed; nor did he know the names of the two victims or
the village from which they had been abducted, or the name of the river
into which they were said to have been thrown. He recited this fantastic
confession before his attentive inquisitors, oscillating, suspended by arope tied around his feet and his head downwards.36
Israel da Brandenburg, the strange young painter, later baptizedunder the name of Wolfgang, knew how to be loquacious when he had
to be, and had heaps of picturesque ritual murder tales to tell, tales
which had reached his ears more or less directly, with which to regale
his avid and powerful interlocutors. He had allegedly gathered thisinformation for several months, moving from the Rhineland to the
Tyrol, then down to Venice, traveling through the cities of the Veneto.
He claimed to possess first hand information on the ritual murders ofChristian children committed at Güzenhausen in 1461 and Wending ten
years afterwards. At Piove di Sacco and Feltre, Jews from his native
country had told him of the ritual murders recently committed at Padua
and at Mestre.37
The women in the trial were no less prominent and their report ofthe child murders committed by their men, husbands, parents, friends
and friends, were precise and detailed. Bona, Angelo da Verona’s
sister, was a survivor of family and marital problems. She had lived
106

with her stepfather, Chaim, from the time she was a little girl, first at
Conegliano del Friuli and then at Mestre. When she was little overfourteen years old, she had been married off, against her will, to Madio(Meir), a Jew from Borgomanero in the Novara region. Madio had areputation as a madman and a thoroughly bad egg, who, after wasting
the already scanty family fortune in gambling, had abandoned her,moving elsewhere. As a result, Bona had returned to her mother’shouse at Conegliano del Friuli, and was then taken to Trent with hermother Brunetta (Brünnlein), also an unhappy and frustrated woman, as
the more or less welcome guests of her brother, Angelo da Verona, who
had, in recent years, been able to scrape together a small fortune in themoney trade. Before the judges, Bona admitted to using Christian blood
during the Passover period, beginning as early as her brief matrimonial
journey to Borgomanero. Her husband Madio had obtained it from a
carpenter friend, guilty of killing a boy for this purpose from
Masserano in Piedmont.
“(Bona) [said that], during the entire time that she stayed with thesaid husband (Madio), her husband used the blood of a Christian child[...] and she did the same during the three year period of her stay at theCastello di Borgomanero, adding, when asked, that her husband had
obtained the blood he used from a certain Mosè, a Jewish carpenter andresident of Masserano in Piedmont; that Mosè had conveyed the bloodto her husband through a servant of the said Mosè, whose name Bonasaid she did not know, and that the servant, in bringing the blood, inBona’s presence, had told Madio that Mosè had obtained the blood inthis manner; and that one day, as Mosè was on his way home fromsomeplace, he had met a Christian child whom he abducted andbrought in secrecy to his dwelling, killing him and draining theblood”.38
On the other hand, Bona, in perfect accord with Sara, Maestro
Tobias’s second wife, who came from Swabia and had lived in
Marburg and the Tyrol, with Bella, Mosè da Würzburg’s daughter-inlaw, who had married Mosè’s son Mayer (Meir) and knew how to write
Yiddish, and Anna, Samuele da Nuremberg’s young daughter-in-law,remembered another child murder committed a few years before, in1472 or 1473, also at Trent, committed by more or less the same people
guilty in the Simon of Trent affair. The victim of this murder was athree-year old child, sold to Maestro Tobias by a beggar in the Germanspeaking region and brought to Trent. The child was killed during acollective ceremony in the antechamber of the synagogue, with theparticipation of the majority of the Jews living in the city; the blood
being collected in a silver vase. At night, this same Tobias took charge107

of throwing the body of the child into the Adige.39 Sara, Maestro
Tobias’s wife, also remembered hearing talk, in the house, of anotherhomicide, committed at Trent in 1451 by Isacco and other Jews fromTrent; however, she knew nothing of the details.40 Isacco was Maestro
Tobias’s father-in-law, being the father of Tobias’s first wife, Anna,
who had died, leaving Tobias a widower; Isacco is almost certainly
identical with the money lender of the same name active at Trent in thefirst half of the 14th century.41
There are, of course, no objective records of these ritual murderstories, eventful and cruel, with their horrible and repulsive
connotations.
The defendants were capable of inventing accusations out of whole
cloth to placate their jailers; to make them more believable, thesestories might have caused the names of relatives or even distantacquaintances to emerge jumbled up from the mists of the past, fromthe localities of the defendants’ childhood or youth, or from localities
in which they had lived for a while. It is impossible to believe that theritual murders over the same period and within the same geographicalconfines as those we have discussed so far are any more reliable.
***

NOTES TO CHAPTER FOUR
1

Giacobbe da Colonia was arrested under the accusation of having
abducted the child while he was in Treviso, where he had stayed on his
way from Piove di Sacco to Portobuffolè. He is almost certainly
identical with the Yaakov b. Shimon Levi, who appears in Hebrew
documents of the period (cfr. D. Nissim, Famiglie Rapa e Rapaportnell’Italia settentrionale, sec. XV-XVI. With an appendix on the originsof the Rothschild Miscellany, in A. Piattelli and M. Silvera, authors,
Minhat Yehuda. Saggi sul ebraismo italiano in memoria de Yehuda
Nello Pavoncello, Rome, 2001, p. 188).
2
On the ritual murder at Portobuffolè, see, in particular, S.G.
Radzik’s documented monograph, Portobuffolè, Florence, 1984. In thisregard, see the important compendium of texts in [Benedetto Bonelli],
Dissertazione apologetica sul martirio del beato Simone da Trentonell’anno MCCCCLXXV dagli ebrei ucciso, Trent, Gianbattista Parone,
1747, pp. 272-282, and furthermore A. Ciscato, Gli ebrei a Padova(1300-1800), Padua, 1901, pp. 136-137; B. Pullan, Rich and Poor in
Renaissance Venice, Oxford, 1971, pp. 458-460; A. Esposito and D.
Quaglioni, Processi contro gli ebrei di Trento, 1475-1478. I: I Processi
108

del 1475; Padua, 1990, pp. 86-89.
3
At Portobuffolè in 1464, Chaim Israel Stein copied one
manuscript of a text by Abraham Ibn Ezra (cfr. A. Freimann, Jewish
Scribes in Medieval Italy, in M. Marx, Alexander Marx Jubilee
Volume, New York, 1950, p. 262, no. 129j). See also Nissim’s
arguments in Famiglia Rape e Rapaport, cit., pp. 178-181.
4“In Piazza di San Marco in ognimano / piena di d’innumerabile
persone / per veder arder quel ternario insano / che confirmando la sua
confessione / brusaron vivi nell’Ebraico errore / del battesimo
sprezzando l’oblazione” [“In the Piazza di San Marco, packed with
innumerable people, they watched that maddened lunatic being burnt
alive in the Jewish error, despising the offertory of baptism”] (Giorgio
Sommariva da Verona, Martyrium Sebastiani Novelli trucidati aperfidis Judaeis, Treviso, Bernardinmo Celario de Luere, 12 May 1480,
reported in [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., pp. 278); “[...]
ligati sunt et circum circa ignis est accensus, quem sentientes, et se
circum circa volventes, ab igne coquebantur et adurebantur, se lamentes
et ululantes, quorum senior induratus alios socios ad martyrdom
exhortabatur, legem suam enarrans” [“they were tied up and wood was
piled up all around them. The wood was set light, which they
perceived, and looked all around them while the wood cooked themand hardened them, with their laments and screams. The oldest one ofthem, tougher than his associates in martyrdom, exhorted them byreciting Jewish law”] in the Diarium parmense, in Rerum Italicarum
Scriptores, vol. XXII Milan, Tipografia della Società Palatina, 1733, p.
345.
5
Cfr. A. Ottolenghi, Per il IV centenario della Scuola Canton.
Notizie storiche sui templi veneziani di rito tedesco e su alcuni e su
alcuni templi privati con cenni della vista ebraica nei secoli XVI-XIX,
Venice, 1932, pp. 18-19.
6
In this regard, see F. Cogo, Vita e martirio del Beato Giovannino
da Volpedo, Tortona, 1920; V. Legè, Il Borgo di Volpedo e il Beato
Giovannino Costa, Venice, 1921, and, recently, I. Cammarata U.
Rozzo, Il beato Giovannino patrono di Volpedo. Un fanciullo “martyr”
alla fine del secolo XV, Volpedo, 1997.
7
Cfr. Cammarata and Rozzo, Il beato Giovannino patrono di
Volpedo, cit., pp. 19-24.
8
Cfr. Sh. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, Jerusalem,
1982, vol. II, p. 873, no. 2103.
9
Y. Ha-Cohen, Sefer ’Emeq-Bakha (The Vale of Tears), with theChronicle of the Anonymous Collector, by K. Almbladh, 1981, p. 59 (inHebrew). It is important to note that, as observed by Isai Sonne,
109

“Yoseph Ha-Cohen generally attributes the deterioration of relations
between the Jewish communities in Italy with the surrounding Christiansociety to the deplorable conduct of the Ashkenazi Jews and theirunscrupulousness. The attitude of Italian Jews towards Ashkenazi Jews
was exactly similar to that of cultured and refined Italians towards
barbarous and uncouth Germans [...]. The events and circumstances inwhich the responsibility of the Ashkenazi was ascertained, leading to
the saddest consequences for the entire Jewish community, werecovered up by Jewish historians in fear of encouraging anti-Semitism.
At the most, they could be handed down to a small elect in whom one
could trust” (cfr. I. Sonne, From Paul IV to Pius V, Jerusalem, 1954,
pp. 185-186 [in Hebrew]. These observations had already been
published in “Hebrew Union College Annual”, XXII (1949), pp. 23-44.
10Chronica Gestorum in partibus Lombardie et reliquis Italie, by
G. Bonazzi, in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. XXII, tome III, Cittàdel Castello, 1904, p. 106. In this regard, see also Cammarata andRozzo, Il beato Giovannino patrono di Volpedo, cit., p. 18. The few
Jews in Cortemaggiore were linked with the larger community in
Piacenza, Dal Monte di Pietà alla Cassa di Risparmio: l’esempio
piacentino, in G. Boschiero and B. Molina, authors, Politiche delcredito. Investimento consumo solidarietà, Asti, 2004, p. 348).
11
On the facts of Arena del Po in 1479, see in particular C.
Guidetti, Pro Judaeis. Riflessioni e documenti, Turin, 1884, pp. 280294, and above all Simonson, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, cit., vol.
I, p. XXII, and vol. II, pp. 738-789, nos. 1794, 1868, 1877-1880, 18821884, 1888-1889, 1891-1892, 1895-1897.
12
Mosè da Bamberg, a German traveller staying in Angelo da
Verona’s dwelling, told the Trent judges that he had been in the serviceof the Sacle, a money lender at Borgo San Giovanni, near Piacenza, andhis wife, Potina. According to him, the Ashkenazi Jew had beenaccustomed to dissolve powdered blood, presumably that of a Christianchild, in wine, during the Passover meal, pouring it from his silver
chalice into the glasses of the guests. His wife Potina was said to havemixed the blood into the dough of the unleavened bread (cfr. G. Divina,
Storia del beato Simone da Trento, Trent, 1902, vol. II, pp. 28-29). It
should be noted that the name Sacle or Secle (Seckle), a rendering of
the Hebrew Izchak (Isaac) was widespread among Jews from Frankfurt
and Hessen (cfr. A. Beider, A Dictionary of Ashkenazi Given Names,
Bergenfeld, N.J., 2001, p. 342).
13
Cfr. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, cit., vol. II, p.
784, no. 1888.
14
Cfr., Ibidem, vol. II, pp. 784-785, no. 1891.
110

15

The petition of the Jews to the Duke of Milan (19 May 1479),
the original of which is still preserved in the archives of the Jewish
community of Verona, was apparently published for the first time by
the famous Marrano apologist Isac Cardoso at the end of theSeventeenth Century (D. De Castro Tartas, 1679), who occupies
himself at length with the question of the ritual murders. In this regard,
see the important analysis, although sometimes accompanied by inexact
references, of Y.H. Yerushalmi, Dalla Corte di Spagna al Ghetto
italiano, Milan, 1991. The document was published in extenso by
Guidetti, Pro Judaeis, cit., pp. 289-294, and later by G.A. Zaviziano,
Un raggio di luce. La Persecuzione degli ebrei nella storia. Riflessioni,
Corfu, 1891, pp. 173-180 (doc. XVIIIbis). In this regard, as well aswith regard to the identification of Corrado Guidetti with the Paduan
Jew Giacomo Treves, believed to be a pseudonym used by Guidetti,
cfr. D. Nissim, La risposta di Isacco Vita Cantarini all’accusa diomicidio rituale di Trento (Padova 1670-1685), in “Studi Trentini diScienze Storiche”, LXXIX (2000), pp. 829-835. References to theJewish petition of the Duchy of Milan in 1479 are also found in V.
Manzini, La superstizione omicida e i sacrifici umani, Padua, 1930, pp.
237-239, and in Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, cit., vol.
II, pp. 788-789.
16
Cfr. Guidetti, Pro Judaeis, cit., pp. 289-290; Zaviziano, Un
raggio di luce, cit., p. 174.
17
Cfr. Guidetti, Pro Judaeis, p. 291; Zaviziano, Un raggio di luce,
cit., p. 176.
18
Cfr. R. Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475. A Ritual Murder Trial, New
Haven (Conn.), 1992, pp. 92-93; “If we construct a cultural geographyof blood libel in the region, the location of ritual murder trials
coincided with the boundary of German settlements in the Alpine
Highlands”. Concerning himself with the geography of trials fordesecration of the host, Rubin (Gentile Tales. The Narrative Assault on
the Late Medieval Jews, New Haven, Conn., 1999, pp. 190-195)
reaches the same conclusions, stating that “our story deals withGerman-speaking regions”.
19“Nec novum videatur hanc pessimam rem ac nefarium scelus incivitate nostra (sc. Tridenti) hoc anno per impios Judeos esse
perpetratum; cum longe crudeliora et atrociora retroactis temporibus inplerisque civitatibus et locis Germaniae et aliarum regionum, utpote
Sveviae, Bavariae, Austriae, Stiriae, Rhenique ac Saxoniae, nec non
Poloniae et Hungariae” (cfr. [Bonnelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit.,
pp. 65-66).
20
On the child murder of Lorenzino Sossio, later beatified,111

attributed to the Jews on the grounds of ritual murder, see, among
others, Francesco Barbarano, Historia ecclestica della città, territori e
diocesei di Vicenza, Cristoforo Rosio, 1652, pp. 172-177; I. Scotton,
Compendio della vita, martirio e miracoli del Beato Lorenzino da
Valrovina, Venice, 1863; G. Chiuppani, Gli ebrei a Bassano, Bassano,
1907, pp. 73-76; G. Volli, Il beato Lorenzino da Marostica, presunta
vittima d’un omicidio rituale, in “La Rassegna Mensile di Israel”,
XXXIV (1968), pp. 513-526, 564-569; M. Nardello, Il presuntomartirio del beato Lorenzino da Marostica, in “Archivio Veneto”, CIII
(1972), pp. 25-45; T. Caliò, Un omicidio rituale tra storia e leggenda.
Il caso del beato Lorenzino da Marostica, in “Studi e Materiali diStoria delle Religione”, n.s., I (1995), no. 19, pp. 55-82.
21“Pueri cadaver, cuius abscisum fuisse videtur praeputium, quia aJudaeis occisu fuerit” [“The boy’s body was seen to have had theforeskin cut off, as if he had been killed by the Jews”].
22
Cfr. [Bonnelli], Dissertazioni apologetica, cit., pp. 246-255.
23
The information is derived from Sanudo, (I diarii, by R. Fulin etal, Venice, 1879-1903, columns 250-266, 283). In this regard, see also
T. Calio, Il “puer a Judaeis necatus”. Il ruolo del racconto agiografico
nella diffusione dello stereotipo dell’omicidio rituale, in Le inquisizioni
cristiane e gli ebrei, “Atti dei Convegni Lincei”, CXCI (2003), p. 475.
24
Marcuccio moved to the Cittadella in Bassano after 1467 (cfr.
Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività, cit., p. 38).
25
We know that in April 1492, the Consiglio di Bassano had
unsuccessfully asked Venice for authorization to expel Marcuccio fromthe City, revoking his permit. On these events, see Chiuppani, Gli ebrei
a Bassano, cit., pp. 100-104.
26
For a serious investigation into the real motives for the expulsionof the Jews from Vicenza in 1486, see Scuro, Alcune notizie sullapresenza ebraica a Vicenza, cit.
27
In the ample, although tardy, bibliography on the martyrdom ofAndrea of Rinn, see Ippolito Guarinoni, Triumph Cron Marter undGrabschaft des Heilig-Unschuldigen, Innsbruck, Michael Wagner,
1642; G.R. Schroubeck, Zur Frage der Historizität des Andreas vonRinn, in “Fenster”, XXXVIII (1988), pp. 3766-3774; XXXIX (1986),
pp. 3845-3855; G. Kofler, La leggenda dell’omicidio rituale di Andrea
Oxner di Rinn, in “Materiali di lavori”, 1988, nn. 1-4, pp. 143-149; B.
Freschacher, Anderl von Rinn: Ritualmordkult und Neuorientierung in
Judenstein 1945-1995; Innsbruck, 1996; G.R. Schroubek, The Questionof the Historicity of Andreas of Rinn, in Buttaroni e Musial, Ritual
Murder, cit., pp. 159-180.
28
Cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., pp. 235-242.
112

29

Cfr. Zaviziano, Un raggio di luce, cit., pp. 115-157 (doc. XIV);
C. Roth, The Ritual Murder Libel and the Jews. The Report by
Cardinal Lorenzo Gangarelli on Ritual Murder, in S. Buttaroni and S.
Musial, Ritual Murder Legend in European History, CracowNuremberg-Frankfurt, 2003, pp. 211-223. Cardinal Ganganelli’s report
has now been republished by M. Introvigne, Cattolici, antisemitismo esangue. Il mito dell’omicidio rituale, Milan, 2004, pp. 83-123.
Otherwise, Introvigne’s work is nothing other than an encyclopaedia of
the problem, accompanied by a bibliography which has been only
partially updated.
30
Cfr. Zaviziano, Un raggio di luce, pp. 144-147.
31“Dum ipse Isaac staret in dicta Civitate Burmi [...] quadam dieante festum Paschae ipsorum Judaeorum, in quadam stuba magna, inqua aderant circa quadraginta Judaei, dicti Judaei omnes adjuverunt adinterficiendum Puerum Christianum” [“When Isaac was in the said cityof Worms [...] a few days before the Jewish feast of Passover, in a large
parlor, in the presence of about forty Jews, who helped kill the boy”](cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 144). See also Divina,
Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp. 94-96; Po-Chia
Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., p. 91. It should be noted that in the halakhah,
Hebraic ritual law, the minimum units of measurement for foods, bothsolid and liquid, are the olive (zait), and the egg (bezah). Isacco’s
reference to the egg to quantify the amount of blood taken, which
seemed so strange to Divina, should not surprise us.
32“Quaedam mulier Christiana, nomine Elisabth dicta
Paumghartnerin et quae multum praticabat in Domo Mohar praedicti,
clandestine portavit tres Pueros Christianos dicto Mohar Judaeo, etquos tres Pueros sic portavit in tribus vicibus et diversis annis, quibus
iste Joff stetit famulus Mohar sexdecim annis [...] et dictos Pueros sic
portavit de nocte et illos tradebat dictor Mohar”. The ritual of themurder and meal of blood was committed “in quadam Camera, qua
tenebantur ligna, et quae apud stabulum dictae domus” (cfr. Bonelli],
Dissertazione apologetica, cit., pp. 142-143). On this case, see also PoChia Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., pp. 90-91.
33
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, p.
91; Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., p. 91.
34“Dum ipse Moyses iret [..] ad quendam terram vocatam
Franchfort, quae est terra sub dominio Domini Marchionis deBrandenburg, una cum Salomon Hebraeo, cum applicuissent ad
quoddam magnum nemus, ibi reperunt Salomonem et Jacob Hebraeos,
et aliter nescit cognomina illorum [...] qui habebant quendam puerum,
quem jam interfecerant et jugulaverant [...] etiam habebant unum alium
113

puerum, qui videbatur mortuus et jugulatus, et quod dicta duo corpora
fuerunt projecta in preadictum flumen. Et qui etiam dixerant [...] quod
ipse acceperant ipsos pueros in quadam Villa parva, in qua poterant
esse quinque vel sex domus [...] et aliter nescit nomen dictae Villae”(cfr. Bonnelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., pp. 143-144). See also
Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., pp. 89-90. It should be noted that
Bonelli confuses Mosè da Bamberg, the author of the deposition, with
Mosè da Ansbach, preceptor to Maestro Tobias’ children. Po-Chia
Hsia, for this part, erroneously stresses that the two “cacciatori dibambini” [child hunters] Salomone and Giacobbe, were both travel anddestination companions of Mosè.
35“Qui Salomon et Jacob dixerunt ipsi Moysi et Salomon, socius
ipsius Moysi, quod ipsi Jacob et Salomon interfecerant dictos pueros
causa habendi sanguinem et causa portandi illum sanguinem advendendum et quod oportebat ita ipsos lucrari et ita vivere [...] et quod
colligerunt sanguinem hoc modo: unuisquisque habebat suum flascum
de ferro stagnato, qui habebat foramen, seu buchetum, multum latum admagnitudinem unius pomi mediocritus grossitudinis [...] et Jacob et
Salomon cum dictis flaschis colligebant sanguinem defluentem ex
iugulatura per ipso facta in gutture dictorum Puerorum”.
36“Et cum fuisset elevatus et staret appensus, Moyses fuitinterrogatus ut supra”.
37“In Paschate proxime praeterito fuit unus annus, dum ipse
Wolfgangus esset Feltri, in Domo Abrahami Judaei, et loquetur cum
Lazaro, fratre dicti Abrahame; idem Lazarus dixit sibi Wolfgango,
quod Hebraei interfecerant quendam Puerum Christianum in loco
Mestri, apud Venetias” (cfr. [Bonelli], Disssertazione apologetica, cit.,
pp. 141-142. See also Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit.,
vol. II, p. 45; Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., p. 97.
38
Deposition of Bona dated 11 March 1476, Vienna, Österr.
Nationalbibl., MS 5360, c. 189v (doc. in of D. Quaglioni, in D. Nissim,
D. Quaglioni and O. Stock, author, Simonino 1475, Trento e gli ebrei,cit., vol. II, 2001, CD ROM). See also Divina, Storia del beato Simone
da Trento, cit., vol. II, p. 46. The first news having reached us on the
Jews of Masserano, apart from the Trent trials, dates back toapproximately one century afterwards (cfr. R. Segre, The Jews inPiedmont Jerusalem, 1986, vol. I, p. 475, no. 1052). It should be notedthat in January of 1459, a Jewish woman from Borgomanero, named
Bona, had expressed the desire to convert to Christianity with her
children (cfr. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, cit., vol. I, p.
270, no 579).
39
On this ritual murder, which is said to have been committed at114

Trent two or three years before that of Simon, see, in particular, Divina,
Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp. 47-53. Cfr.
moreover Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., p. 112.
40
“Tobias dixit sibi Sarrae, quod ipse Isaac Hebreus habitor
Tridenti et socer ipsius Tobiae, dixerat sibi Tobiae quod ipse Isaac, una
cum certis aliis Judaeis interfecerant quendam puerum Christianu, jamtunc annis 24” (cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 144).
See moreover Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, p.
46.
41
Cfr. Menestrina, Ebrei a Trento, cit., pp. 304-306.

115

CHAPTER FIVEFROM ENDINGEN TO REGENSBURG:
RITUAL MURDERS OR
GRIMM BROTHERS’ FAIRY TALES?
Alfonso de Espina was confessor to King Henry IV of Castille and in
1460 was completing a treatise against the Jews, Moslems and heretics,
entitled Fortalitium fidei.1 To reach his objective, he presented hisreaders with reports of the crimes committed by the Jews to thedetriment of Christians of which he had more or less directly becomeaware. Naturally, ritual child murders were the main course of his
narration.
The Castillan Franciscan recorded that in 1456 a Jewish notable
named Maestro Salomone, originating from the territories of the
Republic of Genoa and belonging to the illustrious family ofphysicians, had come to see him in the Minorite Convent at Valladolid,
expressing the desire to be baptized. To convince Alfonso of the
repugnance which Judaism now aroused in him, the Jew pointed
precisely to the horrible custom of the ritual murders, of which he hadheard speak or in which he had directly participated.2 According tohim, he had learned from his parents that a famous Jewish physician
from Padua, named Simon, had obtained a four-year old child from an
unscrupulous Christian mercenary soldier and had sacrificed him in his
own dwelling, laying the child across a table and cruelly decapitating
him.3
Maestro Salomone then reported that he had participated, with hisfather, in a secret rite, performed at Savonne, with the participation ofnumerous Jews in the city at that time, culminating in the crucifixion ofa two-year old Christian child. The victim’s blood was poured into a
recipient, the same recipient normally used to collect the blood during
the circumcision of their own children.4 Subsequently, he personally,
together with other participants in this horrendous rite, claimed to haveconsumed the blood as the ingredient in their traditional foods during
the Jewish Passover. The body of the sacrificed child was said to havethen been thrown into a filthy latrine.
Logically, it is permissible to express serious doubt as to thetruthfulness of this Maestro Salomone da Savona’s testimonies; nor is it116

impossible that the entire report might have been invented out of whole
cloth by the Spanish friar, whose violent hostility towards the wholeworld of Judaism was no secret to anyone. On the other hand, wecannot help but note the manner in which the supposed scene of theseritual murders was, once again, the Jewish communities of German
origin (in this case, those of northern Italy, like Pavia and Savona), 5
instead of the numerous and flourishing Hebraic nuclei of Castille,
Aragon and Catalonia, as one might logically have expected from areport originating from the imagination of a friar having lived andworked exclusively within the reality of the Iberian peninsula. If,
therefore, we wish to speak of a stereotype, in reference to thephenomenon of ritual child murder, we must necessarily admit that,even from the point of view of a person openly professing his own antiJewishness in a general sense, and with no direct knowledge of eventsin distant lands, the phenomenon seemed exclusively confined to the
Ashkenazi Jewish world.
There are no objective records of this long series of ritual
homicides, in which the supposed protagonists accused themselves andeach other in their confessions, whether voluntarily or undercompulsion. We are speaking of the sensational cases at Endingen, in
Alsace, where the first ritual child murder trial was held, which has left
an ample and detailed documentation, echoes of which, notsurprisingly, might be heard in the halls in which the Trent defendants
were under investigation.6
At Endingen, a small village of some several hundred people,
under the directorship of Breisach at Riegel in the Breisgau, workers
found the remains of a man and woman, together with those of two
decapitated children, during excavation and repair work to the ossuaryof the parochial church of San Pietro, during the Passover period of1470. In the local region, it was suddenly remembered that, eight years
before, a couple of poor people, with a packhorse and two children ofyoung age, a boy and girl, had taken shelter in the house of the brothers
Elia, Aberlino (Avraham) and Mercklin (Mordekahai). These were thedays of Pesach, the Jewish Passover. Many people had noticed themwhen they entered the dwelling of the Jews, but no one had ever seen
them leave. All trace of them seemed to have vanished into thin air.
Karl, margrave of Baden, on a mission from Archduke
Sigismondo, opened an inquiry and immediately ordered the arrest of
the Jews suspected of having committed the crime. Even before being
subjected to torture, Elia, the older of the brothers, confessed andimplicated other local Jews as perpetrators or accomplices in the crime,
which was said to have been committed that same evening, soon after
117

the Christian family entered their house. To discharge her own
responsibility and save her own life, Elia sustained that she had notparticipated directly in the murder and therefore had been warned, withthreats and curses, against reporting what happened to the elders of theJewish community of Endingen, out of fear that they would denounce
the persons responsible to the authorities.
Aberlino, Elia’s brother, hastened to explain to the judges the
dynamics of the facts, and thereby avoid torture. The parents were
allegedly the first to be killed, but their blood was not drained off
because it was useless for ritual purposes. Then it was the children’sturn to suffer the same fate, being decapitated, while their blood wasgathered in suitable recipients. To cover up the victims’ cries, the Jews
involved in the macabre ceremony started to shriek their litanies in loudvoices, as if they were in the middle of a religious ceremony. Finally, tothrow police authorities off the track if the bodies were found, it was
decided to bury them at night in the ossuary of the church of San Pietro.
Aberlino concluded his deposition by expressing his own intention
to become a Christian, to expiate his guilt. Mercklin also confirmed theparticulars of the confession of his brothers, adding other details.7 And
so did the other accused.
One of these, Smolle (Samuele), was not content simply to confesshis participation in the massacre of Endingen, but added otherrepugnant details. He recalled that, ten years before, in 1460, he hadpurchased the little son of a beggar woman of Spira for money, and hadthen resold him to a rich Jew from Worms, named Lazzaro. The latter,
together with other members of his community, were said to havesacrificed the child to drain off his blood. The victim’s body was said
to have been buried in the Jewish cemetery of the city. But that was notall. In 1465, Smolle was said to have kidnapped a five-year old
shepherd boy at Worde to take him to Nuremberg, where he is said tohave sold him in exchange for a large sum of money. A wealthy local
Jew, Mosè of Freyberg, who was thereafter said to have charged thesame ineffable Smolle with killing the boy for his own account, is said
to have benefited from this precious acquisition.8
That was enough to convince the judges, if there had been any
need, of the guilt of the accused, and to condemn them to capital
punishment.
On 4 April 1470, the three brothers, Elia, Aberlino and Mercklin,were dragged by horses’ tails to the place of execution, to be broken on
the wheel and their bodies burnt. When the Emperor Friedrich III, at
the request of the Jews, decided to intervene in favor of the condemnedmen, it was then too late and it only remained for him to rebuke the118margrave of Baden, in a letter written one month later, for hastening tohave “those accused of the supposed crime” put to death, without
awaiting Imperial approval.9
In the meantime, there then opened the inevitable sequel to theEndingen trials, concerning the recipients of the blood collected during
the two child murders. From the depositions of the accused, it appearedthat the much-esteemed fluid had been sold at very high prices to therichest and most influential German Jews, including Leone da
Pforzheim, who had, from 1463, enjoyed the protection of Friedrich,elector of the Palatinate.10 By order of Karl of Baden, Leo was arrested
in his lordly habitation at Pforzheim, together with three other Jews, hisguests, who appeared involved in the child murders of Endingen as
well as in the affair of the blood. In this case as well, the persons underinvestigation, with Leo leading the way, hastened to confess, adding
significant details relating to the religious ceremonies in which they
had intended to use the blood procured by them. The judges saw nosolution but to decree the penalty of death for the four Jews of
Pforzheim as well.
The accused at Trent were only dimly and indirectly aware of therecent events at Endingen and Pforzheim. Mosè da Ansbach, teacher to
Maestro Tobias’s children, reported to the judges that he had heard talkabout a ritual murder committed by Jews a few years before in a city in
Alsace; that some of the accused had been burnt at the stake, whileothers had taken refuge in flight.11 On the same grounds, Lazzaro,
servant to money lender Angelo da Verona, recalled how, while staying
at his father’s house, at Serravalle del Friuli, a stranger had told them ofa ritual murder committed by a few Jews of Pforzheim against a
Christian boy three years before. The guilty parties had been
incarcerated, and, so that God might save them from certain death andfrom the hands of the Christians, the Hebraic community of theGerman lands had announced a general fast.12 But the eccentricminiaturist, Israel Wolfgang da Brandenburg, was, as usual, the best
informed of all. The young Saxon related to the judges everything heknew in this regard, stating that the child murder had indeed beencommitted at Endingen and that the guilty had been burnt alive at the
stake for that act of wickedness, committed to obtain the blood for
ritual purposes.
Israel had obtained this information in 1470 from Mosè of Ulm,the special envoy to whom the Germanic Jewish community had
entrusted with the task of traveling to Emperor Friedrich III’s palace byhorseback to obtain the release from prison of the Jews involved in theaffair.13 As we know, the imperial intervention failed because it was119received too late, after the public executions had already occurred. Thissame Hinderbach, in a missive sent to Friar Michele Carcano of Milan,
remembered that numerous Jews from Endingen and Pforzheim, both
men and women, had been found guilty of ritual murder and had been
put to death on the order of the Count of Baden a few years before.14
One might be tempted to draw a clear line of demarcation between
the evidence given by the Trent defendants, for which exact records
exist, and the others, for which no historical documentation for theseaccusations and denunciations has thus far been found. The latter could
be dismissed as fantasies and delirium, produced by atrocious suffering,under torture, by persons devastated by suffering and incapable ofreacting, or as the nightmare projections of beliefs held by the judges
and suggested by the inquisitors. But such an attempt does not seemlogical or convincing, and would, in the last analysis, appear to becompletely counterproductive if an attempt be made to confront the
problem of ritual child murders and place these crimes in their
historical context, establishing their geographical extent and limits.
Thus, precisely those exact records which have come to light, at least
where some of the testimonies are concerned, should teach us not todismiss their reality out of hand, or without persuasive justification,even if they are in fact exaggerations or distortions of events for which
the historical documentation has not yet been found.15
Moreover, at least one other case places us in the same dilemma;
we find it difficult to dismiss detailed testimony confirmed by clear
documentary fact. At the beginning of the trial, the Trent inquisitors
decided to interrogate a convert – a “Jew turned Christian”, as such
converts were then called – who, in the days of Simon’s tragic death,
was being held prisoner at Trent for another crime which had nothing
to do with ritual child murder. But as to the child murders, which theJews were accustomed to commit on Passover eve, Giovanni da Feltre– that being the name of the convert, the son of Sacheto (Shochat), a
Jew from Landshut in Bavaria – seems to have much to tell. Around
1440, at Landshut, to be exact, when he was a child and still a Jew, therecent convert had heard that the Jews of the local community,
including his own father, had killed a Christian child to collect thechild’s blood for ritual purposes.
The police authorities arrested forty five Jews, as the result of araid effected in their district, and later burnt them publicly at the stake.
Other Jews, including Shochat, had taken refuge in flight, seeking
shelter with their families in the Cisalpine regions of Italy.16 Both thechild murder at Landshut and the subsequent massacre of the Jews are
precisely confirmed by the extant contemporary historical120

documentation.17 So it is not easy to dismiss Giovanni da Feltre’s
familiar testimony, although it is considered automatically unreliable
on all the particulars not confirmed by the historical documentation or
in relation to which we lack sufficient means of verification.
According to his own statement, Israel Wolfgang had directly
participated in a spectacular, sensational, and equally horrible, ritual
child murder committed at Regensburg in 1467. In the second half ofthe 15th century, that which was considered the commercial port of theHoly Roman Empire towards south-eastern Europe, located on thebanks of the Danube, was the home of a flourishing Jewish communityof over five hundred people.18 And the young Saxon, according to his
own detailed deposition before the Trent judges, had been at
Regensburg that year, during the feast days of the Jewish Passover.
Wolfgang’s report was lucid and precise down to the smallest
particulars.
In those days, Rabbi Jossel di Kelheim had taken advantage of an
opportunity and had purchased a Christian child from a beggar for the
price of ten ducats. He took the child to his house, in the Jewish
quarter, where he concealed him for two days, in anticipation of thesolemn event of the Pesach, the feast of the unleavened bread, when
the annual celebrations begin in remembrance of the miraculous escapeof the people of Israel from captivity in Egypt would begin. In the earlymorning of the first day of the holiday period, Rabbi Jossel very
carefully transferred the boy into the narrow confines of the “stiebel”[parlor] of Sayer Straubinger, the small and rustic synagogue located ashort distance from his house, where he was accustomed to presideover the collective rites of the community and its daily and festive
liturgical meetings. Awaiting him were at least twenty five Jews,
previously informed of the extraordinary event. Israel Wolfgang was
one of them, and he remembered the exact names of all the participantsin the rite, both those from Regensburg and those from other regions.
The transfer of the child from Rabbi Jossel’s house to the synagogue,
although performed at night, involved some danger, since it might havebeen noticed by prying eyes. But in view of the fact that the district was
inhabited by Jews who locked their doors every night, with the keys
entrusted to them by the city authorities, the margin of safety wasconsidered sufficiently broad.19
The boy was undressed in the stiebel and placed on a chest
containing the sacred parchments of the synagogue, and was thencrucified, circumcised and finally suffocated over the course of ahorrifying collective ritual, following a script accurately planned andperfectly well known by all the participants, by Jessel, the rabbi; by121

Mayr Baumann, the mohel; by Sayer Straubinger, the owner of thechapel; by Samuel Flieshaker, one of Wolfgang’s friends; by Mayr
Heller; by the above mentioned Jew referred to as “bonus puer” (Tov
’Elem); by Johoshua, the cantor; and by Isacco, the water-bearer.
Wolfgang himself had taken an active part in the crucifixion of thechild, while the blood was collected in a bowl, to be distributed among
the Jews participating in the rite or sent to the rich of the community. 20
The day after, rumor of the ritual infanticide spread in the district andmany people rushed to Sayer’s stiebel to see the body of the sacrificedboy, which was placed quite visibly inside the chest. The evening after,
at the beginning of the ceremonies of the second day of Pesach, in thecentral room of the small synagogue, in the confined space of which
about thirty of the faithful now crammed themselves, excited andcurious, while the little victim was publicly exhibited, and the grisly
ritual, which had now become merely commemorative, began afresh.21
Finally, the child’s body was buried in the courtyard of the chapel, in aremote corner, surrounded by a wall, accessed through a small door
which was usually kept locked.22
Israel Wolfgang’s report was too precise in its particulars andaccurate in its descriptions to avoid awakening the interest of
inquisitors in places other than Trent. His report contained exact names,
dates, places, and facts requiring cogent verification. Perhaps theclosest and most significant precedent to Simonino’s martyrdom at
Trent was to be sought at Regensburg: in the spectacular story of an
unknown synagogue ceremony according to ritual standards following
a pre-established order with a mysterious symbolism. The first night ofPesach at Regensburg in 1467, in Sayer’s stiebel, from which the noisy
flow of the waters of the Danube was quite audible, might provide aclue to the mystery of what really happened eight years later, during thePesach period of 1475, at Samuele da Nuremberg’s house, in the small
synagogue of the Jews of Trent, located along a small murky canal usedby tanners in the German-speaking district. Perhaps they were only
fantasies, fearful fables, nourished by ancestral suspicions, settledstereotypes crystallized from years back; but the authorities had to becertain that the tale had no basis in truth.
In early 1476, Heinrich, the bishop of Regensburg was passing
through Trent on his way back from Rome, when, suddenly, someone
handed him a copy of Wolfgang’s deposition before the Trent judges.
Notwithstanding circumstances of this kind, it would hardly have been
unprecedented, in the 15th century panorama of this city on the
Danube, for the Jews of Regensburg to be accused of a good four casesof desecration of the Host and ritual murder in barely six years, from122

1470 to 1476;23 the good prelate was forcefully impressed andjustifiably scandalized when he read the document. Returning toGermany, Heinrich hastened to advise the authorities of Regensburg toopen an immediate inquiry intended to determine whether or not aritual murder had really occurred in the Jewish quarter during the
Passover feast of 1467.24
At the end of March of that year, the authorities of Regensburg
proceeded with the arrest of the rabbi Jossel di Kelheim and anotherfive influential leaders of the Jewish communities, including Sayer
Straubinger, the owner of the stiebel, and Samuele Fleischaker,
Wolfgang’s friend. A few days after, seventeen Jews, all accused ofparticipation or complicity in the ritual child murder were placed inirons. The interrogations were carried out under torture, and at least sixof the accused issued a complete confession mentioning the names ofother persons involved in the wickedness. Rabbi Jossel was the first toadmit to the judges that he had purchased the child from a beggar
woman at Regensburg eight years before, and had brought it to thesynagogue as a sacrifice during the days of the Jewish Passover; hethen withdrew his confession, accusing his inquisitors of extorting it
through indescribable torture. Before him, Samuel Fleischaker had also
confessed that the Jews had made use of children’s blood, mixing it
into the dough of the unleavened bread.25
The admissions, obtained from the accused by force, appeared
overly general and insufficiently detailed to be convincing; theconfessions were deemed insufficient as the factual basis for a ritualmurder trial. Thus, on 15 April 1476, Friedrich III personally ordered
the city counsel of Regensburg to free the prisoners immediately andhand them over to the Imperial authorities. But one week later, adramatic sensation occurred.
A few workers, engaged in repairs on Rabbi Jossel’s dwelling,found a skeleton while excavating and cleaning up the cellars. The
skeleton, examined by a commission of physicians and surgeons in thepresence of the bishop and other civil authorities, proved to be that of achild, presumably aged between three and six years.26 The Jews replied
to the accusations by claiming that the bones had been deliberately
planted in the rabbi’s cellar by those interested in his condemnation.
Notwithstanding the discovery of the new evidence, Friedrich did
nothing, and continued unperturbedly to demand the release of theincarcerated Jews, despite the claims of bishop Heinrich, who sustained
the validity and plausibility of the defendant’s confessions to the crime;
Ludwig, Duke of Regensburg, petitioned the Emperor not to interfere
in the internal affairs of the city.27
123On 8 May 1478, two years after they began, the trials might be said
to have concluded with the absolution of the Jews, imposed by the
inflexible Imperial will. But the defendant’s release was not obtained
cheaply. Friedrich demanded ten thousand florins from the Jews as
payment for his intervention in their favor, while the judiciary ofRegensburg declared itself prepared to release them only following
payment of all procedural expenses, amounting to five thousand florins,
plus a fine of eight thousand florins, imposed on the city by theEmperor for holding the trial. In a plenary meeting announced by the
rabbis of the German lands at Nuremberg, presumably in early 1478, an
obligatory collection of funds began among the Jewish communities ofGermany, accompanied by the creation of suitable committees
responsible for coordinating the efforts made to save prisoners. In Italy,
Yoseph Colon, formerly a rabbi at Mantua (until 1475) and now at
Pavia, intervened with all his related authority; Colon is said to havedied at Pavia a few years later, in 1480, after recommending that theappeal of the spiritual heads of German Judaism receive a rapid,
positive and generous response.28 From the very outset, the affair of theJews of Regensburg made a profound impression on the Jews of the
Ashkenazi communities of northern Italy. In a letter written in Hebrew
dated 11 May 1476, the daughter and son-in-law of Crassino (Gherhon)da Novara, one of the richest and most influential Ashkenazi bankers of
the Duchy of Milan, both wrote to him, probably from Brescia, making
explicit reference to the “sensational affair in which, as a result of oursins, members of the holy community of Regensburg have beenarrested and confined to prison, where God the pitiful and merciful
caused them to exit the darkness and enter the intense light”.29
In another missive, written in Yiddish by the same Ashkenazi
Jews, the son-in-law again complained of the sad fate of the Jews ofRegensburg, victims of the blood accusation.
“Alas! We have heard sad news, caused by our innumerable sins,
originating from Regensburg. They have arrested all the Jews of thecity and slandered them, turning against them the blood accusation ofTrent. That God should have pity and not cause us to hear lying
accusations of this type anywhere. We wish Him to render us assistancewith His love. Amen.”
Another message, also in Yiddish, sent by the young Geilin(Gaylein) to his father, the same Crassino of Novara mentioned above,
dated mid-May 1476, once again made explicit reference to facts ofRegensburg.
“The sad news reached me from Pavia. May God be merciful andhelp His people and the Jews of Regensburg who have suffered, for our124sins, for this infamous slander. Ever since I heard this bad news, I havebeen unable to sleep. How much you must suffer for certain [...] May
God give you strength and health; that is, how I wish your daughter
Geilin, unhappy for having heard this unhappy news”.30
The courier of this letter was Paolo of Novara, the shady priest
who, according to him, had been paid by the Jews of the Dukedom of
Milan to poison the bishop of Trent. The Jews alluded to him calling
him gallech, the cleric, the man with the tonsure.31
Another two years went by before the Jews of the Ashkenazi
communities on both sides of the Alps succeeded in scraping together
the huge sums required to liberate the prisoners at Regensburg. But theseventeen defendants, still incarcerated, were finally removed fromtheir shackles on 4 September 1480, four and a half years after theirarrest.32 Thus concluded a matter which perhaps began at Regensburg,
rebounded to Trent, and new returned to Regensburg, leaving many
unanswered questions and unresolved doubts, which the payment ofanother twenty thousand florins in gold by the German-speaking Jewish
communities was certainly insufficient to dissipate. If the ritual childmurder at Regensburg was really a fact, it should be possible to trackdown the blood, distributed free of charge among the participants, or
put up for sale by them immediately afterwards, assuming that it might
have reached the Jewish communities of northern Italy. Theinterrogation of the accused, more or less based on leading questions as
to this point, seemed to vindicate the accusation.
The most important clue appeared to point to a certain Rizzardo(Reichard), a Jew from Regensburg who had moved to Brescia with hisfamily in 1464.33 The latter, with their two brothers Enselino (Anselmo)
and Jacob, were engaged in lending money at interest through a bankthey owned at Barvardo, deriving a large proportion of their clientele
from the city of Brescia, where Rizzardo lived. Rizzardo of Regensburg
had top connections, and enjoyed protection as a member of theinfluential entourage of Bartolomeo Calleone, Captain of the
Serenissima.34 In Angelo da Verona’s house, Rizzardo was often
mentioned, partly because Lazzaro, who rendered services for thebanker, was his nephew, and did not hesitate to spend his holidays andvacations in his uncle’s company. On one of these occasions, a few
years before, when Lazzaro found himself at Brescia to be cured of an
illness of the eyes, Rizzardo confessed to him that he had bought acertain quantity of blood originating from the Regensburg childmurder. In addition, the Brescian Jew allegedly made use of it during
the Jewish Passover period, administering it to his wife Osella (Feige),
his sons Jossele and Mezla (Mazal), and his servant, Jacobo da125Germania.35 Angelo da Verona also knew that Rizzardo trafficked in
the blood of Regensburg, among other things, and had sent a letter tohis brother Enselino, at Gavarda, promising him to supply him withsome of the blood.36 Isacco, Angelo’s cook, confirmed that he had often
heard the patron of the house and the young servant, Lazzaro, mention
Rizzardo as the person who had received the precious blood of theinfant boy sacrificed at Regensburg.37
But once again, it was the ineffable Israel Wolfgang who cast lighton the entire affair. In the summer of 1474, he had been sent to Brescia
as Rizzardo’s guest, who had commissioned him with the execution of
the miniatures for a precious Hebraic code owned by Rizzardo.38 On
one occasion, Rizzardo bragged to the young painter that he, Rizzardo,
had come into possession of the blood of the child killed at
Regensburg. He had been given it by his step-father, precisely the same
Rabbi Jossel who had been one of the principal defendants in thissensational child murder. It was at this point that the young Wolfgang’s
vainglorious nature exploded in all its variegated intensity. Perhaps
Rizzardo was unaware that he, Israel Wolfgang, had personallyparticipated in the child murder in Sayer’s stiebel at Regensburg? The
Brescian Jew, even if he had been unwilling to believe it, now had tolisten to Wolfgang blabbing out the whole story, down to the slightest
detail, and congratulate himself upon receiving one of the lucky andfearless perpetrators in his own house.39
Confidence by confidence, Rizzardo, too, not to be outdone,
reported that he had participated in a ritual homicide organized at
Padua in the German synagogue together with the other Jews of the cityand the district, four or five years before.40
Since the plague was raging at Brescia, Israel Wolfgang wascompelled to cut short his stay at Rizzardo’s house and move to nearby
Gavardo, as Enselino’s guest, with whom Angelo da Verona had long
been in contact during his stay in Brescia. To earn some pocket money,
he agreed to bind a breviary owned by the archpriest. In the six months
spent in Padua, Wolfgang found further confirmation of the Padua childmurder, the murder in which Rizzardo had participated. He wasinformed of this by Enselino, who had allegedly obtained the same
blood, marketed in the Brescia region, by a certain Liebmann ofCastelfranco da Treviso.41
This was too much, even for the inquisitors of Trent, no matter
how eager they might have been for confirmation – real or imagined –of their suspicions. The eccentric painter from Brandenburg seemed to
be teasing his inquisitors, churning out a continual stream of stories,
new at all times, picturesque and astonishing, largely invented or126exaggerated, calculated to make an impression on an audience whom
he imagined to be highly naive. Instruments of torture may have been,
and were, used on the other defendants to loosen their tongues; in thecase of the wily Wolfgang, perhaps they might have been of more use
in damming up the torrent of incredible revelations which he seemedunable to control. Hurt to the quick, and stung in his vanity, the young
painter completely flew off the handle, raised his voice and shouted
defiantly at anyone who would listen:“By God! I have reported what Rizzardo told me, word for word,
and thus I will repeat it, before any Lord or Prince: just take me to theplace of execution and decapitate me, or kill me in any other way, but I
will not speak otherwise than I have done”.42
Rizzardo, the Brescian resident from Regensburg, Lazzaro’s uncle,
servant of Angelo of Verona, had been telling the truth. Or at least, histruth. The truth that Wolfgang claimed to have learned during the hotdays of the preceding summer, while the plague raged at Brescia.
For his part, Rizzardo da Brescia had a no less famous namesake.
The Jew Rizzardo (Reichard) of Mospach was a swindler and good-for
nothing, arrested for theft at Regensburg in 1475. To his inquisitors, thelatter Rizzardo confessed that he had been baptized several times toobtain money and other benefits from ingenuous Christians to whom heturned, both city people and peasants. But even the Jews, according tohim, had proven the gullible victims of his tricks. The Jews Krautheim,
Bamberg and Regensburg had purchased fake Hosts, which he claimed
to have purloined from various churches in the area, to be “tortured” by
the Jews during their anti-Christian rites. Rizzardo-Reichard – wholived alternately as a Jew and alternately as a Christian – was married
to three women simultaneously, each one of them unaware of theexistence of the others. Starting in 1476, he had spent years wandering
back and forth between the villages and cities of Bohemia and Moravia,of the Rhineland and Brandenburg, of Alsace and Württemberg. He had
been in Bern, Bamberg and Nuremberg. He admitted to having lived in
Italy for a while, in various cities whose names he could no longer
remember (was Brescia one of them?). But he clearly recalled having
stayed at Trent, where he was in contact with the Jewish families thenaccused of the ritual murder of little Simon.43
If, as we have seen, one clue seemed to point to Rizzardo and thecity of Brescia, a second clue pointed back to Regensburg, leading theauthorities to a certain Hoberle (Kobele, Jacob or perhaps Hoverle,
Haver), who earned his living selling powdered blood, wandering fromone locality to another in the German-speaking lands in search ofclients. According to Wolfgang, Hoberle had not participated in the127ritual homicide in the stiebel at Regensburg, but certain persons hadlater proceeded to supply Hoberle with the blood which he [Hoberle]needed.44 Mosè da Bamberg, the traveler who happened to be at Trent
the night before Simon’s killing, knew Hoberle personally and had
followed his movements. He [Mosè da Bamberg] also recalled
Hoberle’s features perfectly. He might have been about sixty years old,
low in stature, bald, with a white beard. He had an ugly stain on theskin of his head, as if he had had leprosy; for this reason, he wore atype of cloth cap beneath his beret. He usually wore a long loose grayovercoat.45
Before the judges at Trent, Mosè da Bamberg stated that he had
met Hoberle for the first time in 1471, in the imperial city of Ulm. A
few weeks later, he had seen him again at Padua, in the house of theJews, and later at Piacenza, where he had stayed as the guest of
Abramo, active in the city as money lender.46 At Pavia, he lodged in thetavern of Falcone, the “Inn of the Jews”, a place of dubious reputation
where gambling was practiced and there were frequent brawls. 47
Falcone (Haqim), son of Yoseph Cohen, had opened the place around1470, and is said to have managed it for about ten years.48 The wife,
unsatisfied with her husband’s activity, had sought to induce him toabandon that rather uncouth undertaking, but without success. Annoyed
and out of spite, she had abandoned him and had taken refuge in aconvent, threatening to become a Christian. Then, due to a suddenchange of mind, she had asked to be reconciled with him and to bepermitted to return to the conjugal domicile. The rabbi Yoseph Colon,
questioned on this matter, had authorized Falcone to take her back withhim.49In the summer of 1477, when a boy, son of a Christian shoemakerof Pavia, disappeared from his home, Falcone had some serious
problems, accused of being the abductor and the executioner during aritual homicide. A great crowd had gathered around the tavern, seeking
to take justice into their own hands, while the guards had had a hardtime controlling them and dispersing them. Luckily for him, the childthen reappeared, alive and healthy, and the Jewish innkeeper was able
to draw a breath of relief.50
Mosè da Bamberg knew that the merchant Hoberle, visiting thecities of the Veneto and Lombardy, wherever there were Jews, had solda certain quantity of blood to Manno da Pavia, the richest Jewishbanker in the dominions of the Sforzas.51 As we have already seen, thissame Manno is said to have been accused, together with otherimportant exponents of the Jewish community of the Duchy of Milan,of hiring the priest Paolo of Trent to poison the Prince Bishop of Trent128

in 1476, for condemning to death and executing the presumed
murderers of the sainted Simon. According to Mosè da Bamberg’s
deposition, Manno da Pavia, in turn, sold part of the blood obtained
from Hoberle – for money – to the family of Madio (Mohar, Meir), a
money lender at Tortona; the blood is then supposed to have been usedduring the Passover celebration. As we have seen, Madio is said tohave been implicated in the supposed ritual murder of the sainted
Giovannino da Volpedo in 1482, but, to his good fortune, is said tohave been acquitted. Mosè of Bamberg, according to his own
statement, had, for almost a year, been in the service of Leone, Madio’sson, and his [Madio’s] sister Sara, who lived in the nearby castle ofSerravalle with her son, Mosè, and, with them, had consumed the same
powdered blood, obtained at Regensburg, dissolved in wine during the
Passover dinner of 1472.52
According to Leone, it was said that, during his sumptuous
marriage to Sara, held in February of 1470 at Tortona, attended by over
one hundred guests from the Ashkenazi communities of northern Italy,
some local nobles, displeased at their exclusion from those princely
festivities, had, perhaps with excessive enthusiasm, attempted to force
open the host’s doors. Unluckily for them, they were ill-received by theJews who, with weapons in their hands, threw them out of the palace,pursuing them as far as the local the piazza. A case of ill-breeding andpoor hospitality which cried out for vengeance. Obviously, Madio da
Tortona’s version of the facts and that of the guests differed radically.
Taking advantage of the nuptial celebrations, general noise andconfusion, the nobles of Tortona reportedly attempted, rather clumsily,
if not downright stupidly, to break into the premises of the local bank,for the purpose of stealing money, collateral and other valuables, butwere said to have been ingloriously routed.53
Jews in the Duchy of Milan were tried and sentenced for thepossession of books, liturgical and study texts containing offensive andinsulting expressions about Jesus, the Messiah, the Virgin Mary, thedogmas of the Christian religion and anyone practicing Christianity. On
at least four occasions during the second half of the 15th century. In
1459, they were convicted, and fined sixteen thousand ducats.54 In 1474
and 1480, the fines were increased to thirty two thousand ducats,
promptly paid by the Jewish communities of the Duchy. As early as
1476, a large group of rich and influential Lombard Jews, active at
Alessandria, Broni, Piacenza, Monza and Piove di Sacco, headed, as
usual, by Manno da Pavia, were officially pardoned by Gian Galeazzo
Sforza, presumably after paying a conspicuous fine, forinsubordination, bad manners, and defaming and offending the Duke’s
129

illustrious father.55 The mysteries of this trial – if any trial was held –remain to be revealed in full.
At any rate an undoubted echo of these events may be found in thepredication of the Minorite Friar Antonio da Cremona at Chivasso in
December 1471, in which the pious friar invoked the expulsion of the“perfidious and wicked Jewish race”, guilty of continuous blasphemy
against the Holy Faith in Christ in their books and prayers.56
But a trial held at Milan in the spring of 1488 was more serious
and dangerous than ever. Denounced by a converted Jew, forty of themost influential exponents of the Ashkenazim community in the
Dukedom were arrested and transferred to the provincial capital inchains, accused of possessing texts – particularly, liturgical breviaries –suspected of containing prayers attacking Jesus as well as anti-Christian
invective. The trial began on 16 March, in the presence of acommission of inquisitors, deputized by Ludovico the Moor, made up
of Franciscan and Dominican friars in addition to Ducal officials, andpresided over by the vicar of the curia of the archbishop of Milan. The
accused, in the long and detailed interrogations, were requested tosupply due explanations for the apparently contemptuous phrases foundin their texts regarding Christians and the Christian religion, the Popeand baptized Jews, as well as Christ and Mary. The sentence, a severe
one, was handed down the following 31 May. Nine of the accused werecondemned to death; the rest were expelled from the territory of the
Duchy, all property owned by all the accused was declared confiscated.
Luckily for them, the Jews succeeded in commuting the cruel sentence
into a heavy fine of nineteen thousand ducats, to be paid by January
1490.57
When the due date rolled around, the full sum had not yet beencollected, and only part of the sum had found its way to the coffers of
the Sforzas. A few months later, the disillusioned Ludovico the Moor
ordered a public bonfire of the seized books. Mendele (Menachem)
Oldendorf, a young German Jew and son of a bankrupt merchant, acertain Herz (Naftali), also known as “Golden”, perhaps inremembrance of when he had been rich, no doubt possessed a lively
and versatile wit, in addition to an unusual degree of Hebraic culture;
he was known for holding brilliant homilies in the synagogue andfunctioned as a ritual butcher. He was an able writer in the Yiddish
language and was a respected copier of Hebraic codes. In 1474, hetraveled from Regensburg to Venice, where he stayed until at least
1483, when he was present at the famous bonfire at the Ducal Palace.
In his autobiography, the young Oldendorf described the manner inwhich he had been informed by trust-worthy persons of bonfires of130

Jewish texts at Milan and other places in the Duchy of Milan in 1490,
regretting that the burnt manuscripts included some which he hadcopied personally.58“I learned from one of the wise men of Israel [...] that in the year
5248 (=1488) Lord Ludovico the Moor ordering the burning of a great
number of Jewish books at Milan, the capital city, as well as in otherlocalities in his territories. I, personally, a copier of codes, saw some of
my own texts among the books consigned to the flames. Blessed be
God who enabled me to witness the revenge of God’s Law against thatsame nobleman (Ludovico the Moor), who has been captured and taken
into France, where he died [...] Menachem Oldendorf, the German.
5274 (=1514)”.
One of the most important defendants in the Milan trial of 1488
was – and this is not surprising – Jacob, son of Manno of Pavia, who
had died in the meantime.59 Before the inquisitors, Jacob wasrequested, among other things, to deny the rumor that the Jews wereaccustomed to “making images in the form of Jesus Christ and theVirgin Mary, and then throwing them in the fire, trampling them underfoot or covering them with excrement”.60 The accusation was not a newone. During Passover in 1493, Joav (Dattilo) and the other Jews, living
at Savigliano in Piedmonte, were condemned to the payment of a fineof five hundred gold ducats for a serious act of wickedness.
“[These Jews] kneaded the unleavened bread or mazzot, according
to their rite and in outrage to the glorious crucifix [...] and prepared
four images of dough in the form of our Lord, Jesus Christ, in mockeryof God and the Catholic faith, then burnt these dough dolls in theoven”.61
At a distance of only a few years from the Trent trials, it is not
surprising that the judges should turn to one of the inquisitors, Lazzaro
da San Colombano to ask: whether or not the Jews were actuallyaccustomed to abduct Christians for the purpose of committing
reprehensible acts against them in contempt for the Christian faith.62***

NOTES TO CHAPTER FIVE
1

On the personality of Alfonso de Espina and his virulently hostile
attitude towards Jews and Marranos on the eve of the institution of thecourt of the Inquisition in Castille, see, in particular, Y. Baer, A Historyof the Jews in Christian Spain, Philadelphia (Pa.), 1966, vol. II, pp.
283-299).
131

2

Alphonsus de Spina, Fortalitum fidei, Nuremberg, Anton
Koberger, 10 October 1485, cc. 188-192.
3“Magister Symon [...] Medicus non modicum corde gavisus cepit
Infantem (Christianum aetatis quattor annorum) et cum eo rediit in
Civitatem Papiae, ubi domicilium suum habebat. Et cum ingrederetur
domum suam, videns horam qua posset desiderium suae feritatis
explere, capto Infante super mensam extendit, et evaginato gladio caput
Infantis Christiani crudeliter abscidit”.
4“Cum etiam essem in Civitate quadam subjecta Januae, quae
dicitur Savona, ut viderem sacrificari quemdam Infantem Christianum,
Pater meus deduxit me ad domum cujusdam Judaei, ubi fuerant septem
vel octo Judeai congregati secretissime et clausus januis diligentissime
juramentum fortissimum omnes fecerunt de celando id, quod facere
volebant [...] quo peracto, ecce deducitur in medium Infantulus quidam
Christianus aetatis fere duorum annorum, et deducto vase illo, in quo
consuerverunt recipere sanguinem Infantium circumcisorum, posuerunt
predictum Infantem nudum supra praedictum vas, et quatuor Judaei
illorum intendebant occisioni sub tali forma et ordine”.
5
Savona, like other centers belonging to the territory of the
Republic of Genoa, was the home of small nuclei of Jews in the
Fifteenth Century, made up of merchants and money lenders from
Germany, the Duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice. Amongthese, we stumble upon (even at Savona, the names Manno da Pavia,
who, as we have seen, was the most illustrious of the Jewish
communities of the Duchy of Milan, and was also active at Venice (cfr.
R. Urbani and G.N. Zazzu, The Jews in Genoa, Leyden, 1999, vol. I,
pp. 34-37, 43, 47, nos. 71, 73-74, 99, 109).
6
There is an ample bibliography on the ritual murders and trials ofEndingen in 1470. We refer, in particular, to H. Schreiber, Urkundbuch
der Stadt Freiburg im Breisgau, Freiburg, 1829, vol. II, pp. 520-525;
K. von Amira, Das Endinger Judenspiel, Halle, 1883; I. Kracauer,
L’affaire des Juifs d’Endingen de 1470. Prétendu meurtre de Chrétiens
par des Juifs, in “La Revue des Etudes Juives”, XVII (1888), pp. 236245, and more recently R. Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder.
Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany, New Haven (Conn.) –London, 1988, pp. 14-41.
7
For the text of the confession of the three brothers, see Amira,
Das Endinger Judenspiel, cit., pp. 94-97; Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of
Ritual Murder, cit., pp. 18-22.
8Cfr. Kracauer, L’affaire des Juifs d’Endingen de 1470, cit., pp.
237-238; Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder, cit., pp. 18-22.
9Cfr. Kracauer, L’affaire des Juifs d’Endingen de 1470, cit., pp.
132

236-245; Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder, cit., pp. 34.
10
The accusation was that “Judei (urbis Endingen) transmiserunt
sanguinem ad civitates et loca ubi divites morantur Judei” [“the Jews
(of the city of Endingen) distributed the blood as gifts to Jews in thecities and locations where rich Jews lived”]. In this regard and on theconfession of Leo da Pforzheim, see, in particular, Kracauer, L’affairedes Juifs d’Endingen de 1470, cit., pp. 237, 241-242.
11“Pauci anni sunt, quod puer quidam Christianus fuit interfectus a
Judaeis in Helsas (= Alsace), de quo homicidio fuerunt combusti aliqui
Judaei et aliqui eorum aufugerunt, prout dici audivit” [“It was only a
few years ago, that a Christian boy was killed by the Jews of Alsace, a
few Jews being burnt for the murder and others escaped, as he heardsay”] (cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica sul martirio del beato
Simone da Trento nell’anno MCCCCLXXV dagli ebrei ucciso, Trent,
Gianbattista Parone, 1747, p. 143).
12“Dum ipse Lazarus staret cum ejus Patre in Seravalle, quidam
Hebreus advena [...] dixit quod puer Christianus fuerat interfectus in
Civitate seu terra Fortiae [= Pforzheim], quae est terra Alemaniae, etquod Judaei, qui illum puerum interfecerant, fuerunt capti, et propter
hoc fuerat ordinatum inter Judaeos, quod deberent jejunare, ut Deus
liberaret eos” (cfr. ibidem). In this regard, see moreover G. Divina,
Storia del beato Simone da Trento, Trent, 1902, vol. II, p. 38.
13“(Israel Wolfgangus) modo possunt esse quinque vel sex anni,
dici audivit, quod quidam puer Christianus interfectus a Judaeis causa
habendi sanguinem, et quod sic fit interfectus in quodam loco nominato
Hendinga [ = Endingen] Alemaniae, qui Judaie fuerant combusti. Et
dicit, quod hoc dici audivit primo a quodam Moyse Judaeo de Ulma,
qui Mosès pro liberatione dictorum Judaeorum equitavit ad
Serenissium Imperatorum pro dictis Judaeis liberandis” (cfr. [Bonelli],
Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 140).
14“Ac novissime infra paucos annos in oppido Endingen et
Pforzheim sub Marchione Carolo Badan quam plures Judae utriusquesexus, pro simile necatione duorum conjugam christianorum ac duorum
filiorum, ultimo supplicio puniti fuerunt”. The text of the letter from
Hinderbach to Fra Michele is found in [Bonelli], Dissertazione
apologetica, cit., pp. 65-66.
15
The following persons have made excellent, even if not entirely
convincing, contributions in this regard: Po-Chia Hsia, who, referringto the testimonies of the Trent defendants on the facts of Endingen and
Pforzheim, considers it all a clumsy inquisitorial manipulation intended
to confer plausibility on slanderous reports, invented out of whole
cloth, using unnatural juxtapositions of evens, known and real. “And133

so, the real and the imaginary fused into a seamless whole, the lies [...]
told under duress only confirmed the veracity of the historicalEndingen trial, which became, in turn, the fulcrum of the fictive
universe of Jewish violence” (R. Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475, A Ritual
Murder Trial, New Haven, Conn., 1992, p. 90). Elsewhere, the sameauthor, referring to the detailed deposition of Maestro Tobias on
Friedrich’s visit to Venice in 1469, and on the presence in the city of
the “merchant of Candia” (who, as we have seen, should be identified
as David Mavrogonato), speaks of a fable with an exotic flavor,
imagined by the Jewish physician to placate his tormenters and to put
an end to the tortures to which he was being subjected (ibidem, pp. 4647). But, as may easily be demonstrated, Tobias’ testimony was precise
in all its particulars and corresponded to that which he had actuallyseen and that which had really happened on that occasion. Miri Rubin,
who has examined the German trials for desecration of the Host,although he considers them a slander, cannot help but note that thetestimonies often contained elements the acceptability of which wasbeyond doubt (“the testimony contains true and imagined aspects ofJewish communal life”). Cfr. M. Rubin, Gentile Tales. The Narrative
Assault on Late Medieval Jews, New Haven (Conn.), 1999, p. 123.
16
“Quod modo possunt esse .xv anni vel circa, quod Sachetus de
Alemania, pater ipsius testis, tempore eius vite dixit testi quod tunc
poterant esse circa quadraginti anni, quod dictus Sachetus existens incivitate Lançhut de Alemania Bassa, et ibi cum familia sua habitaret,
aliqui Judei existentes in dicta civitate, circum festa Pasce eorum,
interfecerunt quendam puerum (Christianum) masculum, causa habendi
sanguinem et utendi illo; et quod fuit manifestum domino illius civitatis
qui dominus fecit detinere omnes Judeos qui ibi aderant; exceptis
aliquibus qui affugerunt, inter quos fuit pater ipsius testis, qui aufugit etqui vix potuit evadere. Et pro morte cuius pueri sic interfecti dicebat
idem pater ipsius testis quadragintaquique Judeos fuisse combustos”(cfr. A. Esposito and D. Quaglioni, Processi contro gli ebrei di Trento;
1475-1478; I: I processi del 1475, Padua, 1990, pp. 124-125). For acareful examination of the deposition of Giovanni da Feltre, see
Quaglioni (ibidem, pp. 35-36).
17
In this regard, see Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., pp. 31-32, 93.
18
Cfr. M. Toch, The Formation of a Diaspora. The Settlement ofJews in the Medieval German Reich, in “Aschkenas”, VII (1997), no. 1,
pp. 55-78.
19“Dum ipse Wolfgangus staret in Civitate de Ratibona, cum
Samuele Hebraeo, quidam Jossele Hebraeus emit quendam Puerum
Christianum a quodam paupere mendicante Christiano, quem sic emit
134per decem ducatis et quem Puerum idem Jossele emit per dies octo ante
Pascha Judaeorum, et illus tenuit in ejus Domo usque ad diem Paschae
ipsorum Judaeorum, in qua die Paschae de sero, circa duas vel tres
horas noctis, idem Jossele portavit dictum Puerum in quandam
Synagogam parvam, in qua erat ipse Wolfgang una cum 25, vel 26
Judaeis, quo Puero sic portato, quidam Mohar Hebraeus accept dictum
Puerum et eum spoliavit, deinde illum posuit super quendam capsam”([Bonelli), Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 140). See also Divina,
Storia del beato Simone da Trent, cit., vol. II, pp. 38-39, 41-42.
20“Et dum Puer sic staret, quatuor vel six ex Judaeis ibi astantibus
pupugerunt cum acubus Puerum et ipse Wolfgangus fuit unus ex illis
qui pupugit [...] dum sanguis exiret, Heberle Judaeis cum quadam
scutela stagni vel argenti, colligebat sanguinem” ([Bonelli],
Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 141). See also Divina, Storia delbeato Simone da Trento, cit., pp. 39-40.
21“Mane sequenti venerunt plures alii Judaei ad videndum dictum
corpus et in quo die sequenti de sero idem corpus fuit sublatum decapsa et portatum in Synagogam praedictam, in quam tunc veneruntcirca triginta Judaei” (cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p.
141). See also Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II,
pp. 30-40.
22“Jossele et Sayer praedicti mandaverunt Jacob et Isac, quod
debere auferre corpus de dicta Synagoga et illud portare ad
sepeliendum in quandam curiam contiguam dictae Synagogae, quae
curia est versus Orientum, et quod illud corpus deberent sepelire indicta Curia in quodam angulo a meridie, quae curia est circumdata
muro et in eam intratur per quoddam ostium, quod tenetur clausum”([Bonelli], Dissertazione Apologetica, cit., p. 141). See also Divina,
Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, p. 40.
23
Cfr. Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder, cit., pp. 66-72;
Rubin, Gentile Tales, cit., pp. 123-128.
24
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
38-39; Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder, cit., pp. 72; Id., Trent
1475, cit., pp. 97-98.
25
In the vast bibliography on the Regensburg trials of the years
1476-1480, see R. Strauss, Urkunden und Aktenstücke zur Geschichte
der Juden in Regensburg, 1453-1738, Munich, 1960, pp. 68-168; Id.,
Regensburg und Augsburg, Philadelphia (Pa.), 1939; Po-Chia Hsia, The
Myth of Ritual Murder, cit., pp. 72-85; W. Treue, Ritualmord undHostienschändung, Untersuchungen zur Judenfeindschaft in
Deutschland im Mittelalter und in der fruhen Neuzeit, Berlin, 1989, pp.
52-58. See also the notes in this regard by W.P. Eckert, Motivi
135superstiziosi nel processi agli ebrei di Trent, in I.Rogger and M.
Bellabarba, Il principe vescovo Johannes Hinderbach (1465-1486) fra
tardo Medioevo e Umanesimo, Atti del Convegno promosso della
Biblioteca Comunale di Trento (2-6 October 1989), Bologna, 1992, pp.
383-394.
26
Cfr. Strauss, Urkunden und Aktenstücke zur Geschichte derJuden in Regensburg, cit., pp. 73-80.
27
Cfr. ibidem, pp 82-83, 144-148.
28
Yoseph Colon, Sheelot w-teshuot, Responsa, Venice, Daniel
Bomberg, 1519, resp. no. 5; Id., Responsa and Decisions, by E. Pines,
Jerusalem, 1970, p. 282, response no. 104 (in Hebrew).
29
In Hebrew, Ha-ghedolah ha’awonotenu ha-rabbim ekh shebene’, KK. Re’genshpurkh (= Regensburg) hem tefusim. The letterbears the date 8 Iyyar 5238 (=1478), but this is a transcription error for5236 (= 1476). The Hebrew document is transcribed with many errors
from a lost original and inserted in the records of the trial of the priest
Paolo da Novara, in an authenticated copy by the notary Giovanni daFondo, in the dossier of the Trent trial records, signed and sealed by thepodestà Alessandro da Bassano, dated 11 March 1478 (ibidem).
30
The letters in Yiddish are also preserved in the Trent trial
records (AST Archivio Principesco Vescovile, s.l., 69, 68). These will
be soon be published in full, with an introduction by myself from theYiddish language point of view, in one of the coming editions of“Zakhor”. The letters, which are the most ancient remaining documents
in Yiddish, have been partially indicated with many inxactitudes (cfr.
W. Treue,
Trienter Judeprozess. Voraussetzungen-AblaufeAuswirkungen, 1475-1588, Hannover Forschungen zur Geschichte derJuden, 1977; pp. 114 ss.; Ch. Turniansky and E. Trimm, Yiddish in
Italia. Manuscripts and Printed Books from the 15th to the 17th
Century, Milan, 2003, p. 158). The missives, dated the first of May
1476, are drawn up partly in rhymed prose. The recipients are Ellan(Ellin, Ella), and her husband, the banker Crassino (Ghershom) ofNovara, while the senders are his/her daughter Geilin, Geilin’s
husband, Mordekhai Gumprecht, and his brother Yoel.
31“Il prete [gallech] mi ha visto quando ho ricevuto le lettere che
gli ho portato” [“the priest [gallech] saw me when I received the letter
which I brought him”] (letter in Yiddish dated 5 May 5236 [= 1476].
32
Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder, cit., pp. 77-82,
Eckert, Motivi superstiziosi, cit., pp. 388-389.
33
The name Rikhard (Reichard), which also appears in the form
Reisshart (Rizzardo), is found solely among the Jews of Regensburg inthe second half of the Fifteenth Century (cfr. M. Stern, Regensburg im
136

Mittelalter. The israelitische Bevölkerung der deutschen Städte, Berlin,
1934, pp. 48, 55; A. Beider, A Dictionary of Aschkanezic Given Names,
Bergenfield, N.J., 2001, p. 406).
34
Like Rizzardo da Regensburg, who lived at Brescia but had abank in the district, at Gavardo, where he lived with his two brothers,
Enselino and Jacob, another Jewish money lender, Leone di Maestro
Seligman, had a dwelling at Brescia, carrying on the money lending
activity in the district, at Iseo (cfr. F. Glissenti, Gli ebrei nel Bresciano
al tempo delle Dominazione Veneta. Nuove ricerche e studi, Brescia,
1891, pp. 8-14; F. Chiappa, Una colonia ebraica in Palazzolo a metà adel 1400, Brescia, 1964, p. 37).
35
“Modo possunt essi anni sex vel circa in loco Seravalli, cum
Arone eius Patre staret, idem Aron dixit sibi Lazaro, quod fueratinterfectus quidam puer in dicta Civitate Ratisbonae et quod Rizardus
frater Aron dixerat sibi Aron, quod habuerat de sanguine illius pueriinterfecti Ratisbonae” [“Perhaps about six years ago or thereabouts, in aplace called Serravalle, when Aaron was there with his father, Aaron
told Lazzarus that a boy had been killed in that city of Regensburg andthat Rizzardo’s brother Aaron told him that he had some blood from theboy killed at Regensburg”] [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p.
143.). See also Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II,
pp. 15, 24-25, 37-38; Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., pp. 91-92.
36“Primo anno quo ipse Angelus habitavit in castro Gavardi
territorii Brixiae cum Enselino, Rizardus Hebreus, qui habitavit
Brixiae, scripsit unas litteras Enselino, in quibus significabat quod ipse
Ricardus emeret de sanguine et quod inserviret sibi de eo” [“The firstyear that Angelo lived in the city of Gavrdo in the territories of Brescia
with Enselino, Rizzardo the Jew, who lived at Brescia, wrote Enselino
a few letters, in which he said that Ricardo sold blood and that he had
used some of it”] (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, pp.
294-295.
37“Isac dici audivit ab Angelo quod Rizzardus de Brixia habuerit
de sanguine cuiusdam puerii alias interfecit in Civitate Ratisbonae”[“Isacco heard Angelo say that Rizzardo had some blood from the otherboys killed at Regensburg”] ([Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit.,p. 144). See also Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II,
pp. 36-37.
38
Cfr. Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., pp. 97-98.
39“Rizzardus Hebraeus habuerat de sanguine cujusdam Pueri
Christiani interfecti Ratisbonae, jam ab alisquibus annis et quod illum
habuerat a Jossele, vitrico ipsius Rizardo; quem sanguinem sibi
detulerat Salomon filius cuiusdam sororis Rizardi et quod ipse
137

Wolfgangus dixit eidem Rizardo, quod ipse Wolfgangus interfuerat,
quando ille puer fuit interfectus Ratisbonae” [“Rizzardo the Jew had
already possesed blood from that Christian boy killed at Regensburg
for several years, and that he had received it from Jossele, Rizzardo’s
step-father, and that this Wolfgang told Rizzardo, that he, Wolfgang,
had been present at Regensburg when the boy was killed”] ([Bonelli],
Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 141). See also Divina, Storia delbeato Simone da Trent, cit., vol. II, 43-45.
40“Et tunc Rizardus esset in Civitate Paduae, adjuverat ad
interficiendum quendam Puerum Christianum, quem Puerum
interfecerat ipse Rizardus, una cum certis aliis Judaeis habitantibus
Paduae et in loca circumvicinia [...] et illum interfecerant in eorum
scholis, sive Synagogae”) [“And when Rizzardo was in the city of
Padua, he helped kill the Christian boy, and that the person who killed
the boy was this same Rizzardo, with certain other Jews living at Padua
or other adjacent localities [...] and that they killed the boy in theirschool, or synagogue”] ([Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p.
141). It should be noted that at Padua in 1472, a “hostaria da judei”[Jewish inn] located at Sant’ Urbano, was kept by a certain Rizzardo diMichele, who must not, however, be confused with Rizzardo di
Brescia. In fact, the latter was the son of Lazzaro, and practiced
medicine and money lending, not tavern-keeping (ASP, Estimo 1418,
vol. 92, c. 43, ss: “Rizardus hebreus qm Michele sta a Santo Urban, nona altro nisi la persona e soa mogliere e tri fioli. Et dice far hosteria dazudei in la ditta contra: et paga de fitto da le hostaria a missier Archoan
Buzacharin ducati XI” [“Rizzardo the Jew, son of the late Michele, atSanto Urbano has only himself and his wife and three children. And hesaid that he kept a Jew inn in the same district; and that he rented theinn from a certain Messer Archoan Buzachazin for eleven ducats”]; inthis regard, see also C. De Benedetti, author, Hativiwa: il camminodella speranza. Gli ebrei a Padova, 1998, vol. I, p. 16). In 1472,
Rizzardo received a certain sum due to him from the bank owned by
Salomon da Piove, represented by the son Marcuccio (ASP, Notarile,
vol. 249, c. 59v. 11 March 1472). A son of Rizzardo, Abramo, lived at
Padua in 1485 in the Volto dei Negri district (ASP, Notarile, Agostinodelle Conchelle, vol. 2056c, c. 23r 4 August 1485).
41
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
43-45.
42“Interrogatus quod dicat veritatem et non mentiatur,(Wolfgangus) audicissime loquendo dixit quod quae supradictum
Rixardum dixisse, ipse Wolfgangus narrabit coram quocumque
Domino et Principe; dicens etiam, quod per Deum, quando ipse
138

Wolfgangus ducetur ad justitiam, ut decapitetur, vel aliter interficiatur,affirmavit hoc quod supradixit” [quoted in text], ([Bonelli],
Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 141).
43
Cfr. Straus, Urkunden und Aktestücke zur Geschichte der Judenin Regensburg, cit., pp. 64-66.
44
Cfr. ([Bonelli], Disssertazione apologetica, cit., p. 141; Divina,
Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, p. 42.
45
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
29-30.
46
This Abramo, a banker at Piacenza, seems to have been activefrom 1455 until the end of Feburary 1476. Cfr. Sh. Simonsohn, The
Jews in the Duchy of Milan, Jerusalem, 1982, vol. I, pp. 183, 653, nn.
391, 1585).
47
On 7 August 1479, Falcone, “hostero de li hebrei in la città dePavia” [“inkeeper for the Jews in the city of Pavia”], asked the Duke of
Milan for authorization “de tenere zoghi [...] in la casa de la sua
habitatione, et che cadauno hebreo gli possa zugare tam de nocte quamde die a suo piacere, libere et impune” [“to run gambling games [...] in
his dwelling, and that each Jew may gamble there by night or day, at
his pleasure, without punishment”]. The Duke consented, on thecondition that gambling with Christians in the tavern would beprohibited (cfr. C. Invernizzi, Gli ebrei a Pavia, in “Bollettino della
Societa Pavese di Storia Patria”, V (1905), p. 211; Simonsohn, The
Jews in the Duchy of Milan, cit., vol. II, pp. 773, 789-799, nn. 1870,
1917).
48
Cfr. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, cit., vol. I, pp.
506-507, no. 1200; vol. II, pp. 798-799, no. 1917.
49
Colon, Sheelot w-teshuvot, cit., resp. no. 160. In support ofColon’s authoritative opinion came two other well-known rabbis,
Yehuda Minz da Padova and Jacob Mestre di Cremona. On the matteras a whole, see J.R. Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World. A Source
Book (315-1791), New York, 1974, pp. 389-393.
50
Cfr. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, cit., vol. II, p.
702, no. 1701. Our Falcone is not identical with the Jew of the same
name who had taken part in the conspiracy hatched in 1476 by thebanker Manno da Pavia and other influential Jews from the Duchy of
Milan to poison the bishop of Trent in revenge, as the priest Divina
seems to believe (Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, p. 30,
no. 1). The personage in question was, in fact, explicitly called Falcone
da Monza and had a house in that city (ibidem, pp. 161-165). In thespring of 1470, Falcone da Monza was arrested, on the denunciation ofa converted Jew, with the accusation, later revealed to be unfounded, of139

disfiguring an image of the Virgin Mary and throwing it in the flames(cfr. L. Fumi, L’Inquisizione romana e lo Stato di Milano, in “Archivio
Storico Lombardo”, XXX (1903), p. 307; Simonsohn, The Jews in the
Duchy of Milan, cit., vol. I, pp. 518-519, 526, nn 1266, 1244). A nativeof Udine, Falcone was active in the money trade at Monza from 1472,
while his money lending permit was renewed in 1479. In 1473, he wasappointed tax collector for the Jews in the Duchy and on 4 December
1480 he appears among the representatives of the Milanese state, who
paid into the ducal strongboxes the huge fine of thirty two thousand
ducats, to which he had been sentenced for having kept Hebrew books
containing injurious expressions with regards to Jesus and Christianity(cfr. Simonsohn, The Jews of the Duchy of Milan, cit., vol. I, pp. 599,
619, nn. 1440, 1494; vol. II, pp. 781, 849, nn. 1881, 2035).
51
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, p.
29. Manno, who, in 1441, had a stable residence at Padua, where hemanaged the main bank owned by him, and also had a house at Mestre
starting in 1462, probably in concomitance with the opening of the
Venice branch of the Paduan bank (cfr. R. Segre, The Jews inPiedmont, Jerusalem, 1986; vol. I, p. 289, no. 630; Simonsohn, The
Jews in the Duchy, cit., vol. I, p. 342, no. 768).
52
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
27-29.
53
Cfr. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, cit., vol. I, p.
515, no. 1217.
54
In this regard, see A. Antoniazzi Villa, Fonti notarili per lastoria degli ebrei nei domini sforzeschi, in “Libri e documenti”, VII(1981), no. 3, p. 1-11; Ead., Appunti sulla polemica antiebraica nel
Ducato Sforzesco, in “Studi di Storia Medioevale e Diplomatica”, VII(1983), pp. 119-128; Ead., Gli ebrei nel milanese dal Medioevo
all’espulsione, in F. Della Peruta, Storia illustrata di Milano, Milan,
1989, pp. 941-959.
55
Cfr. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, cit., vol. I, pp.
436-437, no. 1019.
56
Fra Antonio da Cremona claimed that he put an end to the“toleratam habitationem perfide et scellerate progenei ebrayce, que
ultra id quod semper pertinax fuit et est in opbrobrium christiane, legis,
semper etiam in suis officiis et orationibus in hoc perfide est obiecta
christiane legi, quam ipsam cum operibus eius quotidie et incessantur
blasfemat” (cfr. Segre, The Jews in Piedmont, cit., vol. I, p. 330-331).
57
The trial testimonies have been studied and published by A.
Antoniazzi Villa, Un processo contro gli ebrei nella Milano del 1488,
Milan, 1986.
140

58

Fragments of Mendele Oldendorf of Regensburg’s
autobiography have been published by E. Kupfer, in “Di goldene keyt.
Periodical for Literature and Social Problems”, 58 (1967) pp. 212-223(in Yiddish). He has stressed its importance as a source for the historyof the Jews at Venice and in the Ashkenazi communities of northern
Italy in the last part of the Fifteenth century, D. Nissim, Un “minian”
de ebrei ashkenaziti a Venezia negli anni 1465-1480, in “Italia”, XVI,
2004, p. 45.
59
In the trial documents, Jacob is referred to as “Jacob ebreus dePapia, filius quondam Manni, habitator in civitate Papie”. (Cfr.
Antoniazzi Villa, Un processo contro gli ebrei nella Milan del 1488,
cit., pp. 90-92.
60“Si faciunt aliquam ymaginem ad symilitudinem Iesus Christi etVirginis Marie et ipsam ymaginam proyciunt in igne vel in aliquo, velponunt sub pedibus, vel alidquid faceunt in contemptum” (cfr. ibidem,
p. 86; “[...] et ipsam ymaginem proyciunt in igne, vel stercore vel subpedibus” [“Whether they make images in the likeness of Jesus Christ
and the Virgin Mary and throw those images in the fire or in
excrement, or stamp them underfoot, or otherwise hold them incontempt”] (cfr. ibidem, p. 88).
61“(Judaei} panes azymos seu mazoctos secundum ritum eorum
legis confecisse ad instar tamen gloriossimi cruxifficii et eiusvilipendium [...] quia fecerunt quatuor imagines de pasta ad imaginem
domini nostri Jehesus Christi in obproprium Christi et fidei catholice,
comburendo ipsas imagines infra quendam furnam” (cfr. Segre, The
Jews in Piedmont, cit., vol. I, pp. 146-147, nos. 326-327). For
documentation on other cases in which, in the Middle Ages, the Jews
were accused of making, on the eve of the Passover, leavened breadwith the image of the crucified Christ, and then causing them to be
consumed in the heat of the furnace, see D. Nirenberg, Communities ofViolence. Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages, Princeton(N.J.), 1996, p. 220.
62
“Si (hebrei) capiunt aliquem christianum et aliquid de ipso incontemptum fidei christiane faciunt” (cfr. Antoniazzi Villa, Un
processo contro gli ebrei nella Milano del 1488, cit., p. 86).

141

CHAPTER SIXMAGICAL AND THERAPEUTIC
USES OF BLOOD
Reading the depositions of defendants accused of ritual child murderwith relation to the utilization of blood, one is left with the clear
impression that, rather than explain the need for the blood of a
Christian child, the defendants were attempting to provide a descriptionof the wonderful therapeutic and magical properties of blood generally,
and of blood extracted from children and young persons in particular.
The principle emphasis was placed upon scorched, dried blood which
had been reduced to powder; such blood is said to have been used as a
haemostatic [coagulant] of extraordinary effectiveness when applied to
the wound caused by circumcision. Angelo da Verona had no doubt inthis regard and explained to the judges at Trent that, once the blood had
been reduced to powder, Jews normally saved it for later re-use when
their sons were circumcised, to heal the wound in the foreskin. Ifavailable, they were said to have used other haemostatic powders as analternative, such as bolo di Armenia and the so-called “dragon’s
blood”, a sort of dark red colored resin, known in pharmaceutics asCalamus Draco or Pterocarpus Draco.1 The physician Giuseppe diRiva del Garda, known as the “hunchbacked Jew”, who had
circumcised Angelo’s sons, normally used it during the course of theholy operation.2
Obviously, Maestro Tobias, who rightly considered himself amedical expert, also knew how to prepare the magic haemostatic: “Youtake the blood, allowing it to coagulate; then you dry it and make apowder out of it, which can be used in so many different ways”.3
Giovanni Hinderbach seemed scandalized by these revelations andcensured the wickedness of the Jews in healing the circumcision
wounds of their sons with the blood of Christian children in his opening
address at the Trent trial. “As with other things Tobias confessed”,
explained the prince bishop, “they medicate their circumcisions withthe powder of that coagulated blood and then, in the second or third day
after the operation, recovering their health”.4
Elias and Mercklin (Mordekhai), as well, two of the brothers
accused of the terrible multiple homicide of Endingen in Alsace, during142their trial in 1470, attempted uselessly to beat around the bush before
the inquisitors’ demands relating to the use of the blood of Christianchildren by Jews. This blood was then utilized for the marvelous
balsamic qualities which it possessed, beneficial in curing epilepsy andeliminating the disgusting body odor of Jews [il disgustoso fetore
giudaico]. But in the end, they both admitted to making use of themagical healing liquid to cure the circumcision wounds of their sons.5
Leo da Pforzheim, the most illustrious among the defendants accusedof acquiring blood from the children killed at Endingen, confessed that
he had procured it because it was required for the circumcision
procedure. Leo had known that the powdered blood of children wasused as a coagulant of proven efficacy on those occasions for more thantwenty years, ever since the first time he had been present at a
circumcision ceremony with his father, twenty years before. 6 The Jews
accused of ritual child murder at Tyrnau in Hungary in 1494 alsodeclared, among other things, that they had used powdered blood as a
circumcision haemostatic.7 The widespread use of blood as a powerful
haemostatic among the Jews is probably the reason for the widespreadnotion that Jewish males – all directly or indirectly guilty of Deicide –suffered painful and abundant monthly menstruation periods[presumably anally].
Perhaps first advanced by Cecco d’Ascoli in his commentary De
Sphaera by Sacrobosco in 1324, this eccentric opinion is said to havereceived enthusiastic support from the Dominican friar Rodolfo de
Selestat in Alsace.8 The Jews, the killers of Christ, and their progeny,
were said to been inflicted with an abnormal escape of blood,
menstruations, bleeding hemorrhoids, hematuriae [blood in the urine]and exhausting fits of dysentery, which they were alleged to attempt tocure through the application of Christian blood as a haemostatic.
“I heard from the Jews [...] that all the Jews, descendants of thoseguilty of Deicide, have escapes of blood every month and often sufferfrom dysentery, from which they frequently perish. But they recover
their health by virtue of Christian blood, baptized in the name ofChrist”.9
Circumcision hemorrhages, epistaxis [nosebleed], overly abundant
menstruation, open hemorrhoids, abnormal abdominal flow. The mosteffective cure to control and heal them always seemed to be recourse to
the powerful and magical powdered blood of children. But in this, theJews were acting no differently from the Christians of surrounding
society, despite Hindenbach’s feigned and artificial stupefaction. In
popular medicine, blood, whether human or animal, was alleged to be
an indispensable component in the preparation of electuaries [powder143

based medications mixed with honey or syrup to form a paste] andastringent powders of extraordinary effectiveness.10 As Pier Camporesi
wrote, “a sacred and alchemistic haemostatic, blood (and notincorrectly, in epochs in which hemorrhages represented a terrible
tragedy, was considered a powerful healant”.11 According to theprescriptions of the Theatrum Chemicum, marvelous unguents andpowders were derived from human blood, capable of arresting even themost resistant flow of blood and of expelling dangerous infirmities.12
The most expert specialists knew that human blood possessed great
therapeutic powers and was therefore to be prepared and treated withthe greatest care. They therefore recommended that “it being
ascertained that it is perfectly dry, it should be immediately placed in abronze mortar, which must be quite hot, and should be ground with apestle and made to pass through the finest sieve, and after all of it has
passed, it shall be sealed in a small glass pot and must be renewed
every year in the springtime”.13
Be that as it may, the Jews, when they described the operation of
circumcision addressing the Christian public, preferred to omit the useof children’s blood among the “restrictive powders” and limited
themselves to listing others, such as the classical Dragon’s Blood andcoral powder. Leon da Modena, the noted rabbi of Venice, in his classic
Historia de’ Riti Hebraici described the ceremony of circumcision(berith milah) briefly as follows:“The mohel comes with a plate, upon which are the instruments
and things necessary, such as razor, astringent powders, pieces of
bandage with rose oil, and some similarly use a bowl of sand in whichto place the foreskin, which is cut [...]. The mohel continues, and, withthe mouth, sucks the blood flowing from the wound two or three times
and spits it into a glass of wine, after which he places Dragon’s blood,coral powder, or things which staunch, and piece of bandage soaked inof rose oil on the cut, and binds and bandages it tightly. He then takes a
glass of wine [...] and bathes the infant’s mouth with the wine in which
he spat out the sucked blood”.14
The omission of powdered blood from among the haemostatic
powders could not be accidental. Confirmation of this point could
easily be obtained from “Jews turned Christians”. They would naturally
never have concealed such a scandalous practice, assuming that they
actually considered it scandalous. Shemuel Nahmias, a Venetian anddisciple of Leon da Modena, later baptized under the name of Giulio
Morosini, discussing the topic of circumcision, did not conceal his
severe censure of the custom of placing blood mixed with wine on thechild’s mouth. This practice seemed to him in implacable conflict with144

the Biblical prohibition against the consumption of blood (“Tell me,
moreover, is it not against the Divine Law, expressed in several places,that the blood is not to be eaten or drunk? And then in the rite of
circumcision, you place the circumcised boy’s own blood, issuing fromthe foreskin, mixed in wine, in his own mouth, adding, to your greatertransgression, and repeating that in that blood he will live, almost is if
he were to be nourished by that blood”).
But of the utilization of the blood of the Christian child as a
haemostatic applied to the wound caused by circumcision, the convert
Morosini made no mention at all, almost as if the practice were
unknown to him or did not merit considerable attention.
“At this point the mohel arrives, and, behind him, another person,with a basin or cup in his hand, containing all the instruments necessary
to the ceremony, some silver tongs, which are placed as a sign of how
much foreskin is to be cut, a container full of Dragons Blood and otherastringent powders to clot the blood, and two cups or small soup plates,
one containing an absorbent material cut up for the purpose, greased
with oil of Balsam or rose oil to medicate the cut, and one filled withearth or sand in which to place the foreskin, burying the portion of theforeskin which had been cut off [...] having completed the above, themohel squeezes the little member of the circumcised boy, and sucking
in the blood several times, spits it into a glass of wine, prepared for thispurpose, and finishes by treating the cut with the above mentioned oiland powder”.15
Another converted Jew, Raffael Aquilino, baptized in 1545, andlater appointed by the Holy Office with responsibility for confiscating
the Talmud and burning it in the territories in the Duchy of Urbino andthe Mark, never dwelt in the slightest upon the presumed Jewish
custom of using powdered Christian blood to heal the circumcision
wound, instead, concerning himself with the analogies between the
Holy Trinity and the three recurrent elements in the ceremony, applied
to the burying of the foreskin in the earth of the cemetery, the egg andwine, which, after washing the wound, is given to the infant to drink.
“Similarly, they take three things for the said circumcision, i.e., theearth from their sepulchers, and they put it in a basin in which theyplace the flesh which they cut off the foreskin, the wine with which
they render thanks to God [...] and three eggs, while in the basin, into
which they pour the wine used to wash the foreskin [...] and they washthe circumcision wound with the wine three times”.16
The famous Tuscan convert Paolo Medici describes the ceremonyof circumcision in detail, with obvious hostility, but seems unaware of
the use of coagulated blood as a haemostatic powder. In fact, he145

restricted himself to observing, without further detail, that “the mohel[...] places astringent powders, rose oil and similar things on the cut, asa sort of dressing, ties it up, bandages it and delivers it to the
Godmother”.17
One could at this point conclude that the use of the powdered
blood of children, and especially Christian blood, as a haemostatic
during circumcision, in view of the disinterest in its regard shown evenby converted Jews, on other points inclined to defame Judaism, is achimera and a tendentious invention, either of the inquisitors, obsessedwith blood, or of Jews themselves, terrorized by torture and slavishly
eager to placate their tormenters. But this would be erroneous andmisleading.
The texts of the practical Cabbalah, the handbooks of stupendous
medications (segullot), compendia of portentous electuaries, recipe
books of secret cures, mostly composed in the German-speaking
territories, even very recently, stress the haemostatic and astringent
powers of young blood, above all, on the circumcision wound. These
are ancient prescriptions, handed down for generations, put together,with variants of little importance, by cabbalistic herb alchemists ofvarious origins, and repeatedly reprinted right down to the present day,in testimony to the extraordinary empirical effectiveness of these
remedies.
Elia ben Mosè Loan, rabbi of Worms, known as the Baal Shem(literally: the patron of the name), in his Sefer Telodot Adam (“Book of
the Story of Man”), in Hebrew and Yiddish, prescribed that “to arrest
the flow of blood from the circumcision and that which flows from thenose, one must take the blood, boil it over the fire until it is desiccated,
reduce it to powder, and place it successively on the cut of thecircumcision or on the nostrils, so that the blood coagulates”.18 We finda similar recipe in the Derekh ha-chaim ha-nikra Segullot Israel (“Wayof the Life, also called the Book of Portentous Remedies of Israel”) by
Chaim Lipschütz, which adds another magical medication, this timeintended to arrest the menstrual flow. “Take the menstrual blood and achicken feather, which thou shalt immerse in the menstrual blood of thepatient; when the blood with the feather has been well shaken, cause it
to be dried before the fire, making a powder of it, which thou shalt
administer to the woman in wine”.19
Sacharja Plongiany Simoner, in his classic Sefer Zechirah (“Bookof Medical Briefs”), was also rather precise as regards the Biblicalreferences to the extraordinary curative and restrictive powers of blood.
“To stop the flow of blood from circumcision or nasal hemorrhage
using the coagulated blood of the child or the patient: the blood is
146

placed before the fire until it hardens, and then it is crushed with apestle, making a fine powder to be placed on the wound. And that iswhat we find written in the book of Jeremiah (30:17): ‘For I shallrestore health unto thee, and I shall heal thee of thy wounds’. It is to beunderstood in fact that it shall be precisely from your wound, i.e., fromyour blood, that your health shall be restored to you”.20
It does not, therefore, appear that there can be any doubt as to thefact that, through an antique tradition, never interrupted, empirical
healers, cabbalists and herb alchemists prescribed powdered blood as ahealant of proven effectiveness during circumcision or hemorrhage.
The fact that this practice was probably anything but generalizedshould not lead us to suppose that it was not actually in use, particularlyin the Ashkenazi Jewish communities, where stupendous “secrets”, firsttransmitted orally, then printed in suitable compendiums, are said tohave enjoyed extraordinary success over time. On the other hand,empirical knowledge of an analogous kind, even if obviously applied tocontingencies other than circumcision, were a heritage of surrounding
Christian society, proving themselves profoundly rooted, particularlyon the popular level.21
Two other Jewish customs relating to circumcision, which do notappear to have been uniformly widespread from the geographical andchronological point of view, are also of particular interest. Here as well,
popular beliefs, based on magical and superstitious elements, seem topossess a vigor and vitality capable of circumventing the precise normsof ritualistic Judaism (halakhah), or of seriously distorting them.
The ritual responses of the Gheonim, the heads of the rabbinicalacademies of Babylon, active between the VII and XI centuries, refer tothe local custom of boiling perfumes and spices in water, thus
rendering them fragrant and odorous, and of circumcising children,
making their blood gush into that liquid until the colors were mixed. “Itis at this point”, the rabbinical response continues, “that all the young
males wash themselves in that water, in memory of the blood of thepact, which has united God to our patriarch Abraham”.22 In this rite, ofa propitiatory nature, the blood from the circumcision wound, united
with the sweet-smelling potion, is said to have possessed the ability totransform itself into a potent aphrodisiac, used in curative electuaries,
beneficial in lending vigor to amorous desires and to the procreative
abilities of initiated males.
One form of magical cannibalism, related to circumcision, may befound in a custom highly widespread among both the Ashkenazi Jewish
communities and [Jewish?] communities of the Mediterranean region.
The women present at the circumcision ceremony but not yet blessed147with progeny of the male sex, anxiously awaited the cutting of theforeskin of the child. At this point, throwing inhibition to the winds, as
if at a pre-established signal, the women hurled themselves upon thatpiece of bloody flesh. The luckiest woman is alleged to have snatched it
up and gulped it down immediately, before she could be mobbed by thecompeting females, who must have been no less hardened and highly
motivated. The triumphant winner was in no doubt whatever that theproud tit-bit would be infallibly useful in causing the much-covetedvirile member to germinate inside the impregnated abdomen throughsympathetic medicine. The struggle for the foreskin among women
without male progeny appears in some ways similar to today’scompetition among spinsters and nubile young girls for the conquest of
the bride’s bouquet after the wedding ceremony.
Giulio Morosini, alias Shemuel Nahmias, remembered with muchannoyance this repellent custom, which he had seen rather in vogue
among the young Jewish women of Venice.
“The superstition of the women is remarkable in this regard. Ifsterile women wishing to become pregnant happened, as theyfrequently did, to be present [at the circumcision ceremony], not asingle one of them would hesitate to fight off the others and steal theforeskin; and the first one to grab it never hesitates to fling it in her
mouth and swallow it as a sympathetic remedy of extremely great
effectiveness in causing her to be fruitful”.23
Rabbi Shabbatai Lipschütz confirmed this extraordinary custom“of the struggle amongst the women to swallow the foreskin
immediately after circumcision, as a wonderful secret (segullah) in the
production of male children”. He added that there were rabbis who
permitted it, such as the famous North African cabbalist Chaim Yosef
David Azulay, known as the Chidah (the Enigma), and the rabbi from
Salonica, Chaim Abraham Miranda, while others energeticallyprohibited it, considering it a scandalous and impermissible practice.24
But the cabbalistic herb alchemist (Rafael Ohana), expert in the secretsof procreation, although he possessed little skill in gynecologicalsciences, referred with satisfaction to the results obtained from women
having swallowed the foreskin of a circumcised boy, even in recent
times. In his guide, intended for women wishing to have children andentitled Mar’eh ha-yaladim (“He Who Shows the Children”), theexpert North African rabbi advised that, to make it more appetizing, theunusual dish be covered with honey, like a home-made sweet.25 The
magical and empirical tradition linked to the foreskin of circumcision
as a fecundating element was not lost over the course of the centuries,
but was protected by the secrets of the practical Cabbalah despite the148disdainful opposition of rationalistic rabbis.
It was a common belief that the Jews used blood in powders, driedor diluted in wine or water, applying it to the eyes of the new-born, tofacilitate their opening, and to bathe the bodies of the dying, tofacilitate their entry into the Garden of Eden.26 Samuel Fleischaker,
Israel Wolfgang’s friend, indicted for the ritual murder at Regensburg
in 1467, attributed infallible magical properties to young blood, which,spread on the eyes, was said to have served to protect from the evil eye(ayn ha-ra).27
All the cases examined above, and in a great number of thosepresent in the compendiums of the segullot, remedies and secret
medications, drawn up and disseminated by the masters of the practicalCabballah, constitute the exterior use, so to speak, of blood, whether
human or animal, dried or diluted, for therapeutic and exorcistic
purposes. But the accusation leveled against Jews of ingesting blood, orof using it for ritual or curative purposes, in transfusions taken orally,
appears at first glance destitute of any basis, being in clear violation of
Biblical norms and later ritual practices, which permitted no derogation
whatever from the prohibition.
It is not, therefore, surprising that the Jews of the Duchy of Milan,in their petition to Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza in May dated 1479,
intended to defend themselves from the ritual murder accusations
spreading like oil on water after the Trent murder, by recalling the
Biblical prohibition in stressing that these accusations had no basis in
fact: “That they are not guilty is easily proven by very effective
evidence and arguments, both legal and natural, from very trustworthy
authorities, first for the Jewish Law Moysaycha which prohibits
murder, and in several places, the eating of blood, not only human butof any animal whatever”.28
Also the most authoritative among the accused in the Trent trial,
Mosè da Würzburg, known as “the Old Man”, in the initial phases of
his interrogation, did not hesitate to mention the rigid Biblicalprohibition against consuming any type of blood to demonstrate theabsurdity of the accusation. “Ten Commandments given by God toMoses”, the learned Hebrew leveled at his accusers, “commands us torefrain from killing and eating blood; it is for this reason that Jews cut
the throat of the beasts which they intend to eat and, what is more, latersalt the meat to eliminate any trace of blood”.29 Mosè “the Old Man”
was very obviously perfectly well aware of the norms of slaughter(shechitah) and of the salting of meat (melikhah), prescribed by Jewish
rituals (halakhah) and which apply the Mosaic prohibition against
eating blood with the maximum severity. But his arguments, as we
149shall see, although apparently convincing, were to some degree
misleading.
In fact, if we turn once again to the compendia of segullot in use
among Jews of German origin, we will find a broad range of recipes
providing for the oral ingestion of blood, both human and animal.
These recipes are stupendous electuaries, sometimes complex inpreparation, intended to alleviate ailments, act as a remedy, and protect
and cure. For Shabbatai Lipschütz, to arrest the excessive flow of
menstrual blood, it was advisable to dry before the fire and reduce into
power a chicken feather soaked with the menstrual blood. The morning
afterwards, a spoonful of that powder, diluted in wine and served up to
the woman, on an empty stomach, was said to have infallibly produced
the desired effect. Another secret medication, collected by Lipschütz
and considered of extraordinary effectiveness on the basis of long
tradition, was prescribed for women who wished to get pregnant. The
recipe provided that a pinch of dried rabbit’s blood be dissolved inwine and administered to the patient. As an alternative, a composite ofworms and menstrual blood could be of great utility.30
Also Elia Loans, the Baal Shem of Worms, celebrated theextraordinary properties of rabbit’s blood in impregnating sterile
women. The expert Caballist moreover prescribed, for the cure of
epilepsy, the dilution in wine of dried blood from a virgin having her
first menstrual period.31 In this regard, it should be noted that Mercklin(Mordekhai), one of those condemned for the plural ritual murder atEndingen in 1470, stressed the effectiveness of using young humanblood in curing epilepsy.32
The compendia of segullot furthermore stressed the prodigious
properties of human blood, naturally, always dried and prepared in theform of curdles or powder, as the main ingredient of aphrodisiacal
elixirs inciting to love and copulation, in addition to their ability tobring about the fulfillment of the most audacious and consuming of
erotic dreams. It is not surprising that blood was sometimes featured inrelation to matrimony – another fundamental rite of passage – inaddition to its uses in circumcision and in the preparation for death.
In the popular tradition, included, for example, by the Jews ofDamascus, “a man who wishes to win the love of a woman should
extract a bit of his own blood, and after drying it before the fire, cause
it to be drunk, dissolved in wine, by the woman who is the object of his
passion”.33 This electuary is said to have been of proven effectivenessin such cases. Other compendia of segullot state that the recipe was tobe considered valid for both men and women and that, to be of greater
effectiveness, the blood should be taken from the little finger of the150

right hand of the person suffering from an unrequited passion.34 The
defendants accused of the ritual child murder at Tyrnau in 1494 and at
Posing, both in Hungary, in 1592, also mention the use of blood as an
aphrodisiac and in inciting love, including, and most particularly, in thecelebration of matrimony.35 In the famous case of the supposed
profanation of the Host stolen from the Knoblauch church in
Brandenburg in 1510, the rich Jew Mayer of Ostenburg was accused ofhaving purchased the Host at a high price to extract its essence, andthen of using it on the occasion of his son Isaac’s wedding to prepare
an aphrodisiac elixir intended for the bride and groom.36
In the Trent trial, the women, particularly those linked to theauthoritative Samuele da Nuremberg, the acknowledged head of theJewish community, made no secret of their great faith in theeffectiveness of the blood of children as an ingredient in sublime
potions, both curative and protective, of which the popular medicine
and the practical Caballah were extraordinarily rich, based on long
tradition. Bella, Mosè da Würzburg’s daughter-in-law, declared,
without hesitation, in her statement in February 1476, that “that the
blood of a child was beneficial in a manner wonderful to women,
incapable of birth at term”. The women recalled that, when young Annaof Montagana, daughter-in-law of Samuele da Nuremberg, waspregnant and suffering from the threat of miscarriage, her mother-inlaw, Brunetta, as a woman and an expert in these things, as she was,visited her in her bedroom, making her take a spoonful of a
medicament consisting of dried and powdered blood dissolved inwine.37 On another occasion, Bella had seen Anna, pregnant andsuffering, sustain herself with a bit of blood mixed with the yoke of asoft-boiled egg.38
For their part, Bona and Dolcetta, respectively the sister and wifeof Angelo da Verona, recalled with nostalgic stupefaction their meetingwith an herb alchemist of great fame and experience, a few years
previously. According to them, this Cabballistic quack, known as
Maestro Jacob, possessed a book full of “secrets” of exorbitant andextraordinary effectiveness, including that of causing pelting rain andhailstorms.
To do this, it was necessary to mix young blood with the clear
water of a fountain while pronouncing formulae and exorcisms,
incomprehensible to the uninitiated.39 As we have already stressed
several times, it is not difficult to arrive at the conclusion that, when the
Jews were accused of ritual murder, rather than justify the necessity ofthe – so to speak – religious uses of blood, they preferred to expatiate at
length upon the magical and therapeutic functions of blood generally,151both human and animal, known and widespread among the people and,in particular, among German-speaking persons, both Jewish andChristian.
This does not yet explain how the Jews, and the Ashkenazi Jews inparticular, could reconcile the Biblical prohibition against the oral
consumption of blood – which was rigid and without exceptions – withthe custom, apparently well-rooted, of using it, nonetheless, inmedications and elixirs of various kinds, proven and tested over time.
Since these elixirs are often true and proper medications, even if notcontemplated by official medicine, the Jewish ritual law (halakhah)
only permitted them when the patient was considered in danger of his
life, in which case the complete and temporary abolition of all thenorms of the Torah – Jewish law – was permitted in order to save thepatient. But, as we have noted, in popular practice, blood, both humanor animal, appeared even in preparations to be administered to patients
suffering from minor complaints, or complaints of only relative
seriousness, or even as a curative in the toils of love. Confronted bythese obvious contradictions, even the defendants in the Trent trial
found it necessary to take a position, and to explain and justify suchthings. And this was not an easy task at all, partly because many ofthem lacked the necessary culture to do so.
Lazzaro da Serravalle, servant in Angelo da Verona’s house,
attempted to do so instinctively, without entering into any overcomplicated reasoning. In his view, the dictates of the Torah referred toanimal blood only – which was always prohibited – while it was
permitted to ingest the blood of a human being, particularly if it was the
blood of a Christian, the declared enemy of the Jews and Judaism.40 As
usual, Israel Wolfgang, who must have possessed rather more culture
than Lazzaro, although not strictly rabbinical, attempted to supply amore elaborate response, ingenious and less crude. To the young artist
from Brandenburg, it was clear that the Torah and later rabbinicalregulations presupposed two different moral codes, one applying to theJewish world, and the other applicable to the surrounding Christianworld, which was different and often hostile and menacing. Therefore,that which was prohibited between Jews was not necessarily prohibitedin relations between Jews and Christians. For example, the Biblicalnorm which prohibited usury between two brothers (Deut. 23:21)(“unto a stranger thou may’st lend upon usury; but unto thy brotherthou shalt not lend upon usury”), was interpreted as concerning
exclusively relations between Jews, while usurious lending toChristians was automatically permitted – so much so as to beuniversally practiced.41 With a bold analogy, which we decline to152believe was extorted by judges exceptionally erudite in Jewish mattersby means of ingenious verbal and psychological trickery, Israel
Wolfgang maintained that even the Biblical prohibition against humanblood was absolute for Jews, and rigid when it involved blood extracted
from the veins of Jews, but was permitted and even recommended
when originating from the body of Christians, or Christian children inparticular.42
In this regard, it is worth recalling that, in that which Camporesi
calls as “the dark tunnel of necromantic medicine”, specialty shops
offered alchemists and herb alchemists oils and balsams extracted fromfetid mummies, miraculous electuaries containing the powder of
craniums, often from persons condemned to death, fat from humanflesh, distilled from the bodies of murdered persons and suicides.43 It is
not surprising that popular medicine should also have permitted themas legitimate medications, prescribing them not only in the cure ofserious and dangerous complaints. The sole recommendation in thesecases remains the explanation that oils, fats and bones in powder,mummies and human flesh in poultices – as Israel Wolfgang explained
to the judges of Trent with reference to human blood – were not to be
extracted from the corpses of Jews. The rabbinical responses wererather clear in this regard, when they hastened to stress that “there is no
prohibition against usefully benefiting from the dead bodies ofGentiles”.44
Perhaps the solution to the Biblical and rabbinical contradiction
between the consumption of blood and the custom – established among
the Ashkenazi Jews – of consuming it on the most varied occasions,
may be identified in a late response of Jacob Reischer of Prague (16701734), head of the yeshivah of Ansbach in Bavaria and later active at
Worms and Metz.45 The ritualistic text contains testimonies to apractice widespread over time immemorial among the Jews of theGerman community, and considered de facto permissible,
notwithstanding the fact that it obviously contradicted the dictates of
the Talmud. Being a custom now generalized among the Jews
(minhagh Israel), it came, over time, to assume the same strictness as aritual standard. The inquiry and Reischer’s response referred to theconsumption of the blood of the stambecco (Bocksblut), for medicinaluse, even in cases in which the patient was not in danger of his life.
“INQUIRY: What is the basis for the fact that most Jews
traditionally permit the consumption and drinking of the coagulated anddried blood of the ibex [a long-horned Alpine mountain goat], known
as Bocksblut and dried in the sun, even in the event that it may beconsumed by patients whose lives are not in peril, such as people
153suffering from epilepsy, when it is one of the internal organs of the
body which causes pain?
“RESPONSE: The legality of this custom must be upheld because
it is long-established. This medication is obviously permissible,
because clearly, when a custom becomes widespread among the Jews
(minhagh Israel), it must be considered to be on the level of the Torahitself. The ritual motive of the permission is based, in my view, on thefact that (the blood) is dried to the point that it is transformed into apiece of wood and contains no moisture. It is not, therefore, prohibitedin any way.”
The authoritative German rabbi sought to uphold the ritual
lawfulness of dried blood totally without any liquid component, stating
that, in this manner, the blood must be considered to have lost any
alimentary connotations. But obviously, the central justification of hisargument remained the notion that a custom established over time inthe community of Israel, even if in contrast with the norms, was to beconsidered perfectly authorized and permissible.
It has been accurately observed in this regard (but the reasoning
may be opportunely repeated in other cases as well, as we shall see),that “the Ashkenazi Jewish community, in the eyes of its rabbis,
represented the community of health, zealous in the application of the
Law of the Lord; to those rabbis, it was impossible to conceive of thefact that thousands of Jews, devote, God-fearing and solicitous in
sanctifying the name of the Lord, may His name be blessed, might beviolating the names of his Law day after day. If therefore thecommunity of Israel practiced a certain custom, even in conflict with
the norms of the Torah, that meant that this was permitted. The
consequence of this bold assumption did not alarm that generation [...]The German rabbis recognized in the actions of their people a sort oftranslation into reality of the Law of God, thus as it was transmitted forgenerations from father to son”.46
If this reasoning was to be considered valid with reference to thestandards of ritualistic law (halakhah), it was even more valid if
applied to widespread and profoundly rooted customs, on the ritual
lawfulness of which the Ashkenazi Jews, despite appearances, appeared
to have no doubt.47 Their rabbis did not therefore hesitate to approvepractices and customs, such as that of the consumption of blood, evenwhen they appeared in obvious violation of the prohibitions of Jewishlaw.
The persistence of the custom of ingesting dried blood in medicinal
electuaries, widespread among the Ashkenazi Jews until modern times,
is testified to in the response of Hayym Ozer Grodzinski (1863-1940), a
154

respected rabbi of Vilna (Vilnius). Responding to a question (dated
1930!), relating to the lawfulness of medications based on dried animal
blood to be administered to sick people who were not in peril of theirlives, the Lithuanian rabbi recalled the tradition, rooted for generations
among Ashkenazi Jews. “As to the problem of the lawfulness ofadministering animal blood to a patient who is not in danger, since theblood has lost part of its elements and has been dried, this is my
response”. Therefore, Grodzinski went on to explain:“If the blood is completely dried, it must certainly be permitted [...]
and, even in the case of true and proper blood, as long as it was watereddown, permission may be granted, in an emergency. And yet, since it iseasy to use dried blood, which is considered by all to be perfectly
lawful, it is impossible to imagine a state of emergency which would
permit the oral ingestion of blood dissolved in water”.48
In conclusion, the Jewish custom in the Germanic territories,
throughout history, of consuming potions and medications based onanimal blood, without regard to the ritual prohibition of the Torah,appears to be incontrovertibly confirmed by authoritative andsignificant Hebraic texts. As we have seen, the compendiums ofsegullot in many cases expanded the lawfulness of using human blood,
to be administered dried and dissolved in another liquid, which was tobe recommended, not only for therapeutic purposes, but in conjurations
and exorcisms of all kinds.49 The Trent defendants were perfectly wellaware of this, and listed a long case history of it based on personal
experience, even if, during the first moments of the trial, they may haveconsidered it expedient to mention the Biblical prohibition against theingestion of blood, which is well known to everyone, as if it wereapplied by them scrupulously in everyday reality. The records of theTrent trial were also to reveal, not only the generalized use of blood byGerman Jews for curative and magic purposes, but the necessity which
the accused, according to their inquisitors, are alleged to have felt to
supply themselves with Christian blood (and that of a baptized child, inparticular), above all, in the celebration of the rites of Pesach, theJewish Passover. In this case, all they had to do was turn to specialized,
acknowledged retailers of blood, or itinerant alchemists and herb
alchemists, to obtain the required goods; but it was necessary toascertain that the object of purchase was actually that precious andmuch sought-after commodity, young Christian blood, despite thefacility of falsification and adulteration. And this was not an easy thing
to do, or something to be taken for granted.
During the trial for ritual child murder brought against the Jews of
Waldkirch, a village a short distance from Freiburg, in 1504, the155victim’s father, Philip Bader, was later found to be the murderer of thevictim, little Matthew, and therefore executed publicly, thus illustrating
the perpetrator’s relations with Jews. In his deposition rendered to theJudge, Bader admitted obtaining a certain amount of blood from thechild’s neck, without intending to kill him, to sell the blood to the Jews,
who, according to him, paid high prices for that type of merchandise. In
this case, the Jews are said to have refused to buy it, saying that Baderintended to swindle them, offering them animal blood instead of theblood of a Christian child. For their part, the Jews of Waldkirch
advanced the theory that the unnatural father had killed the child,probably during a clumsy attempt to take blood from the carotid arteryand profit from the sale.50 In any case, it seems certain that, in thereality of the German territories, blood was frequently purchased andsold, at high prices, for the most diverse purposes, and that young
human blood was certainly preferable to animal blood. It was,therefore, foreseeable that the ambiguous and equivocal sector of
selling and purchasing human blood was rife with fraud andcounterfeiting for the purpose of increasing one’s profits with theminimum of effort.
According to the Trent defendants, their more alert clients had
demanded that the resellers provide certificates of ritual suitability,
signed by serious and acknowledged rabbinical authorities, as wascustomarily done for food products prepared according to the religious
rules of the kashrut. No matter how paradoxical and improbable thisfact may appear to our eyes – so much so as to make one believe that it
was invented out of whole cloth by the judicial authorities of Trent –we believe that this matter deserves a certain amount of attention andprecise verification, where possible, of the underlying facts andparticulars upon which it appears to be built.
Both Maestro Tobias and Samuele da Nuremberg, Angelo da
Verona, Mosè “the Old Man” of Würzburg, and his son Mohar (Meir),
all recalled having come into contact with these retailers of blood,often, according to them, equipped with written rabbinicalauthorizations.
Sometimes they even recalled their names and origins; in somecases, they described their physical appearance with numerous details.
Abramo (Maestro Tobias’s supplier), Isacco of Neuss, from thebishopric of Cologne, Orso of Saxony, Jacob Chierlitz, also of Saxony,
are not names which mean a lot to us. These are the names attributed tothese itinerant merchants, originating in Germany and traveling, with
their leather purses with waxed and tin-plated bottoms, to the
Ashkenazim communities of Lombardy and the Triveneto region.51
156

“Old Man” Mosè da Würzburg assured the judges that, in his longcareer, he had always acquired the blood of Christian boys fromtrustworthy persons and retailers bearing the required written rabbinicalguarantees, which he called “testimonial letters”.52 So as not to be toovague about it, Isacco da Gridel, cook in Angelo da Verona’s house,recalled the manner in which the wealthier Jews of Cleburg, a city
under the domination of Filippo de Rossa, acquired the blood of
Christian children from a rabbi named Simone, who lived in Frankfurt,then a free city.53 This “Simone of Frankfurt” is certainly identical with
Shimon Katz, rabbi of the Jewish community of Frankfurt am Mainfrom 1462 to 1478, the year of his death: Shimon Katz was also thechairman of the local rabbinical tribunal. Rabbi Shimon Katz
maintained close relations with the spiritual leaders of the Ashkenazim
communities of Northern Italy and enjoyed close relations andfriendship with Yoseph Colon, almost undisputed religious head of the
Italian Jews of German origin.54 To consider him a common trafficker
in Christian blood, as Isacco the cook claimed, frankly impresses me asan oversimplification and not very believable, in the absence of otherinformation in support of such a singular thesis.
Undoubtedly more serious and worthy of consideration, even if
extorted by means of cruel coercive methods, was the related testimony
of Samuele da Nuremberg, undisputed head of the Jews of Trent.
Samuele confessed to his inquisitors that the itinerant peddler Orso
(Dov) from Saxony, from whom he had obtained the blood, presumablythat of a Christian child, bore credential letters signed by “Mosè of Hol
of Saxony, Iudeorum principalis magister”. There appear to be no
doubt that this “Mosè of Hol” was identical with Rabbi Moshè, head of
the yeshiva at Halle, who, together with his family, enjoyed privileges
granted by the archbishop of Magdeburg in 1442 and later by Emperor
Friedrich III in 1446, including that of adorning himself with the title ofJodenmeister, i.e., the principalis magister Judeorum, as Mosè isdescribed in Samuele da Nuremberg’s deposition. We know that Mosèabandoned Halle (a particular apparently ignored by Samuele) as earlyas 1458 and had moved to Poznán in Poland, to pursue his rabbinicalactivity in that community.55
The text of the certificate of guarantee signed by Mosè of Halle,
which accompanied the purse of dried blood sold by Orso (Dov) of
Saxony, was quite similar to the text of an attestation commonly issued
in relation to permissible food: “Be it known by all, that all that whichis carried by Dov is kasher”.56 It is understandable that the script
intentionally omitted any mention of the type of merchandise dealt inby Orso. Samuele, once he had bought the blood, wrote his name on the157white leather of the purse, which featured a list of the German
merchant’s clients and a signature in Hebrew: Rabbi Schemuel miTrient.57***

NOTES TO CHAPTER SIX“Accipiunt dictum sanguinem dictorum puerorum Christianorum
et illu redigunt in pulverem, quem pulverem ipsi Iudei servant etpostea, quando circumciserunt eorum filios, ponunt de sanguine pueri
Christiani super preputiis circuncisourm [...] et si non possunt habere desanguine pueri Christiani quando circumcidunt, ponunt de bolo Armeno
et de sanguine draconis, et dicit quod dictus pulvis mirabiliterconsolidat vulnera et restringit sanguinem” [“They take the blood of
Christian boys and reduce it to powder, which powder these Jews use
themselves, and later, when they circumcise their own children they use
the blood of a Christian child to coagulate the flow of blood from thecircumcision wound [...] and if they cannot obtain the blood of
Christian boys for their circumcisions, they use Bolo of Armenia andDragon’s Blood, and say that the said power miraculously heals thewound and clots the flow of blood”]. Deposition of Angelo da Verona
to the Trent judges on 8 April 1475. Cfr. A. Eposito and D. Quaglioni,
Processi contro gli ebrei di Trento, 1475-1478; I: I processi del 1475,
Padua, 1990, p. 288. On the Jewish custom of applying astringent
powders such as dragon’s blood on the circumcision wound, see J.
Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews, Philadelphia (Pa.), 1961, pp.
150-151.
2“Magister Ioseph, qui habitat Ripe et qui circumcidit filios ipsius
Angeli, tenet de sanguine predicto, quod postea utitur quando
circumcidit” [“Master Joseph, a resident of Riva, who circumcisedAngelo’s sons, obtained blood, and then used it when he circumcised”](cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, vol. I, cit., p. 288). “Magister
Iosephus phisicus”, known as the “zudio gobo” [hunchbacked Jew], thecircumcisor of the sons of the Angelo da Verona, appears to have been
active at Riva del Garda, together with his son Salomone, at least until
the end of 1496 (cfr. M.L. Crosina, La communità ebraica di Riva delGarda, sec. XV-XVIII, Riva del Garda, 1991, pp. 29, 33, 42-43).
3“Thobias [...] dicit quod (judei) accipunt sanguinem pueri
Christiani et illum faciunt coagulare et deinde illum dessiccant et de eo
faciunt pulverem” [“Tobias [...] said that (the Jews) take the blood of a
Christian boy and cause it to coagulate and then they dry it and make a1158

powder of it”] (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, vol. I, cit., p.
318).
4“Pro ut Thobias inter alias confessus est, (pueros suos
circumcisos) cum pulveribus dicti sanguinis coagulati medentur etstatim altero vel tertio die santitatem recipiunt” ([Benedetto Bonelli],
Dissertazione apologetica sul martirio del beato Simone da Trentonell’anno MCCCCLVXXV dagli ebrei ucciso, Trent, Gianbattista
Parone, 1747, p. 113).
5
Cfr. K. von Amira, Das Endinger Judenspiel, Halle, 1883, pp.
95-97; R. Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder. Jews and Magic in
Reformation Germany, New Haven (Conn.)-London, 1988, pp. 20-21.
6
Cfr. Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder, cit., p. 29.
7Anton Bonfin, in Rerum Hungaricuarum Decades, by K.A. Bel,dec. V.I. 4, 1771, p. 728.
8
On this matter, see recently P. Billar, View of Jews from Parisaround 1300. Christian or Scientific?, in D. Wood, Christianiy andJudaism, Oxford, p. 199; I.M. Resnick, On Roots of the Myth of Jewish
Male Menses in Jacques de Vitry’s History of Jerusalem, in“International Rennert Guest Lecture Series”, III (1996), pp. 1-27. See
moreover Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews, cit., pp. 50, 148.
9
“Audivi a Judeis [...] quod omnes Judei, qui de eorum
processerunt, singulis mensibus sanguine fluunt et dissenterium sepius
patiantur et ea ut frequentius moriuntur. Sanatur autem per sanguinem
hominis Christiani, qui nomine Christi baptizatus est” (Historiae
Memorabiles, by E. Kleinschmidt, Cologne, 1974, p. 65).
10
On the multiple uses of the blood, fresh or dried, human or
animal, in the popular Christian pharmacopaeia of the Middle Ages
until the early modern era, see the classic study by H.L. Strack, The
Jew and Human Sacrifice. Human Blood and Jewish Ritual, London,
1909, pp. 43-88.
11
Cfr. P. Camporesi, Il sugo della vita. Simbolismo e magia delsangue, Milan, 1988, p. 14. See also the recent study of this problem by
B. Bildhauer, Medieval Blood, Plymouth, 2006.
12“Ex sanguine humano fieri potest oleum et sal, post haec lapis
rubeus mirabilis efficaciae et virtutis; cohibet flux sanguinis, multasqueinfirmitates expellit” (Theatrum chemicum, Strasburg, heirs L. Zetzner,
1613, vol. I, p. 693).
13
The quote is dealt with by Francesco Sirena, L’arte dellospetiale, Pavia, G. Ghidini, 1679, p. 86. See also Camporesi, Il sugodella vita, cit., pp. 20-21.
14
Leon da Modena, Historia de’ riti hebraici, Venice, Gio.
Calleoni, 1638, pp. 95-96.
159

15

Giulio Morosini, Derekh Emunah. Via della fede mostrata agliebrei, Rome, Propaganda Fide, 1683, pp. 114-118.
16
Raffaele Aquilino, Trattato pio, Pesaro, Geronimo Concordia,
1571, pp. 35v-36r. On the appearance and personality of Aquilino,
whose previous Jewish name is unknown, but who was probably a
rabbi, see F. Parente, Il confronto ideologico tra l’ebraismo e la Chiesa
in Italia, in “Italia Judaica”, I (1983), pp. 316-319.
17
Paolo Medici, Riti et costumi degli ebrei, Madrid, Luc’Antonio
de Bedmar, 1737, p. 11.
18
Eliyahu Baal Shem, Sefer Toledot Adam, Wilhemsdorf, Zvi
Hirsch von Fürth, 1734, c. 16r. The handbook was printed earlier, at
Zolkiew in 1720, while there must have been many republications
before that at Lemberg in 1875.
19
Chaim Lipschütz, Derekh ha-chaim, Sulzbach, Aharon Lippman,1703. Under the title Sefer ha-chaim ha-nira Segullot Israel and theattribution to Shabbatai Lipschütz, a similar work was printed in 1905
(the recipes in question are at cc. 19v and 20r) and at Jerusalem in
1991. The use of powdered blood on the circumcision wound is also
recommended in the modern editions of the Ozara ha-segullot(“Treasure of Secret Remedies”), by A. Benjacov (Jerusalem, 1991,
and in the Refuah chaim we-shalom (“Medicine, Life and Peace”), by
S. Binyamini (Jerusalem, 1998). See also the manuscript code ofsegullot, reproduced by Y. Ytzhaky (Amulet and Charm, Tel Aviv,
1976 [in Hebrew], in which the prescription of powdered blood on thecircumcision wound appears at p. 101.
20
Scaharja Plongiany Simoner, Sefer Zechirah, Hamburg, Thomas
Rose, 1709, M. Steinschneider (Catalogus librorum hebraeorum in
Biblioteca Bodleiana, Berlin, 1852-1860, column 2249), translates thetitle: Memoraie et specifica (medicamenta superstitiosa). The same
quotation from Jeremiah 30:17 as a textual basis for the use of dried
blood as a haemostatic is reported in the Sefer-ha-chaim by Lipschütz,
who, after illustrating the treatment of the circumcision wound,recommends, in the event of nose bleed, “di fiutare il sangue in polvere
come fosse tabacco” [“to insert it in the nose as if it were tobacco”].
21
Strack (The Jew and Human Sacrifice, cit., pp. 139-144) records
similar, sometimes identical, customs, present in the popular culture of
the surrounding Christian society, but minimizes any consideration of
the significance assumed by blood among the Jews, considering any
such significance to be the product of tardy external influences of little
importance.
22
Anon., Sha’re’ Zedq (“The Doors of Justice”), by Nissim Modai,
Salonicco, Nahman, 1792, c. 22v. The Gaonic response on the160perfumed waters of circumcision is reproduced and commented uponby Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice, cit., pp. 136-137.
23
Morosini, Derekh Emunah. Via della fede mostrata agli ebrei,cit., pp. 114-115.
24
Lipschütz, Sefer ha-chaim ha-nikra Segullot Israel, cit., Chaim
Yoself David Azulay, Machzik herakhah, Leghorn, Castello and Sadun,
1785 (Yoreh de’ah, par. 79). Chaim Abraha Miranda, Yad neeman,
Salonicco, Nahman, 1804.
25
R. Ohana, Sefer mar’eh ha-yeladim, Jerusalem, 1990.
26
On this matter, see G.A. Zaviziano, Un raggio di luce. La
persecuzione degli ebrei nella storia. Riflessioni, Corfu, 1891, pp. 4-5;
Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews, cit., pp. 150-155.
27
Cfr. R. Straus, Urkunden und Aktenstücke zur Geschichte derJuden in Regensberg, 1453-1738, Munich, 1960, p. 78-79; Po-Chia
Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder, cit., p. 75. The use of (animal) blood
as a safeguard against the Evil Eye is also present among the traditionsof the Jews of Kurdistan (cfr. M. Yona, Ha-ovedim be-erez: Ashur:yehude’ Kurdistan [“Dispersed in the Land of Assyria: The Jews in
Kurdistan”], Jerusalem, 1988, p. 59).
28
Cfr. C. Guidetti, Pro Judaeis. Riflessioni e documenti, Turin,
1884, pp. 290-291; Zaviziano, Un raggio di luce, cit., p. 175.
29
“Cum in X praeciptis Moisi a Deo ipsis Iudeis sit mandatum
quod quempiam non interficiant nec sanguinem comedant; et propter
hoc ipse Iudei secant gulas animalibus que intendunt velle comedere, ut
magis exeat a corporibus animalium, et quod postea etiam salant carnes
ut sanguis magis exicetur” (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, vol.
I, cit., p. 351).
30
Lipschütz, Sefer ha-chaim ha-nikra Segullot Israel, cit. The
recipe of rabbit’s blood to cure sterility in women is repeated by Ohana,
Sefer mar’eh ha-yeladim, cit. A variant sometimes consists of theprescription that it should be the man, and not the woman, who should
ingest the potion before having sexual relations. In this regard, see E.
Bashan, Yahdut Marocco ’avarah we-tarbutah (“The Hebrewism of
Morocco, Its Past and its Culture”), Tel Aviv, 2000, p. 216. On
arresting excessive menstrual flow, a compound of fallow-deer’s bloodand powdered frog, diluted in almond oil, was sometimes
recommended (Binyamini, Refuah chaim we-shalom, cit.).
31
Elyahu Baal-Shem, Sefer Toledot Adam, cit., par. 6, 18, 43, 80.
The prescription of the menstrual blood of a virgin as a cure for sterile
women is repeated with several variants by Banjacov, Ozar ha-segullot,
cit.
32
Cfr. Amira, Das Endinger Judenspiel, cit., p. 97; Po-Chia Hsia,
161

The Myth of Ritual Murder, cit., p. 21.
33
Cfr. Ytzhaky, Amulet and Charm, cit., p. 169.
34
Cfr. Benjacov, Ozar ha-segullot, cit.
35
Cfr. Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice, cit., pp. 201-205.
36
In this regard, see M. Rubin, Gentile Tales. The Narrative
Assault on Late Medieval Jews, New Haven (Conn.), pp. 190-195.
37“Dicit quod dictus sanguis valet mulieribus non valentibus
portare partum ad tempus debitum, quia si tales mulieres bibunt dedicto sanguine, postea portant foetum ad tempus debitum [...] Et dicit
quod dum ipsa Bella esset in camera in qua erat Anna, illuc venit
Bruneta, quae in manibus habebat quoddam cochlear argenti etpraedictum illum ciatum argenti, quem Samuel in die Paschae de sero
habebat in coena, et de quo ciato argenti dicta Bruneta cum cochleariaccepit modicum de vino et illud posuit super cochleari et miscuit illud
modicum sanguinis cum vino et porrexit ad os Annae, quae Anna illud
bibit” ([Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., pp. 122).
38“Quod vidit Annam quadam alia vice comeder modicum desanguine, quem sic comedit, ponendo illud in quodam ovo coctus”(ibidem).
39“Dixit quod quidam Magister Jacob Judaeus, modo sunt duoanni, dixit sibi Bonae et Dulcette, quod si quid acciperet de dicto
sanguine et iverit ad aliquem fontem clarum et de illo projecerit infonte, ex postea cum facie se fecerit supra fontem [...] et dixerit certaverba, sine dubio inducet grandines et pluvias magnas [...] et praedictus
M. Jacob habebat quendam, super quo erant descripta omnia, ad quae
sanguis pueri Christiani valet” (ibidem, p. 43).
40
Deposition of Lazzaro da Serravalle dated 16 December 1475.
“Quod Christianis, inimicis fidei Judaice, possunt Judeai facere omne
malum et quod lex (Dei) [...] loquitur de sanguine bestiarum” [“Thatthe Jews may do any evil unto Christians, who are the enemies of theJewish faith, and that the law (of God) [...] speaks of the blood ofbeasts”] (ibidem, p. 53-54).
41
On the Jewish attitude towards lending to Christians at interest,
see H. Soloveitchik, Pawnbroking. A Study in the Inter-Relationshipbetween Halakhah, Economic Activity and Commercial Self-Image,
Jerusalem, 1985 (in Hebrew); The Jewish Attitude in the High and Late
Middle Ages, in D. Quaglioni, G. Todeschini and G.M. Varannini,
Credito e usura fra teologia, diritto e amministrazione. Linguaggi a
confronto (sec. XII-XVI), Rome, 2005, pp. 115-127; J. Katz, Hirhurim’al ha-yachas ben dat le-kalkalah (“Considerations on the Relationship
Between Religion and the Economy”), in M. Ben-Sasson (author);
Religion and Economy. Connection and Interaction, Jerusalem, 1995,
162

pp. 33-46 (in Hebrew); A. Toaff, Testi ebraici italiani all’usura dallafine del XV agli esordi del XVII secolo, in Quaglioni, Todeschini andVarannini, Credito e usura, cit., pp. 103-113.
42
Deposition of Israel Wolfgang dated 3 November 1475.
“Existimant Judaei non esset peccatum comedere aut bibere sanguinem
pueri chistiani et dicunt quod lex Dei, data Moysi, non prohibitat eis
aliquid facere aut dicere quod sit contra christianos aut Jesus Deum
Christianorum, dicens quod ex dicta lege eis prohibitum est foenerari,et tamen tenent Judaei quod nullum sit peccatum foenerari christiano etchristianum decipere quovis modo” [“The Jews do not consider it a sin
to eat or drink the blood of Christian boys and that the law of God, theso-called Laws of Moses, do not prohibit doing or saying anything at
all against Christians or against Jesus the God of the Christians, sayingthat the said law prohibits them from lending at interest, and yet the
Jews do not consider it any kind of sin at all to lend money at interest to
Christians and to deceive Christians in any manner whatever”]([Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 53).
43
Cfr. Camporesi, Il sugo della vita, cit., p. 14.
44
Hebrew: Mete’ goim enam asurim ha’anaah; en asur ba-anaah
ella mete Israel; met goy mutar ha’anaah afilu le-choleh she-en-bo
sakkanah (“One may also use the corpse of a non-Jew in curing a sickperson who is not in danger of losing his life”). See David b. Zimra,
Sheelot w-teschuvot. Responsa, vol. III, Fürth, 1781, no. 548 [= 979];
Abraham Levi, Ghinnat veradim. Responsa (“The Garden of theRose”), Constantinople, Jonah b. Ja’akov, 1715, Yoreh’ de’ah, vol. I,
response no. 4; Jacob Reischer, Shevut Ya’akov. Responsa (“TheCaptivity of Jacob”), vol. III, Offenbach, Bonaventura de Lannoy,
1719, no. 94 (see also the following note). The responses on this topic
are based on the opinion expressed in regards to the Tossaphists, theclassical Franco-German commentators on the Talmud. In this regard,
see also H.J. Zimmels, Magicians, Theologians and Doctors, London,
1952, pp. 125-128, 243-244.
45
Reischer, Shevut Ya’akov, cit., vol. II, Yoreh de’ah, no. 70. For adetailed examination of this response, see D. Sperber, Minhage’ Israel,(“The Customs of the Jewish People”), Jerusalem, 1991, pp. 59-65.
46
In this manner, Haim Soloveitchik, intelligently and without
reticence, as always, discusses the relationship between the customs of
the Ashkenazi Jews and the norms of Jewish law, often in contradiction
and mutually incompatible (cfr. Pawnbroking, cit., p. 111).
47
See the illuminating comments in this regard by Daniel Sperber,
who discusses and broadens the arguments presented by Soloveitchik(cfr. Sperber, Minhage’ Israel, cit., pp. 63-65).
163

48

H.O. Grodzinksi, Sheelot w-teshuvot Achiezer. Responsa, New
York, 1946, vol. III, pp. 66-68 (par. 31).
49
On the magical and necromantic practices of Medieval
Ashkenazi Judaism, with particular reference to the creation of theGolem, the artificial anthropoid, see M Idel, Golem. Jewish Magicaland Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid, New York, 1990.
50
On the ritual murder at Waldkirch (1504), see F. Pfaff, Die
Kindermorde zu Benzhausen und Waldkirch im Breisgau. Ein Gedicht
aus dem Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts, in “Alemannia”, XXVII (1899),
pp. 247-292; Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder, cit., pp. 86110.
51
Cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, vol. I, cit.
52
“Predictia quibus (dictus Moises antiquus) emit sanguinem pueri
Christiani habebant litteras testimonials factas a suis superioribus, perquas fiebat fides quod portantes illas litteras erant persone fide et quod
illud quod portabant erat sanguis pueri Christiani” [“... (Moses the Old
Man said) that those who sell the blood of Christian boys havetestimonial letters prepared by their superiors, attesting that those whobear these letters are persons to be trusted and that that which they
carried was the blood of Christian boys”]. Mosè da Würzburg added
that, when he had been living at Monza fifty years before, he had used
Christian blood from an authorized merchant named Süsskind of
Cologne (cfr. ibidem, pp. 358-359).
53
For this testimony by Isacco, Angelo da Verona’s cook, see G.
Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, Trent, 1902, vol. I, p. 109;
vol. II, pp. 21-23.
54
On the life and death of Rabbi Shimon Katz, head of theyeshivah of Frankfurt, see R. Yoseph b. Moshè, Leqet yosher, by J.
Freimann, Berlin, 1904, p. L1 (par. 132); Germania Judaica, III: 13501519, Tübingen, 1987, pp. 365-366 (s.v. R. Simon Katz v. Frankfurt amMain). See also I.J. Yuval, Scholars in Their Time. The Religious
Leadership of German Jewry in the Late Middle Ages, Jerusalem, 1984,
pp. 135-148 (in Hebrew).
55
On Rabbi Moshè of Halle and his rabbinical activity, see Leqet
yosher, cit., vo. XVI (par. 101); Germania Judaica. III: 1350-1519, cit.,
p. 501 (s.v. R. Mosès von Halle). See also Yuval, Scholars in Their
Time, cit., pp. 197-207.
56
On certificates of guarantee for permissible food, and inparticular for those used at Pesach, in the Ashkenazi communities, see
I. Halpern, Constitutiones Congressus Generalis Judaeorum
Maraviensium (1650-1748), Jerusalem, 1953, p. 91, no. 278 (in Hebrew
and Yiddish): “(year 1650). The obligation to inspect foodstuffs of any
164kind, both food and drink, originating from other communities, existed
in every Hebrew community. Anyone taking foodstuffs outside a given
community had to equip himself with a certificate of guarantee, written
and signed (by the rabbinical authority), attesting that everything had
been prepared according to the rules [she-na’asah be-heksher wbetiqqun] [...], such as, for example, foodstuffs used at Passover”.
57“[...] litterae, quas Ursus habebat seu portatur, continebant interalia ista verba in lingua hebraica: ‘Notum sit omnibus illud quod portat
Ursus est iustum’; et deinde in subscriptione legalitas dictarum
litterarum, inter alia verba erant ista: ‘Moises de Hol de Saxonia,
Iudeorum principalis magister’ [...] et dicit quod dictus vas eratcoopertum de quodam coramine albo, super quo coramine erant scripta
in hebraico hec verba: ‘Moyses Iudeorum principalis magister', superquo coramine albo ipse Samuel etiam se subscripsit manu sua in litera
hebraica, scribendo hec verba: 'Samuel de Tridento’ ” [“... the lettersthat Oros carried with him contained, among other things, these words
in Hebrew: ‘Be it known to all that everything carried by Oro iskosher’; and then, the inscription of the said letters, said as follows,
among other things: ‘Moses of Halle of Saxony, main head of theJews’, upon which Samuel then signed his name in Hebrew letters on
the white leather, writing these words: ‘Samuel da Tridento’ ”] (cfr.
Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, vol. I, cit., pp. 255-256).

165

CHAPTER SEVEN
CRUCIFIXION AND RITUALCANNIBALISM:
FROM NORWICH TO FULDA
On the eve of Passover, 1144, the mutilated body of William, a child of
twelve years, was found in Thorpe’s Wood, on the edge of Norwich,
England. No witness came forward to cast light on the savage crime.
The child’s uncle, a cleric by the name of Godwin Sturt, publicly
accused the Jews of the crime in a diocesan synod held a few weeks
after the discovery of the body. The body of the victim of Thorpe
Wood, where it had been initially buried, was taken to the cemetery of
the monks shortly afterwards, near the cathedral, and became thesource of miracles.
A few years later, between 1150 and 1155, Thomas of Monmouth,
prior of the cathedral of Norwich, reconstituted, with plentiful details
and testimonies, the various phases of the crime, [allegedly] perpetrated
by local Jews, and prepared a detailed and extensive hagiographic
report of the event.1 These were the origins of what is considered bymany to have been the first documented case of ritual murder in the
Middle Ages, while, for others, it is the source of the myth of the“blood libel” accusation. The latter consider Thomas to have been theinventor and propagator of the stereotype of ritual crucifixion, soon to
be rapidly disseminated, not only in England, but in France and theGerman territories as well, fed by in the information relating to the now
famous tale of the martyrdom of William of Norwich by the Jews in thedays of Passover.2
William was an apprentice tanner in Norwich and came from anadjacent village. Among the shop’s clients were a few local Jews, who
are thought to have chosen him as the victim of a ritual sacrifice to be
performed during the days of the Christian Easter. On the Monday
following Palm Sunday, 1144, during the reign of King Stephen, a man
claiming to be the cook for the arch deacon of Norwich presented
himself in the village of William, asking his mother Elviva for
permission to take William with him to work as an apprentice. The
woman’s suspicions and hesitation were soon won over thanks to aconsiderable sum of money. The following day, little William was
166already traveling the streets of Norwich in the company of the selfproclaimed cook, directly to the dwelling of his aunt Leviva, Godwin
Sturt’s wife, who became informed of the apprenticeship undertaken by
the child and his new patron. But the latter individual awakened
numerous suspicions in the aunt, Leviva, who asked a young girl tofollow them and determine their destination. The shadowing, as
discreet as it was effective, took the child to the threshold of thedwelling of Eleazar, one of the heads of the community of Norwich,where the cook had little William enter the house with the necessary
prudence and circumspection.
At this point, Thomas of Monmouth allowed another key witness
to speak, one who had been strategically placed inside the Jew’s house.
This was Eleazar’s Christian servant, who, the following morning,
had by chance, witnessed, with horror – through the crack of a door left
inadvertently open – the cruel ceremony of the child’s crucifixion andatrocious martyrdom, with the participation, carried out with religious
zeal, of local Jews, “in contempt of the passion of our Lord”. Thomas
kept the date of the crucial event clearly in mind. It was the Wednesday
following Palm Sunday, 22 March of the year 1144.
To throw off suspicion, the Jews decided to transport the bodyfrom the opposite side of the city to Thorpe’s Wood, which extended towithin a short distance from the last house. During the trip onhorseback with the cumbersome sack, however, despite their efforts atcaution, they crossed the path of a respected and wealthy merchant of
the locality on his way to church, accompanied by a servant; themerchant had no difficulty realizing the significance of what was taking
place before his eyes. He is said to have remembered, years later, on his
death bed, and to have confessed to a priest, who then became one ofthe diligent and indefatigable Thomas’s valued sources of information.
Young William’s body was finally hidden by the Jews among thebushes of Thorpe.
The scene now became the inevitable scene of miraculous
happenings. Beams of celestial light illuminated the boy’s resting placelate at night, causing townspeople to discover the body, which was thenburied where it was found . A few days afterwards, the cleric, Godwin
Sturt, who, informed of the murder, requested, and was granted,
permission to have the body exhumed. He then recognized his nephew
William as the tragic victim. A short time afterwards, during a diocesan
synod, Godwin got up to accuse the Jews of the crime. Thomas ofMonmouth agreed with him and accused them of the horrible ritual of
crucifixion of a Christian boy as the principal event of a Passover
ceremony intended to mock the passion of Jesus Christ, a sort of crude167

and bloody Passover counter-ritual.
The outcome of the matter turned out to be anything but a foregone
conclusion, particularly in comparison with the numerous similar cases
occurring over the following years, in which the Jews, considered
responsible for the horrible wickedness, met a cruel fate. In this case,
the Jews of Norwich, invited to present themselves before thearchbishop to respond to the accusations, requested and obtained theprotection of the King and his agents. Protected by the walls of thesheriff’s castle, in which they found refuge, they waited for the storm topass, as in fact it did. In the meantime, little William’s body was takenfrom the ditch in Thorpe’s Wood to a magnificent tomb usuallyreserved for monks, in a sheltered spot behind the Cathedral, andbegan, as anticipated, to work miracles, as only a martyr worthy of
being proclaimed a saint possibly could.3
The most disturbing of the testimonies gathered by Thomas ofMonmouth for his file on the murder of little William was that of aconverted Jew, Theobald of Cambridge, who had become a monkhearing the story of the miracles reported at the tomb of the victim ofNorwich. The convert revealed that the Jews believed that, to bringredemption closer, and with it, their return to the Promised Land, theysacrificed a Christian child every year “in contempt of Christ”. To carryout this providential plan, the representatives of the Jewish
communities, headed by their local rabbis, were said to meet every year
in council in Narbonne, in the south of France, to draw lots as to thename of the locality where the ritual crucifixion was to occur from time
to time. In 1144, the choice fell by lot to the city of Norwich, and theentire Jewish community was said to have adhered to that choice.4
Theobald’s confession has been considered by some to constitutethe origin of the ritual murder accusation of Norwich, which was thencollated, accompanied by suitable documentation, by Thomas ofMonmouth.5 The ex-Jewish monk was probably alluding to the carnivalof Purim, also known as the “carnival of the lots”, which, in the Jewish
calendar precedes Pesach, Passover, by one month, since the macabrelottery was said to have taken place every year on Purim.6
The reason for drawing lots to select the Jewish community to be
entrusted with the duty of carrying out the annual sacrifice of a
Christian child appeared later, in the confessions of the defendants of aritual murder committed at Valréas in 1247, and, with reference toanother case at Pforzheim in Baden in 1261, gathered and disseminatedby the friar Thomas of Cantimpré in his Bonum universale de apibus(Douay, 1627).7 On that occasion, the Jews of the small village of the
Vaucluse were accused of killing a two-year old girl, Meilla, “in a sort168

of sacrifice” for the purpose of collecting her blood, and then dumping
the body in a ditch.8 The testimonies, extorted by the inquisitors under
torture, were said to have shown that “it is a custom of the Jews, above
all, wherever they live in large numbers, to carry out this practice every
year, particularly in the regions of Spain, because there are a lot of Jews
in these places”.9 It should be noted that Narbonne, mentioned by theconverted Jew, Theobald of Cambridge, as the meeting place of therepresentatives of the Jewish communities for the annual Passoverlottery held to select the location of the next ritual homicide, was inFrance, but belonged to the Mark of Spain.
But was the case of William of Norwich truly the first ritualmurder of a Christian reported during the Middle Ages? Was Thomasof Monmouth really the creator of the stereotype which became
widespread, first in England and later in France and the German
territories in the years after 1150, when Thomas is supposed to havecomposed his hagiographic account?10 It is permissible to wonder. It
appears in fact to have been demonstrated that the story of William andhis sacrifice by the Jews had already become widespread in Germany inthe years prior to the composition of Thomas of Monmouth’s
hagiographic account. The first documents relation to William’s
veneration as a saint are said to have originated, not in England, but in
Bavaria, dating back to 1147.11
Latin chroniclers report that, in the same year, a Christian wasreportedly killed by the Jews at Würzburg, where the martyr’s body issaid to have worked miracles.12 Twenty one local Jews accused ofcommitting the crime during the feast of Purim and Passover were said
to have been put to death.
Rabbi Efraim of Bonn confirmed this report, stating that “On 22
August (1147) wicked men revolted against the Jewish community of
Würzburg [...] making it the object of insinuations and calumnies, forthe purpose of attacking them [the Jews]. Their accusation claims: ‘We
found the body of a Christian in the river, and it was you who killed
him and then dumped him there. Now he is a saint and is working
miracles’. Under this pretext, those wicked men, and people of thepoorer classes, without any real motive, assailed (the Jews...) killing
twenty one of them”.13
It is rather probable that the Hebrew and Latin reports werealluding to a crime with ritual connotations, considering the time ofyear in which these crimes were said to have been committed, thecollective guilt attributed to Jews, the consequent massacre of many ofthem, and finally, the miracles which were said to have flowed forthfrom the victim’s body. It is therefore possible that the stereotype of169

homicide for ritual purposes was disseminated in Germany before it
gained an inch of ground in England.14
Thomas of Monmouth’s hagiographic report would appear tovindicate those who have maintained that the first ritual homicides inEngland, France and Germany for almost a century, starting with theNorwich murder in 1144, conformed to the stereotype of the crucifixionof Christians, without providing for the utilization of the victims’ bloodfor ritual purposes. In other words, ritual crucifixion is said to haveproceeded the so-called “ritual cannibalism” accusation in the origin,development and final fixation of the type of ritual child sacrifice[allegedly] perpetrated by Jews.15 As early as the during the reign ofPaul IV, the jurist Marquardo Susanni in his treatise De Judaeis andaliis infidelibus (Venice 1558), referred to William’s murder and thesecond presumed ritual homicide at Norwich in 1235, alluding to ritual
crucifixion, without any mention of the ritual use of the victim’s
blood.16 But, if we examine the matter more closely, a careful readingof Thomas of Monmouth’s text might point to other possible
conclusions.
The Jew Eleazar of Norwich’s Christian servant, the only
eyewitness of the presumed ritual homicide of little William, claimed,in her deposition, that, while the Jews proceeded with the cruelcrucifixion, they asked her to bring a pot full of boiling water “tostaunch the flow of the victim’s blood”.17 It seems obvious to us that,
contrary to the maid servant’s interpretation, the boiling water must, on
the contrary, have been used for the opposite purpose, i.e., to increase
the flow of blood. It therefore remains to be proven that blood was asecondary element in the so-called “sacrifice of the child at Norwich”.
The fact that the written traditions which have come down to us do not
inform us of the manner in which they intended to utilize the blood of
the crucified child in this case constitutes no proof in either direction.
Be that as it may, the accusation of ritual murder or the crucifixionof Christian boys spread from Norwich throughout England: from
Gloucester in 1169, to Bury St. Edmunds in 1183, to Winchester in
1192, from Norwich – again – in 1235, to London in 1244, and, finally,
to Lincoln in 1255, where the martyr was sainted.18 As we shall see,
there are reports of an anomalous case of plural ritual murder again at
Bristol at the end of the 13th century.
The Gloucester case occurred almost a quarter of a century after
the child murder of little William at Norwich. Yet, in this case as well,
the sources are not sufficiently clear as to the date of the murder oflittle Harold. John Brompton’s Chronicle speaks generally of ananonymous boy crucified by Jews near Gloucester in 1160, while the170Peterborough Chronicle, although confirming the crucifixion, places
the crime during the days of Passover of the following year. 19 The
author of the history of Saint Peter’s monastery at Gloucester, seems
more precise and better-informed, reporting the killing of a child,named Harold, referring to him as a “glorious martyr in Christ”, andstating that the crime was committed in 1168 by Jews, who were said tohave thrown the body into the Severn river.20
The body of an eight-year old child, Hugh, in the bottom of a wellowned by Copino, a local Jew, at Lincoln in the summer of 1255. The
judge, John of Lexington, hastened to establish precise analogies with
the Norwich murder a century before. The victim had been abducted byJews, tortured and crucified, exactly as in little William’s case. In thosedays, the great affluence of foreign Jews into the city of Norwich, ofmodest size, seemed to confirm that something big was in the works,
and that the link with Hugh’s disappearance and killing was something
more than a mere working hypothesis. The marriage of Rabbi Benedict(Berechyah)’s daughter, held there at the time, did not appear todeserve serious consideration by anyone wishing to demonstrate anyother theory. But it was necessary to call upon the principal defendant,
Copino, who, rather than respond to the accusations, was to confirm
them.
The Jew, under torture, “sang” quickly, according to the preestablished script, confessing that the Jews of the Kingdom wereaccustomed to crucify cruelly a Christian child in contempt of thepassion of Christ every year.
This year, it was the city of Lincoln’s turn to be selected as thetheatre of the sacred and macabre ceremony, and the child Hugh was
simply the victim of bad luck in becoming the innocent martyr ofJewish depravity. Popular devotion thus acquired another saint.21 Of themore than one hundred persons involved in the religious crime, about
twenty were executed after summary trial. All the others were
imprisoned in the Tower of London. All had their property confiscated,which in some cases amounted to huge fortunes, forfeit to the treasuryof King Henry III. At the end of the 14th century, Chaucer, in his
Canterbury Tales, was able to draw inspiration from the crime at
Lincoln, describing the re-emergence, from a well, of another child,
who, like Hugh the Saint, had been sacrificed by the infamous
followers of the Jewish sect.22
The case of Adam, considered the victim of a ritual homicide
occurring at Bristol at the end of the 13th century, provides us with atrue and proper serial killer, the Jew Samuel, who, “in the days of KingHenry, father of the other King Henry”, is said to have killed three171

Christian children in one year. Thereafter, with the collaboration of hiswife and son, he is said to have gone on to kidnap another child, named
Adam, who, tortured, mutilated (perhaps subjected to circumcision) andcrucified, is said finally to have been skewered on a spit like a lamb androasted over a flame. Samuel’s wife and son are said to have repented,
expressing the intention to bathe in the baptismal waters, but at thispoint the perfidious and criminal Jew is said to have killed them both aswell.23 As we see, sometimes the popular psychosis of ritual murdercaused persons caught up in irrational fears to mistake one thing foranother. And this regardless of the fact that perhaps these fears could
have a some correspondence to actual crimes committed by individuals
deranged by phobias and psychoses of a religious nature, transferred tothe plane of action.
A few years after the crimes at Norwich and Gloucester, ritualmurders made their appearance in grand style in France as well. These
crimes, at least in the cases we know about, involved so-called “childcrucifixions”, which, once discovered and made public, led to themassacre of entire Jewish communities. It is thus said to have happened
that, during the reign of Louis VII, the Jews of Joinville and Pentoise
crucified a child named Richard in 1179, who then became the objectof popular devotion and was buried in Paris.24 When Philippe II, futureKing of France, was a child, around 1170, he is said to have listened in
terror to contemporary tales told within the palace describing the Jews
of Paris intent upon sacrificing a Christian child every year, incontempt of the Christian religion, butchering him in the slums of thecity.25
The most famous, and most frequently studied, ritual homicide ofwhich Jews in French territory were accused during this period iscertainly that reported in 1171 in Blois, a central location on the mainrout from Tours to Orleans, on the banks of the Loire. Here, the Jews ofthat community, suspected of killing a Christian child and thendumping the body in the waters of the Loire, were condemned to death,and thirty two of them met death at the stake after a summary trial.26 In
his memoirs, the rabbi Efraim of Bonn reconstituted that which,according to him, had been the tragic mix-up leading to the accusationof ritual murder brought against the Jews of Blois:“Towards evening a Jew (who was hurrying along the street),bearing a bundle of hides to the tanner, without noticing that one of thehides had become separated from the others and could be seen
protruding from the bundle. The groom’s horse (which was being led todrink from the river), seeing the whitened skins in the darkness, began
to paw the ground and then reared up, refusing to be led to the water.
172

The terrified Christian servant immediately returned to his lord’s palaceand reported: ‘Know ye that I stumbled upon a Jew, as he was about todump the body of a little Christian into the waters of the river’ ”.27
It seems obvious that waterways and tanners are recurrent elements
in many supposed ritual child murder stories, and probably for goodreason; this may be seen in many of the episodes we have already dealt
with, from Norwich and Blois to Trent. The waters of rivers furrowing
the regions of England and France and the German territories wereconsidered silent accomplices, suggestive of cruel infanticides forreligious purposes. In 1199, the upper waterways of the Rhine, near
Cologne, were the scene of a presumed ritual murder, which wasimmediately punished with the usual massacre of all those considered
responsible. Some Christians, traveling on a boat going upstream,
discovered the lifeless body of a girl lying on the bank in the mists of
Buppard. The perpetrators of the crime were soon identified. A shorttime later, as it happened, a group of Jews were observed on board abarge moving slowly in the same direction, while their othercompanions controlled its movements by means of ropes fixed to thebank. Their fate was sealed. Captured without hesitation, they were
hurled into the turbid waters of the Rhine, where they drowned
miserably.28
On a previous occasion, in 1187, the Jews of Magonza wereaccused of a ritual homicide and forced to swear that “they were notaccustomed to sacrifice a Christian on the eve of Pesach”, the Jewish
Passover.29 A few years later, in 1195, it was the turn of the Jews of
Spira to be accused of killing a young Christian girl. Justice was soon
done. The Jewish district was sacked by an infuriated mob, while therabbi of the community, Isaac ben Asher, was lynched, together witheight other Jews, and their houses and the synagogue burnt down. As if
according to script, once again, the tragedy was concluded on the riverbanks. The Torah rolls and other Hebraic books, removed from theplace of worship, were thrown into the Rhine and disappeared beneaththe waves.30
Two years afterward, as Jewish chronicles report, “God’s rage
struck His people when a Jewish madman killed a Christian girl in thecity of Neuss, cutting her throat in front of everyone”.31 Popular
vengeance was immediate, and did not limit itself to targeting the
supposed madman. Another five Jews were in fact accused ofcomplicity in the murder, which was obviously not dismissed as themere result of the insanity of an individual.
Particular importance has been attributed to the ritual murder ofwhich the Jews of Fulda were accused in Franconia at Christmas 1235.
173

Based on the report contained in the Annals of Erfurt:“In this year, on 28 December, 34 Jews of both sexes were killedby the Crusaders because two of them, on the Holy Day of Christmas,
had cruelly killed the five sons of a miller who lived outside the citywalls. (The Jews) gathered the blood of the victims in waxed bags, andleft the area after setting fire to the house. When the truth came to light,
and after the Jews themselves had confessed to their guilt, theyreceived the punishment they deserved”.32
The Annals of Marbach, referring to the same events, explainedthat the Jews had committed the horrendous crime “to use the blood tocure themselves”.33
Based on this unusual annotation, some people have identified thecrime at Fulda as involving the birth of a new motive, intended to
explain and characterize these religious child murders: so-called “ritualcannibalism”. If, previous to this time, the Jews had been accused of
crucifying Christians, at least during the Passover period, “in contemptof the passion of Christ”, without the blood of the victims being
attributed any particular significance, starting in Fulda in 1235, theblood presumably consumed by the Jews for ritual, magical or curative
purposes, is said to have assumed a decisive and almost exclusive
significance. The myth of the crucifixion of the Christian children issaid to have arisen from the fertile imagination of Thomas ofMonmouth, as a result of the murder of little William of Norwich in
1144. The myth of ritual cannibalism on the other hand, is said to haveoriginated in the Fulda murder in 1235, tendentiously interpreted in thisdirection by clerical bodies headed by Conrad of Marburg, abbey of theimperial monastery of Fulda.34 In support of this interpretation, broadly
accepted today, people stress that hardly one year afterwards, Emperor
Friedrich II created a commission of inquiry to verify whether or not
the Jews had really nourished themselves on the blood of Christianchildren.35
To this theory a few objections may be raised, which appear oflittle importance. Precisely in the motivation adopted upon the creationof the Annals of Marbach, it is stated that its members were called upon
to investigate “whether the Jews considered the consumption of blood
to be necessary during the Passover period”. We now know that thepresumed ritual murder at Fulda was committed during the Christmas
period and not at Easter, a sign that the German Emperor, althoughunaware of these recent facts, was thinking of the supposed ritualmurders committed in the localities of Germany on Passover eve, when
the ritual use of the blood was presumed, even if unverified.
Secondarily, the allegation that the Jews of Fulda collected their174

victim’s blood “to cure themselves” (ad suum remedium) does notnecessarily indicate oral ingestion, and, therefore, a form of ritualcannibalism. We have in fact seen that, according to the prosecutors,
and sometimes even according to the defendants themselves, the Jews
used blood, reduced to powder, to heal wounds, such as thecircumcision wound, to staunch hemorrhages of various kinds, and to
spread upon the body and face for purposes of exorcism. If these
considerations are of any value, then the specific relevance of Fulda as
the birthplace of supposed ritual cannibalism should certainly berevised, without prejudice to the fact that the ingestion of blood in the
Passover celebrations was thereafter to become an increasingly
recurrent and explicit motif in the accusations and trials.
It was Thomas de Cantimpré (1201-1272), who supplied histheological interpretation of the significance of attributing the value
placed upon Christian blood by the Jews as the result of someprodigious and infallible medication. According to the friar of themonastery of Cantimpré, in the outskirts of Cambray, the Jews were theheirs of the curse falling upon their ancestors, guilty of crucifying theRedeemer. Jewish blood was irremediably polluted and an
inextinguishable source of physical and moral suffering. The only
infallible therapy for such horrors and painful infirmities lay inChristian blood, which was transfused into their bodies in order tocleanse them.36 The confirmation of this unexceptionable truth, Thomas
found, as might have been foreseen, in the zealous confessions of alearned Jew, recently purified by the sacred waters of baptism. This
Jew is identified by some as the famous convert Nicholas Donin,
responsible for the great bonfire of the Talmud in Paris in 1242, andperhaps linked to the anti-Jewish polemics following the ritual
homicide at Fulda.37 Donin is supposed to have informed Thomas that a
Jewish wise man, esteemed by all for his prophetical gifts, was said tohave bared his soul on his deathbed to confirm that the torments
suffered by the Jews in body and soul could find certain remedy only
through to the beneficial ingestion of Christian blood.38 Whether inliquid form or powder, dried or in curdles, fresh or boiled – blood, thismagical fluid with the ambiguous and mysterious fascination, made its
arrogant presence known through stories of child sacrifice, in the foldsof which it lay concealed, perhaps less successfully than often
supposed, until then.
Ritual murder accusations became more widespread: from
Pforzheim in Baden in 1261, to Bacharach in 1283 and Magonza in thesame year, to Troyes in France in 1288. These crimes generally
involved child murders, in which the method was not emphasized; at
175

times, they still involved crucifixions, as in the Northampton cases of1279 (apud Northamptonam die Crucis adorate puer quidam a Judaeis
crucifixus est) and Prague in 1305, and perhaps that of Chinon, inThuringia, in 1317. The sellers of Christian children to Jews to enable
them to carry out their horrendous sacrifices were generally beggars,
both men and women, who had few scruples when it came to earning a
few coins; or unscrupulous nannies and wet nurses or unnatural parents.
When the market supply was insufficient, the Jews were constrained totake direct action to abduct children for crucifixion, running notinconsiderable risks in such cases. Inquiries and trials generally
concluded with the confession and the pitiless condemnation of the
defendants, who were at all times considered a priori to be guilty.
Justice was often administered in a summary manner, in which casemassacres and burnings at the stake were inflicted upon the entire
Jewish community, such as Munich in 1285, where two hundred Jews
were burnt alive in the synagogue, accused by a stinking old woman ofbribing her to abduct a boy for them. Another supposed ritual murder
was recorded in that same Bavarian city in 1345.39
The use of blood by Jews for ritual purposes was explicitly
mentioned in many cases, but not always in connection with Passover.
The Klosterchronik of Zwettl refers, in the year 1293, to a ritual murderaccusation brought against the Jewish communities of southern Austria,
on the banks of the Danube, and mentions blood as the motive for thecrime. “The Jews of Krems had obtained a Christian (boy) from thoseof Brünn; they therefore killed him in the cruelest manner to obtain his
blood”.40 Thus, in the analogous case reported at Ueberlingen in Badenin 1332, the chronicler John of Winterthur revealed that the victim’s
parents had observed “signs of incisions in the internal organs andveins” of the body.41
In the Passover period of 1442, a blood accusation struck the small
Jewish community of Lienz in the Val Pusteria, a city located on theconfines between Kärnten and the Tyrol. The martyred body of a threeyear-old girl named Orsa, a baker’s daughter, was found in a canal.
Wounds and punctures observed on the body led people to believethat they had been inflicted to drain the victim’s blood. It was therefore
foreseeable that popular rumor would immediately conclude that thecrime was one of ritual child murder, committed by the enemies ofChrist. The Jews, arrested without delay and interrogated with the usual
coercive methods, admitted the crime, which is said to have taken place
among the wine kegs in the cellar of Samuele’s house on Good Friday.
The child had been purchased by the Jews from a beggar, a certain
Margarita Praitsschedlin, who was arrested and taken to jail; she176quickly confessed. The trial was summary. Samuele, the principal
defendant accused of ritual murder, was suspended from the wheel andburnt; Giuseppe “the Old Man”, the probable spiritual head of the small
Jewish community, was hanged; finally, the beggar woman, guilty of
the abduction of little Orsa, was burnt on the wheel, together with twoformer Jewesses, obviously considered accomplices in the crime. These
tragic events, however, came to a happy and comforting conclusion;consisting of the baptism of five Jewish girls, four women and one
male, to be exact.42
The only problem, although of secondary importance, regarding
the so-called “Martyrdom of Orsola Poch” is the fact that the report
lacks any contemporary documentation. The first document relating tocrime at Lienz in Easter of 1442 consists of a posthumous report, drawn
up in 1475 at the request of Giovanni Hinderbach, bishop of Trent. 43
We shall therefore have to wait until the beginning of the 18th century
to encounter the first hagiographic reports relating to Orsola and her
tragic death. Moreover, the attentive reader will not fail to notice theanalogies – perhaps not accidental – relating to the involvement ofHinderbach, famous because of the Trent case. The name of theprincipal defendant in both cases is Samuele; Mosé “the Old Man” ofTrent corresponds to Giuseppe “the Old Man” of Lienz; women appear
to play a major role in both cases. Finally, Hebraic ritual cannibalism
during the Passover period – in this case, committed on the person of
an innocent girl – is poorly suited to the stereotype, which insists thatthe child martyr must be a boy, upon whom circumcision may bepracticed during the cruel and homicidal ceremony.
A few years afterwards, in 1458, a murder accusation, probably for
ritual purposes, was brought against the Jews of Chambéry in Savoy.
On 3 April of that year, during the first night of Pesach, two Christianbrothers, Leta, 12 years old, and Michel, aged five, were mysteriously
killed, after having been seen traversing the Jewish quarter at nightfall.
The examination of the bodies indicated that the two children had beensavagely beaten and then strangled. Suspicion once again fell on theJews, who were arrested en masse and tried without any further delay
the following May. Nevertheless, precise proofs not having beenpresented against them during the hearings, the accused were acquitted
and released.44 In any case, it was clear that any child murder,
especially if committed during the spring months, most particularly
when the body was found near the Jewish quarter, would be
automatically attributed to the Jews and linked to their secret Passoverrites, drenched with blood.
Several Christian boys, sanctified in the popular devotion and who
177later became objects of veneration as supposed victims of the Jews overthat same period, require separate discussion. We are referring to“Good Werner” of Oberwesel in the Rhineland, Rudolf of Bern,
Conrad of Weissensee and Ludwig of Ravensburg.45 Apart from thelast, with regards to whom we know only that in 1429, at the age of 14,
he is said to have fallen victim to the horrendous rites of the Jews on
the banks of Lake Constance, in all the other cases the blood motif
returns in an obsessive manner.
At Oberwesel on the Rhine, a boy named Werner, also fourteen,
like Ludwig of Ravensburg, is said to have been tortured to death by
the Jews for three days and then thrown into the waters of the river. His
body is said to have floated miraculously upriver, against the current,
and to have washed ashore at Bacharach, where it began to work
miracles, curing the sick and suffering. The tradition, gathered by later
hagiographers, reports that “Good Werner” had been hung by the feet,by Jews, and intentionally made to vomit the Host which he had
previously swallowed in church; his veins are then said to have been
cruelly opened, so that his blood might flow and be collected. In short,the whole tale was an extraordinary, perhaps rather redundant,
concentration of accusations, intended to exalt poor Werner’s halo ofmartyrdom, from crucifixion and ritual cannibalism to profanation of
the Host.46 And yet, over the 16th century, “good Werner” became
transformed, from a victim of the Jews into the rubicund patron saint of
the wine growers of the region extending from the Rhineland to theJura and Auvergne.47 The close kinship between blood and wine,
constant over the centuries, permitted the holy martyr effectively toprotect the Cabernets and Merlots of industrious and zealous French
and German growers.
Another saint, Rudolf of Bern, killed in 1294, is said to have been
tortured and decapitated in the basement of a palace owned by a rich
Jew in the Swiss city of Jöli during the Passover period of that year. 48
The hagiographic reports of the early Eighteenth century state that thisChristian victim was crucified and his blood drained off by Jews
“intending to practice their damned superstitions”.49 More specifically,
the violent death of Conrad, a schoolboy from Weissensee inThuringia, not far from Erfurth, occurred in 1303 and was attributed to
the Jews, according to chroniclers, in relation to the celebration of theJewish Passover. In observation of the Passover norms prescribed by
the cult, the murder of young Conrad, who is said to have become apopular saint in the regions of central Germany, is alleged to have had
his veins opened to collect the precious blood.50

178

***

NOTES TO CHAPTER SEVEN
1

See the text in The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich
by Thomas of Monmouth, Now First Edited from the Unique
Manuscript, by A. Jessopp and R.M. James, Cambridge, 1896.
2
It would be possible to compile an extremely long and extensive
bibliography on this topic. See, in particular, the extremely curious
monograph by M.D. Anderson, A Saint at Stake. The Strange Death ofWilliam of Norwich, 1144, London, 1964, and the important works byLangmuir and McCullogh, to which we will return later: G.L.
Langmuir, Thomas of Monmouth, Detector of Ritual Murder, in“Speculum”, LIX (1984), p. 820-846; Id., Toward a Definition ofAntisemitism, Berkeley – Los Angeles (Calif.) – Oxford, 1990, pp. 209236; Id., Historiographic Crucifixion, in G. Dehan, Les Juifs en regard
de l’histoire. Mélanges en honneur de Bernard Blumenkranz, Paris,
1985, pp. 109-127; J.M. McCullogh, Jewish Ritual Murder, William of
Norwich, Thomas of Monmouth and the Early Dissemination of theMyth, in “Speculum”, LXXII (1997), pp. 109-127. “We note that it wasin England, in the German regions and in those Alpine regions, inwhich the devotion of the ‘child martyrs’ was most widespread, always
presented as victims of the Jews”, (A Vauchez, La santità nel
Medioevo, Bologna, 1989, p. 104).
3“In England [...] various images remain of the child martyr
William of Norwich (d. 1144), who was never canonized” (Vauchez,
La santità nel Medioevo, cit., p. 454).
4
Theobald’s deposition, accompanied by other fragments from thewritten hagiography of Thomas of Monmouth, is recorded by J.R.
Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World. A Source Book (315-1791),
New York, 1974, pp. 121-126.
5
Cfr. J. Jacobs, St. William of Norwich, in “The Jewish Quarterly
Review”, IX (1897), 748-755.
6
In this regard, see G. Mentgen, The Origins of the Blood Libel, in“Zion”, LIX (1994), pp. 341-349 (in Hebrew).
7
Thomas de Cantimpré, Bonum universale de apibus, Douay,
Baltazar Belleri, 1627, pp. 303-306. For Thomas's statements relating
to the drawing of lots among Jewish communities for candidates toobtain the child who was destined to renew the supply of Christian
blood, see H.L. Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice. Human Blood
and Jewish Ritual, 1909, pp. 174-175.
8
Cfr. A. Molinier, Enquête sur un meurtre imputé aux Juifs de179

Valréas (1247), in “Le Cabinet Historique”, n.s., II (1883), pp. 121133; Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice, cit., pp. 179-182, 277-279;
Langmuir, Toward a Definition of Antisemitism, cit., pp. 290-296.
9“Consuetudo est inter Judaeos et ubicunque maxima sit multitudo
Judaeorum facere factum simile annuatorum et maxime in partibus
Yspaniae, quia ibi est maxima multitudo Judaeorum”.
10This is the argument set forth by Langmuir, who is often
accepted and shared uncritically. “Ever since the ritual murderaccusation was first made against the Jews in the Middle Ages, that is,from 1150 at Norwich, to 1235, for almost a century, the Jews ofEngland and northern France were accused of crucifying Christianchildren, but not of ritual cannibalism (i.e., the consumption of theirblood for ritual purposes). Absolutely no accusation of ritualcannibalism was ever made in Germany until the Fulda case in 1235,
and when this accusation came to light it was a novelty. It is true that,between 1146 and 1235, the Jews of Germany were accused of killingchildren of different ages and as a consequence they were assaulted, butthere is no evidence of the ritual cannibalism accusation before 1235 at
Fulda” (cfr. Toward a Definition of Antisemitism, cit., pp. 266-267). On
the recent arguments set forth by N. Roth, Medieval Jewish
Civilization, New York-Lond, 2003, pp. 119-121, 566-570.
11
Cfr. McCullogh, Jewish Ritual Murder, cit., p. 728.
12
Annales Herbipolenses, in “Monumenta Germaniae Historica.
Scriptores”, XVI Hannover, 1859, p. 3.
13
Cfr. A.M. Haberman, Sefer ghezerot Ashkenaz we-Zarft (“Bookof Persecutions in Germany and France”), Jerusalem, 1971, p. 119; Id,
Sefer zechirah. Selichot we-qinot le-Rabbi Efraim b. Ya’akov (“Book ofMemory. Prayers and Elegies of the Rabbi Efraim di Bonn”),
Jerusalem, 1970, pp. 22-23.
14This is the argument advanced by I.J. Yuval, “Two Nations inYour Womb”. Perceptions of Jews and Christians, Tel Aviv, 2000, pp.
182-184 (in Hebrew), partially accepted by John McCullogh.
15“We read nothing about Jewish blood ritual [...] till right into thethirteenth century. It is mentioned for the first time in 1236 on theoccasion of the Fulda case, but then already being generally believed inGermany” (cfr. Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice, cit., p. 277). As
we have seen, Strack’s arguments are accepted and taken up by
Langmuir (Toward a Definition of Antisemitism, cit., pp. 266-267) andmore recently by R.C. Stacey, From Ritual Crucifixion to Host
Desecration. Jews and the Body of Christ, in “Jewish History”, XII(1998), pp. 11-28.
16Marquardo Susanni, Tractatus de Judaeis et aliis infidelibus,
180

Venice, Comin da Trino, 1558, c. 25rv: “de illo Vuilelme puero in
Anglia, qui fuit crucifixus a Judaeis in die Parasceves in Urbe
Vormicho [...] quod Judaei degentes Nordovici quendam Christianum
puerum furtim captum totum integrum annum enutriverunt, ut
adventante Paschate cruci affigerent, qui tanti criminis convicti meritas
dederunt poenas”.
17
Cfr. McCullogh, Jewish Ritual Murder, cit., pp. 702-703.
18
Cfr. Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice, cit., p. 177; J.
Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews, Philadelphia (Pa.), 1961, pp.
123-130, 143-144; Langmuir, Historiographic Crucifixion, cit., pp.
113-114; André Vauchez mentions the popular devotion for Herbert of
Huntington, presumed victim of the Jews at about 1180 (cfr. Vauchez,
La santità nel Medioevo, cit., p. 99). On ritual murders in England ingeneral, see C. Holmes, The Ritual Murder Accusation in Britain, in“Ethnic and Ritual Studies”, IV (1981), pp. 265-288.
19
Johannes Brompton, Chronicon, in Historiae Anglicanae
Scriptores, London, Jacob Flescher, 1652, vol. X, p. 1050; “anno 1160[...] regisque Henrici Secundi quidam puer a Judaeis apud Gloverniamcrucifixus est”. Chronicon Petroburgense, by Th. Stapleton, London,
1894, p. 3: “anno 1161 [...] in hoc Pascha quidam puer crucifixus est
apud Gloucestriam”.
20
Historia Monasterii S. Petri Gloucestriae, by W.H. Hart,
London, 1863, in Rerum Medii Aevi Scriptores, vol. LIII, t. I, p. 20:“anno 1168 [...] Haraldum puerum [...] gloriosum Christo martirem sine
crimine necatum [...] in amnem Sabrinem [Judaei] proiecerant”.
21
Cfr. G.L. Langmuir, The Knight’s Tale of Young Hugh of
Lincoln, in “Speculum”, XLVII (1972), pp. 459-482; Vauchez, La
santità nel Medioevo, cit., p. 99.
22
Cfr. A.B. Friedmann, The Prioresss’s Tale and Chaucer’s AntiSemitism, in “Chaucer Review”, XIX (1974), pp. 46-54.
23
Cfr. Stacey, From Ritual Crucifixion to Host Desecration, cit.,
pp. 11-28; C. Cluse, “Fabula ineptissima”. Die Ritualmordlegende um
Adam von Bristol, in “Ashkenas”, 5 (1995), pp. 293-330.
24“Sanctus Richarus a Judaeis crocifixus fuit”. Cfr. Vauchez, La
santità nel Medioevo, cit., p. 99.
25
The term used for the killing of the Christian boy by the Jews ofParis is jugulabant. Cfr. H.F. Delaborde, Oeuvres de Rigord etGuillaume le Breton, Paris, 1882, vol. V, p. 15.
26
For an extensive bibliography on the ritual murder of Blois, see,among others, Sh. Spiegel, “In monte Dominus videbitur”. The Martyrsof Blois and the Early Accusation of Ritual Murder, in Mordecai K.
Kaplan Jubilee Volume, by M. Davis, New York, 1953, pp. 267-287 (in181Hebrew]; Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World, cit., pp. 127-130; R.
Chazan, The Blois Incident of 1171. A Study in Jewish Intercommunal
Organization, in “Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish
Research”, XXXVI (1968), in “Jewish History”, XII (1998), pp. 29-46;
and, lastly, Sh. Shwarzfuchs, A History of the Jews in Medieval France,
Tel Aviv, 2001, pp. 117-123 (in Hebrew).
27
Cfr. Haberman, Sefer ghezerot Ashkenaz we-Zarfat, cit., pp. 120124.
28
Cfr. ibidem, p. 126. On the massacre at Boppard, see Yuval,“Two Nations in Your Womb”, cit., p. 192; Roth, Medieval Jewish
Civilization, cit., p. 568.
29
Cfr. Haberman, Sefer ghezerot Ashkenaz we-Zarfat, cit., p. 161.
See also Yuval, “Two Nations in Your Womb”, cit., p. 185.
30
Cfr. Haberman, Sefer Zechirah, cit., pp. 42-43; Id. (sameauthor), Sefer ghezerot Ashkenaz we-Zarfat, cit., pp. 231-232. On thefacts of Spira, see also Yuval, “Two Nations in Your Womb”, cit., pp.
185, 192, and in particular, Roth, Medieval Jewish Civilization, cit., pp.
568-569.
31
Cfr. Haberman, Sefer Zechirah, cit., p. 40.
32
Annales Erpherfurtenses, in “Monumenta Germaniae Historica.
Scriptores”, XVI, Hannover, 1859, p. 31.
33
Annales Marbacenses, ibidem, p. 178 (“ut ex eis sanguinem adsuum remedium elicerent”).
34
Hermann L. Strack was the first author to note that the belief inthe ritual use of blood by the Jews, although widespread in Germany
even beforehand, was mentioned explicitly for the first time in 1255, on
the occasion of the Fulda case (cfr. Strack, The Jew and Human
Sacrifice, cit., pp. 178, 277). Based on this consideration, Langmuir(Toward a Definition of Antisemitism, cit., pp. 263-281) maintains thatthe origin of the motive of that which is called “ritual cannibalism”
may be found in connection with the facts of Fulda. Before that time, inall the cases reported, the crimes were said to have involved “ritual
crucifixion”, without any mention of the blood motif. This thesis seems
today generally accepted (see, among others, Mentgen, The Origins of
the Blood Libel, cit., pp. 341-349; Roth, Jewish Medieval Civilization,cit., pp. 119-120).
35“Utrum, sicut fama communis habet, Judaei christianum
sanguinem in parasceve necessarium habeant”. In this regard, see
Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice, cit., pp. 178, 277, and, recently,
Sh Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, Documents:
1464-1521, Toronto, 1990, pp. 48-52.
36“Quod ex maledictione parentum currat adhuc in filios venam
182

facinoris per maculam sanguinis, importune fluidam proles impia
inexpiabiliter crucietur, quosque se ream sanguinis Christi recognoscat
poenitens et sanetur” (Tommaso da Cantimpré, Bonum universale deapibus, cit., pp. 304-305). See also Roth’s arguments, Jewish Medieval
Culture, cit., pp. 120-121.
37
For the identification of Donin with the converted Jew
mentioned in Thomas de Cantimpré, see Strack, The Jew and Human
Sacrifice, cit., p. 175. For a convincing examination of the Hebrew
texts placing the French apostate in relation with the anti-Jewish
accusations made after the Fulda case, see, in particular, S. Grayzel,
The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth century, Philadelphia (Pa.),
1933, pp. 339-340, and more recently, J. Schatzmiller, Did Nicholas
Donin Promulgate the Blood Libel? in Studies on the History of thePeople and the Land of Israel presented in Azriel Shochet, 1987, vol.
IV, pp. 175-182 (in Hebrew).
38“Certissime vos scitote nullo modo sanari vos posse ab illo, quo
punimini verecundissimo cruciatu nisi solo sanguine Christiano”(Thomas da Cantimpré, Bonum unverisale de apibus, cit., p. 306).
39
Cfr. Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice, cit., pp. 169-191;
Roth, Medieval Jewish Civilization, cit., pp. 568-569.
40“Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores”, IX, Hannover,1848, p. 658.
41
Johannes Vitodurani Chronicon, by G. von Wyss, Zurich, 1856,
pp. 106-108.
42“Circiter anno quadregesimo secundo, vel tertio proxime elapso,
hic in dicto oppido Leontio aliqui Hebraei, in duabus aedibus
habitationem habuerint [...] cum illi Judaei dictae puellae (Ursulae) ut
ex sequenti eorum inquisitione patet compotes facti, eandem dictoanno, die Parasceves martyrio affecerunt et occiderunt, et postea hic inaqua proiecerunt, ut tam enormem caedem et facinus occultarent [...]
quod sanguis eius ex eodem corpusculo elicitus ac effusa fuerit [...] etita Judaeos omnes sanguis eius ex eodem corpusculo elicitus ac effusus
fuerit [...] et ita Judaeos omnes unanimiter fuisse confessos et effatos,
quomodo dictam infantem die Parsceves anno praefato enecassent etmartyrio affecissent (in cella vinaria)”.
43
See note above. On this document and the 18th century reportsof ritual murder of Lienz, see [Benedetto Bonelli], Dissertazione
apologetica sul martirio del beato Simone da Trento nell’anno
MCCCCLXXV dagli ebrei ucciso, Trent, Gianbattista Parone, 1747, pp.
242-246; F. Rohrbacher, Usula von Lienz: Ein von Juden gemartertes
Christenkind, Brixen, 1905.
44
Cfr. R. Segre, The Jews in Piedmont, Jerusalem, 1986, vol. I, p.
183

286.
45

Cfr. Vauchez, La santità nel Medioevo, cit., pp. 99-100. In thisregard, see, most recently, K.R.Stow’s stimulating study, Jewish Dogs.
An Image and Its Interpreters, Stanford (Calif.), 2006.
46
Cfr. F.S. Hattler, Katholischer Kindergarten oder Legende fur
Kinder, Freiburg, 1806. See also Strack’s argument, The Jew and
Human Sacrifice, cit., pp. 184-185; F. Pauly, Zur Vita des Werner vonOberwesel. Legende und Wirklichtkeit, in “Archiv für Mittelrheinische
Kirchengeschichte”, XVI (1964), pp. 94-109; Roth, Medieval Jewish
Civilization, cit., p. 569.
47
Cfr. H. de Grèzes, Saint Vernier (Verny, Werner, Garnier)patron des vignerons en Auvergne, en Bourgogne et en FrancheComptè, Clermont-Ferrand, 1889; A. Vauchez, Antisemitism e
canonizzazione populare: San Werner o Vernier (1287), bambino
martire e patrono dei vignaioli, in S. Boesch Gajano and L. Sebastiani,
Culto dei santi, istituzioni e classi sociali in età preindustriale,
L’Aquila-Roma, 1984, pp. 489-508.
48
Berner-Chronik, by G. Studer, Bern, 1871, p. 29. For the older
sources relating to this ritual murder, cfr. Strack, The Jew and Human
Sacrifice, cit., pp. 186-188.
49
Cfr. Johann Rudolf von Waldkirch, Gründliche Einleitung zu derEydgenössischen Bunds- und Staats-Historie, Basel, Thurneysen, 1721,
vol. I, p. 135; J. Lauffer, Beschreibung helvetischer Geschichte, Zurich,Conrad Orell, 1706, vol. III. P. 108.
50
Cfr. “Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores”, XXV,
Hannover, 1896, p. 717; XLII, Hannover, 1921, p. 29.

184

CHAPTER EIGHTDISTANT PRECEDENTS
AND THE SAGA OF PURIM
Ritual murder accusations have been made against the Jews forthousands of years. The murders were sometimes alleged to have beenaccompanied by ritual cannibalism, but not always. In every case, it israther improbable that the testimonies which have come down to us
from antiquity were known and disseminated in the Middle Ages andcould constitute a significant point of reference for later accusations of
crucifixion and ritual cannibalism.1
As early as the second century before Christ, the almost unknown
Greek historian, Damocritus, who probably lived in Alexandria,
recorded a violently biased anti-Jewish testimony, at that time referredto under his name in Suida’s Greek dictionary. According to
Damocritus, the Jews were accustomed to render worship to a golden
head of an ass; every seven years, they abducted a foreigner to sacrificehim, tearing the body to pieces.2
This horrible rite is said to have taken place probably every sevenyears in the Temple of Jerusalem, sanctuary of the Jewish religion.
Damocritus’s report is evidently intended to stress the barbarism of
the Jews, the “haters of mankind”, who practiced superstitious andcruel cults. It should nevertheless be noted that the Greek historianmade no reference either to any need to collect the victim’s blood orother forms of ritual cannibalism.
A report only partly similar to that reported by Damocritus isfound in the polemical Contra Apione, by Flavius Josephus, quoting thetendentiously anti-Jewish rhetorician, Apione, who lived at Alexandria
during the 1st century of the Christian era. According to Apione,
Antiocchus Epiphane, entering the Temple of Jerusalem, is said to havebeen surprised to find a Greek, stretched on a bed and surrounded byexquisite foods and rich dishes. The prisoner’s report was extraordinaryand horrifying. The Greek said that he had been captured by the Jews
and taken to the Temple and concealed from everyone, while they
force-fed him on all sorts of foods. At first, it the unusual
circumstances in which he found himself did not greatly displease him
until the sanctuary attendants revealed the fate waiting in store for him:185

he was fated to die, the predestined victim of homicidal Jewish
sacrificial practices.
“(The Jews) carry out this (rite) every year, on a pre-establisheddate. They catch a Greek merchant and feed him for a whole year. Theylater take him into a forest, kill him and sacrifice him according to theirreligion. They then savor the viscera, and in the moment of sacrificing
the Greek, they swear their hatred of all Greeks. They then dump theremains of the carcass into a ditch”.3
Flavius Josephus reports that the history recounted by Apione was
not invented by him, but was, rather, derived from other Greek writers,
an indication that its dissemination must have been much morewidespread than we are led to imagine based on the two only surviving
accounts, i.e., of Damocritus and Apion.4
Compared to the first, the second describes a number of variants
which are undoubtedly important. The sacrificial ceremony is now
annual, and held on a fixed date, even if the account does not specify
the Jewish holiday on which it allegedly took place. Furthermore, ritualcannibalism is now stressed in an explicit and brutal manner, even if
there is still no mention of any need for human blood, which, as wehave seen, is said to have become the preponderant element startingwith the Middle Ages. On the other hand, that both Greeks and Romans
are alleged to have ended up as a meal for ravenous Jews is shown by
the fact that Dio Cassius, writing of their rebellion at Cyrene (115 of
the Christian era), hastened to mention, in disgust, that the Jews wereaccustomed to feasting upon the bodies of Greek and Roman enemies
slain in battle. Not contenting themselves with the satisfaction of thisalimentary predilection, they painted their bodies with the blood of
their enemies and used their intestines as belts.5
A more delicate matter than the above seems to relate to a passage
in the Talmud (Ketubot 102b) which might be interpreted as an indirectconfirmation of the phenomenon of ritual murder during an ancient
epoch, although we don’t know how widespread or how widely
approved it may have been. The passage concerns a so-called “outside”
baraita, or mishnah, i.e., one not incorporated into the codified andcanonical text of the mishnah (dating back approximately to the third
century A.D.) – which seems to be one of the oldest – and may
therefore be traced back to Palestine at the time of the second Temple.
“A man is killed, leaving a son of a tender age in the care of his
mother. When the father’s heirs approach and say, ‘Let him grow up
with us’, and the mother says ‘Let him grow up with me’, he (the boy)should be left with the mother, and should not be entrusted to the careof anyone entitled to inherit from him. A case of this kind happened in186the past and (the heirs) killed him on Passover Eve (Hebrew:
weshachatuhu ’erev ha-Pesach)”.6
We know that the Hebrew verb shachet has the meaning of“butcher”, “kill”, as well as to “immolate”, as, for example, as asacrifice (as for example, Exodus 12:21 “Thou shalt sacrifice the
Passover lamb”, we-shachatu ha-pesach). If in the case in question
were merely a matter of a simple murder committed by heirs for profit,
the statement that the murder was committed “on Passover Eve” would
be quite superfluous. In fact, in support of the law providing that thechild should be entrusted to the mother instead of persons entitled toinherit his property, it would have been sufficient merely to state that,in the past, a child had been killed by his heirs. When and how themurder occurred is in fact superfluous, except to remind the reader of acase, which was presumably well known, in which such a child murder,
which deserved to be condemned, actually occurred, but only formaterial and egotistical motives.
At this point, it might be noted that the most ancient Christianauthors appeared to make no use of this Talmudic passage in their antiJewish polemics, although the passage shows a relationship between
the cruel killing of a child and the Jewish Passover, which might havebeen used by them in support of the ritual murder accusation. But
perhaps their failure to do so was due to poor knowledge of Talmudic
literature and rabbinical literature in general on the part of Christianpolemicists, who were often ignorant of Talmudic and rabbinicallanguage and interpretive categories.7
Be that as it may, it is advisable to stress that the reading “Theykilled (or immolated) him on Passover eve” (we-shachatuhu ’erev haPesach), appears in all the manuscript and ancient versions of the
Ketubot treatise in question, as well as in the first edition of the
Talmud, printed at Venice in 1521 by Daniel Bomberg. Later, no doubt
for the purpose of defending themselves against the ritual murderaccusation brought by those who had, in the meantime, discovered thepotential value of the embarrassing passage, the Jewish editors of the
Talmud replaced the passage with a more anaemic, less embarrassing
reading: “they killed him on New Year’s Eve” (’erev Rosh HaShanah), or “they killed him the first evening” (’erev ha-rishon).8 The
latter version might suggest that the child’s heirs got rid of him in aviolent way as early as the evening of the day upon which he was
entrusted to them, with the obvious intention of getting their hands onthe estate as soon as possible.
The editors of the famous Vilna edition of the Talmud (1835)
justified their decision to adopt the reading “they killed him the first187

evening” in a glossa to Ketubot 102b, in which they rejected thepreceding version – but without explicitly mentioning it – containing
the reference to “Passover Eve”, as the circumstance under which theunhappy child is said to have been cruelly killed. “Whoever preceded
us in the Talmud”, they stressed, “fell into error and preferred a reading
completely torn out of context”.9
That Christian Europe of the Middle Ages feared the Jews is anestablished fact. Perhaps the widespread fear that Jews were scheming
to abduct children, subjecting them to cruel rituals, even antedates theappearance of stereotypical ritual murder which seems to haveoriginated in the 12th century. As for myself, I believe that serious
consideration should be given to the possibility that this fear waslargely related to the slave trade, particularly in the 9th and 10th
centuries, when the Jewish role in the slave trade appears to have been
preponderant.10
During this period, Jewish merchants from the cities in the valleyof the Rhône, Verdun, Lione, Arles and Narbonne, in addition to
Aquisgrana, the capital of the empire in the times of Louis the Pious[Louis I]; and, in Germany, from the centers of the valley of the Rhine,from Worms, Magonza and Magdeburg; in Bavaria and Bohemia, fromRegensburg and Prague – were active in the principal markets in whichslaves (women, men, eunuchs) were offered for sale, by Jews,
sometimes after abducting them from their houses. From Christian
Europe the human merchandise was exported to the Islamic lands ofSpain, in which there was a lively market. The castration of theseslaves, particularly children, raised their prices, and was no doubt alucrative and profitable practice.11
The first testimony relating to the abduction of children by Jewish
merchants active in the trade flowing into Arab Spain, comes down to
us in a letter from Agobard, archbishop of Lyon in the years 816-840.
The French prelate describes the appearance at Lyons of a Christianslave, having escaped from Cordoba, who had been abducted from a
Leonese Jewish merchant twenty four years before, when he was achild, to be sold to the Moslems of Spain. His companion in flight wasanother Christian slave having suffered a similar fate after being
abducted six years before by Jewish merchants at Arles. The
inhabitants of Lyons confirmed these claims, adding that yet another
Christian boy had been abducted by Jews to be sold into slavery thatsame year. Agobard concludes his report with a comment of a generalnature; that these were not considered isolated cases, because, ineveryday practice, the Jews continued to procure Christian slaves forthemselves and furthermore subjecting them to “infamies such that it
188

would be vile in itself to describe them”.12
Precisely what kind of abominable “infamies” Agobard is referring
to is not clear; but it is possible that he was referring to castration morethan to circumcision.13 Liutprando, bishop of Cremona, in his
Antapodosis, said to have been written in approximately 958-962,
referred to the city of Verdun as the principal market in which Jews
castrated young slaves intended for sale to the Moslems of Spain. 14
During this same period, two Arab sources, Ibn Haukal and Ibrahim al
Qarawi, also stressed that the majority of their eunuchs originated from
France and were sold to the Iberian peninsula by Jewish merchants.
Other Arabic writers mentioned Lucerna, a city with a Jewish majority,
halfway between Cordoba and Malaga in southern Spain, as anothermajor market, in which the castration of Christian children after
reducing them to slavery was practiced on a large scale by the verysame people.15
Contemporary rabbinical responses provide further confirmation of
the role played by Jews in the trade in children and young people, as
well as in the profitable transformation of boys into eunuchs. These
texts reveal that anyone who engaged in such trade was aware of therisks involved, because any person caught and arrested in possession of
castrated slaves in Christian territories was decapitated by order of thelocal authorities.16
Even the famous Natronai, Gaon of the rabbinical college of Surain the mid-9th century was aware of the problems linked to thedangerous trade in young eunuchs.
“Jewish (merchants) entered (into a port or a city), bringing withthem slaves and castrated children [Hebrew: serisim ketannim]. Whenthe local authorities confiscated them, the Jews corrupted them withmoney, reducing them to more harmless advisors, and the merchandise
was returned, at least in part”.17
But if one wishes to interpret the significance and scope of theJewish presence in the slave trade and practice of castration, it is a factthat the fear that Christian children might be abducted and sold wasrather widespread and deeply rooted in all Western European countries,
particularly, France and Germany, from which these Jews originatedand where the greater part of the slave merchants operated.
Personalities in the clergy nourished that fear, conferring religious
connotations upon it with an anti-Jewish slant, failing to account for thefact that slavery as a trade had not yet gone out of fashion morally and,as such, was broadly tolerated in the economic reality of the period. On
the other hand, the abduction and castration of children, often
inevitably confused with circumcision, which was no less feared and189abhorred, could not fail to insinuate themselves in the collective
unconscious mind of Christian Europe, especially the French andGerman territories, inciting anxiety and fear, probably solidified overtime, believed, as a result, to have concretized itself, in a variety ofways and in more or less in the same places, as ritual murder.
In the Hebrew calendar, Pesach, Passover, comes one month after
the feast of Purim, which commemorates the miraculous salvation of
the Jewish people in Persia during the reign of King Ahasuerus I (519465) from the threat of extermination linked to the plotting of theKing’s perfidious minister, Haman. The Book of Esther, which
examines all these explosive matters and exalts the saving function of
the Biblical heroine as well as that of Mordechai, Esther’s uncle andmentor, concludes with the hanging of Haman and his ten sons, as wellas with the beneficial massacre of the enemies of Israel. Leon da
Modena in his Riti, describes Purim in precisely this manner, stressing
a carnival-like atmosphere of celebrations and convivial opulence inwhich restraint and inhibition were dangerously weakened.
“On the 14th of Adar, which is March, is the festival of Purim, inmemory of everything we read in the Book of Esther, which saved thepeople of Israel from being exterminated through the machinations ofHaman, and he and his sons were hanged [...]. After the ordinary
orations, with remembrance only of the escape which occurred at thehour of death, we read the entire History or Book of Esther, written inbulk, on parchment, like the Panteuch, and which we call meghillah,i.e., volume. And some hearing Haman’s name mentioned, pound on
the tables as a sign to curse him [...] They make much rejoicing
festivities and banquets [...] an effort is made to serve the most
sumptuous meal possible and eat and drink more than usual, after
which friends go out to visit each other, with receptions, festivities andrevelry”.18
For a number of reasons, not least that of its not infrequentproximity to Holy Week, Purim, also called the “festival of the lots”,
came, in time, to acquire openly anti-Christian connotations and therelated celebrations became openly suggestive in this sense, both inform and substance, sometimes audaciously and openly. Haman,equated with that other Biblical arch-enemy of the Jews, Amalek (Deut.
25: 17-19), whose memory was to be blotted out from the face of theearth, was transformed, over time, into Jesus, the False Messiah, whose
impious followers were now threatening the Chosen People withextermination.19
Moreover, Haman was killed, hanged, as Jesus was said to havebeen, and there was no shortage of exegetic material reinforcing this190

paragon. In the Greek translation of the Septuagint as well as in Flavius
Josephus (Ant. Jud. XI, 267, 280), Haman’s gallows was interpreted asa cross, and the execution of King Ahasuerus’s belligerent minister was
described, in effect, as a true and proper crucifixion. The equation
between Amalek, Haman and Christ was self-evidently obvious.
Haman, who, in the Biblical text is referred to as talui, “the hangedone”, was confused with Him who, in all anti-Christian Hebraic texts,
was the Talui by antonomasia [the replacement of a proper name by anepithet], i.e., the crucified Christ.20
The sensational trial of the most prominent members of the
Ashkenazi communities of northern Italy accused of vilifying theChristian religion was held in Milan in the spring of 1488. In reply toinquisitors demanding the name used by Jews with reference to Jesus ofNazareth, Salomone da Como, one of the accused, answered
unhesitatingly: “Among ourselves we call him ‘Ossoays’ (‘that man’,from the Hebrew oto’ ha-ish, according to the German pronunciation),or Talui (‘the hanged one’, ‘the crucified one’), while, when speaking
to Christians, we always refer to him as ‘Christ’ ”.21 It is not surprisingthat a text by 4th century writer Evagrius describes the Jew Simone, inan argument with a Christian, Theophilus, should have equated “thecursed and despised Passion of Christ” with Haman’s “crucifixion”.22
According to the great English anthropologist James George
Frazer, Christ died while playing the role of Haman (the dying god) ina drama of Purim in which (Jesus) Barabbas, the double of Jesus ofNazareth, played the part of Mordechai (the god that resurges). In themodel of the god that dies and is reborn – which is common in the Near
East – Haman is said to have played the part of death and Mordechaithat of life, while the celebration of Purim is said to constitute the
Hebraic ritual of death and resurrection. Based on this consideration,
one might hypothesize that, in the past, the Jews, at the culmination of
the festival, might have been accustomed to putting a man to death inflesh and blood reality, and that Jesus was crucified in this context,
playing the role of Ahasuerus’s tragic minister, the arch-enemy ofIsrael.23
There is no shortage of testimonies of the celebration of rituals,
within the framework of the carnival of Purim, intended to vilify andoutrage the image of Haman, reconstituted in the semblance of Christ
hanging from the cross. First, the emperor Honorius (384-423) and, in
his footsteps, Theodosius (401-450), prohibited the Jews from theprovinces of the Empire from setting fire to effigies of Haman crucified
in contempt of the Christian religion. Probably to be associated with thepreceding prohibitions is the report, mentioned by the late chronicler
191

Agapius [10th century] and dating back to 404-407 A.D., during thereign of Theodosius II [Flavius Theodosius, Roman Emperor of theEast, 401-450 A.D.], that certain Jews of Alexandria, forced to submit
to baptism, are said to have rebelled, giving rise to a sensational protest,
stating that, in their eyes, such a ceremony possessed the fascination ofa certain originality. They are said to have taken an image of the
crucified Christ, heaping insults upon the Christians, mocking themwith the words: “This is our Messiah?”.24 It is not impossible that theepisode formed part of the framework of the Hebraic Purim
celebrations.
Before 1027, at Byzantium [Constantinople, now Istanbul],baptized Jews were required to curse their ex-fellow-Jews “whocelebrated the festival of Mordechai, crucifying Haman on a beam ofwood, in the form of a cross, and then setting fire to it, accompanying
the vile rite with a torrent of imprecations directed at those faithful to
Christ”. Again, in the very early 13th century, Arnol, prior of themonastery at Lübeck, censured the wickedness of the Jews in bitter
terms “in crucifying the figure of the Redeemer every year, making him
the object of shameless ridicule”.25
Even the Hebrew texts do not seem to be sparing on information inthis regard. The Talmudic dictionary Arukh, consisting of the rabbi
Natan b. Yehiel of Rome in the second half of the 11th century,
contains reports that the Jews of Babylon were accustomed to celebrate
the festival of Purim in a particular way.
“It is the custom among the Jews of Babylon and the rest of theentire world for the boys to make effigies shaped like Haman and hangthem on the roofs of their houses for four or five days (before thefestival). In the days of Purim, they prepare a phallus and throw it
among these images, while they stand around singing songs”.26
The above mentioned rites were culinary, even symbolicallycannibalistic in nature. The effigies of Haman-Christ were of sweet
pastry, to be destroyed, avidly consumed by youngsters and children
during the days of carnival.27
During the Middle Ages, the sweet delicacy enjoying absoluteprimacy in the sumptuous banquets of Purim was a typical biscuit, once
again bearing the pathetic figure of Haman as a gastronomic butt ofridicule. The so-called “Haman’s ears” (onze’ Aman), presented in avariety of versions according to the various traditions of the Jewish
community, gained a position of great importance in the feast of Purim.
In Italy, they were strips of puff pastry shaped like ass’s ears, fried inolive oil and powdered sugar, which quite resembled the Tuscan cenci
and Roman frappe prepared during carnival time. Among Oriental and192

North African Jews, the puff pastry was roasted and covered withhoney and sesame seeds.28
The Italian Ashkenazim did not much care for the overlyMediterranean taste of these biscuits, which they called “galahim frit”
in contempt, “fried priests” (literally “people with the tonsure”),
confirming the detestable relationship between Haman, Israel’s bitter
enemy, and the arrogance of Christianity, with its priests. Their versionof the “ears” were called Hamantaschen or “Haman’s pockets”, andwas more elaborate. These consisted of a large triangle-shaped cake ofegg pasta filled with a sweet brownish mixture based on poppy seeds.29
Nor should we be surprised to find that, even in the relatively recent
past, there was no shortage of people in Germany who shared thebelief, curious even if not very original, that the Ashkenazi stuffed their
Hamantaschen with the coagulated blood of Christian boys martyredby them.30 Modern anti-Semites gather and disseminate thiscannibalistic fable today from their university chairs, particularly in the
Arab countries, making it the subject of ridiculous pseudo-historicalresearch.31
Turning back centuries, however, we must note, following Frazer,
that the ritual of Purim did not always conclude with the bloodlesshanging of a mere effigy of Haman. Sometimes, the “effigy” was aflesh-and-blood Christian, crucified for real, during the wild revelry of
the Jewish carnival. One of the available sources in this regard is
Socrates Scolasticus, history of the Church in the 5th century, which,from its Historia Ecclestiastica (VII, 16), refers to a case occurring in
415 at Inmestar, near Antioch, in Syria.32 The local Hebrews, in theirdebaucheries and intemperate revelry to celebrate Purim, after getting
suitably drunk, according to the prescriptions of the ritual, which
provided that they must drink so much wine that they can no longer
distinguish Haman from Mordechai:”...took to deriding the Christians and Christ Himself in theirboasting; they ridiculed the cross and anyone trusting in the crucifix,
putting the following joke in practice.
“They took a Christian child, tied it to a cross and hanged him.
Initially they made him the object of jokes and drollery; then, after awhile, they lost control of themselves and mistreated him to such a
degree that they killed him.”
The report, which makes no mention of miracles occurring at thesite of the relics of the martyred child, seems to possess all theindications of truthfulness. Moreover, as we have seen above, there arepeople who have viewed the immoderate celebrations of Purim,
accompanied by anti-Christian insults and violence, as the core from193

which the belief in Jewish ritual homicide of Christian children isthought to have developed during the Middle Ages, as an integral partof a ritual centered around on the festival of Pesach, considered theideal culmination of Purim.33
The case of Inmestar is not an isolated one. A Jewish source, thememoires of rabbi Efraim of Bonn, takes us to France, to Brie-Compte
Robert, in 1191 or 1192.34 A servant of the Duchess of Champagne wasfound guilty of the murder of a Jew and was being held in prison forthat offense. The other Jews of the village decided to rescue theprisoner in exchange for money and executed him during the festival of
Purim, hanging him.35“A perfidious Christian killed a Jew in the city of Brie, which is in
France. Then the other Jews, his relatives, went to the lord of the region(the Duchess of Champagne), and implored her (to hand over) the
murderer, who was a servant of the King of France. They therefore
bribed her with their money in order to be able to crucify the killer.36
And they crucified him on the eve of Purim”.37
The vengeance demanded in a loud voice by the Christians of Brie,
headed by Philippe II August, King of France (1165-1223), was notlong in coming. The entire adult Jewish population of the city, totaling
about eighty persons, were tried and condemned to be burnt at the stake(“wealthy persons, rich and influential, some of them famous rabbisand people of culture, who refused to sully themselves [in the baptismal
waters] and to betray the One God, were burnt alive proclaiming theunity of the Creator”). The children, who were Jews and circumcised,were taken en masse to the baptismal font to be made Christians. No
festival of Purim ever concluded in a more tragic manner for the Jews,
overturning and thwarting the saving and hope-giving meaning of the
Biblical account of Esther and Mordechai.
The blasphemous parody of the Passion of Christ sometimes had
the most tragic consequences. But this obvious fact did not always
suffice to cool hot heads and restrain fanatical, agitated minds. The
Christians were not too subtle about it, since they certainly didn’t needexcuses or pretexts to perpetrate indiscriminate massacres of Jews or toplunge Jewish children into the beneficial waters of baptism by force.
The spiral of violence, having due regard to the discrepancies between
the relative power and size of the two conflicting societies, could not be
extinguished. The serpent bit its own tail, leaving its imprint of bloodon the sand. Each society was, in a sense, its own victim, but neither
noticed.
To give a few examples, on 7 February 1323, a few days before thefestival of Purim, a Jew in the Duchy of Spoleto was condemned for194striking and insulting the cross.38 On 28 February 1504, precisely
coinciding with the festival of Purim, a beggar from Bevagna accused
the local Jews of the place, transformed into evil spirits, of having
cruelly crucified him.39 It was still in the days of Purim, in February
1444, that the Jews of Vigone, in Piedmont, were accused of having
pretended to butcher an image of Christ Crucified as a joke; 40 again, it
was in the month of February, this time in 1471, that a Jew from
Gubbio brought a legal action to “scrape” the image of the Virgin Mary
from the outside wall of his house.41
Purim was followed by Pesach, but the story, during that violent
month, was no different, even without any strict need to play cruel andlethal tricks on Christian boys, or to stone Jews and their houses en
masse during the “holy hailstorm of stones”. On 21 March 1456, a Jew
of Lodi entered the cathedral of San Lorenzo at nightfall with a drawn
sword, directing himself without hesitation, where he walked straight
up to the main altar and proceeded to make log wood and splinters outof the image of Christ Crucified, with the evident intention of chopping
it to bits. His fate was sealed. The culprit was lynched on the spot,
amidst the rejoicing of a jubilant crowd, and vengeance was wreaked.
21 March 1456 corresponded to the 15th of the Month of Nissan of theJewish year 5216 and the first day of Pesach. The matter was thus
described by the commander of Lodi to the Duke of Milan:“In our dear city of Lodi, on the 21st day, 17 hours, of the present
month [March], according to the common reports, a Jew entered thecathedral with sword in hand to cut the crucifix of Christ to pieces, forwhich offense the whole territory rose up against him and they ran to
the Jew’s house [...] and killed the above-mentioned Jew and dragged
him on the ground”.42
In the early modern age, the carnival-like festivities of Purim
finally lost those qualities of aggressiveness and violence which had
been characteristic since the early Middle Ages, but never renounced
the clearly anti-Christian meaning it possessed according to tradition.
Thus wrote Giulio Morosini, known as Shemuel Nahmias at Venicewhen he was still a Jew, a shrewd former disciple of Leon da Modena:“During the reading [of the megillah of Esther], whenever Haman
is named, the boys beat the benches of the synagogue with hammers or
sticks with all their might as a sign of excommunication, crying out in aloud voice, ‘May his name be blotted out and may the name of theimpious rot.’ And they all cried ‘Be cursed, Haman, Be blessed,
Mordechai, Be blessed Esther, Be cursed Ahasuerus.’ And they
continue like that until evening, just as on the morning of the first day,never ceasing to express their justified contempt for Haman and the195enemies of Judaism at that time, covertly spreading poison against
Christians, under the name of Idolaters [...] they therefore cry out in aloud voice, ‘Be Cursed all the Idolaters’ ”.43
But at an even earlier time, the illustrious jurist Marquardo
Susanni, protected by Paolo IV Carafa, the fervent and impassioned
founder of the Ghetto of Rome, mentioned the wild hostility of theJews towards Christianity as well as the peculiar carnival-likecharacteristics of Purim. According to him, “during the feast ofMordechai”, the Jews did not hesitate to greet each other by saying, incontemptuous tones:“May the King of the Christians go down to ruin immediately, theway Haman went down to ruin”.44***

NOTES TO CHAPTER EIGHT
1

Cfr. G.L. Langmuir, Thomas of Monmouth. Detector of Ritual
Murder, in “Speculum”, LIX (1984), p. 824.
2
Cfr. Th. Reinach, Textes d’auteurs grecs et romains relatifs au
Judaisme, Paris, 1895, p. 121, no. 60.
3Josephus, Contra Apion, II, 7-1: “et hoc illos facere singulis annis
quodam tempore constituito. Et comprehendere quidem Graecum
peregrinum, eumque annali tempore saginare et deductum ad quamdam
silvam occidere quidem eum hominem, eiusque corpus sacrificare
secundum suas solemnitates, et gustare ex eius visceribus, etiusiurandum facere in immolatione Graeci, ut inimicitas contra Graecos
haberent, et tunc in quandam foveam reliqua hominis pereuntis
abjicere”, Cfr. Rheinach, Textes d’auteurs grecs et romains, cit., pp.
131-132, no. 63.
4
For an examination of the story of Damocritus and Apione on theritual homicides committed by the Jews in the Temple of Jerusalem,see, among others, J. Parkes, The Conflict of the Church and the
Synagogue, 1934, p. 16; D. Flusser, The Blood Libel against the Jews
According to the Intellectual Perspectives of the Hellenistic Age, inStudies on Hellenistic Judaism in Memory of J. Levy, Jerusalem, 1949,
pp. 104-124 (in Hebrew); Id., Moza ’alilot ha-dam (“The Origins of the
Blood Accusation”) in “Manhanaim”, CX (1967), pp. 18-21; J.N.
Sevenster, The Roots of Pagan Anti-semitism in the Ancient World,
Leyden, 1975, pp. 140-142.
5
Cfr. Reinach, Textes d’auteurs grecs et romains relatifs au
Judaisme, Paris, cit., pp. 196-197, no. 112.
196

6

Thus, the final passage of this haraita is translated by rabbi
Dovid Kamenetsky, in the recent edition of the Babylonian Talmud,
with a version in English (Talmud Bavli, Schottenstein Edition, Tractae
Ketubos, III, New York, 2000, c. 102b and no. 32): “for it once
occurred that a boy was entrusted to those fit to inherit him, and theybutchered (or: slew) him on Pesach eve”.
7“In the Latin translation of extracts from the Talmud contained in
Latin manuscript 16558 B.N., which is the principal source ofknowledge of rabbinical literature in the Christian world in the 13th
century, the Ketubot treatise is not explicitly mentioned [...]. It does notcontain the passage which interests you (Ketubot 102b). I have neverfound it used in polemics; nevertheless, the link made between Pesach
might very well have encouraged belief in ‘ritual murder’; but theauthors of the anti-Jewish accounts on this subject obviously know
nothing about Jewish literature. [...]. Among the number of accusations
made of ritual murder, I do not recall ever having found an argument
based upon this Talmudic passage” [written communication dated 2
August 2001 from Professor Gilbert Dehan, to whom I wish to express
my deepest thanks).
8
A. Steinzaltz notes, in this regard, that “in some later editions (ofthe Talmud), the Rosh Ha-Shanah (New Year’s) version appears
instead of Pesach, in the fear that this expression might constituteevidence to be used by those who accuse the Jews of ritual murder”.
(Talmud Bavli, Ketubot, Jerusalem, 1988, vol. II, p. 457). And
nevertheless, the first writer to use the text of Ketubot in this sense
seems to be the famous August Rohling, University professor and oneof the more caustic Austrian anti-Semitic polemicists, author of Der
Talmudjude (Munster, 1871). The passage of Ketubot 102b was
revealed by him and publicized with ill-concealed satisfaction in abrochure entitled Ein Talmud fur rituelle Schächten, which saw thelight in 1892. Hermann L. Strack replied to him, arguing passionately
but only somewhat convincingly, in the fourth edition (London, 1892),
of his classic essay on Jews and human ritual sacrifice (The Jew and
Human Sacrifice. Human Blood and Jewish Ritual, pp. 155-168).
9
Talmud Bavli, Vilna, Menachem (Mendele) Man e Simcha Zimel,
1835. It should be noted that this edition preceded Rohling’s“revelations” by more than half a century, in an act of surprising selfcensorship. It is not impossible that the editors of the Vilna Talmud
intended to respond to doubt and embarrassment within the Jewish
world on the interpretation of this text in the original version, rather
than reply to the external attacks which were still long yet to come.
10
In this regard, see Ch. Verlinden’s now famous classic,
197

L’esclavage dans l’Europe medievale, Brugge, 1955, vol. I, pp. 702716. For a rather over-simplified interpretation of the role of the Jews
in the slave trade, see B. Blumenkranz, Juifs et Chrétiens dans lemonde occidental (430-1096), Paris 1960, pp. 18-19, 184-211, to which
the same Verlinden replied (A propos de la place des juifs dansl’économie de l’Europe occidentale au IXème siècles. Agobard de Lyon
et l’historiographie arabe, in Storia e storiografia. Miscellanea destudi in onore di E. Dupré-Theseider, Rome, 1974, pp. 21-37).
11
Cfr. Verlinden, A propos de la place des juifs, cit., pp. 32-35.
12“Et cum precedens scedula dictata fuisset, supervenit quidam
homo fugiens ab Hispanis de Cordoba, qui se dicebat furatum fuisse a
quoda Judeo Lugduno ante annos IIti IIIor, parvum adhuc puerum, etvenditum. Fugisse autem anno presenti cum alio, qui similiter furatus
fuerat ab alio Judeo ante annos sex. Cumque huis, qui Lugdunesis
fuerat, notos quereremus et invenirem dictum est a quibusdam et alios
ab eodem Judeos furatos, alios vero eptos ac venditos; ab alio quoque
Judeo anno presenti alium puerum furatum et venditum; qua horainventum est plures Christianos a Christianis vendi et comparari a
Judeis, perpatrarique ab eis multa infanda que turpia sunt ad
scribendum” (Epistolae Karolini aevi, in “Monumenta Germaniae
Historica”, III, Hannover, 1846, p. 185). For an analysis of this text,
see, in particular, B. Blumenkrantz, Les auteurs chrétiens latins au
Moyen Age sur les Juifs et le Judaisme, Paris, 1963, pp. 152-168; Id.,
Juifs et Chrétiens dans le monde occidentale, cit., pp. 191-195;
Verlinden, A propos de la place des juifs, cit., pp. 21-25.
13
For a useful discussion of this topic, see Blumenkrantz, Juifs etChrétiens dans le monde occidental, cit., pp. 194-195, no. 142; Id., Lesauteurs chrétiens, cit., p. 163, no. 53.
14“Carzimasium autem greci vocant amputatis virilibus et virga
puerum quod Virdunenses mercatores ob immensum lucrum facere etin Hispaniam ducere solent” [“Virgin boys whose genitals have been
amputated are referred to by the Greeks as ‘eunuchs’. These boys are
castrated by merchants at Verdun at an immense profit and are usuallytaken to Spain”], cit., in Verlinden, A propos de la place des juifs, cit.,p. 33).
15
On the Arab sources attesting to the role of Jewish merchants inthe eunuch trade, cfr. Verlinden, L’esclavage dans l’Europe médiévale,cit., p. 716; Id., A propos de la place des juifs, cit., pp. 22.
16
On the rabbinical responses relating to the trade in castrated
young slaves and on the role of Lucena [outside Cordoba] as a centerfor the castrations, see A. Assaf, Slavery and the Slave-Trade among
the Jews during the Middle Ages (from the Jewish Sources), in “Zion”,
198

IV (1939), pp. 91-125 (in Hebrew); E. Ashtor, A History of the Jews in
Moslem Spain, Jerusalem, 1977, vol. I, pp. 186-189 (in Hebrew).
17
The text of Natronai Gaon is reported in Assaf, Slavery and the
Slave-Trade, cit., pp. 100-101.
18
Leon de Modena, Historia de’ riti hebraici, Venice, Gio.
Calleoni, 1638, pp. 80-81.
19
The first to have linked the rise of the Christian stereotype ofritual murder to the feast of Purim and to the hanging-crucifixion ofHaman-Jesus was Cecil Roth in his now classic study (C. Roth, Feastof Purim and the Origins of the Blood Accusations, in “Speculum”,
VIII, 1933, pp. 520-526). Recently following in Roth’s footsteps havebeen Elliot Horowitz and Gerd Mentgen, adding further documents
attesting to phenomena of anti-Christian violence during the celebrationof Purim (cfr. E. Horowitz, And It Was Reversed. Jews and Their
Enemies in the Festivities, in “Zion”, LIX, 1994, pp. 129-168, inHebrew; Id., The Rite to Be Reckless. On the Perpetration andInterpretation of Purim Violence, in “Poetics Today”, XV, 1994, pp. 954; G. Mentgen, The Origins of the Blood Libel, in “Zion”, LIX, 1994,
pp. 341-349; Id., Über den Ursprung der Ritualmordfabel, in“Aschkenas”, IV, 1994, pp. 405-416). On the status quaestionis, see theprecise summary of I.J. Yuval, “Two Nations in Your Womb”.
Perceptions of Jews and Christians, Tel Aviv, 2000, pp. 179-181 (inHebrew), and the recent stimulating monograph of E. Horowitz,
Reckless Rites. Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence, Princeton,(N.J., 2006.
20
On this subject, see T.C.G. Thornton, The Crucifixion of Haman
and the Scandal of the Cross, in “Journal of Theological Studies”,
XXXVII (1986), pp. 419-426; A. Damascelli, Croce maledizione e
redenzione. Un’ eco di Purim in Galati 3, 13, in “Henoch”, XXIII(2001), pp. 227-241.
21“Quomodo (judaei) vocant Iesum de Nazaret quem adorantchristiani? [...] Dicit quod (inter se) vocant Ossoays et Talui et quando
locunt cum Christianis vocant Christo” [“How do the Jews speak ofthose who adore Jesus of Nazareth? [...] [Amongst themselves] theycall him Ossays and Talui but when they are speaking to Christians,
they call him Christ”] (cfr. An. Antoniazzi Villa, Un processo contro
gli ebrei nella Milano del 1488, Milan, 1986, p. 111).
22
The expression used in the text is “maledicta et ludibriosa
passio” [“cursed and filthy passion”] (cfr. Damascilli, Croce,
maledizione e redenzione, cit.).
23
Cfr. J.G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, London, 1913, IX, pp. 359368, 392-407 (translated as Il ramo d’oro. Studio sulla magia e la199religione, Turin, 1991).
24
Cfr. Parkes, The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue, cit.,p. 234.
25
Cfr. H. Schreckenberg, Die christlichen “Adversos Judaeos”.
Texte und ihr literarisches und historisches Umfeld, Frankfurt am Main
– Bern, 1982, p. 543; Mentgen, The Origins of the Blood Libel, cit., pp.
341-343. This last essay stresses the link between Purim, known as the“feast of the lots”, and the date upon which the annual lottery of theJewish community to establish the location of which to carry out theannual ritual murder (Norwich, Valreas, etc.).
26
Natan b. Yechiel, Arukh, Pesar, G. Soncino, 1517, cc. 162v-163r(s.v. shwwr). See also Shoshanat ha’ amaqim. ’Emeq ha-Purim. Ozar
minhagin we-hanhagot le-chag Purim (“Treasure of the Rites andCustoms of the Feast of Purim”), Jerusalem, 2000, pp. 111-112.
27
The custom is reported in the ritual scripts of rabbi Chaim
Palagi, Mo’ed le-chol chay (“A Time Established for Every Living
Thing?”), Smyrna, B.Z. Rodit, 1861, c. 243rv.
28
In this regard, see my Mangiare alla giudia. La cucina ebraica
in Italia dal Renascimento all’età moderna, Bologna, 2000, pp. 166167.
29
Cfr. ibidem, p. 166. On the Hamantaschen in particular, see N.S.
Doniach, Purim or the Feast of Esther. An Historical Study,
Philadelphia (Pa.), 1933, p. 103.
30
The reference occurs in J. Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews,
Philadelphia (Pa.), 1961, p. 154, no. 43.
31
To give an example, the 13 March 2002 Saudi daily newspaper“Al-Ryad” carried an article on the Jewish feast of Purim, authored bya zealous professor at the university named after King Faysal. The
historian Umaya Ahmed Al-Jalahama, his article, claimed that in the
preparation of the Jewish sweets known as “Haman’s ears”, Jews must
provide themselves with the coagulated blood, in the form of lumps or
powder, of a Christian boy, or even a Moslem boy. As we have seen,
this addition is as bold as it is unhistorical, which nevertheless seems
fully understandable, considering the scope of the essay as establishedby the author, and the public for whom he was writing.
32
For a description and evaluation of Socrates’ text on the facts ofInmestar, see, among others, Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice, cit.,p. 176; J. Juster, Les Juifs dans l’Empire romain; leur condition
juridique, économique et sociale, Paris, 1914, vol. II, p. 204; Parkes,
The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue, cit., p. 234;
Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews, cit., pp. 127-128; Blumenkranz,
Les auteurs chrétiens, cit., p 58; M. Simon, Verus Israel. Etude sur les200relations entre chrétiens et juifs dans l’Empire romain (135-425), Paris,
1964, p. 160.
33
The hypothetical derivation of the stereotype of the blood
accusation at Pesach based on Jewish behavior at Purim, maintained by
Roth (cfr. Roth, Feast of Purim, cit., p. 521; “It would not have been
altogether unnatural had the coarser spirits among the Jews themselves
introduced into the proceedings a spirit of mockery of the [Christian]religion”, and of the many who follow Roth, among them, recently,
Mriri Rubin, with reference to the accusation of the desecration of the
Host (cfr. M. Rubin, Gentile Tales. The Narrative Assault on Late
Medieval Jews, New Haven, Conn, 1999, p. 87: “That Jews, roused by
festivity and fellowship, may have played about, even played apractical joke on their neighbors and their beliefs is all too believable”),
is rejected with disdainful presumption by Langmuir. The affair ofritual murder, in both its variants of the crucifixion and theconsumption of blood, is said to have been a brilliant, entirely
ecclesiastical and medieval Christian invention. Those historians, inparticular, those Jewish historians, attempting to link these accusations
with real Jewish behavior, even if misinterpreted, are said to have fallen
into error intentionally, for fear of facing Christian historiography
openly, which is believed to be incapable of understanding the powerof the irrational in the human mind, or, worse, because these historians
have become befuddled by the fanciful presumption that the Jews playa role of some weight in history (cfr. Langmuir, Toward a Definition ofAntisemitism, Berkely – Los Angeles – Oxford, 1990, pp. 209-296:“Whether they were insensitive to the powers of irrationality, reluctant
to attack Christian historiography too openly, or concerned to attributean active role in history to Jews, they were predisposed to believe thatsomething Jews had done – however misinterpreted by Christians –must have been a major cause of the charge [...] exuberant Jewish
conduct at Purim cannot be used to explain the accusation.”).
34
The village in question is Brie-Compte-Robert in the Isle-deFrance, as shown in the works by William C. Jordan and Shim’on
Schwarzfuchs, referred to in the note below, and not Bray-sur-Seine, as
claimed by the majority of preceding scholars.
35
The episode is discussed, not only in the works by Roth,Horowitz and Trachtenberg, already cited, but by W.C. Johnson, The
French Monarchy and the Jews. From Philip Augustus to the Last
Capetians, Philadelphia (Pa.), 1989, pp. 36, 270-271; Id., Jews,
Regalian Rights and the Constitution in Medieval France, in “AJS
Review”, XXIII (1998), pp. 1-16; Sh. Schwarzfuchs, A History of theJews in Medieval France, Tel Aviv, 2001, pp. 155-156 (in Hebrew).
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36

The text uses here the verb talah (li-tlot, wa-yitlu), which, as wehave seen, may be indifferently translated as “to hang”.
37
The quotation is taken from the Sefer Zechirah by Efraim ofBonn. Cfr. A.M. Haberman, Sefer ghezerot Ashkenaz we-Zarfat (“Bookof Perscutions in Germany and France”), Jerusalem, 1971, p. 128.
38
Manuele da Visso was accused and condemned “super eo quod
dicebatur dixisse et fecisse aliqua illicita de Cruce” (cfr. A. Toaff, The
Jews in Umbria, I: 1245-1435, Leyden, 1993, p. 76-77).
39“Quod omnia eius brachia et etiam genua sibi dicti spiritus
asperuissent et devasstassent cum quibusdam stecchis” (cfr. Toaff, The
Jews in Umbria. III: 1484-1736, Leyden, 1994, pp. 1116-1118; Id., Il
vino e la carne, Bologna, 1989, p. 171-172).
40
The Jewish defendants were held guilty “de jugulatione Christi
in formam crucifixi” (cfr. R. Segre, Jews in Piedmont, Jerusalem, 1986,
vol. I, pp. 171-172).
41
Cfr. M. Luzzati, Ebrei, chiesa locale, principe e popolo. Due
episodi di destruzione di immagini sacre alla fine del Quattrocento, in“Quaderni Storici”, XXII (1983), no. 54, pp. 847-877; Toaff, Il vino ela carne, cit., pp. 156-158.
42
Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, Jerusalem, 1982,
vol. I, pp. 199-200.
43
Cfr. Giulio Morosini, Derekh Emunah, Via della fede mostrata
agli ebrei, Rome, Propaganda Fede, 1683, p. 836.
44
“Et in festo Mardochai quod adhuc (Judaei) celebrant XV
Kalendas martii, ubi conterunt ollas in Synagogis, dicentes: sicut
contritus est Aman, sic conteratur velociter regnum Christianorum”[“And during the feast of Mordechai, which the Jews still celebrate on
the 15th of March, they smash jars in the synagogue, saying: thus
Haman was destroyed, thus may the kingdom of the Christians rapidly
be destroyed”] (Marquardo Susanni, Tractatus de Judaeis et aliis
infidelibus, Venice, Comin da Trino, 1558, cc. 25v-26r).

202

CHAPTER NINE
SACRIFICE AND CIRCUMCISION:
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PESACH
The celebration of the festivals of the Jewish calendar marking the lifeof the people of Israel from ancient times has assumed primarily thecharacter of historical-ritual repetition and “renewal of memory”(zikkaron) of the divine interventions in the history of the nation. In thissense, Pesach, the Jewish Passover, is celebrated as a “memorial”,
zikkaron, in the sense of being a ritual representation of the past.1 Moreprecisely, at Pesach, the events linked to slavery in Egypt, thepersecutions suffered on the banks of the Nile, the miraculous exodus
from the land of oppression, the divine vengeance on the enemies ofIsrael, and the laborious pathway towards the Promised Land andRedemption, are reviewed and projected into the present day. This is apathway which has not yet been completed and perfected, pregnant
with unknown factors and hazards, the happy outcome of which may bebrought nearer by the actions of Man and the miraculous interventionsof God in the history of Israel. What is more, the Jewish community,
wherever it is located, is able to request the active involvement of theDivinity, intended to hasten the coming of Redemption, moving God
through the sight of the sufferings of His Chosen People and impelling
Him to act, defend, protect and wreak vengeance.
Blood is a fundamental and indispensable element in all thememorial celebrations of Pesach: the blood of the Passover Lamb andthe blood of circumcision. In the Midrash, this relationship iscontinually stressed and demonstrated. God, having seen the of Israelin Egypt, bathed with the blood of the Passover lamb, is said to haverecalled his Pact with Abraham, signed and sealed with the blood of
circumcision. “Thanks to the blood of the Passover lamb and that ofcircumcision, the children of Israel were saved from Egypt”. In fact, theJews are said to have circumcised themselves for the first time
precisely in concomitance with their exodus from the lands of the
Pharaoh. And in this regard, adds the Midrash, “the blood of the lambis mixed with that of circumcision”.2
The German rabbis, for their part, placed particular stress upon theimportance of that magnificent and fateful event, stating that the Jews
203

transfused the blood of their circumcision into the same glass into
which the blood of the Passover Lamb to be utilized in painting thedoor-posts of their doorways had been poured, according to God’sorders, so that, together, they might become the distinctive symbols of
their salvation and redemption. This is why the prophet Ezekiel is said
to have twice repeated the wish, “And when I passed by thee, and saw
thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in
thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood,
Live.” (Ezekiel 16:6), intending to refer both to the blood of the
Passover lamb and that of circumcision. In the Midrash, the German
rabbis found the references necessary to establish beyond any doubt theclose relationship between blood (of the Passover lamb and that ofcircumcision) and the final redemption of the people of Israel. “Godhas said: I have given them two precepts so that, fulfilling them, they
may be redeemed, and these are the blood of the Passover lamb andthat of circumcision”.3
In the Sefer Nizzachon Yashan, a harsh anonymous anti-Christianpolemical publication compiled in Germany at the end of the 13th
century, the themes of which are repeated in the liturgical invocationsof Rabbi Shelomoh of Worms, the exodus of the people of Israel from
Egypt is taken as a pretext to outline a dispute intended to contrast thesaving power of the Passover blood and of circumcision to the powersof the cross.
“It is written: ‘And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in
the blood (of the Passover lamb) that is in the basin, and strike the lintel
and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin’ (Ex. 12:22).
“The Christians distance themselves even further from this passage
and claim to find a reference to the Cross in it, since it recalls threeplaces (the lintel and the two door-posts). This therefore tells us: It is
thanks to the Cross that (your fathers in the exodus from Egypt) gained
their salvation.4“One must reply to them by rejecting an interpretation of this kind.
In fact, the truth is in these words of God: ‘Through the merit of theblood, poured into different occasions, I shall remember you, when I
see your houses tinted with blood. This is the blood of circumcision of
Abraham, of the blood of the sacrifice of Isaac, when Abraham wasabout to immolate his son, and of the blood of the Passover lamb’. It is
for this reason that the blood returns three times in the verse of theprophet Ezekeiel (16:6). ‘And when I passed by thee, and saw theepolluted in thine own blood, I said unto that when thou wast in thineown blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood,
Live’ ”.5
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The reference to the sacrifice of Isaac would appear out of place,considering that, in the Biblical account, Abraham did not reallyimmolate his son, as he was prepared to do, but was stopped by the
miraculous Divine intervention which stayed his hand, holding thesacrificial knife.
But this conclusion should certainly be revised. The Midrash evenadvances the hypothesis that Abraham really shed Isaac’s blood,sacrificing him on the precise spot upon which the Altar of the Templeof Jerusalem was later to be built. The pious patriarch is then believed
to have proceeded to reduce the body to ashes, burning it on the pyrewhich he is said to have previously prepared for that purpose. Only
later is God supposed to have rectified Abraham’s action, returning
Isaac to life.6 Elsewhere, the analogy between Isaac, who bears theburden of the bundles of wood intended for his own holocaust on
Mount Moriyah, and Christ, bent double under the weight of the Cross,is clearly shown.7 Explaining the verse of Ex. 12:13 (“And I when I see
the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to
destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt”), the Midrash asks uswhich blood God is to see on the doors of the Children of Israel, andunhesitatingly responds: “God will see the spilt blood of the sacrifice of
Isaac”. On the other hand, the Jewish month of Nissan, during which
the festivity of Pesach falls, in the tradition of Midrash, is considered
the month of Isaac’s birth, as well as that of his immolation.8
Isaac was sacrificed for the love of God and his blood gushes onto
the altar, coloring it red. This is the historical-ritual memory,transfigured and updated, which the Judaism of the German lands,
reduced in numbers by the suicides and mass child murders committed
during the Crusades “for the sanctification of the Lord’s name” wishedto preserve, situating it at Passover and in relation to the exodus from
Egypt. In one of his elegies, Ephraim of Bonn described not only theardor and the zeal of Abraham in immolating his son, butchering him
on the altar, but also the abnegation of Isaac, happy to serve as theholocaust.9 After the saintly boy was carried back to life by God
himself, Abraham is said to have sought to sacrifice him a second timein an overflowing backwash of fervent faith. It was precisely theseelements which, according to the Jews of the Franco-German
communities, correlated the prayer for the dead (zidduk hadin) with thesacrifice of Isaac.
“The verse ‘When He seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on thetwo side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer thedestroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you’ (Ex. 12:23) recalls
the sacrifice of Isaac, while the verse ‘I said unto thee when thou wast
205

in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood,
Live!’ (Ez. 16:6) possesses the same numerical value (ghematryah) as
the name Isaac, Izchak. For this reason, the text of the prayer for thedead, ziddu, ha-din, came to include the following wish: ‘Through themerit of Him who was sacrificed like a lamb (Isaac), Thou, oh God,lend an ear and act accordingly’. In fact, Isaac, was killed and appearedin the divine presence (schechinah). Only after he was already dead did
the angel cure him, restoring him to life”.10
In conclusion, the German Jews, who, during the first crusade in
1096, sacrificed their sons to avoid forced baptism, intending to imitate
the sacrifice of Isaac by the hand of Abraham, his father. Deliberately
ignoring the Biblical conclusion of the episode, which stressed God’s
aversion to human sacrifice, they preferred to refer to those texts of theMidrash in which Isaac actually met a cruel death on the altar. The
German Jews thus conferred new life upon these new texts in search ofmoral support for the their actions, which appeared unjustifiable andmight easily be condemned under the terms of ritual law (halakhah).11
The Biblical account of Jeptha was generally interpreted in thissense as well. The exegetic tradition of the Midrash has no hesitation of
any kind in stating that the brave judge of Israel who solemnly
promised to sacrifice the first creature he met upon victorious returnfrom the battle against the Ammonites (Judges 11:31), actually kept hisvow, sacrificing on the altar his only daughter, who ran out to celebrate
the happy outcome of the epic battle with him (Judges 11:35).12 Nor did
the Medieval exegetics of the German territories show any kind ofembarrassment in dealing with this problematical tale, since they were
all intent on minimizing the seriousness of the action of this Jewish
leader from Galahad.13 It is, however, a fact that, while reference to thesacrifice of Isaac is frequently made, heavily charged with significancein the historical-ritual memory of Ashkenazi Judaism, that of Jeptha’s
daughter never rose to the rank of moral precedent of reference.
As we have said, the memorial celebration of Pesach wasindissolubly linked with the sacrifice of the lamb and the blood of
circumcision.
The latter arose as a symbol of the pact between God and thepeople of Israel, signed in the flesh of Abraham, while the blood of the
Passover lamb was the emblem of salvation and redemption. As
Yerushalmi notes, the Passover dinner or Seder has always constituted
the exercise of memory par excellence of the Jewish community,
wherever it existed.
“Here, during the meal around the family dining table, ritual,
liturgical and culinary elements were orchestrated in such a way as to206

transmit the most vital sense of the past from one generation to another.
The entire Seder is the symbolic staging of an historically foundedscenario, divided into three main sections, corresponding to thestructure of the Haggadah (the account of the stories of Pesach andabout Pesach), which are to be read aloud: slavery, liberation, final
Redemption. [...] words and gestures which are intended to awaken, notsimply memory, but a harmonious merging of the past and present.
Memory is no longer something to be contemplated from afar, but
represents a true and proper representation and updating”.14
The wine drunk during the Seder symbolizes the blood of the
Passover lamb and the circumcision, and it is not therefore surprisingthat the Palestinian Talmud associates the four glasses of wine, which
absolutely must be drunk during the Seder, with the four phases of
Redemption. What is more, the text presents the charoset, the fruit
preserve kneaded with the wine, intended to bring to mind the past, as a“blood memorial” of the clay and mortar used by the Jews whenengaged in slave labor during their long captivity in the land of the
Pharaohs.15
If the blood of the Passover lamb was distilled from a sacrifice, so,in a certain sense, is the blood of circumcision. The Midrash states that“a drop of the blood (of circumcision) is as pleasing to the Holy One –may His name be blessed – as that of sacrifices”.16 But it was the rabbis
and the medieval exegetics, particularly, those of the Franco-German
territories, who developed and broadened this concept. The Provençal
Aharon di Lunel (13th century) did not hesitate to affirm that “He whooffers his own son for circumcision is similar to the priest who presents
the farinaceous offering and sacrifices a libation on the altar”. Hiscontemporary, Bechayah b. Asher of Zaragoza, a famous moralist, alsostressed the close relationship between sacrifice and circumcision: “Theprecept of circumcision is equivalent to a sacrifice, because a manoffers the fruit of his loins to the blessed God for the purpose offulfilling His command (to circumcise the son); and, just as sacrificial
blood is used for expiation, thus the blood of circumcision heals
wounds [...] It is, in fact, thanks to this obligation, that God promised
Israel salvation from Gehenna”.17
Even more explicit is Yaakov Ha-Gozer (“the Cutter”) who lived
in the 13th century in Germany, in his essay on the rite of circumcision.
“Come and consider how pleasing is the precept of circumcision
before the Holy One, may His name be blessed. In fact, every Jew who
sacrifices by means of circumcision in the morning is considered as if
he had presented the daily holocaust of the morning. Before God, theblood of circumcision is as valuable as the sacrifice of the lamb on the207altar every day: one in the morning and the other in the evening, and his
son is perfect and immaculate like the lamb of one year”.18
Circumcision is therefore considered equal to the sacrifice and theblood poured out during this holy act of surgery thus came to assume
the same value as the uncorrupted blood of the perfect and innocent
lamb, butchered on the altar and offered to God. This sacrifice was at
the same time individual and collective, because, as Bechayeh b. Asher
observed, it was considered capable of providing automatic andinfallible salvation from the torments of gehenna [hell], regardless ofthe conduct of the individual and the community. It was a kind ofsacramental mystery of certain efficacy and proven power.19
In this sense, circumcision came, with time, to assume thecharacter of an apotropaic [warding off evil] and exorcistic rite. The
blood of the circumcised child and the providential cutting of theforeskin provided protection and salvation, as taught in the Biblicalaccount – which is otherwise short on detail – of Moses, mortallyassailed by God and miraculously saved by virtue of his own
circumcision and that of his son.
This was said to have been performed immediately, although a bit
crudely, by Moses’ wife Zipporah. “And it came to pass by the in theinn, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a
sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet,and said, ‘Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So He let him go’;then she said, ‘A bloody husband thou art, because of thy
circumcision’ ” (Ex. 4: 24-26).
Circumcision defended and liberated from danger, and the blood
shed on that occasion possessed infallible exorcistic significance. The
Gheonim, heads of the rabbinical academies of Babylon, “circumcisedin the water”, i.e., they taught that the bloody foreskin was to be throwninto a recipient containing water perfumed with spices and myrtil [a redflower]. The young males present at the ceremony hastened to wash thehands and face in the sweet-smelling fluid as a counter-spell intended
to bring good luck and serve as a propitiatory sign of stupendous
success in love and numerous and healthy descendants.20
In the Middle Ages, particularly, in the German-speaking
territories, circumcision came to assume, with particular clarity, thevalue of an apotropaic and exorcistic rite, which, in the synagogue, wasfree to express itself without hindrance of any kind against thebackground of community life. As we have seen, during the ceremony,
the blood of the circumcised foreskin was mixed with the wine andtasted by the mohel himself, by the child and his mother, and thelibation was accompanied by the prophetic wish “Thanks to your blood,208

you live!” The famous German rabbi Jacob Mulin Segal (1360-1427),
known as Maharil, who also lived at Treviso for some time, in his
weighty handbook of customs in use in the Ashkenazi communities ofthe valley of the Rhine, reported that it was a widespread custom topour whatever remained in the cup, together with the wine and theblood of the circumcised child, before the Ark with the rolls of theLaw, located in the synagogue. This act was intended to exorcise theexterior dangers hanging over the Jewish world and the tragedies
threatening its existence.
In the 17th century, this custom was still in force in the Jewish
community of Worms. “Soon after the mohel has completed theoperation [...] whatever remains of the content of the glass, together
with the wine and blood of the circumcised child, is poured onto thesteps before the Ark with the rolls of the Law in the synagogue”.21
Among Ashkenazi Jews therefore, on a popular level, the salvation
represented by the blood of circumcision was essentially understood,by both the individual and the collective, in a magical sense. That blood
was able to provide protection from the constant threat of the Angel of
Death, while functioning as an antidote to the ills of this life andserving as a health-giving potion during the rites of passage, charged
with unknown dangers.22
Another curious testimony in this regard may be found in thewritings of the so-called “Cutter”, the mohel Yaakov Ha-Gozer. The
German rabbi described the custom of his Jewish contemporaries(obviously, in the 13th century) of hanging the cloth used by the mohel
to clean his hands, from the lintel of the entranceway to the synagogue
upon completion of the operation.
“Therefore, the cloth used by the mohel to clean his hands andmouth, which are full of blood, is placed on the door to the synagogue.
The meaning of the custom of hanging the cloth in the entrance to thetemple was explained to me by my uncle, rabbi Efraim of Bonn. In
effect, our elders told us that the children of Israel left the land of Egypt
thanks to the blood of the Passover sacrifice and the blood of
circumcision.
“On that occasion, the sons of Israel colored the lintels of theirdoorways with blood so that the Lord would prevent the Angel of
Death from striking their houses and for the purpose of manifesting themiracle. For this reason, the circumcision cloth, stained with blood, ishung in the door of the synagogue to indicate the sign linked tocircumcision and to make manifest to all the precept, as is said, ‘It shallbe a sign between thee and me’ ”.23
The custom of hanging the cloth used by the mohel to clean his209hands and mouth of blood of the child in the synagogue doorway also
appears in the so-called Machazor Vitry, written around the 12th
century. This ancient French liturgical text in fact states that, in the
Ashkenazi Jewish communities, the cloth used by the mohel to clean
off the blood “shall be hung at the entrance to the synagogue”.24
Jewish mystical texts also stress the relationship between the bloodof the Passover lamb and that of circumcision and the meanings of
Pesach. The Zohar, “the blood of splendor”, the classical text of the
Cabbalah attributed to rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and set in Palestine of
the 2nd century of the Christian era, but, in reality, composed in Spainat the end of the 13th century, stresses, in its peculiar language, thecentrality of the motif of blood in the ceremonial commemoration of
the exodus of the Jews from Egypt.
“The blood of the circumcision corresponds to the divine quality ofabsolute piety, because the Holy One, may His name be blessed, uponseeing the blood of the circumcision, feels compassion for the world;
the blood of the Passover lamb, on the other hand, indicates the divine
quality of judgment, because the sacrifice of the Passover is performed
with the lamb, which corresponds to the Zodiacal sign of the ram, thegod of Egypt [...] therefore, the blood of the circumcision and that of
the Passover lamb, which are to be seen on the door, corresponded tothe two sefirot (the divine attributes) of piety and power (or justice),
which had awakened to dominance in the heavens at that moment. In
fact, the blood of circumcision represents the divine quality ofcompassion, while the blood of the Passover lamb represents thequalities of justice and power. Therefore, piety was kindled to pity thechildren of Israel so that they wouldn’t die [...] while justice waskindled to wreak vengeance on the first born of the Egyptians”.25
For the Cabballah, the blood of circumcision and that of the
Passover lamb therefore possessed opposite meanings. The firstindicated the piety of God, ready to show compassion towards the Jews
and save them from dangers and death. The second, on the other hand,
represented the power and severity of Divine justice, which wreaked
vengeance on the peoples of Egypt, killing their children. The motif ofthe blood of the circumcision, capable of protecting the children of
Israel, effectively removing the threats to its existence, annulling theinstinct of evil and hastening the hour of Redemption, returns, further
along in the Zohar, in connection with the memorial of Pesach.
“When the Holy One, may His name be blessed, having comedown from Egypt to smite the first born, saw the blood of the Passover
sacrifice marking the doors (of Israel), and also sees the blood of thepact (of circumcision) and that both are found on the door [...] To drive
210away the influx of evil spirits he sprinkled it (in those places) using ahyssop branch. In the future, in the hour of Israel’s redemption, sublime
and complete, the Holy One, may His name be blessed, shall take unto
himself the instinct of evil and shall butcher it, thus removing the spiritof impiety from the earth”.26
For the Zohar, God, passing by the doors of the children of Israel,daubed with blood, is not only said to have saved the Jews from theAngel of Death, but He is said to have cured the wounds of theircircumcision, collectively performed by the Jews for the first time.
“It is written: ‘God smote Israel, he smote it and he cured it’ (Is.
19:22), wishing to signify that he smote Egypt and cured the Israelites,
i.e., not only that Israel’s salvation only occurred simultaneously withthe slaying of the first born (of the Egyptians), but that Israel’s healing
occurred at the same time. If one were to wonder what the children of
Israel were to recover from, we shall respond that, after being
circumcised, they needed to be healed, and were cured through theappearance of the Divine Presence (ghilui schechinah). While theEgyptians were being smitten, at that exact same moment, the childrenof Israel were being cured of the wound caused by circumcision. In
fact, what does the verse: ‘And God passed by the door’ (Ez. 12:23)
mean? [...] the answer is that He passed by the door of the body. But
what is the door of the body? And we shall respond: the door of the
body is the place of circumcision. We shall conclude by saying thatwhen the Holy One, may His name be blessed, passed by the door (ofthe children of Israel), in Egypt, they were cured of the wound of
circumcision”.27
The symbolic meaning of the Passover lamb offered in sacrifice isstressed by the Zohar, which places it in relationship with a significant,corresponding sacrifice performed in the secret and sublime world of
the reality of God. When the children of Israel shall have immolated the
Passover lamb, only then shall God in his firmament sacrifice thecorresponding Lamb of Evil, responsible for the tragedies of Israel on
earth and for the repeated exiles afflicting the Jews throughout history.
“Sayeth the Holy One, may His name be blessed, to the children of
Israel: carry out this action below (on earth) and go and take the lamband prepare it for sacrifice on the 14th of this month [of Nissan]; then I
on high (in my heaven) shall destroy his power [...] Observing theprecept of the sacrifice of the Passover lamb below (on earth), thechildren of Israel have caused to be reduced to impotence the slag ofevil (kelippah) of the lamb on high (in the divine firmament), which is
responsible for the four exiles suffered by the children of Israel (inBabylon, in Media, in Greece and in Egypt). Thus it is written: ‘I will211

utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from generation to
generation’ (Ex. 17:14), has this significance: You, children of Israel,
shall blot out the memory of Amalek below (on earth) through thesacrifice of the Passover lamb, as it is written: ‘Thou shalt cancel out
the memory of Amalek’, and thanks to this your action I shall blot out
its memory on high (in my firmament)”.28
The sacrifice of the Passover lamb therefore came to assume acosmic significance in the texts of Jewish mysticism. Its blood, poured
on the altar and applied to the door-posts of the houses, was intended to
impel God to sacrifice the Lamb of Evil in His world, responsible forthe successive troubles and misfortunes marking the history of Israel.
The link between the blood of the circumcision and that of the
Passover lamb came to assume additional meanings during the Middle
Ages, particularly in the German-speaking territories, and no longer
alluded merely to the blood by virtue of which sin is expiated. The
latter blood came to be added to the blood shed by Jewish martyrs, whooffered their own lives and those of their dear ones “to sanctify thename of God” (’al kiddush ha-Shem), rejecting the waters of baptism.
Thus, the blood of circumcision, that of the Passover lamb, and that ofthose killed in defense of their own faith became mixed together andconfounded, hastening the final redemption of Israel and persuading
God to wreak His atrocious vengeance on the children of Edom, theChristians, responsible for the tragedies suffered by the Jewish people.
The Jews in Germany who, during the first crusade, sacrificed theirown children ‘as Abraham sacrificed Isaac his son’, were perfectly
convinced that their own blood, together with that of the two othersacrifices – circumcision and the Passover lamb – all offered to God in
abnegation, would not be lost, but would constitute the powerful fluid
from which the well-deserved and predicted revenge and the muchdesired Redemption would ferment.29
Thus, in a distorted logic borne of suffering and distorted bypassion, one might even arrive at aberrant analogies which might
nevertheless appear justifiable from the point of view of the persons
concerned. In the ceremony of the milah, a few drops of blood from thecircumcised child, poured into wine, possessed the power to transformthe wine into blood; therefore, the wine was drunk by the child, hismother and the mohel himself, with propitiatory, well-auguring andcounter-magical meanings.30
By the same logic, during the Passover ceremony of the Seder, a
few drops of the child’s blood, the symbol of Edom (Christianity) andof Egypt, dissolved in the wine, had the power to transform the wine
into blood, intended to be drunk and sprinkled onto the table as a sign212

of vengeance and as a symbol of the curses directed at the enemies ofIsrael as well as a pressing call to Redemption.
Again, in connection with Pesach, vengeance on the children ofEdom – Christianity – representing Edom renewed, at Rome, the city of
impurity – was also eagerly sought in the Zohar, even if in deliberately
convoluted language:“It is written ‘Who is He who comes from Edom, with thegarments tinted red from Bozrah?’ (Is. 63:6). The prophet predicts thatthe Holy One, may His name be blessed, shall wreak vengeance against
Edom, and that the minister who represents the reign of Edom on high(in the celestial firmament) shall be the first to die. The prophet is infact speaking with the language of ordinary people, observing thatwhen they kill someone, blood squirts upon their garments. For thisreason, he refers to them as if they asked: ‘Who is he who comes from
Edom, with his garments tinted with blood; that is, from the armed city
(Hebrew: bezurah, a pun, recalling the name Bozrah of the verse of
Isaiah, which is the great metropolis of Rome)?’ This is, therefore, themeaning of that which is written: in the future, the Holy One, may His
name be blessed, shall reveal his powers of judgment and of blood in
all their obviousness to wreak his vengeance on Edom”.31
The fact that this fragment of the Zohar – which contains not one
explicit reference to the memorial of Passover – is found in the section
dealing with the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, clearly indicates thatblood – linked to the vengeance against Edom, the symbol of arrogant
and triumphant Christianity – was a major element in the updated
historical-ritual celebration of the Pesach.
As we have seen, the preserve of fresh and dry fruit (apples, pears,
nuts and almonds), kneaded with the wine, intended to represent thebuilding materials used by the people of Israel during their captivity in
Israel, and which was to be eaten and drunk during the Passover dinnerof the Seder, took the name of charoset and was considered a memorialof the blood.32 In other words, the clay and mortar with which the Jews
had built the city on the banks of the Nile were mixed with the blood
flowing from their bodies, covered with sores and suffering. It is not,therefore, surprising that the Jews, in their history (yet again, we are
speaking of Ashkenazi-origin Jews) have sometimes been accused ofmurdering Christian children to eat the body and drink the blood in the
charoset during a repulsive cannibalistic repast.
In 1329, in the Duchy of Savoy, a Jew, Acelino da Tresselve, and a
Christian, Jacques d’Aiguebelle, were accused of abducting Christianboys in numerous cities of the region, such as Geneva, Rumilly andAnnecy. Several other Jews in the Duchy were involved in the inquiry,213

including a certain Jocetus (Yoseph) and Aquineto (Izchak). The
inquiry finally forced them to confess, at least partially under torture, tosacrificing five children to knead their heads and viscera into thecharoset (indicated in the confessions under the correct term of
aharace), which they are then alleged to have been eaten, presumably
during the Seder dinner. According to their statements, this collective
ritual constituted a surrogate Easter sacrifice, and was, as such, able tobring closer the hour of Redemption.33 In relation to these facts, it
might be noted that some of the Jews expelled from England in 1290 in
the times of Edward I emigrated to Savoy, reinforcing the Jewish
community of the Duchy from a demographic, cultural and religious
point of view. Jews from Norwich, Bristol and Lincoln were now to befound at Chambéry, Bourg-en-Bresse and Annecy, bringing with themtraditions and stereotypes charged with implications.34 The accusationof preparing the charoset of Pesach with the blood of Christianchildren was repeated with regards to the Jews of Arles in 1453.35
Another child murder, that of Savona, the particulars of whichwere revealed around 1456 to Alfonso de Espina, confessor to the Kingof Castille, by one of the participants in the cruel ritual, desiring toobtain pardon and baptism, appears to have revolved around the
preparation of the charoset for the celebration of the Pesach.36 The
victim’s blood, gathered in the cup ordinarily used to collect the bloodof Jewish infants following circumcision, was said to have been poured
into the kneaded dough of a pastry consisting of honey, pears, nuts,
hazelnuts and other fresh and dried fruits, which all persons present at
the ceremony were alleged to have gulped down hastily with anappetite born of religious zeal.37
The charoset, according to these reports – the reliability of which
we would not be inclined to swear upon – was thus transformed into akind of sacred human black pudding, capable of wonderfully enriching
the list of the foods of the Passover dinner and, at the same time, ofbringing to the table the exotic savor of Redemption, soon to come. It istherefore plausible that, whoever placed the charoset in the forefront of
the ritual murder accusations was quite aware of the fact that tradition
considered it a memorial of blood. In this sense, it constituted anelement perfectly well suited to serve as a basis for arguments alleging
that the Jews used the blood of children in their Passover rites.
Circumcision, Passover lamb, sacrifice of Isaac, martyrdom forlove of God, memorial of the charoset. A true and proper river of blood
flowed towards Pesach, both on the table of Seder and in the pages ofthe Haggadah, the liturgical-convivial celebration of the stories of theexodus from Egypt. But that was not all. In addition, the first and the214most characteristic of the ten plagues smiting the lands of the Pharaoh,guilty of culpably holding the Jews captive against their will, waslinked to blood, dam. Moses and Aronne smote the sacred waters of thebeneficial Nile with their staff and, by the will of God, the waters weretransformed into venomous serpents (Ex. 7:14-25). These waters, now
toxic and no longer potable, gave birth to abandonment, desolation anddeath.
In popular culture, carried along by a thousand rivulets within the
traditions and customs of Jews in the Western word, the troublesome
phenomenon of the waters of the rivers and the lakes, basins of water,
fountains, and mountain springs capable of transforming themselves
without warning into lethal agents, were an unfortunately recurrent
theme. At least four times a year, with every change in the season(tekufah), for four days, blood was said to be have become mixed withthe potable water (i.e., this cannot refer to the waters of the sea, butrather, to rivers, wells and fountains), menacingly jeopardizing thehealth of men. The uncertainty and dismay which accompanied themoments and the phases of passage, such as the approach of theseasons, once again evoked the obsessive menace of blood. Blood atbirth, blood at circumcision, blood in matrimony, blood at death, bloodat each change of the seasons. Superficial carelessness or inadvertent
negligence was fraught with danger. Once again, the classicalreferences to Isaac’s cruel sacrifice (i.e., the sacrifice actually carriedout), the transformation of the Nile into blood and Jeptha’s tragic vow,
became both customary and mandatory, finding well-considered,welcome acceptance in the texts containing the most ancient traditionsof Franco-Germanic medieval Judaism, from the Machazor Vitry to thelate 17th century writings of Chaim Chaike Levi Hurwitz, rabbi ofGrodno.38
In the Sefer Abudarham, a famous liturgical compendium based on
the popular traditions of the Sephardic world, both Sephardic,
Provençal and Ashkenazim, makes open reference to the dangers
threatening man whenever one season replaces another. David
Agudarham, rabbi at Seville, who compiled his heavy handbook in
1340, advised, although with some hesitation, against the drinking ofwater during the days of the change of seasons (tekufah), for fear of its
contamination by blood.
“I have found it written that one must be careful during any of thefour changes of seasons, so as to avoid harm and danger. In the seasonof Nissan (spring, the Passover period), the waters of Egypt wereactually transformed into wine; in the season of Tamuz (summer), when
God commanded Moses and Aaron to speak to the rock, so that waters215

might flow forth from it, and they disobeyed, striking the rock instead[Num. 20:8-12], they were punished, and blood flowed forth from therock [...]; in the season of Tishri (autumn), because then Abrahamsacrificed his son Isaac and from his knife fell drops of blood, whichalone were sufficient to transform all waters; and in the season of Tevet(winter), because it was then that the daughter of Jeptha was sacrificed
and all the waters became blood [...]. It is for this reason that the Jews,
living in the lands of the Occident, completely abstain from drinking
water during any change of the seasons”.39
Even at the end of the 16th century, the Marranos of Bragança, in
northern Portugal, on trial before the Inquisition of Coimbra, proved
themselves perfectly well aware of the dangers lurking in the night air
upon the approach of any change of season. It was then that, according
to the ancient traditions of the Judaizers [Christians who believe incircumcision], rays and veins of blood (rai e veie di sangue) penetrated
the waters of wells and fountains at the setting of the sun. A wonderfuland extraordinary phenomenon was observed at this point, because the“waters turned into wine”; and anyone drinking of them would
undoubtedly lose his life in the cruelest way. It then became necessary
to have recourse to particularly effective and powerful antidotes,
identified by tradition in the ceremony of “tempering”, which consistedof throwing three glowing-hot coals into the polluted waters; or of“ironing” the same waters by dipping a red-hot horseshoe into them.
Neglecting these precautions was said to cause certain death toanyone drinking those toxic and pestiferous potions. Death was said tofall upon the victim at the first onset of winter, “when his vines lose
their last leaf”.40
Sabato Nacamulli (Naccamù), a Jew of Ancona who later
converted to Christianity under the name of Franceso Maria Ferretti,
provided a critical summary of the rites relating to the change ofseasons (tekufah), when the waters were capable of dangerouslytransforming themselves into deadly blood.
“Four times in the year, they pray that God might, at any moment,[at any] point or minute [of the compass], turn all the waters into blood;
they therefore abstained from drinking water at such times, because
they firmly believed that if anyone drank the water at that moment, his
abdomen would certainly swell, and he would die a few days
afterwards; they, therefore, keep bread, a piece of iron, or somethingelse in those waters at such times, and this, in their vanity, they called
tecufà”.41
Perhaps linked to these popular beliefs was the custom among
relatives in mourning to pour out, onto the ground, all water contained216

in recipients kept in the house of a dead person. In German-ritualJewish communities, they actually believed that the Angel of Deathintended to immerse his deadly sword in those waters, transforming
them into blood, and thus threatening the lives of the relatives and all
persons known by the deceased.42
In the German-language territories, rivers, lakes, rivers and torrents
possessed an ambiguous and disturbing fascination. Many of thepresumed ritual murder victims had emerged from those very samewaters, cast forth onto the river banks of Saxony by floods andcurrents.
The muddy waters of the Severn and the Loire, the Rhine and the
Danube, the Main and Lake Constance, with their ebb and flow,
revealed that which was intended to remain hidden, becoming thefulcrum of many tales awaiting discovery.
Moreover, even the Christian populations of the regions traversedby these waterways were convinced, from ancient times, as Frazer tells
us, that the spirit of the rivers and lakes claimed their victims every
year, particularly during precise periods, such as the days around
Assumption Day.43 People considered it dangerous to bathe in thewaters of the Saale, the Sprea and the Neckar, and even Lake
Constance, for fear of becoming involuntary sacrifices to the cruel godsof the river. Thus, on St. Johns’ Day, at Cologne, Schaffhausen,
Neuburg in Baden, as well as at Fulda and Regensburg in Swabia, as
well as in the Swiss valley of Emmenthal, there was wide-spread fearthat new victims of the lethal waters of the rivers and lakes would be
added to those of previous years, to satisfy the demands of theimperious spirits hovering over the waves. Jews and Christians
observed the ebb and flow, fearful and simultaneously bewitched,possessed by an overwhelming fascination. No ritual homicide everoccurred, nor could it occur, at the seaside.
***

NOTES TO CHAPTER NINE
1

In this regard, see A. di Nola, Antropologia religiosa, Florence,
1971, pp. 91-144; R. Le Deaut, La nuit pascale, Rome, 1963, p. 281.
2
Midrash Shemot Rabbah 17, 3-5, 19, 5; Ruth Rabbah 6; Shir Hashirim Rabbah 1, 35; 5; Midrash Tanchumah 55, 4; Pesiktah de-Rav
Kahah 63, 27.
3
In this regard, see Haggadat ha-midrash ha-mevor. Haggadahshel Pesach by Z. Steinberger, P. Barzel and A.Z. Brillant, Jerusalem,217

1998, pp. 65-69; N. Rubin, The Beginning of Life. Rites of Death,
Circumcision and Redemption of the First-Born in the Talmud andMidrash, Tel Aviv, 1995, pp. 102, ss (in Hebrew); I.G. Marcus,
Circumcision (Jewish), in J.R. Strayer, Dictionary of the Middle Ages.
III: Cabala-Crimea, New York, 1983, pp. 401-412; Sh. J.D. Cohen,
Why Aren’t Jewish Women Circumcised? Gender and Covenant in
Judaism, Berkely (Calif.), 2005, pp. 16-18.
4
A useful argument, intended to link the meanings of redemption,
implemented through the sign of the blood of the Passover lamb on the
doors of the houses of the Jewish people of Egypt, with the saving
meaning of the Cross, may be found in Justin Martyr (Trifone, 111).
5
Cfr. Sefer Nizzachon Yashan (Nizzahon Vetus). A Book of JewishChristian Polemic, by M. Breuer, Ramat Gan, 1978, p. 50 (in Hebrew).
For the same argumentation on the links between the blood of
circumcision, that of the sacrifice of Isaac and that of the Passover
lamb, see also Shelomoh di Worms, Siddur (“Book of Prayers”),
Jerusalem, 1972, p. 288.
6
Cfr. H.E. Adelman, Sacrifices in the History of Israel,
http://www.achva.ac.il/maof.2000_9.doc (google), pp. 5-6. See also thechapter dedicated to this argument in the thesis presented by myassistant in the Department of Jewish History at Bar-Ilan University, I.
Dreyfus, Blood, Sacrifice and Circumcision among the Jews of the
Middle Ages, Ramat Gan, 2005, pp. 11-16.
7
In this regard, see J. Parkes, The Conflict of the Church and the
Synagogue, London, 1934, pp. 116-117. The paragon between Isaac
and Jesus was known, among the Fathers of the Church, by Origen:“and his use of it suggests that he knew it was quoted in the
synagogue”.
8
Midrash Mechiltah, Pascha 7, 11; Shemot Rabbah 12, 13, 15, 11.
9
Cfr. Sh. Spiegel, Me-haggadot ha-’akedah: piyut ’al shechitat
Izchak we-te-chiyato’ le-R. Efraim mi-Bonn (“Of the Story of Sacrificeof Isaac: A poetical composition on the immolation of Isaac and his
resurrection, written by the rabbi Efraim of Bonn”), in M. Marx,
Alexander Marx Jubilee Volume, New York, 1950, pp. 493-497 (inHebrew). It is significant that Yiddish theater traditionally represents
the sacrifice of Isaac as a drama of death and resurrection (cfr. M.
Klausner, The Sources of Drama, Ramat Gan, 1971, p. 186 (inHebrew).
10
Tosofot ha-shalaem 22, 14. The term “tossaphists” [rabbinicalcommentators], the rabbi to whom the establishment of this liturgicalcustom is attributed, refers to the learned of the Talmudic academies in
the Franco-German lands between the 12th and 14th centuries.
218

11

On this argument, see, in particular, S. Spiegel, The Last Trial,
New York, 1967; I.G. Marcus, From Politics to Martyrdom. Shifting
Paradigms in the Hebrew Narratives of the 1096 Crusade Riots, in“Prooftext”, II (1982), pp. 40-52; I.J. Yuval, “Two Nations in Your
Womb”. Perceptions of Jews and Christians, Tel Aviv, 2000, pp. 173175 (in Hebrew); H. Soloveitchik, Religious Law and Change. The
Medieval Ashkenazic Example, in “AJS Review”, XII (1987), pp. 205221; Id., Halakhah, Ermeneutics and Martyrdom in Medieval
Ashkenaz, in “The Jewish Quarterly Review”, XCIV (2004), pp. 77108, 278-299.
12
Midrash Beresit Rabbah 60, 3; Wairah Rabbah 37, 4; Kohelet
Rabbah 10, 15; Midrash Tanchumah (Bechukkutai) 7. See also
Josephus, Ant. Jud. 5, 10.
13
In this regard, see J. Berman’s recent study, Medieval
Monasticism and the Evolution of Jewish Interpretation to the Story ofJepthah’s Daughter in “The Jewish Quarterly Review”, XCV (2005),
pp. 228-256; E. Baumgarten, “Remember that Glorious Girl”.
Jepthah’s Daughter in Medieval Jewish Culture, in “The Jewish
Quarterly Review”, XCVII (2007).
14
Cfr. Y.H. Yerushalmi, Zakhor. Storia ebraica e memoria
ebraica, Parma, 1983, pp. 57-58.
15
In this regard, see L.A. Hoffmann, Covenant of Blood.
Circumcision and Gender in Rabbinic Judaism, Chicago (Ill.), pp. 95135.
16
Midrash Tachumah 57, 6.
17
Aharon b. Yaakov Ha-Cohen, Orchot Chayim (“The Paths ofLife”), Berlin, 1902, vol. I, p. 12; Bechayeh b. Asher, Kad ha-kemach(“The Amphora of Flour”), Venice, Marco Antonio Giustinian, 1546,
s.v. milah (circumcision); Id., Beur ’al ha-Torah (“Comment on thePenteuch”), Naples, Azriel Ashkenazi Gunzenhauser, 1492, on Genesis
17:24.
18
Yaakov Ha-Gozer, Zichron berit ha-rishonim (“OnCircumcision”), by Yaakov Glassberg, Berlin-Cracow, 1892, p. 5.
19
Cfr. M. Klein, ’Et la-ledet. Mihagim we-masorot be-’edot Israel(“A Time to Give Birth. Traditional Customs and Uses of theCommunity of Israel”), Tel Aviv, 2001, pp. 157 ss.; A. Gross, Taame’
mizwat ha-milah. Zeramim we-hashpa’ ot historiot biyme’ ha’benaym(“The Motives for the Precept of Circumcision. Historical Currents andInfluences in the Middle Ages”), in “Da’ at”, XXI (1989), pp. 93-96;
I.G. Marcus, Tikse’ yaldut. Chanichah we-limmud ba-chevrah hayehudit biyme’ ha-benaym (“The Ceremonies of Girlhood. Initiationand Learning in Jewish Society of the Middle Ages”), Jerusalem, 1998,219

pp. 20-21, 34; Dreyfus, Sacrifice and Circumcision, cit., pp. 11-16;
Cohen, Why Aren’t Jewish Women Circumcised?, cit., pp. 31-32.
20
Anon, Sha’are’ Zedeq, cit., c. 22v; Aharon b. Yaakov Ha-Cohen,
Orchot chayim, cit., pp. 13-14; Yaakov Ha-Gozer, Zichron berit
harishonim, cit., pp. 14-21; Izchak b. Avraham, Sefer ha-eshkol. Hilkot
milah, yoledot, chole’ we’ gherim (“Book of the Precepts of
Circumcision, etc.”), Halberstadt 1868, p. 131. In this regard, see also
H.L. Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice. Human Blood and Jewish
Ritual, London, 1909, pp. 136-137.
21
Jacob Mulin Segal (Maharil), Sefer ha’ ha-minhagim. The Book
of Customs, by Sh. Spitzer, Jerusalem, 1989, pp. 482 ss (in Hebrew);
Yuspa Shemesh, Mihage’ Warmaisa (“The Customs of Worms”),
Jerusalem, 1992, vol. II, p. 71. In this regard, see also J. Trachtenberg,
Jewish Magic and Superstition. A Study on Folk Religion, Philadelphia(Pa.), 1939, pp. 154; 170; Cohen, Why Aren’t Jewish Women
Circumcised?, cit., pp. 32-40.
22
In this regard see Hoffman, Covenant of Blood, cit., pp. 96-135.
23
Yaakov Ha-Gozer, Zichron berit-ha-rishonim, cit., p. 61. See
also in this regard S. Goldin, The Ways of Jewish Martyrdom, Lod,2002 (in Hebrew).
24
Machazor Vitry, by H. Horovitz, Jerusalem, 1963, p. 626.
25
Zohar (parashat Bo), c. 35b.
26
Ibidem, c. 41a.
27
Ibidem., c. 36a.
28
Ibidem, cc. 39b-40a.
29
In this regard, see Yuval, “Two Nations in Your Womb”, cit., pp.
109-150; Blood and Sacrifice, cit., pp. 28-30.
30
On this point, see in particular Hoffman, Covenant of Blood, cit.,
pp. 96-135.
31
Zohar (parashat Bo), c. 36a.
32
On the meaning and origins of the charoset, understood as“memorial of blood”, see in particular Yuval, “Two Nations in Your
Womb”, cit., pp. 258-264.
33
On the rather extensive bibliography on ritual murders of 1329
in the Duchy of Savoy, linked to the preparation of the charoset, see,among others, Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice, cit., pp. 190; J.
Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews, Philadelphia (Pa.), 1961, pp.
130 ss; M. Rubin, Gentile Tales. The Narrative Assault on Late
Medieval Jews, New Haven (Conn.), 1999, p. 108; M. Esposito, Un
procès contre les Juifs de la Savoie en 1329, in “Revue Historique”,
XXXIV (1938), pp. 785-801. According to the text of their confessions,
the Jews of Savoy had carried out that rite consuming the human220charoset “loco sacrificii” [at the sacrifice location] at Pesach,considering that they were approaching Redemption in so doing(“credunt se esse salvatos”).
34
The arrival in Savoy of the English Jews expelled in 1290 is
documented by R. Segre, Testimonianze documentarie degli ebrei negli
Stati Sabaudi (1297-1398), in “Michael”, IV (1976), pp. 296-297. In
the lists of Jews in the Dukedom, there appears the name of “Manisseo(Menasheh) anglico, Crestecio (Ghershon) anglico, Elioto (Elahu)
anglico, etc.” See O. Ramírez’s recent study, Les Juifs et le crédit en
Savoie au XIVe siècle, in R. Bordone, Credit e società: le fonti, letechniche e gli uomini. Secc. XIV-XVI, Asti, 2003, pp. 55-68.
35
In this regard, see R. Ben Shalom, Un’ accusa di sangue ad
Arles e la missione francescana ad Avignone nel 1453, in “Zion”,
XVIII (1998), pp. 397-399 (in Hebrew).
36
Alphonsus de Spina, Fortalitium fidei, Nuremberg, Anton
Koberger, 10 October 1485, cc. 190-192.
37
Ibidem, c. 192: “Copiosissime vivus sanguis Infantis
effundebatur in predicto vase (in quo Judaei consueverunt recipere
sanguinem Infantium circumcisorum [...] et deinde fructibus diversis,
scilicet pomus, piris, nucibus, avelanis et ceteris, que habere potuerunt,in partes minuitissimas dividentes, sanguinem illius Infantis Christiani
in predicto vase miscuerunt et de illa confectione horribili omnes illi
Judaei comederunt” [Approximately: “The living blood of the childflowed copiously into the vessel (in which the Jews were accustomed tocapture the blood of their circumcised children [...] and then they mixed
various fruits, like apples, pears, nuts, hazelnuts, etc., whatever theymight have had on hand, cut into extremely fine bits, into the vessel
containing the blood of the Christian child and then all the Jews ate ofthat horrible confection”].
38
On the tradition of the tekefot (literally, “seasons”), rooted
among the Jews of the German-speaking lands, above all starting in theyears following the First Crusade, see in particular Trachtenberg,
Jewish Magic and Superstition, cit., pp. 275-258; E. Baumgarten,
Mothers and Children. Jewish Family Life in Medieval Europe,
Princeton (N.J.), 2004, p. 238, no. 130; Ead., “Remember that Glorious
Girl”, cit. (which examines a broad range of Medieval Ashkenazi
sources, in large part manuscript, on this topic).
39
Abudarhamha-shalem, b A.J. Wertheiemer, Jerusalem, 1963, pp.
311-312. On the religious texts of Ashzenazi Judaism, which include
the tradition of the tekufot, from the Machazor Vitry to the manuscriptof the work Kevod ha-chuppah (“The Honour of the Nuptials”) by
Chaike Hurwitz, see ibidem, p. 413.
221

40

On the testimonies of the Marranos of Bragança relating to thetekufot, recorded in the protocols of the Inquisition of Coimbra, see indetail the pioneering study by my excellent student C.D. Stuczynski, A“Marrano Religion”? The Religious Behaviour of the New Christiansof Bragança Convicted by the Coimbra Inquisition in the SixteenthCentury (1541-1605), Ramat Gan, Bar-Ilan University, 2005, pp. 32-35(cum laude doctoral thesis).
41
Francesco Maria d’Ancona Ferretti, Le verità della fede
christiana svelate alla Sinagoga, Venice, Carlo Pecora, 1741, pp. 342343.
42
Cfr. Y. Bergman, Ha-foklor ha-yehudi (“Jewish Folklore”),
Jerusalem, 1953, p. 38; Ch. B. Goldberg, Mourning in Halachah. The
Laws and Customs of the Year of Mourning, New York, 2000, pp. 5659 (“It is customary that people pour out all the water that is in thehouse, where the deceased is dying, because the Angel of Death whets
his knife on water, and a drop of the blood of death falls in”).
43
Cfr. Frazer, The Golden Bough, cit., VII, pp. 26-30.

222

CHAPTER TENBLOOD, LEPROSY AND
CHILD MURDER IN THE HAGGADAHOver the course of the first two evenings of Pesach, during the ritual
dinner of the Seder, all persons at the table read the Haggadah, aliturgical text containing the account of the exodus of the people ofIsrael from Egypt based on the Biblical narration and rabbinicalmaterials, together with the benedictions concerning the foods symbolicof the Jewish Passover, among them the unleavened bread (mazzot),
charoset, bitter herb (maror), and lamb’s foot. The text of the
Haggadah is often ornamented by miniatures, tables and woodcuts
illustrating the salient stages of the history of the Jews in the land of the
Pharaohs, as well as to the events linked to their miraculous salvationand the perilous journey undertaken towards the Promised Land. The
illustrations were not selected by accident; in addition to reflecting theartistic tastes of the Jews of various epochs and localities, theillustrations were intended to stress and focus upon particular historicalor legendary events and underlying messages made indirectly
perceptible through these images, while updating their content.1
Very rarely do the illustrations distance themselves from the text ofthe Haggadah and refer to legends of the Midrash presenting a few
similarities with the Passover. One of these passages, which isanomalous insofar as it concerns the matter under discussion, but was
surprisingly widespread despite its difficult and delicate nature, is thepassage describing the Pharaoh, stricken with leprosy and cured by theblood of Jewish boys, cruelly killed for that very purpose. The Midrash
Rabbah in fact reports that the Pharaoh was punished with leprosy by
God, and that his physicians advised him to cure himself by means ofhealth-giving baths in the blood of Jewish children. One hundred andfifty children of the nation of Israel are said to have been killed every
day, from morning till night, to supply the Egyptian despot with theprecious medicament. Cries of pain and desperation of the children of
Israel, as well as of their fathers and mothers, bereaved of their tender
offspring, are said to have risen to high heaven, accompanied byprayers for redeeming vengeance.2
The anonymous Sefer Ha-Yashar, an ethical text composed in the223

13th century, illustrated the tragic legend with a plethora of detail,extending the dimensions of the massacre and transforming it into
authentic history.
“When God smote the Pharaoh with the illness, the latter turned tohis magicians and wise men so that they might cure him. The latter, sothat he might be cured, prescribed that the sores be covered with theblood of children. At this point, the Pharaoh, heeding their counsel, sent
his functionaries to the land of Goshen so that they might abduct
Jewish children. The order was carried out, and the infants were taken
by force from their mother’s laps to be presented to the Pharaoh every
day, one by one, it was then that his physicians killed them and, with
their blood, bathed the sores on his body, repeating the operation fordays at a time, so that the number of butchered children reached thenumber of three hundred seventy five”.3
The grisly legend of the massacre of the Jewish children sacrificed
to restore health to the monarch of Egypt, while it remained almost
ignored by Iberian, Italian and Oriental Judaism, met with predictablesuccess and a warm reception among Jews of the Franco-German
territories and the Ashkenazi communities of northern Italy. As early as
the 11th century, the famous French exegetist Rashi (R. ShelemohIzchaki) of Troyes reminded his readers that the Pharaoh “contracted
leprosy and (to get well) killed the children of Israel to take baths intheir blood”.4 This account was followed by later, other well-known
rabbis and commentators, such as Yehudah Loeb of Prague andMordekhai Jaffe of Cracow. The topos [traditional theme or motif] wasdefinitively established and was to enjoy a long life in Hebrew andYiddish.5
Finally, and this is hardly surprising, the legend of the Pharaohbathing in Jewish blood became very closely linked to the ritual of
Pesach.
The texts of Medieval Ashkenazi Judaism therefore hastened toplace this innocent blood in precise relationship with the tradition of
mixing the red wine into the dough of the charoset, the fruit preserve
eaten during the Seder dinner as a “memorial of blood”.6 Izchak ben
Moshe, 13th century Austrian ritualist, explicitly stated that “Theprecept to drink wine of a red color (during the Seder dinner) is inremembrance of the leprosy said to have struck the Pharaoh, to curehimself of which he immolated suckling infants (of the Jews) andmoreover in remembrance of the blood of the Passover lamb and theblood of circumcision”.7
After the blood of the circumcision, the Passover lamb, thesacrifice of Isaac, the sacrifice of martyrs for the faith, the pure and224innocent blood of Jewish children sacrificed to the therapeuticrequirements of the enemies of Israel, an open path, safe andpromising, led to the ritual celebrations of the Seder of the Jewish
Passover. But to enable the topos to become even more deeply rooted,
in all its mysterious and disturbing aspects, in the popular mind,
conveying what were in fact alternative messages, accompanied bypolemics of burning contemporary interest, the legend needed to be
cemented in place through the crude force of images, fantastic andunreal in outward appearance only. These were the origins of thewoodcuts of the Jewish victims of perverse infanticide in theillustrations of the Haggadah.8
The first testimonies to this iconographic topic are handed down to
us in five Hebrew manuscripts, all originating in Bavaria and thecenters of the Rhineland (Nuremberg in particular) and may bechronologically situated in the second half of the 15th century, i.e., theperiod of the most widespread dissemination of ritual murderaccusations in the German-speaking lands. The miniatures are of crude
workmanship, restricted to reproducing, often only suggesting, theessential elements of the tale, which was presumed to be well known to
the reader.9
A rather more detailed and revealing example of the iconographyof the leprous Pharaoh appears in the most famous and oldest Haggadot
with printed illustrations: that of Prague in 1526 (there is a second
edition with important variants, dating back to the end of the century),of Mantua in 1560 (republished in 1568) and Venice in 1609.10 In the
Haggadah of Prague, the image is used to illustrate that section of thetext which describes the sufferings and laments of the children of Israel
forced to perform forced labor in Egypt. The woodcut depicts a sceneof amazing crudity.11 On the right the crowned Pharaoh, curled up in alarge tub of wood with staves, is enjoying a bath of fresh blood, poured
in by an obliging domestic servant by means of a suitable recipient. On
the left and in the center of the panel, some armed thugs, monstrous andcruel, dressed as soldiers and German peasants, are shown massacring
innocent children, decapitating them, quartering them, and skewering
them like thrushes on pikes and swords. Other children await their
tragic fate with resignation. The points of the lances emerge from theopen gash of the circumcision wound, while dismembered little bodies
litter the ground.
In the so-called “second Haggadah” of Prague, the scene isrepeated with some redundant and lachrymose added touches. In thecenter of the picture, a desperate mother, with her breasts exposed,
attempts hopelessly to flee, carrying her unhappy infants with her.12
225

The butchery of the preceding edition is further confirmed with anabundance of detail. I believe there can be little doubt that this image ismodeled after the Massacre of the Innocents during King Herod’s reignin Palestine (Matthew 2:16), as depicted in a woodcut of the Ultraquist
Passional, published in Prague in 1495. The latter was a Bohemian
adaptation of the Passional Sanctorum of Jacopo de Voragine (12301298), while the scene in question is very similar, in terms of bothcrudity of detail and persons depicted (with the natural exception of the
Pharaoh engaged in these cruel ablutions), to that in the Haggadah,published in that same Bohemian city decades later.13
In the Haggadah of Mantua (1560 and 1568), the image of the
Pharaoh’s bath is not so crude and is better organized; in some ways, it
is rather more interesting and instructive.14 The woodcut is divided into
three sections; the scene takes place in a sumptuous palace, illuminatedby large windows and divided by portals and columns. In the righthand panel, some soldiers and functionaries are taking babes in arms
away from anguished mothers, while, in the left-hand panel, thePharaoh is seen taking his bath of blood in a wooden tub, assisted by
two servants. The central section of the scene, the most detailed,depicts the hall of the palace, resembling a place of worship. Here, thechildren are shown being brought in by soldiers, and delivered to apersonage responsible for butchering the victims. These persons
butcher them with a knife, placed on an altar standing at the end of theroom, causing the blood to gush forth in streams, collected in a suitably
prepared vessel.15 The analogies with the classical iconography relating
to ritual murder are surprisingly precise here, and certainly intentional.
The scene of the bath of blood appears with a few majordifferences in the Haggadah of Venice published in 1609.16 On the left,
armed soldiers take children by force from the Jewish mothers, whileon the right, a crowned Pharaoh with his pock-marked body, emerges
erect from his wooden bathtub. This time, the butchers cut the throatsof the children in such a way that the blood flows directly onto thediseased body of the Egyptian monarch, without bothering to collect it
in vases or recipients kept ready for the purpose. The important novelty
in this scene consists of the fact that the pitiless assassins are shown
dressed like Turks, their heads covered with typical turbans. The artist,
presumably working at Venice, where the Haggadah was printed,
obviously considered it preferable, out of justifiable prudence, toassociate the authors of this savage crime with Islam and the Koran of
Mahomet, with the soldiers of the Great Turk and the unpopular
Ottoman Empire, rather than depict them as good Christians subjects of
the Serenissima.
226

But the message of these images is substantially identical, andprovides an answer to the question of why Ashkenazi Judaism shouldhave chosen precisely this legend, out of so many in the Midrash, as itsvery own, linking it by force to the rites of the Passover. It is certainly
true that the account presupposes the same ambiguous attraction to themysterious and fascinating curative powers of blood, and children’s
blood in particular, as did surrounding Christian German society. This
attraction and fascination often developed into a true and veritableobsession. Those writers attempting to stress the love-hate relationship(or, more cautiously, a hostility-intimacy relationship) linking Jews andChristians in this context are therefore correct. We refer to those writers
who lived side by side in the Alpine valleys and along the river banks
furrowing the regions in which German was the mother tongue and theJews spoke Yiddish.17
But that is not all. These images were intended to provide a
response, of irrefutable historical obviousness and vivid suggestiveness,to the ritual murder accusation linked with the celebration of the ritualsof the Pesach. The accusation was therefore turned on its head, or
generally subordinated to the crime of child murder for ritual or
curative purposes, which was then demoted in the scale of seriousness,
as an aberration of which the enemies of the Jews (including theChristians) were also guilty.
Circumcised children of Israel had also been sacrificed by superiororder so that their blood might be drained from their bodies in theirhour of martyrdom and thus be capable of ensuring Redemption.
One intention of analogous indication emerges in all its
obviousness from the illustration accompanying the aggressive
invocation against nations refusing to accept the God of Israel (Shefoch,“Pour out your wrath against the peoples who do not recognize you...”),
a characteristic liturgical formula, with openly anti-Christian meanings,
recited after the Passover meal, which we shall dwell upon further
along. In this case, the scene contained in the Haggadah of Venice of160918 depicts a group of necromancers, dressed as Moors, with their
typical oriental turbans, surrounded by crowds of demoniacal, dancing
Negroes, while magicians and enchanters attempt to raise the dead on
the other hand. The caption, written in rhyme, is significant, andrevelatory of the underlying message: “Consumed be the ignorant
kingdoms/ which serve demons and believe in necromancy”.19
Now, the accusation made against the Jews of practicing magicand necromancy, often confused with the practical Cabbalah andassimilated to it, was public knowledge, as was the close relationship,often uncritically presupposed, between necromancy, ritual murder and227

the magical uses of blood. Even Pope Pius V Ghisleri, when he decided
to expel the Jews from the Pontifical State by the bull Hebraeorum
gens in 1569, making an exception for those of Rome, Ancona andAvignon, accused them of practicing divinatory and magical rites withpernicious and diabolical consequences for Christians.20 The illustrationaccompanying the invective against the nations who refused to accept
the God of Israel, the Goyim, was intended to turn the accusation
around: it was not the Jews who were the necromancers and magicians,
the spell-weaving charlatans of prodigious potions, the seductive
soothsayers and macabre exorcists, but also, and above all, the othernations and peoples who did not accept the God of the Israelites. In any
case, Jews were not the only people who practiced vain and dangerous
sciences of this kind; on the contrary, the Jews were in authoritatively
good company, together with the Moslems and Christians.
Once again, the iconography of the Haggadah implied theemergence, from the narrative and liturgical texts, of every possible
debating point useful in analyzing the message of the Pesach, prudently
camouflaged within a historical framework. Its readers must haveunderstood this.
Another tragedy inflicted upon the children of Israel emerges fromthe Biblical text of Exodus. The cruel order of the Pharaoh to drown all
new-born Jewish males in the Nile so that their people might notmultiply (Ex. 1:22) promptly found easily recognizable equivalents in
the iconography of the Haggadah. In the edition of Prague of 1526, thescene is depicted on a bridge with turreted piers and typically German
medieval architecture, like many bridges on the Rhine, the Rhône andthe Danube. Here, a few peasants are depicted flinging defenselessinfants into the waters below, while a mother, also on the bridge, isdepicted as seized with desperation.21 The broad panel depicting this
episode from the Haggadah of 1560, shows infants being thrown fromthe bridge into the waters of the river while a few mothers rush down
onto the exposed gravel riverbed in a hopeless attempt to reach thebank and save their children from the rapids, while others give way todespair, raising their arms to Heaven.22
The Haggadah of Venice of 1609 contained two interestingillustrations of this episode. The first scene depicts the inside of a
Jewish home, in which the husband and wife sleep in separate beds to
avoid sexual relations, precursor of tragedy: the birth of a son might, infact, lead to his inevitable killing by the Egyptians. In confirmation of
their justifiable concern, the merest glimpse of an exterior scene isdepicted, showing a few figures on the river bank, while the waters
sweep away the bodies of drowned infants.23 In the second scene,
228which takes place in the presence of the Pharaoh, seated on the throne,a few servants on the river bank throw poor nursing infants into theriver, torn from their mother’s bosom, while the heads of the miserable
drowned babes are seen protruding from the raging waters.24
The reminder of the problematical relationship between waterways
and human sacrifice and the many victims of mysterious child-killings
revealed by the ebb and flow of the rivers, propelling the bodies of thevictims onto the banks, and the miracles performed by the holy martyrsof ritual murder, [alleged to be] capable of floating upriver, against thecurrent, in a stupendous manner and returning miraculously to thesurface, was certainly present, in this case, in both the minds of theperson illustrating the images and the readers looking at them,
repeatedly, each succeeding year, during the convivial and liturgical
Pesach celebration. The underlying message was dazzlingly obvious,and often of immediate current interest. The Children of Israel, too, hadbeen martyred, torn from their mothers and thrown into the mysterious
and deadly waters of the Nile, the river par excellence, the river ofparadigmatic significance. The role of the victims and butchers wasanything but fixed and established in a clear and definitive manner.
The iconography of the Haggadah obviously could not fail tocontain a scene depicting the sacrifice of Isaac, who was thus closely
connected to the ritual of Pesach. In fact, in the Haggadah published in
Venice of 1609, young Isaac is depicted as down on his knees before
the pyre, with his arms folded, as if in silent and resigned prayer,
waiting for Abraham, with his knife raised above his body, to carry out
the inevitable sacrifice.25 A similar attitude towards death may be foundin a miniature taken from a Jewish code, originating in Germany, anddating back to the third decade of the 15th century.26 Here, the scene,
located in a forested countryside, shows a Jew (probably a rabbi) with athick head of hair and flowing beard, in patient submission, waiting to
be executed. Behind him, the executioner is preparing to strike off hishead with his sword. The victim, like Isaac, in the scene of the
Haggadah, in depicted as down on his knees with his hands joined inprayer, prepared to die “for the sanctification of the name of God”.27
It is interesting to note that another illustration taken from the samecode depicts the same scene, presumably located in the same place, of
another young Jew, this time with a thick head of hair but beardless,placed on a wooden table to be tortured by fire. The executioner is at
his side and is heating the pincers red-hot.28 The victim’s body is nudeand blood gushes forth from the stumps of his legs, which are cut off at
the feet, and his arms, which are now without the two hands. Moreblood flows from the place of circumcision, which the young man
229

hopelessly attempts to hide with the stumps of the hands, indicatingthat he has been cruelly castrated. Of similar workmanship, certainly
cruder than the depiction of the sacrifice of Isaac in the Haggadah of
Venice, is a woodcut unexpectedly contained in the first edition of the
responses of the medieval German ritualist, Asher b. Yechiel, publishedin 1517.29 Here, Abraham, with a grim expression and a dark, stiffbrimmed hat pressed down on his head, like a brigand, and wearing a
cloak with long fluttering hems, brandishes a huge butcher knife andlooms over poor Isaac, prepared to slaughter his son for the love ofGod. The boy, nude on an enormous stack of wood, appears anything
but resigned to his sad fate, raising his legs in a terrified one last
hopeless effort at self-defense. The iconography in this case is
obviously German, crude and pitiless.30
Nor is there any shortage of representations of poor Simon ofTrent, of equal crudity, on the Christian side. One little-known
woodcut, contemporary with the Trent crime and probably
manufactured in Alpine Italy, the poor child, disheveled and stretchedout on his side on a crude table, is being pitilessly butchered as if hewere a hog – which he actually resembles, right down to his features.
Around him, a group of Jews, with sinister, gory faces, with thedistinctive sign on their clothing, within the folds of which the image ofan abominable sow is visible, appear intent upon cruelly vivisecting
him. The butchers are wearing eyeglasses to protect their vision during
the cruel operation, protecting the eyes from the victim’s spurtingblood. The overall image is frankly repulsive, and not at all likely toarouse sentiments of piety and compassion.31
It should be noted that, in the concept of the Christianity of theGerman territories during the Middle Ages, the circumcision of Christ,
his crucifixion and the ritual murder, were considered symmetricalagonies.32
It should not surprise us that sacred art would assimilate thisvision, translated into images. Thus, in one painting depicting thecircumcision of Jesus, originating in Salzburg or the central Rhinelandand dated 1440, the amputation of the Messiah’s foreskin is depicted as
an odious and almost lethal surgical operation. Around the Christ child,engaged in a helpless effort to escape the mortal incision, press several
bearded and coweled Jews. The mohel, his head covered with the ritual
mantle (tallit), is depicted as a cruel and menacing. Similarly, in analtar painting in the Liebfrauenkirche in Nuremberg, dating back to themid-16th century and depicting the same subject, the godmothers, with
caricature-like Jewish faces, crowd around the poor child with theterrorized face. The Jews wear the ritual mantle, bearing Sybillene
230writings in the holy language, while the mohel, dressed in black,resolute and pitiless, is about to lower the knife on the defenselessbody.33
An iconography of the circumcision of Jesus of this type may beobserved to be similar, in both design and execution, to therepresentation of the martyrdom of Little Simon of Trent in a paintingof the Alto Adige school, dating back to the first half of the 16th
century. Here as well, a large group of bearded, big-nosed Jews, with agrim appearance and caricature-like features, crowd around the naked,
glorious body of the little martyr, the new Christ, intent on performing
their cruel Passover rite on his miserable body.34 The themes of blood,
circumcision, the crucifixion and ritual murder were closely linked in
the collective imagination, eagerly reflected in the artistic expressionsof the Germanic world of the late Middle Ages, among both Jews andChristians.35***

NOTES TO CHAPTER TEN
1On the illustrations of the Haggadah in the manuscripts andprinted editions, there is an exceptionally extensive bibliography. See,among others, C. Roth, The Illustrated Haggadah, in “Studies in
Bibliography and Booklore”, VII (1965), pp. 37-56; B. Narkiss,
Medieval Illuminated Haggadot, in “Ariel”, XIV (1966), pp. 35-40; M.
Metzger, La Haggadah enluminée, Leyden, 1973; Y.H. Yerushalmi,
Haggadah and History, Philadelphia (Pa.), 1975.
2
Shemot Rabbah, 1, 34. In this regard, see L. Ginzberg, The
Legends of the Jews, Philadelphia (Pa.), 1946, vol. II, pp. 296-304.
3
Anon., Sefer Ha-Yashar, Furth, 1768, c. 94a.
4
Rashi (R. Shelomoh Izchaki di Troyes), Perush la-Torah(“Comment on the Pentateuch”), with reference to Esther 2:23.
5
It should be noted that none of the classical Biblical exegetists ofSephardic Judaism, from Abaham Ibn Izra to Moshe ben Nachman,from Levi ben Gherson to Izchak Arama, to Izachak Abravanel, paid
any attention to this legend.
6
See, in particular, the arguments of I.J. Yuval, “Two Nations inYour Womb”. Perceptions of Jews and Christians, Tel Aviv, 2000, p.
258-264 (in Hebrew).
7
Izchak b. Moshe, Or Zarua, Zhitomir, 1862, c. 117b. See also
M.M. Kasher, Haggadah Shelemah, New York, 1961, p. 95.
8See, in particular, the excellent and well-documented argument of231

D.J. Malkiel, Infanticide in Passover Iconography, in “Journal of the
Warburg and Courteauld Institutes”, LVI (1993), pp. 85-89.
9
Cfr. ibidem, p. 88-89.
10Haggadah shel Pesach, Prague, Ghershom Cohen, 1526;
Haggadah shel Pesach, Mantua, Giacomo Rufinelli, 1560, Seder
Haggadah shel Pesach, Mantua, Ya’akov Shalit Ashkenazi, 1568;
Seder Haggadah shel Pesach, Venice, Giovanni De Gara, 1609. On thesecond Haggadah of Prague, see C. Abramsky, Two Prague
Haggadahs, Verona, 1978.
11
See fig. 1
12
See fig. 2. One rare copy of the second Haggadah of Prague isconserved at the Valmadonna Trust Library in London.
13
Ultraquist Passional, Prague, Jan Camp, 1495, c. 24a. Cfr. Ch.
Wangrow, Haggadah and Woodcut, New York, 1967, pp. 109-110. See
fig. 3.
14
See fig. 4
15
See fig. 6.
16This is the thesis advanced by Malkiel, Infanticide in Passover
Iconography, cit., pp. 96-99.
17
See fig. 7.
18
The caption of the scene is in Italian in Hebrew characters.
19
The caption of the scene is in Italian in Hebrew characters.
20“Omnium perniciosissimum est, sortilegiis, incantationibus
magisque superstitionibus et maleficiis dedititi (sc. Judaei)
quamplurimos incautos atque inforos Satanae praestigiis inducunt”[approximately: “The worst thing of all is that the Jews are dedicated tospells, incantations and great superstitions, leading many incautious
persons to be deceived by the wiles of Satan”]. The bull Hebraeorum
gens was promulgated on 26 February 1526 (Bullarium Romanum,
Turin, 1852-1872, vol. VII, pp. 740-742). See in this regard K.R. Stow,
Catholic Thought and Papal Jewry Policy (1555-1593), New York, pp.
34-36.
21
See fig. 8
22
See fig. 923
See fig. 10
24
See fig. 11. In this regard, see Yerushalmi, Haggadah andHistory, cit., plates 25, 51-52, B. Narkiss, The Passover Haggadah of
Venice 1609, Jerusalem, 1974, p. 12.
25
See fig. 12.
26
Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Hebr. 37. The
manuscript is dated 1427-1428.
27
See fig. 13.
232

28

See fig. 14.
Ahser b. Yechiel (Rosh), Sheelot w-teshuvot. Responsa,
Constantinople, 1517.
30
See figures 15 and 16. This woodcut of the sacrifice of Isaac was
reprinted in the second half of the Sixteenth Century in the editions ofIsac Prossnitz at Cracow (cfr. A. Yaari, Hebrew Printers’ Marks,
Jerusalem, 1943, pp. 29, 141.
31
See fig. 17. The image is reproduced by A.M. Hind, Early
Italian Engraving. II: Florentine Engravings and Anonymous Prints of
Other Schools. Figs. 1-171, New York – London, 1938, fig. 74, andsubsequently reproduced in Occhiali da vedere. Arte, scienze e costume
attraverso gli occhiali, Carl Zeiss Foundation, Istituto e Museo diStoria della Scienza, Cataloghi di mostre, Florence, 1985, vol. II, p. 30,
no. G1, in H. Schreckenberg, The Jews in Christian Art, Göttingen,
1996, p. 280, fig. 6j.
32
In this regard, see L. Steinberg, The Sexuality of Christ in
Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion, New York, 1983, pp. 57-65.
33
See figure nos. 19 and 20. The two images are reproduced in
Schreckenberg, The Jews in Christian Art, cit., pp. 144-145, figures 1
and 3.
34
See fig. 22. The table is conserved at the Museo provincialed’Arte di Trento. Cfr. L. Dal Pra, L’immagine di Simonino nell’arte dal
XV al XVIII secolo, in L. Rogger and M. Bellabarba, Il principle
vescovo Johannes Hinderbach (1465-1486), fra tardo Medievo e
Umanesimo, Atti del Convegno promosso dall Biblioteca Communaledi Trento, 2-6 October 1989, Bologna, 1992, pp. 445-481, table 19.
35
On the relationship between the circumcision of Christ, bloodand ritual homicide in late Medieval Christian iconography in theGerman-speaking territories, see B.Blumenkranz, Juden und Judentum
in der mittelalterlichen Kunst, Stuttgart, 1965, p. 85; W.P. Eckert,
Motivi superstiziosi nel processo agli ebrei di Trent, in Rogger andBellabarba, Il principe vescovo Johannes Hinderbach, cit., pp. 390391.
29

233

Fig. 1. The Pharaoh’s Bath of Blood, woodcut from the
Passover Haggadah, Prague, Gershom Cohen, 1526.

Fig. 2. The Pharaoh’s Bath of Blood, woodcut from the
Passover Haggadah, without publisher, circa 1580.

234

Fig. 3. The Massacre of the Innocents, woodcut from the
Ultraquist Passional, Prague, Jan Camp, 1495.

Fig. 4. The Pharaoh’s Bath of Blood, woodcut from the
Passover Haggadah, Mantua, Giacomo Rufinelli, 1560.

235

Fig. 5. The Pharaoh’s Bath of Blood, woodcut from the
Passover Haggadah, Mantua, Giacomo Rufinelli, 1560 (detail).

Fig. 6. The Pharaoh’s Bath of Blood, woodcut from the
Passover Haggadah, Venice, Giovanni De Gara, 1609.

236

Fig. 7. Enchanters and Necromancers, woodcut from the
Passover Haggadah, Venice, Giovanni De Gara, 1609.

Fig. 8. Children Drowned in the Nile, woodcut from the
Passover Haggadah, Prague, Gershom Cohen, 1526.

237

Fig. 9. Children Drowned in the Nile, woodcut from the
Passover Haggadah, Mantua, Giacomo Rufinelli, 1560.

Fig. 10. Children Drowned in the Nile, woodcut from the
Passover Haggadah, Venice, Giovanni De Gara, 1609.

238

Fig. 11. Children Drowned in the Nile, woodcut from the
Passover Haggadah, Venice, Giovanni De Gara, 1609.

Fig. 12. Sacrifice of Isaac, woodcut from the Passover
Haggadah, Venice, Giovanni De Gara, 1609.

239

Fig. 13. German Jew Being Executed with a Sword,
miniature from Jewish Code 37 from the Hamburg Stateand University Library (c. 79r).

Fig. 14. German Jew Tortured with Fire, miniature from Jewish
Code 37 from the Hamburg State and University Library (c. 79r).

240

Fig. 15. Sacrifice of Isaac, woodcut from the Ritual
Responsals (Sheelot w-teshuvot) of Asher b. Yechiel,
Constantinople, without publisher, 1517.

Fig. 16. Martyrdom of Simonino and Jews with Eyeglasses,
woodcut, Northern Italy 1475-85 (from A.M. Hind, Early
Italian Engraving, II, New York-London, 1938, table 74).

241

Fig. 17. Circumcision, miniature from the Rothschild Miscellany,
Venice (?), 1475, Jerusalem, Bazelel Museum.

242

Fig. 18. Circumcision of Christ, Salzburg, circa 1440
(from H. Schreckenberg, The Jews in Christian Art,
Göttingen, 1996, p. 144).

243

Fig. 19. Circumcision of Christ, altar piece, circa 1450,
Nuremberg, Liebfrauenkirche.

244

Fig. 20. Gandolfino da Roreto d’Asti, Martyrdom of Simonino,tempera on wood, end of 15th century, Jerusalem, Israel Museum.

Fig. 21. Alto Adige School, Martyrdom of Simonino, first half of
16th century, Trent, Provincial Museum of Art.

245

Fig. 22. Oratory of German Jews with the “almemor”,
miniature from the Rothschild Miscellany, Venice (?),
1475, Jerusalem, Bezalel Museum.

246

CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE DINNER AND INVECTIVE:
THE SEDER AND THE CURSES
In the depositions, and, if you wish, the confessions under torture, of
the Trent defendants under indictment for Simonino’s so-called ritualmurder, ample space, at the request of the inquisitors, was given to the
preparation of the Seder of Pesach in the respective houses, to thereading of the Haggadah and the particular rites of the festival. The
inquisitors inquired about the order of the prayers, their content, thesalient phases of the celebration, the foods eaten, and the various roles
played by the participants in the collective ritual. The persons underinterrogation responded, apparently without reticence, here dwelling at
length to illustrate in detail the unfolding of the Seder, here more
succinctly, restricting themselves to the most significant moments.
At this point, the question must be raised whether thesedescriptions and reports, extorted under torture, were authentic andreal; whether they were the fruit of suggestive pressures brought to bearby the inquisitors, intended to confirm their prejudices, the stereotypes
and the superstitions which they carried in their minds and in those of
the Christian society of which they were the expression, and to evaluate
the assumptions of the accusation which were at the origin of the trials.
In other words, an attempt should be made to determine whether these
crude and embarrassing confessions were largely the result ofsuggestion, and were, so to speak, recited and written under dictation.
To do so, we must, first of all, strip the matter of its most delicatecomponent, consisting of the admitted use of the blood of a Christianchild, dissolved in wine and mixed in the dough of the unleavened
bread, while restricting ourselves to a mere verification of the details of
the depositions in all other respects, of which these admissions
constitute the broad corpus.
Tobias da Magdeburg, the Jewish physician and expert
ophthalmologist, according to those who knew him, both Jews andChristians, among the numerous patients he had in the Fossato district,
was a bad-tempered and unpleasant individual. From the Jewish pointof view, he was considered ignorant; he had a very poor knowledge ofthe holy language and his adherence to Jewish laws was anything but
247

scrupulous. Samuele da Nuremberg, the recognized head of the small
Jewish community of Trent, certainly did not consider him a saint, but
he, Samuele, was prepared to supply him, Tobias, more or lessvoluntarily, with indispensable religious services. At Pesach, then, toenable Tobias to celebrate the Seder at home according to the rules,
Samuele supplied him with the crisp unleavened bread and, above all,the shimmurim, the so-called “solemn unleavened bread”, preparedwith particular care and pierced by the finger of the head of the house,
his wife and servants, before being put in the oven.1
The shimmurim, three for each of the first two evenings of theJewish Pesach during which the Haggadah was read and the Seder was
held, were prominently displayed in a pan as the symbolic main courseof the feast, to be eaten by the guests during the most important phaseof the liturgical ceremony.2 Tobias knew that when the unleavened
bread had been kneaded, it had to be placed in the oven immediately, toavoid over-heating it or allowing it to get soggy, thus causing it toferment and become unsuitable for the ritual. It was then that Samuele
was able to make the following long-anticipated solemn announcement:“This unleavened bread has been prepared according to the rules”.3
This same Samuele referred to the traditional first appearance of
the Passover dinner. It was then that the head of the family sat at thehead of the table and poured out the wine into the beaker, upon which
he had recited the benediction and sanctification of the festival(kiddush), while the other guests poured themselves wine, each into
their cups. The pan with the three solemn unleavened loaves(shimmurim) were placed in the center of the table, awaiting thecollective recitation of the Hagadah.4 Tobias descended into greater
detail, stating that:“In the first days of the Passover, during the evening, before
dinner, and also on subsequent days, in the evening, before dinner, thehead of the family, seated at the head of the table, mixed the wine in the
cup and so did the other guests; then they placed a basin or pan in the
middle of the table, into which the three unleavened loaves wereplaced, one after the other; in the same pan, they placed an egg, meatand other foods which were to be eaten during the dinner”.5
At this point, as Mohar (Meir), the son of Mosè “the Old Man” of
Würzburg, recalled in his deposition, all the participants in the ritualbanquet raised the pan with the three shimmurim and the other foods,
together, and recited, together, the introductory formula of the
Haggadah, composed in Aramaic, which opened with the words Halachmà aniya, “This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in
the land of Egypt”.6
248

He then added one of the culminating and most significant
moments of the entire Seder, when the tension was broken, fantasy
broke free from its bonds and the words were distinctly pronounced,
one by one, to be savored and tasted in their full significance: the ten
plagues of Egypt, or as the Ashkenazi Jews called them, the ten curses.
Dam, the blood, opened the list, to be followed by the frogs (zefardea),
lice (kinim), and ferocious animals (’arov); then came the plagues of
the animals (dever), the ulcers (shechin), hail (barad), locusts (areh),darkness (choshekh). In a terrible and deadly crescendo, the plagues
concluded with the death of the first born Egyptians (makkat bechorot).
According to the custom long established among the Ashkenazi Jews,
the head of the family then solemnly dipped the index finger of theright hand into the cup of wine, which was before him, and as heannounced each individual plague, he moved his finger inside the glass,towards the outside, rhythmically splashing the wine onto the table.
Samuele da Nuremberg had no difficulty in reciting the names of
the ten plagues, in Hebrew, from memory and in order, explaining that“these words meant the ten curses which God sent to the Egyptians,
because they didn’t want to liberate His people”.7 The Christian Italiannotaries had obvious difficulty in transcribing that machine-gun burstof Hebraic terms, pronounced with a heavy German accent, into Latincharacters, but they did their best, almost always obtaining moderately
satisfactory results. The record gives Samuele’s list as follows: dam,izzarda (the frogs, zefardea, was apparently too harsh for their ears),
chynim, heroff (for ’arov, with a variant of little importance), dever,ssyn (for schechin, ulcer), porech (barad, hail, pronounced in theGerman way, bored, were inadequately understood), harbe, hossen (forchoshekh, darkness) and finally, maschus pchoros (makkat bechorot),which rendered the term of the plague according to the Ashkenazim
diction, makkas bechoros). But it was all more or less comprehensible,
both in words and meanings.
In one of the depositions taken from Anna of Magdeburg,
Samuele’s daughter-in-law, she recalled her mother-in-law sprinkling
the wine onto the table, plunging her finger into the glass and reciting
the ten curses, but she did not remember the precise order. A Haggadah
was then produced and Anna took it and read the text quickly, startingwith dam, blood, translating the various terms correctly.8
Tobias, for his part, was able to repeat the precise order of
liturgical functions in which the head of the household accompanied
the reading of the ten curses while splashing the wine onto the tablewith his finger. He had no difficulty in reciting the ten plagues of
Egypt, which he obviously knew by heart, in Hebrew, in the correct249

sequence. But he got mixed up when he tried to translate or interpretthe various terms, revealing a rather poor knowledge of Hebrew. He
thus confused ’arov, the plague of the multitude of the wild beasts, withra’av, famine, and arbeh, the locusts, with the word harbe’, whichsounds similar, and means “a lot” in Hebrew. In his own way, heinterpreted the plague of the pestilence of animals, dever, as thedestruction of persons, and harad (porech for bored, again), as “storm
at sea”, instead of in the sense of “hail”. And again, for him, the deathof the first-born children was to be considered an epidemic of generalplague.9
In sum, Tobias was certainly not very cultivated in Hebraic studies,
which he had perhaps somewhat neglected in order to concern himself
with medicine. At any rate, he had the ritual formulae well in mind,
reciting them automatically as he did each year. The interpretations
were his own, even the more abstruse, as well as the grammatical errors
in Hebrew, a language which he knew rather badly, in contrast to
Samuele da Nuremberg, Mosè “the Old Man”, of Würzburg andAngelo da Verona.10 Like the inquisitors, the notaries who were in thiscase responsible for transcribing [what were certainly] his words, wereinterested in learning more about the Seder and its rituals; they cannot
have been responsible for his interpretive blunders and linguistic
mistakes.
At this point, in the traditional reading of the Haggadah, according
to the custom of the Ashkenazi Jews, the curses against the Egyptians
were transformed into an invective against all the nations and enemies
hated by Israel, with explicit reference to the Christians. “From each ofthese plagues may God save us, but may they fall on our enemies”.
Thus recited the formula reported by rabbi Jacob Mulin Segal, known
as Maharil, active at Treviso around the last twenty years of the 14th
century, in his Sefer ha-minhagim (“Book of Customs”), which
unhesitatingly identified the adversaries of the Jewish people with theChristians, who deserved to be cursed. It seems that this custom was inforce among German Jews even before the First Crusade.11 The
sprinkling of the wine, which was a surrogate for the blood of thepersecutors of Israel, onto the table, simultaneously with the recitationof the plagues of Egypt, recalled the cruel punishment said to havecome from the “vengeful sword” of God.12
A famous contemporary of Maharil, Rabbi Shabom of Wiener
Neustadt, has also confirmed the anti-Christian significance of thesprinkling of the wine during the reading of the plagues of Egypt.
“When they name the ten plagues of Egypt, each time, they dip thefinger into the cup of wine standing in front (of the head of the family)
250

and they pour a little bit of it out, onto the table [...] saying: ‘From thiscurse may God save us’. The reason is that the four cups of wine
(which must be drunk during the recitation of the Haggadah) represent
a wish for the salvation of the Jews and a curse against the nations of
the world. Therefore (the head of the family) pours the wine out of theglass with his finger, signifying that we Jews shall be saved from suchcurses, which shall, by contrast, fall upon our enemies”.13
It should be noted that the ritual of the wine and the curses waspracticed only in Jewish communities of German origin, while it wasquite unknown among Jews of Iberian origins (Sephardim), or Italianand Oriental Jews.
The old man, Mosè da Würzburg recalled times past, when he was
the head of the family at Spira and then Magonza. During the Passoverevening, he had sat at the head of the table with the guests and directed
the Seder and the reading of the Haggadah, sprinkling the wine onto
the table while he clearly pronounced the names of the ten plagues of
Egypt. He then informed his inquisitors that, according to the
Ashkenazi tradition, “the head of the family added these words: ‘Thus
we implore God that these ten curses may fall on the gentiles, enemiesof the faith of the Jews’, a clear reference to the Christians”.14
According to Israel Wolfgang, who was, as usual, well informed, thefamous and influential Salomone da Piove di Sacco, as well as thebanker Abramo da Feltre and the physician Rizzardo da Regensburg at
Brescia, all complied with the ritual of reciting the ten curses andsymbolically pouring out the wine against the nations hostile to Israel.
Mosè da Bamberg, the wandering Jewish guest in the Angelo da
Verona’s house, testified to this custom, at which he had been present
during the Seder in Leone di Mohar’s house at Tortoa. Mosè the masterof Hebrew, who lived at the expense of Tobias, the physician,remembered well, from the time in which his house was located in the
district of the Jews of Nuremberg.15
Tobias himself, as the head of the family, had directly guided thoseparts of the Seder and recalled the details, which were furthermore
repeated every year at Passover without variation. He therefore
announced to the judges at Trent that “when the head of the family hadfinished reading those words (the ten plagues), he then added thisphrase: ‘Thus we implore God, that you shall similarly send these ten
plagues against the Gentiles, who are the enemies of the religion of theJews’, intending to refer, in particular, to the Christians”.16
For his part, Samuele da Nuremberg, sprinkling the wine onto thetable from the inside of his chalice, also took as his starting place thetragedies of the Pharaohs to curse the Christian faith unambiguously:
251

“We invoke God that he may turn all these anathemas against theenemies of Israel”.17
The Seder thus became a scandalous display of anti-Christiansentiment, exalted by symbolic acts and significances and burning
imprecations, which was now using the stupendous events of theexodus of the Jews from Egypt simply as a pretext. In Jewish Venice
during the 17th century, the ritual characteristics related to the readingof this part of the Haggadah were still alive and present, as shown by
the testimony of Giulio Morosini, which is to be considered quite
reliable.
“When the head of the family refers to these ten blows, he isbrought a bowl or basin, and at the name of each one, dipping thefinger into his glass, he sprinkles the wine, and continues, graduallyemptying the glass of wine as a sign of the curses against theChristians”.18
Subsequently, the head of the family, after drinking another glassof wine, invites the guests to eat part of the three solemn unleavened
loaves, the shimmurim, first all by itself and then together with thecharoset and the bitter herbs, reciting the mandatory benedictions. At
this point, the dinner true and proper began. Samuele reported that the“head of the family took the unleavened bread and divided it one byone, giving one piece to each (of the guests), then drank the wine in his
cup, and the others did likewise; after which they all started to eat, andthus they did the next day”.19
Similarly, Tobias da Magdeburg recounted that “the head of thefamily took the first unleavened loaf in the pan and gave part of it toeach person present, and did the same with the second and third
unleavened loaf (the shimmurim), giving a part of it to each personpresent. He then took a glass full of wine [...] and gulped it down, andimmediately afterwards, the other guests also took their glasses anddrank the wine, each from his own glass. Then the dinner started”.20
When the meal was finished and the related benediction had been
recited, before drinking the fourth glass of wine, the wine with which
the advent of final redemption augured itself, the participants in theritual united in reciting, all together, a new series of violent invective
against the peoples having rejected the God of Israel, in a clear allusion
to the Christians. The formula opened with the words Shefoch
chamatecha el ha-goim asher lo yeda’ucha and, in the Ashkenazi
ritual, contained particularly virulent overtones: “Vomit your anger
onto the nations which refuse to recognize you, and their kingdoms,
which do not invoke your name, which have devoured Jacob anddestroyed his seat. Turn your anger upon them, reach them with your252

scorn; persecute them with fury, cause them to perish from beneath thedivine heaven”.
This was one of the most potent, explicit and incisive curses
against the gentiles contained in the Passover liturgy of the Seder. This
invective appears to have been unknown in ancient times, and it is firstfound in the Machazor Vitry, composed in France between the 11th and12th centuries. In all probability, the text, of one hundred verses
extrapolated from various Psalms, was introduced into the Haggadahof the Franco-German Jewish communities during the Medieval
period.21
The meaning was obvious. Messianic redemption could only bebuilt upon the ruins of the hated Gentile world. In reciting the curses,
the door of the room in which the Seder was kept half-ajar, so that theprophet Elias would be enabled to intervene and announce thepromised rescue. The anti-Christian invective was intended to prepare
and facilitate Elias’ entry. As we shall also see below, the magical cultof the outrage and anti-Christian evil omen was one of the principal
elements characterizing the religious fundamentalism typical of theFranco-German environment of the Middle Ages, and its so-called“passive Messianism”, which was aggressive and ritualized.22
Maestro Tobias, according to his statements to the judges at Trent,
after dinner, devoutly recited the formula of the curses of Shefoch anddid the same on both evenings during which the Seder was performed
and the Passover Haggadah read.23 Israel Wolfgang, as well, who hadparticipated in Samuele da Nuremberg’s ritual dinner, recalled themoment in which they had solemnly pronounced Shefoch (“Oh God,
send your anger against the peoples which do not wish to glorify you”),
cursing the Christians.24
The custom of reciting the curses of the Shefoch attributing antiChristian connotations to them was still in force among the Jews of
Venice in the 17th century, as Giulio Morosini attests with reference to
the Ashkenazi formula:“Each one raises his glass of wine [...] they curse the Christians
and the other nations, all included under the name of Ghoim, Gentiles,
all intoning these words, after they have eaten their fill and are very
drunk: ‘Cast thy anger upon the Ghoim, Gentiles, which have notrecognized you and on the kingdoms which have not invoked yourname. Cast your anger upon them and may the fury of your anger
consume them. Persecute them with your fury and destroy them’ ”.25
The reading of this second series of curses was perhaps
accompanied by demonstrative actions, such as that of flinging thewine from the basin into which it had been poured during the recital of253the ten plagues of Egypt out of the windows and into the street: Egypt
was thus transformed into Edom, and the persecutors of Israel were
now solidly identified with the representatives of the surrounding
Christian world.
The convert Paolo Medici reported on the existence of these rather
picturesque customs, which also featured stentorian invectives against
the Gentiles.
“The head of the house intones aloud verse 6 of Psalm 78:‘Effunde iram tuam in gentes, quae te non noverunt’. (Shefoch
chamatecha el hagoim asher lo yeda’ucha), and one person in thehouse runs to the window, takes the basin containing the wine of thecurses, which was poured into the basin during the recitation the ten
plagues inflicted on Egypt by God, and throws the wine into the street,the meaning of which, by way of this verse of the Psalm, was to inflict
thousands of curses on all those who were not members of Judaism,
and against the Christians in particular”.26
In substance, the so-called “confessions” of the defendants during
the Trent trials relating to the rituals of the Seder and the Passover
Haggadah are seen to be precise and truthful. Apart from the details of
the use of blood in the wine and the unleavened bread, of which weshall speak somewhat further along, the sporadic insertion of which
into the text is insufficient to invalidate the general picture, the facts
described are always correct. The Jews of Trent, in describing the Sederin which they had participated, were not lying; nor were they under the
influence of the judges, who were presumably ignorant of a large partof the ritual being described to them. If the accused dwelt at length
upon the virulent anti-Christian meaning which the ritual had assumed
in the tradition of that Franco-German Judaism to which they belonged,
they were not indulging in unverifiable exaggeration. In their collective
mentality, the Passover Seder had long since transformed itself into acelebration in which the wish for the forthcoming redemption of thepeople of Israel moved from aspiration to revenge, and then to cursing
their Christian persecutors, the current heirs to the wicked Pharaoh of
Egypt.
***NOTES TO CHAPTER ELEVEN
1

On the preparation of the unleavened break and the shimmurim,
the unleavened bread, under supervision and most important, see A.
Toaff, Mangiare alla giudia. La cucina ebraica in Italia dal
254

Rinascimento all’età moderna, Bologna, 2000, pp. 147-149.
2
The pan with the symbolic Pesach foods generally contained, in
addition to the three shimmurim, i.e. the “solemn unleavened loaves”,
hard-boiled eggs, the lamb’s hoof, the charoset, i.e., the fresh and dried
fruit preserve, bitter herbs, lettuce and celery (cfr. R. Bonfil, Haggadahdi Pesach, Milan, 1962, pp. XXXII-XXXVI). To these foods, somepeople added “various other things, including other types of bitter herbs
and two types of meat, roast and boiled, and fish and egg, and almonds
and walnuts” (cfr. Giulio Morosini, Derekh Emunah. Via della fede
mostrata agi ebrei, Rome. Propaganda Fide, 1683, pp. 551-552).
3“Quia ipse Thobias non habet clibanum in domo sua ad coquendo
fugatias nec panem, eo tempore quo faciunt dictas fugatias seu azimas
predictas, subito quamprimum sunt facte oportet quod ponantur inclibano, ut bene sint azime et quod Samuel habet clibanum in domo sua[...] dicto tempore Samud dedit sibi de fugatiis azimis, qui Samuelquando sic dabat fugatias dicebat: Iste fugatiae sunt aptate sicut debent”(cfr. A. Esposito and D. Quaglioni, Processi contro gli ebrei di Trento,
1475-1478. I: I processi del 1475, Padua, 1990, p. 328). For his part,Samuele da Nuremberg “interrogatus quin pinsavit pastam temporibus
preteritis in domo ipsius Samuelis, cum qua fecerunt azimas predictas,
respondit quod famuli ipsius Samuelis fecerunt azimas et pinsaverunt
pastam cum qua fecerunt azimas; dicens tamen, quod nihil refert an
masculi vel femine faciant dictas azimas” (cfr. ibidem, p. 252).
4“Ante cenam paterfamilias se ponit in capite mense et accipit
unum ciatum in quo est de vino et quem ciatum ponit ante se [...] et aliide familia circum astantes habent singulum ciatum plenum vino; et inmedio mense ponit unum bacile, in quo bacili sunt tres fugatie azimate[...] quas tres azimas ponunt in dicto bacili et in eodem bacili etiam
ponunt aliquid modicum de eo quod sunt commesturi in cena” (cfr.
ibidem, p. 252). Israel Wolfgang referred to the shimmurim as migzos(recte: mazzot, mazzos according to the Asnhenazi pronunciation),solemn unleavened bread (cfr. G. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da
Trento, Trent, 1902, vol. II, p. 18).
5
“In die Pasce eorum de sero, ante cenam, et etiam in die sequenti
de sero, antecenam, paterfamilias judeus se ponit ad mensam et omnes
eius familie se ponunt circa mensam. Qui paterfamilias habet ciphum
plenum vino, quem ciphum ponit ante se, et omnes alii circumstantes
habent singulum ciatum plenum vino; et deinde in medio mense ponunt
unum bacile seu vas, in quo ponunt tres azimas sive fugatias [...]
ponendo dictas fugatias unam super aliam; in quo bacili etiam ponuntde ovis, de carnibus et de omnibus aliis de quibus volunt comedere in
illa cena” (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, pp. 325255

326).
“Dicit quod benedicunt postea dictas fugatias [...] dicendo hec
verba: Holcheme hanyhe (recte: Ha la-chmà aniyà) et certa alia verba
que ipse ignorat, que verba significant: ‘panis iste’, et nescit quid aliud
significent” (cfr. ibidem, p. 379).
7“Et paterfamilias ponit digitum in ciatum suum et illum balneat invino [...] et deinde aspergit cum digito omnia que sunt in mensa,
dicendo hec verba in Hebraico, videlicet dam, izzardea, chynim, heroff,dever, ssyn, porech, harbe, hossen, maschus pochoros, que verba
significant decem maledictiones quas Deus dedit populo Egiptiaco, eo
quod nolebat dimittere populum suum” [“And the head of the family
places his finger in his glass and bathes his finger therein [...] and thensprinkles all those present at table with it, saying these words in
Hebrew, that is, dam, izzardea, chynim, heroff, dever, ssyn, porech,harbe, hossen, maschus pochoros, which words mean the ten curses that
God inflicted on the Egyptians who did not want to let His people go”]
(cfr. ibidem, p. 252).
8
Cfr. [Benedetto Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica sul martiriodel beato Simone da Trento nell’anno MCCCCLXXV dagli ebrei
ucciso, Trento, Gianbattista Parone, 1747, pp. 151-152.
9“Et postea (paterfamilias) ponit digitum indicem manus dextrae
in ciphum et intingit seu balneat digitum predictum in vino [...] etdeinde cum eodemmet digito balneato in vino, ut supra, paterfamilias
aspergit ea que sunt super mensa, dicendo hec verba in Hebraico,videlicet: dam, izzardea, chynim, heroff, dever, ssyn, porech, harbe,hossech, maschus pochoros, que verba significant in Latino istud,videlicet: dam, sanguis – izzardea, rane – chynym, pulices – heroff,fames – dever, destructiones personarum – ssyn, lepra – porech, fortunain mari seu procella – harbe, multum – hossech, tenebre – maschus
pochoros, pestilentia magna. Que omnia verba suprascripta dicuntur per
dictum patremfamilias in commemoratione illarum decem
maledictionum, quas Deus dedit Pharaoni et toto populo Egypti, quia
nolebant dimittere populum suum” [“And after (the head of the family)
put the index finger of the right hand in his glass and having bathed his
finger in the wine [...] and, using the finger bathed in wine, as statedabove, the head of the family sprinkles those at table, saying thesewords in Hebrew, namely, izzardea, chynim, heroff, dever, ssyn,
porech, harbe, hossech, maschus pochoros, which words mean in Latin
the following, to wit, dam, blood – izzardea, frogs – chynym, fleas –heroff, famine – dever, the destruction of persons – ssyn, leprosy –porech, loss of wealth in storms at sea – harbe, multitude – hossech,darkness – maschus pochoros – great pestilence. All of these words are
6256spoken by the head of the family in memory of the ten curses which
God inflicted on the Egyptians and on the whole population of Egypt,because they did not want to let His people go”] (cfr. Esposito andQuaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 326).
10
Tobias did not hesitate to confess to the Trent judges to thelimitations of his own Hebraic culture: “ipse Thobias est illetteratus
homo et quod docti in lege suo hoc scire debent” [“that Tobias was
uneducated and that the doctors in law should know that”] (ibidem, p.
318).
11
Cfr. Jacob Mulin Segal (Maharil), Sefer ha-minhagim (“Book of
Customs”), by Sh. Spitzer, Jerusalem, 1989, pp. 106-107. On the antiChristian meaning of these invectives, contained in the Haggadahaccording to the custom of the German Jews, cfr. I.J. Yuval, “TwoNations in Your Womb”. Perceptions of Jews and Christians, Tel Aviv,
2000, pp. 116-117 (in Hebrew).
12
In this regard, see Sh. Safrai and Z. Safrai, Haggadah of theSages. The Passover Haggadah, Jerusalem, 1998, pp. 145-146 (inHebrew).
13
Cfr. Shalom of Neustadt, Decisions and Customs, by Sh. Spitzer,
Jerusalem, 1977, p. 134 (in Hebrew).
14“Postea dictus paterfamilias dixit suprascripta verba, idem
paterfamilias iungit hec alia verba: ‘Ita imprecamur Deum quod
similiter immittat predictas .X. maledictiones contra gentes, que suntinimice fidei Iudeorum’, intelligendo maxime contra christianos, etdeinde dictus paterfamilias bibit vinum” [“After the head of the family
said these words, he added these other words: ‘Thus we pray God to
inflict ten similar curses on the Gentiles, who are enemies of the Jewish
faith’, meaning the Christians, more than anything else, and then thehead of the family drank the wine”] (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni,
Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 363). “Et (Thobias) dicit quod quando dictus
paterfamilias dixit suprascripta verba, postea etiam addit hec alia: ‘Ita
imprecamur Deum quod similiter immittat suprascriptas decem
maledictiones contra gentes quod adversantur fidei Iudaice’,intelligendo maxime contra Christianos” [“And (Tobias) said that when
the head of the family said these words, after that he added these otherwords: ‘Thus we pray God that He may inflict ten similar curses on all
the people who are enemies of the Jewish faith’ ”] (cfr. Esposito andQuaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 326).
15
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
16-32.
16“Et (Thobias) dicit quod quando dictus paterfamilias dixit
suprascripta verba, postea etiam addit hec alia: ‘Ita imprecamur Deum257

quod similiter immittat suprascriptas decem maledictiones contra
gentes quod adversantur fidei Iudaice’, intelligendo maxime contra
Christianos” [“And Tobias said that when the head of the family said
the above mentioned words, after that he added the following, among
other things: ‘Thus we call upon God similarly to inflict the above
mentioned curses against the Gentiles (or people) who are enemies of
the Jewish faith’, meaning, most of all, against the Christians”] (cfr.
Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 326).
17“Et que verba postea quem dicta sunt per patremfamilias, idem
paterfamilias dicit hec alia verba: ‘lta nos deprecamur Deum quod
immittat omnes predictas maledictiones contra eos qui sunt contra
fidem Iudaicam’, intelligendo et imprecando quod dicte maledictiones
immittantur contra Cristianos” [“And that after the head of the family
said these words, he said these other words: ‘Thus we pray God that He
may inflict all these curses on those who are enemies of the Jewish
faith’, meaning and praying that these curses would befall theChristians”] (cfr. ibidem, p. 352). In the light of the Hebrew sources,
such as Maharil and Shalom of Wiener Neustadt, who testify to theancient custom of the Ashkanazi Jews of cursing the Christians during
the recitation of the ten plagues of Egypt, W.P. Eckert is therefore inerror on this point (Motivi superstiziosi nel processo agli ebrei diTrento, in I. Rogger and M. Bellabarba, Il principe vescovo Johannes
Hinderbach, 1465-1486, fra tardo Medioevo e Umanesimo, Atti delConvegno held by the Biblioteca Comunale of Trent, 2-6 October
1989, Bologna, 1992, pp. 393-394) considers this to be a truth
presumed by the Trent judges and suggested to the defendants bycoercive means.
18
Cfr. Morosini, Derekh Emunah. Via della fede mostata agliebrei, cit., p. 559.
19
“Et hiis dictis, paterfamilias accipit dictas fugatias et
unamquamque dividit de unaquaque fugatia partem suam unicuique, etdeinde ipse paterfamilias bibit vinum quod est in ciato suo, et similiteralii astantes bibunt vinum suum et postmodum omnes cenant, et
similiter faciunt die sequenti de sero” (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni,
Processi, cit., vol. I, pp. 252-253).
20“Et post suprascripta paterfamilias accipit primam fugatiam que
est in bacili, ut supra, et unicuique ex astantibus dat partem suam, etsimiliter facit de secunda et de tertia fugatia, dando partem suam
unicuique. Et deinde accipit ciphum plenum vino [...] et illud vinum
bibit; et deinde omnes alii circumstantes accipiunt ciatos suos plenosvino, ut supra, et unusquisque bibit de ciato suo, postque cenantomnes” (cfr. ibidem, pp. 326-327).
258

21

On the initial introduction of the curses of Shefoch into the textof the Haggadah of the medieval Ashkenazi environment, see, among
others, M.M. Kasher, Haggadah Shelemah, New York, 1961, pp. 177180; E.D. Goldshmidt, Haggadah shel Pesach, Jerusalem, 1969, pp.
62-64; R. Bonfil, Haggadah di Pesach, Milan, 1962, pp. 122-123 (“Itmay nevertheless be presumed that the custom became widespread
during the Middle Ages, during the period of the first great
persecutions, during the Crusades [...] during the period in which thefirst accusations of ritual murder were made against the Jews. The
custom of opening the door [...] probably also dates back to that period,in which such an act was caused by the fear that behind the door there
might be placed the body of some murdered child and that the murder
might be blamed on the Jews”).
22
In this regard, see, in particular, G.D. Cohen, Messianic Posturesof Ashkenazim and Sephardim, in M. Kreutzberg, Studies of the Leo
Baeck Institute, New York, 1967, pp. 117-158; Yuval, “Two Nations inYour Womb”, cit., pp. 140-145; Safrai and Safrai, Haggadah of theSages, cit., pp. 174-178.
23“Et finita cena, paterfamilias dicit hec verba: Sfoch chabamoscho hol ha-goym. Similiter dicit quod fit in die sequenti de sero,
post Pascha” [“And after dinner, the head of the family pronounces
these words, Sfoch chaba moscho hol ha-goym. He does the same theevening of the following day, after Passover”] (cfr. Esposito andQuaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 327). It should be noted that the
Hebrew words are recorded by the Italian notary according to Tobias’
Ashkenazi pronunciation, and therefore chamatechà, “da tua ira”, isrendered as chamoschò (chaba moscho).
24
Cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 149; Divina,
Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, p. 18. Even in the caseof Israel Wolfgang, the formula of Shefoch, reported according to the
Ashkenazi pronunciation, is distorted by the notary’s record (Sfoco
hemosco hai hagoym honszlar lho ghedalsecho), but seems entirely
intelligible.
25
Cfr. Morosini, Derekh Emunah. Via della fede mostrata agliebrei, cit., p. 559.
26
Cfr. Paolo Medici, Riti e costumi degli ebrei, Madrid,
Luc’Antonio de Bedmar, 1737, p. 171.

259

CHAPTER TWELVE
THE MEMORIAL OF THE PASSION
The use of the blood of Christian children in the celebration of theJewish Passover was apparently the object of minute regulation, at leastaccording to the depositions of all the defendants in the Trent trials.
These depositions describe exactly what was prohibited, what was
permitted, and what was tolerated, all in meticulous detail. Every
eventuality was foreseen and dealt with; the use of blood was governedby broad and exhaustive case law, almost as if it formed an integral partof the most firmly established regulations relating to the ritual. The
blood, powdered or dessicated, was mixed into the dough of theunleavened or “solemn” bread, the shimmurim – not ordinary bread.
The shimmurim – in fact, three loaves for each of the two evenings
during which the ritual dinner of the Seder was served – wereconsidered one of the principal symbolic foods of the feast, and theiraccurate preparation and baking took place during the days preceding
the advent of Pesach.
During the Seder, the blood had to be dissolved into the wine
immediately prior to recitation of the ten curses against the land of
Egypt. The wine was later poured into a basin or a cracked earthenware
pot and thrown away. The performance of the ritual required only aminimum quantity of blood in powdered form, equal in quantity to alentil.
The obligation to procure blood and to use it during the Passover
ritual was the exclusive responsibility of the head of the family, i.e., a
responsible male with a dependent wife and children. Bachelors,
widowers, guests and employees, all those without dependent family,
were exempt. In view of the difficulty of procuring such a rare andcostly ingredient, it was anticipated that the wealthiest Jews would
provide blood for the poorest Jews, an eccentric form of charity
benefiting heads of families disinherited by fate.
Samuele da Nuremberg reported that:“The evening before Pesach, when they stir the dough with which
the unleavened bread (the shimmurim) is later prepared, the head of thefamily takes the blood of a Christian child and mixes it into the doughwhile it is being kneaded, using the entire quantity available, keeping in
260

mind that the measure of a lentil is sufficient. The head of the family
sometimes performs this operation in the presence of those kneading
the unleavened bread, and sometimes without their knowledge, basedon whether or not they can be trusted”.1
Maestro Tobias restricted himself to recalling that “every year, theblood, in powdered form, is kneaded into the dough of the unleavened
bread prepared the evening before the feast, and is then eaten on thesolemn day, i.e., the day of Passover”.2 This testimony was confirmed
by Mohar (Meir), the son of Mosè “the old Man” of Würzburg,3 as well
as by the convert Giovanni da Feltre, who had seen his father Schochat(Sacheto) perform the ritual while still living at Landshut in Bavaria.4
Isacco da Gridel, Angelo da Verona’s cook, admitted to kneading
the shimmurim containing blood for eight years, preparing it for thecelebration of the Seder. Joav of Franconia, Tobias’ domestic servant,recalled the custom from as much as seventeen years back, when she
was in service with a rich Jew from Würzburg. Mosè da Bamburg, thetraveler staying with Angelo of Verona, in his long deposition, statedthat he had personally performed this operation when he was head of
the family in Germany. Later, when he moved to Italy, he had seen it
performed at Borgo San Giovanni, in the Piacenza region, in the homeof money lender Sacle or Sacla (Izchak), who inserted the blood into
the unleavened bread while his wife Potina kneaded the dough. Vitale,
Samuele da Nuremberg’s agent, attested to the custom as a result of
having seen it performed for three consecutive years by his uncle,
Salomone, at Monza.
The subject matter of these depositions was also confirmed by the
women involved. Bella, the wife of Mayer da Würzburg, reported that
she had seen her father preparing the shimmurim from the time she wasa child at Nuremberg, in preparation for the first two evenings during
which the Seder used grains of dried blood in the dough. Sara, Tobias’swife, recalled that her first husband, Elia, whom she married at
Marburg, had used blood for this purpose, and that she had also seen
the practice in many Jewish homes in Mestre.5 Bona, Angelo da
Verona’s sister, stated that she had seen the brother placing the [dried]
blood, [dissolved and] diluted in water, into the dough of theunleavened and so-called solemn bread, the shimmurim, which was
kept under surveillance, and had to be eaten during the first twoevenings of the festival, during the Seder. “Angelo himself, took a bitof the Christian child’s [dried] blood and dissolved it in water, thenpoured the water containing the blood into the dough with which they
then made the unleavened loaves, three of which Angelo and the othermembers of his family and Bona herself ate during the Passover261

evening feast, while the other three members ate it the evening of thenext day”.6
Angelo da Verona’s report was rather more detailed. After briefly
recalling that the Ashkenazi Jews “take a small quantity of the bloodand they put it in the dough with which they later make the unleavened
bread which they eat during the solemn days of the Passover”.
He went on to provide a detailed description of the rite of
preparing the shimmurim “with blood”.7 First of all, he explained to thejudges, the ritual action was carried out “as a sign of outrage against
Jesus Christ, whom the Christians claim is their God”. He thencontinued, supplying whatever clarification he considered dutiful andnecessary: “Eating unleavened bread with Christian blood in it means
that, just as the body and powers of Jesus Christ, the God of theChristians, went down to perdition with His death, thus, the Christian
blood contained in the unleavened bread shall be ingested andcompletely consumed”.
How much truth there was to this key anti-Christian interpretationof the presumed Jewish haematophagia [blood-eating] through themedium of unleavened bread, and just how much was invented toplease the inquisitors concerned, is unknown. It is however a fact that
Angelo supplied a very colorful and credible representation of theritual, utilizing the correct formulae from the classical Jewish liturgy.
“They place the blood in their unleavened loaves in this manner:
after placing the blood in the dough, they knead it and stir it around toprepare the unleavened bread (the shimmurim). Then they poke holes init, pronouncing these words: Chen icheressù chol hoyveha, which,translated, means ‘Thus may our enemies be consumed’. At this point,
the unleavened loaves are ready to be eaten”.8
This Hebrew invective is not an invention. It may in fact be foundamong the blessings and curses pronounced during the so-called“Haggadah of the Jewish New Year” (Rosh Ha-Shanah) just before thefeast dinner. On this occasion, the reading of the various formulae wasaccompanied by the consumption of vegetables and fruit, in addition tofish and a lamb’s head, recalling, by means of a pun on their Hebrew
names, the type of blessing or curse which the reader intended topronounce. Leeks are called cartì, and the invective associated with its
name was known as she-iccaretu (iccaresu in the Ashkenazi
pronunciation) col hoyevenu, that is, “may all our enemies be
exterminated (“consumed” according to Angelo)”.9 The original
inspiration was, as usual, Biblical and prophetical (Mich. 5:9) “And allthine enemies shall be cut off” (we-chos hoyevecha iccaretu). At thispoint, it becomes much more difficult to dismiss the insertion of these262

Hebrew-language execrations into the ritual of the Christian bloodadded to the solemn unleavened bread as merely the extemporaneousand extravagant invention of Angelo da Verona, “softened up” with
torture.
From Samuele da Nuremberg and Angelo da Verona, from
Maestro Tobias and Anna da Montagnana, all the accused at Trent wereagreed in affirming that the head of the family, who was required toperform the task of directing the reading of the Haggadah, did not
shake the blood into the wine before starting the Seder or during theinitial phases of the celebration, but only when they were about torecite the ten curses of Egypt. Recalling the years of his stay in the
Jewish quarter of Nuremberg with various employers such as Lazzaro,
Giosia and Moshè Loff, Mosè da Ansbach, the teacher of Tobias’schildren, stated that the head of the family placed the blood in the wineat the precise moment of the commemoration of the so-called “tencurses”, i.e., the plagues of Egypt.10
The learned Mosè da Würzburg, “the Old Man”, explained that:“The head of the family takes a bit of the blood of the Christianchild and drops it in his glass full of wine [...] then, putting his finger inthe wine in which the blood of the Christian child has been shaken, he
sprinkles the table and food with it, pronouncing the Hebraic formula incommemoration of the ten curses, which God sent to the refractory
Egyptian people who refused to liberate the Jewish people. At the endof the reading, the same head of the family, referring to the Christians,
utters the following words (in Hebrew): ‘thus we beseech God that hemay similarly direct these ten curses against the gentiles, who areenemies of the Jewish faith’ ”.11
Giovanni da Feltre, the converted Jew, recalled the years of his
youth, spent in lower Germany, when his father performed the ritual of
the Seder of Passover, “Both evenings, my father took blood and shook
it into his chalice of wine before beginning the Passover dinner, thensprinkled it on the table cursing the Christian religion”.12
After the reading of the last part of the Haggadah, the head of thefamily performed the act of adding the blood to the wine to transformthe wine into a potion symbolically intended to represent the crueldeath of Israel’s enemies, immediately before the ten curses. This partof the text of the Haggadah opens with the words: “(The Lord) made us
leave Egypt with a strong hand, with the arm extended, with immense
terror, with signs) and with prodigies: this is the blood (zeh ha-dam)”.13
The reason why the haematic fluid of the Christian boy was dissolvedin the “wine of the ten curses” at this point was revealed by Angelo da
Verona:263

“The Jews performed this act in remembrance of one of the ten
curses which God inflicted upon the Egyptians when they held theJewish people in bondage: one of the plagues was God’s transformation
into blood of all the waters in the land of Egypt”.14
As usual, Israel Wolfgang provided some sense of order for thesevarious rituals. The young painter recalled participating in a Seder heldin the house of a certain Jew named Chopel, at Günzenhausen, near
Nuremberg, in 1460. Chopel used coagulated, pulverized blood, shaken
into the wine prior to the recitation of the ten plagues. This was
accompanied by the following declaration in Hebrew: “This is the
blood of a Christian child”, (zeh-ha dam shel goi katan). According towhat may be gathered from Israel Wolfgang’s account, after thereading of this fragment of the Haggadah, which began with the words
zeh ha-dam, “This is the blood”, the head of the house brought theampoule containing the powdered blood to the table, added a bit of thecontents to the wine in his chalice, and recited the analogous formula
beginning with the same words, zeh ha-dam, but in reference to theblood of the Christian child, not in reference to the first plague of
Egypt.
He then went on to the reading of the ten curses, the sprinkling of
the wine onto the table, and the recitation of the invectives against the
goyim – the Christians. Obviously, the formula, “This is the blood (zehha-dam) of a Christian child” was transmitted [from generation to
generation] orally; the text of the Haggadah was alleged not to containthis text.
Israel Wolfgang’s revelations continued. In 1474, he [said he] hadparticipated in the celebration of the Jewish Passover at Feltre, at
Abramo’s house (Abramo being a money lender in that city). On thatoccasion, Wolfgang had seen the head of the family add the blood tothe dough of the solemn unleavened bread (migzo = mazzot), that is, theshimmurim. During the evening ritual of the Seder, Abramo da Feltre,
in preparation for the reading of the ten curses, came to table with aglass phial containing a small quantity of dried blood, the size of a nut,and shook a pinch of it into the wine, pronouncing the usual formula ofthe zeh ha-dam: “This is the blood of a Christian child”. He then began
the recitation of the plagues, pouring the wine onto the table andcursing the gentiles hostile to Israel.15
Lazzaro, employed at Angelo da Verona, also told the judges that
he had seen the rite performed by his uncle Israel, the influential
Ashkenazi banker at Piacenza, who occupied the function of treasurer
in the Jewish community of the Duchy of Milan.16 According to him,
Israel, during the recitation of the plagues, diluted the blood into the264wine, pronouncing the Hebrew words which meant: “This is the bloodof a Christian child” (zeh ha-dam shel goi katan).17 In this regard, Mosèof Bamburg confirmed the descriptions of the other defendants,
referring to Leone of Mohar, a money lender active at Tortona, withwhom he had stayed as a guest in the past, during the Seder ofPassover.18 As often happened, Leone, in the act of adding the dried
blood to the wine before the recitation of the ten curses, turned to hisguests with the required Hebrew phrase: zeh ha-dam, “This is the bloodof a Christian child”.
It should be obvious that only someone with a very goodknowledge of the Seder ritual, an insider, could describe the [precise]order of gestures and operations as well as the Hebrew formulae usedduring the various phases of the celebration, and be capable ofsupplying such [a wealth of] detailed and precise descriptions andexplanations. The judges at Trent could barely follow thesedescriptions, forming a vague idea of the ritual, which was so foreign totheir experience and knowledge that they could only reconstitute it in[the form of] nebulous and imperfect images. The Italian notaries, then,had their work cut out for them in [attempting] to cut their way throughthis jungle of incomprehensible Hebrew terms, pronounced with aheavy German accent. But on the other hand, what interested them,beyond the particulars of difficult comprehensibility, was establishingwhere these Jews used Christian blood in their Passover rites, adding itto the unleavened bread and the wine of the libation. Imagining that thejudges dictated these descriptions of the Seder ritual, with the related
liturgical formulae in Hebrew, does not seem very plausible.
Goi katan, “little Christian”, the expression used in referring to theritual murder victim, who was usually nameless, is said to have beenused during the act of adding his blood to the symbolic foods to be
exhibited and consumed in the Seder dinner. This expression, although
not at all neutral in view of the negative and pejorative connotations
attributed to Christians in general, was certainly less contemptuous than
the term normally used by German Jews with reference to a Christianchild. [For example], the word shekez possesses the sense of“something abominable”, while the feminine, shiksa or shikse, is aneologism used, in particular, in reference to Christian girls engaged inromantic relations with young men of the race of Israel.19 The
diminutive [Italianized] term of endearment, “scigazzello”, was in use
among the Ashkenazi Jews of Venice until relatively recent times. At
any rate, the words shekz, sheghez, or sceghesc, employed in acontemptuous manner to refer to the children of those faithful in Christ,viewed as some of the [most] abominable expressions of [all] creation,265was in widespread use in all cities with communities of German Jews,
even in Northern Italy.20
It should be noted that the term is absent from the records of theTrent trials; but the terms goi (literally, “people” “nation”), withreference to Christians generally, and goi katan (“little Christian”), in
the sense of a child belonging to the faith in Christ were used instead.
In his fierce invective against the Jews, the Venetian convert
Giulio Morosini did not fail to censure the virulently anti-Christianeducation imparted by Jews to their children, according to Morosini, as
well as the offensive terminology utilized by Jews in Hebrew to insult
Christian children and their churches.
“You are accustomed to instilling in those little children, alongwith their mother’s milk, the observance and the concept of the Law
and the holy language, with Hebrew names for many things [...] This is
so that they may easily and soon understand the Law and Bible. But at
the same time, you inculcate hatred against the Goyim, that is, theGentiles, by which name you refer to the Christians, never missing achance to curse them, and make your children curse them. Thus, thename most frequently used against [Christian] children is Sciekatizim,
that is, Abominations, which is also the word you use in reference tothe ‘Idols’, as you are accustomed to call them. In the same manner,
you abominate our Churches with your synonym, Tonghavà, which
also means Abomination. And you very often warn them to flee theTonghavà, not to speak to the Sceketz and other, similar terms ofabuse”.21
In the eyes of the Ashkenazi Jews of Trent, it was obvious that theritual obligation to use the blood of Christian children in the Passovercelebrations was exclusively incumbent upon heads of families, and not
on other members of the community. The rule, enounced to the judges
by Israel, the son of Samuele da Nuremberg, was that “Jewish fathersof families in the feast of Purim, before dinner, take a small quantity ofthe blood of a Christian child, put it in their cup full of wine andsprinkle the table with it”.22 Angelo of Verona placed it in the category,
not of ritual regulations, but of customs (Hebrew, minhagh, Latin mos)and, always with patience and in a summary manner, explained that“the established custom is that the head of the family, and no one else,must place the powdered blood in the unleavened bread in the time of
the Passover”.23
Mosè da Würzburg, for his part, reported that, up to the time when
he had been the head of a family in various places in Germany, it had
been considered obligatory to provide blood for the Passover rites.
Subsequently, since he no longer occupied the role of head of family,266

he had been exempted from performing this duty.24 Mosè da Bamberg
also stated that, as long as he had been the head of the family inGermany, he had procured the blood for the Passover Seder. He thenwent into service with various Jewish families at Ulm and other centers
in Franconia, and was considered exempted from this custom.25
In this regard, it should be noted that the pre-eminent role of thehead of family (paterfamilias, a rendering of the Hebrew ha-al ha-bait,“patron of the house”), in the celebration of the Passover rites,
particularly, in the medieval Ashkenazi environment, is attested to by
many manuscript and printed texts with comments on the Haggadah of
Pesach. Among other things, these texts stress that the obligation of theritual washing of the hands (netilat yadaim) at the beginning of theSeder was only incumbent upon the head of the family, almost
exclusively entrusted with the reading of the Haggadah, while all theguests were exempt. Beniamin di Meir of Nuremberg, at the beginningof the 16th century, testified to the existence of this custom, stating that
he had observed it to be widespread in all the Jewish communities ofGermany. “I have noticed that, most of the time”, wrote the German
rabbi, “the ritual washing of the hands (in the Passover Seder) is
performed only by the head of the family, while the guests do not wash
their hands at all”.26
On the other hand, procuring the raw material required for
performance of the blood ritual was not an easy job, involving costs
which the heads of poorer families could not afford. It was therefore
anticipated that the heads of poorer families were exempt from a task
which proved too costly for them, as was unhesitatingly admitted by
the ancient expert Mosè of Würzburg when he explained to theinquisitors of Trent that “the Jews naturally require the blood of a
Christian child, but if they were poor and could not afford any blood,
they were relieved of the expense”.27
Rich Jews, often in a mixed spirit of prodigality and magnanimity,
took over the beneficial task of assisting the poorer Jews by supplying
the precious fluid required, although obviously in minute amounts.
Isacco da Gridel, Angelo of Verona’s cook, recalled that, when he wasin service with the head of a family at Cleberg, a rich relative of hiswife supplied them with a small preparation of dried blood at nocharge, stating that “it was customary to do this for the poor”. The
blood had been acquired from the well-known rabbi Shimon ofFrankfurt.28 Mosè of Bamberg, the professional traveler, also recounted
that he had had a dependent family until 1467, and, since his indigence
was well known to all, he was supplied with powdered blood “of a size
equal to a nut” by Salomone, a rich merchant from lower Germany, and267

sometimes by Cervo, a wealthy Jew from Parchim in Mecklenburg,
who gave him no more than half a spoonful.29
The rite of the wine, or blood, and curses had a dual significance.
On the one hand, it was intended to recall the miraculous salvation of
Israel brought about through the sign of the blood of the lamb placed on
the door-posts of Jewish houses to protect them from the Angel of
Death when they were about to be liberated from slavery in Egypt. It
was also intended to bring closer final redemption, prepared by meansof God’s vengeance on the gentiles who had failed to recognize Himand had persecuted the Jewish people. The memorial of the Passion of
Christ, relived and celebrated in the form of an anti-ritual, miraculously
exemplified the fate destined for Israel’s enemies. The blood of theChristian child, a new Agnus Dei, and the eating of his blood, werepremonitory signs of the proximate ruin of Israel’s indomitable andimplacable persecutors, the followers of a false and mendacious faith.
The old man, Mosè da Würzburg, stressed both the significance ofthe blood rite and the curses, from the positive memorial of the bloodof the lamb on the door-posts of the houses and the negative memorialof the passion of Christ, scorned and abhorred.
“According to the laws of Moses, it is commanded of the Jews
that, in the days of the Passover, every head of family should take theblood of a perfect male lamb and place it (as a sign) on the door-postsof the dwellings. Nevertheless, since the custom of taking the blood of
the perfect male lamb was being lost, and, in its place, (the Jews) now
used the blood of a Christian boy [...] and they do this and consider it
necessary as a negative memorial (of the Passion) of Jesus, God of theChristians, who was a male, rather than a female, and who was hanged
and died on the cross in torment, in a shameful and vile manner”.30
Israele, Samuele of Nuremberg’s son, referred to the rite’s ancientvalue in a response to his judges relating to the significance whichcame to be attributed, over time, to the mixing of the blood into theunleavened bread. “We consume it in the unleavened bread” he said,“as a memorial of the blood with which the Lord commanded Moses topaint the door-posts of the doors of Jewish houses when they were theslaves of the Pharaoh”.31
On the other hand, Vitale of Weissenburg, Samuele’s agent,preferred to confer a second meaning upon the rite, that is, that of an
upside-down memorial to the Passion of Christ, considered as anemblem and paradigm of the fall of Israel’s enemies and of divine
vengeance, forewarning of final redemption. “We use the blood”, hedeclared, “as a sad memorial of Jesus [...] in outrage and contempt ofJesus, God of the Christians, and every year we do the memorial of that268

passion [...] in fact, the Jews perform the memorial of the Passion of
Christ every year, by mixing the blood of the Christian boy into their
unleavened bread”.32
The origins of the ritual of the use of blood in the Passover dinner
are not very clear; nor do we know the names of the rabbinicalauthorities who presumably taught it. The only defendants in the Trent
trials able to shed any light on the subject were Samuele da Nuremberg
and Mosè da Würzburg, both of whom possessed a high degree ofHebrew culture, the fruit of many years of arduous study in the most
famous Talmudic academies (yeshivot) in Germany. Neither Samuele
nor Mosè were able to provide precise answers in this regard,
entrenching themselves behind the hypothesis that the ritual was basedon ancient traditions which were only transmitted orally, for obvious
reasons of prudence, and that no written traces of it remain in the textsof ritual law. Just when these traditions were formed, and why, was, forthem, an unresolved mystery, enveloped in the mists of the past.
Samuele vaguely attributed these traditions to the rabbis of the
Talmud (Iudei sapientiores in partibus Babiloniae), who were said tohave introduced the ritual in a very remote epoch, “before Christianity
attained its present power”. Those scholars, united at a learned
congress, were said to have concluded that the blood of a Christianchild was highly beneficial to the salvation of souls, if it was extracted
during the course of a memorial ritual of the passion of Jesus, as a signof contempt and scorn for the Christian religion. Over the course of thiscounter-ritual, the innocent boy, who had to be less than seven years
old and had to be a boy, like Jesus, was crucified among torments andexpressions of execration, as had happened to Christ.33 Anotherpraiseworthy addition was circumcision, to make the symbolic
similarity more obvious and significant. We do not know how firmly
convinced Samuele was of what he said; but it seems certain that thejudges were highly gratified with this kind of macabre confession. This
does not detract from the fact that the allegations of this Jew, at least in
historical and ideological terms, if not in relation to the practicalapplication of the [alleged] ritual in the case of little Simon, were quiteplausible.
Mosè, “the Old Man” of Würzburg, was even vaguer thanSamuele, noting that the blood ritual was not recorded in any of theritualistic scripts of Judaism, but was transmitted orally, and in secret,by rabbis and scholars in Jewish law. Mosè nevertheless confirmed that
the Christian boy who was to be crucified during the rite incommemoration of the Christ’s shameful Passion had to be less thanseven years old and of the male sex.34
269

In accordance with Samuele da Nuremberg’s statements (“webelieve that the blood of the sacrificed Christian boy is of great benefit
in the salvation of our souls”), it was the custom, attributed to theparticipants in the blood ritual, to perform collective acts, even if only
symbolic, to stress their intervention in the ceremony, such as that oftouching the victim’s body. “All those present placed their hands, now
one and now the other, as if to suffocate the child, because the Jews
believe that they render themselves meritorious before God bydemonstrating their participation in the sacrifice of a Christian child”.
Isacco da Gridel, Angelo da Verona’s cook, in effect, affirmed this in
his confession, by describing his own participation in a ritual childmurder committed at Worms in 1460, according to him.35
In a certain sense, this behavior recalled the collective funereal
rituals proper to the Judaism of the German territories during medieval
times, testified to, among other things, in the writings of Rabbi Shalomof Wiener Neustadt. These writings include a description of thehakkafoth, the circular procession around the coffin of the deceased by
the persons present at the funeral to drive evil spirits away from thesoul of the deceased, which reveals undoubted links with the Cabbalah;
the collective custom of placing the hand on the casket or the tomb to
implore divine mercy in favor of the deceased; and finally, the customof placing a tuft of grass, a clod of earth, or a stone or pebble on the
mound to testify to their own presence at the burial.36
While Samuele da Nuremberg remained more or less deliberately
vague with regards to the origins of the custom of using the blood of
the Christian child in the rituals of the Jewish Passover, he was very
precise in discussing the persons who had transmitted and taught him
these regulations orally. David Sprinz had actually been his rabbi andteacher, with whom Samuele had studied lovingly and with great
success thirty years before, in the yeshivah of Bamberg, and later in theyeshivah of Nuremberg. Samuele knew that Sprinz had since moved to
Poland, but didn’t know whether or not he was still alive.37
David Tebel Sprinz was actually a rather well-known rabbi. Bornin 1400, he had governed the Talmudic academy of Bamberg until
1448, and moved to Nuremberg around the middle of the century,
taking control of the local yeshiva. He was still alive in 1474, carrying
on his activity at Poznán in Poland.38 Samuele’s information in thisrespect was therefore correct, although we have no way of knowing
how much truth there might be in his assertions relating to the subjectof the teachings which Sprinz is alleged to have imparted orally in
relation to the blood rituals. It is, however, a fact that three German
rabbis, all of top-level importance, were implicated in the Trent trials in
270various ways relating to the transmission of traditions connected toritual child murder, the use of blood in the Jewish Passover and thecontemptuous commemoration of the Passion of Christ. Together withDavid Tebel Sprinz of Bamberg, we find the names of Jodenmeister
Moshè of Halle, who also moved to Poznán just like his predecessor,
and Shimon Katz, president of the rabbinical tribunal of Frankfurt am
Main. It seems hardly accidental to me that none of the Ashkenazi
rabbis – from the most famous to the least well-known – active in theGerman-origin Jewish communities of northern Italy are mentioned in
the trial records; the only rabbis mentioned are ones whose activity was
always carried on in Germany.
The observation that neither Italian Jews nor Italian Jewish
communities were ever accused of committing ritual child murders
compelled the Trent judges to investigate this phenomenon in order todetermine whether or not the Italian Jews were simply unaware of thecustom or rejected it as contrary to the principles of Judaism, incontrast to the Jews of Germanic origin.
If he had been able to speak freely, Samuele, from the lofty heightof his Hebraic doctrine of Ashkenazi origin, might have replied with
ill-concealed scorn that Italian Jews were not authoritative because they
were ignorant in terms of rabbinical culture, not very observant, andvery careless about the observation of ritual standards.39 Instead, he
restricted himself to admitting that Italian Jews did not possess thiscustom in their texts, nevertheless adding, immediately afterwards, that“it appeared in the texts of Jews from overseas”, an intentionallyinexact term, perhaps an allusion to the Judaism of Babylonia and,indirectly, to Ashkenazi ultramontane Judaism.40
On the other hand, even if we consider the confessions of Samuele
and the other defendants to have been sincere and valid, and evenaccepting the realities of the dissemination of a ritual of this kindamong the Jews of Medieval Germany, it appears beyond doubt that –as also emerges from the records of the Trent trials – in the world ofAshkenazi Judaism, there were people who rejected this ritual,considering it in conflict with Jewish law. The persons responsible forthe scandalous plural child murders at Endingen, in Alsace, in 1462,
confessed that they had feared that any one of them might haverevealed the details of the crime to the elders of the local Jewish
community, knowing that the elders would have unhesitatingly reported
them to the police authorities.41
Returning to the facts of the Trent case, [at least] according theconfession of Samuele da Nuremberg, in the days preceding the Jewish
Passover, the defendants are alleged to have instructed Maestro Tobias
271

to meet two German Jewish travelers passing through Trent in thosedays to inquire whether they were prepared to agree to abduct a
Christian boy and conceal him in Samuele’s house. But the two
Ashkenazi Jews, David and Lazzaro “of Germany”, decisively rejected
the proposal, notwithstanding the fact that it was accompanied by anoffer of the considerable sum of one hundred ducats. They had nointention of getting mixed up in matters of this kind.
The words of the two travelers clearly reveal their capacity as
emissaries from the Jewish communities of Germany, who were, as
usual, invited to Italy every year, in the spring, to arrange for thepurchase of cedars for the autumnal feast of the “Capanne” or“Frascate” [“little sheds” and “covered market stalls”; the Jewish Feastof the Autumn Harvest] (Sukkot). In general, the objective of these
specialist wholesale suppliers of ritual oranges for German Judaism
was the Italian Riviera, particularly, San Remo. Lazzaro and David, on
the other hand, were headed for Riva on the Lago di Garda, where theyknew that what they needed could be found in the green orchards
surrounding that delightful body of water.42
Even the commemorative pamphlet on little Simon, who was now
a saint, published in Rome one hundred years after his death, with theobvious intention of recalling the facts relating to his martyrdom
through education and admonishment, found space to praise the noble
act of these two Jews in denouncing a ritual which they founddetestable, considering it a true and proper betrayal of Jewish
teachings. The consideration that precisely a clearly hagiographic
source, such as the Summary of the Life and Martyrdom of Saint Simon,
Child of the City of Trent, a text which is moreover openly anti-Jewish,
should preserve and translate their words in a sense of positive
appreciation, constitutes grounds for reflection. If nothing else, itsounds like a confirmation of the existence of a general belief that
Ashkenazi Judaism was anything but monolithic in this sense.
“They (Lazzaro and David) prudently responded that they did notwish to commit similar follies and that they (with Moshè) wished themill, because God did not command such things; on the contrary, He
says, ‘Thou shalt not kill’, and that child murder was a new ceremony
and against the law, which did not wish God’s followers to shedinnocent blood, such as that of a child, just because the child was a
Christian. And if they thought about these things properly, they would
discover that they were entirely invented, because there was no basis
for them in the texts. Apart from that, they said that it was not right fora Jew to eat blood, as these men wished to do, by kneading theunleavened bread with a certain amount of blood”.43
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This same Giovanni da Feltre, the converted son of Shochat daLandshut, a person far from inclined to find anything justifiable in Jews
and Judaism, had no difficulty in admitting that, in Germany, the ritualof using the blood of Christian children in the ceremonies of the Jewish
Passover was only practiced by fundamentalist orthodox Ashkenazi
sects. The same Summary of the Life and Martyrdom of Saint Simon
briefly reports the ex-Jew’s explicit notes in this regard. “The convert
Giovanni said that not all the Jews do this; but that sometimes, they do
it out of contempt for Christ and in revenge for the tribulations which
they suffer because of that same Christ, our Lord”.44 It goes without
saying that the problem did not even exist among Italian Jews, theSephardim, or oriental Jews, who made up the overwhelming majorityof the medieval Jewish world. But this majority was not always themost self-assertive, experiencing a serious inferiority complex
compared to an Ashkenazi Judaism which considered itself theinimitable prototype of true religious orthodoxy (which was, moreover,created in its own image and resemblance).45 Medieval Ashkenazi
Judaism made up a hermetically sealed orthodoxy, which fed uponitself, confined by a myriad of minute ritualistic regulations, which they
considered binding on all, the mere memorization of which constituted
an arduous and almost impossible task.
According to Samuele da Nuremberg, the blood ritual was a secretrite, the rules of which were only transmitted with due prudence andcircumspection.46 The convert Giovanni da Feltre confirmed this.47
Entering into increasingly greater detail, Mosè da Würzburg recalled a
presumed rabbinical recommendation to keep the rite a secret fromwomen and girls not having yet reached their religious majority, i.e.,
any age less than thirteen, “because they are fatuous and incapable ofkeeping a secret”.48 The inferiority of women and minors on a religious
level, in addition to idiots and lunatics, was contemplated by Jewish
ritual law (halakhah), which discriminated between these categories
while largely or completely exonerating them from compliance with thepositive precepts of Jewish law.
It is advisable at this point to mention the most significant text ofanti-Christian polemics, the Toledot Yeshu (literally, “The Stories ofJesus”), or “The Jewish Counter-Gospel”. This was a virulently
defamatory biography of Jesus dating back to between the 4th and 8th
century, disseminated first in Aramaic and later in Hebrew, in slightly
different, or grossly divergent versions of the same text, written withthe obvious intention of distorting the Christian religious identity bydemolishing and ridiculing its memory. Systematic contempt for the
figure of Christ and the Virgin Mary, described as a woman of easy273

virtue, formed the basis of a satirical and mocking tale, presented as asort of side-show rivaling the Gospels themselves.49
It is not surprising that this classic of anti-Christian polemical
writing found an attentive and highly satisfied readership among Jews
all over the world, from the Islamic countries to Spain and Italy. It iseven less surprising that the Jews of Germany adopted this text both
enthusiastically and devoutly, as attested by the fact that almost all
manuscripts of the Toledot Yeshu appear to have been written by
Ashkenazi copyists, and that all of the translations of this text into
Judeo-Hebraic dialect are in Yiddish. In one Yiddish manuscript of theToledot Yeshu, the scribe admonishes the reader to be cautious andpractice the necessary circumspection.
Hidden dangers might lurk unexpectedly as a result of excessive
trust, as well as of unjustifiable complacency. Women, children and thefeeble-minded were to be kept at a safe distance, as well as overly
curious and intriguing Christians. “This treatise should be transmitted
orally, and should not be read in public; nor should it be read to womenor children, all the less so to feeble-minded persons. Its reading in thepresence of Christians who understand German should certainly be
avoided”.50
In another manuscript, also of German origin, containing theToledot Yeshu together with other anti-Christian scripts, which I
recently held in my hands personally, the warnings are even more
explicit. The oral transmission of secret texts was energeticallyenjoined upon all readers to avoid serious hazards and to ward off theserious problems which might possibly originate in surrounding
Christian society.
“ ‘Ask thy elders, and they will tell thee’ (Deut. 32:7). This booklet
contains a tradition transmitted orally, by one person to another; it may
be put in writing but not printed, for reasons due to our bitter exile.
Beware of reading this text before children and persons of scanty
understanding, or all the more so before the uncircumcised who
understand German. For this reason, he who is wise shall know how tounderstand and maintain silence, because these are unpropitious times.
If he is able to keep silent, he shall receive mercy (from God); God’s
just reward shall be upon him, and his work shall be before him.
Publicizing this text is an extremely serious matter, and it cannot be
revealed to all, because we can never know what tomorrow has in store
for us and we can trust no one. I have written the text in intentionallyallegorical and obscure language, because we have been selected as the
Chosen People and we are permitted (by God) to use mysterious
imagery”.51
274

Mosè da Würzburg certainly know which precedents to mention indescribing the recommendation to avoid discussion of the counter-ritualof the Passion of Christ and the use of the blood of Christian children in
the Passover celebrations among women, children and the feebleminded, “who are unable to keep a secret”. Among the Jews ofGermany, these precautions were quite understandable. Their violent
anti-Christian feelings and expressions, both ideological and ritualistic,in which these feelings found an outlet and a reflection, necessarily had
to be surrounded by a protective aura of secrecy and omertà [fatalistic
manliness] because any indiscretion in this regard, either deliberately or
through naiveté, could be the precursor of struggle and tragedy.
***

NOTES TO CHAPTER TWELVE“In vigilia Pasce sui, dum pinsatur pasta de qua postea faciant
azimas, paterfamilias accipit de sanguine dicti pueri Cristiani et de illo
sanguine ponit paterfamilias in pasta dum pinsatur, et sic ponitur et plus
et minus prout paterfamilias habeat multum de sanguine predicto; etquod si poneret tantum quantum est unum granum lentis, sufficit; etquod sic paterfamilias ponit dictum sanguinem in pasta, aliquando
videntibus illis qui pinsant panem (sc. pastam) et aliquando non; etquod si illi qui pinsant panem (sc. pastam) sunt persone fide,
paterfamilias ponit sanguinem videntibus illis qui pinsant, et si non suntfide ponit secrete” [Approximately: “On the eve of their Passover,when they are kneading the dough for the unleavened bread, the headof the family takes the blood of a Christian child and places some of itin the dough which they are kneading, in greater or lesser quantities
according to whether the head of the family had a lot of it or not; andthat if he adds as much a single lentil, it is enough; and that thus thehead of the family places the said blood in the dough, sometimes thosekneading the dough see him do it and sometimes he does it in secrecy”](cfr. A. Esposito and D. Quaglioni, Processi contro gli ebrei di Trento,
1475-1478. I: I processi del 1475, Padua, 1990, pp. 251-252).
2“Et dicit quod (Iudei) accipiunt sanguinem pueri Cristiani et illum
faciunt coagulare et deinde illum exiccant et de eo faciunt pulverem,
quem pulverem postea ponunt singulis annis in pasta azimarum, quasfaciunt in vigilia Paschae sui, quas azimas postea comedunt in diesolemni, videlicet in die Paschae eorum” [“And he said that (the Jews)
take the blood of Christian boys and allow it to coagulate and they dry
it and make a powder of it, and place it in the dough of the unleavened
1275bread every year, on the eve of their Passover, and eat it on the solemn
day, namely, during their Passover”] (cfr. ibidem, p. 318).
3“(Iudei) ponunt (sanguinem) in azimis suis seu fugatiis, quas
comedunt in festo Pasce sui” [“(The Jews) place (blood) in their
unleavened bread, which they eat during their Passover feast”] (cfr.
ibidem, pp. 378-379).
4“Pater ipsius [...] de dicto sanguine ponebat in pasta, de qua pasta
faciebat fugatias, et hoc ante festum Pasce eorum; quas fugatias ipsi
Iudei postea comedebant in dicta die Pasce” [“The father [...] placedsome of the blood in the dough, from which they make the unleavened
bread, and does so before the Passover feast; which these Jews ate on
Passover day”] (cfr. ibidem, p. 125).
5
Cfr. G. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, Trent, 1902,
vol. II, pp. 1-32.
6
Wien, Österr. Nationalbibl., Ms. 5360, cc. 186r-189v.
Information and translation by D. Quaglioni.
7“(Iudei) de dicto sanguine accipiunt aliquam particulam et ponuntin pasta, de qua pasta postea faciunt fugatias azimas, et de quibus
fugatiis açimis postea comedunt inter se in die solemni, videlicet in die
Pasce” [“(The Jews) take a few particles of the blood and place it in thedough, from which they make their unleavened bread, and later they eat
it amongst themselves on the solemn day, namely, on Passover”] (cfr.
Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 287).
8“(Iudei) ponunt illum sanguinem in eorum azimis et illum postea
comedunt [...] in contemptum Iesu Cristi, quem Cristiani dicunt esse
Deum suum; et quod ideo ponunt in eorum azimas sanguinem, quiaposteaquam positus est sanguis in pasta, illam pastam pinsant etgraminant, et deinde faciunt fugatias, quas fugatias postea punetantdicendo ista verba: Chen icheressù chol hoyveha. Que verba sonant inlingua Latina: ‘Così sya consumadi li nostri inimizi’. Et postea dictas
fugatias commedunt, que commestio fagatiarum cum sanguine
significat quod ita corpus et virtus Iesu Cristi Dei Cristianorum ita
penitus morte consumptum est et consumpta, sicut iste sanguis qui est
in fugatiis ex commestione penitus consumitur” [Approximately: “(TheJews) place the blood in their unleavened bread and afterwards they eat
it [...] in contempt of Jesus Christ, whom the Christians say is theirGod, and that the reason they put the blood in their unleavened bread, isbecause after the blood is placed in the dough, they knead the doughand shape it, and make their unleavened bread out of it, and they eat it,saying these words: Chen icheressù chol hoyveha, which means in
Latin: ‘Thus may all our enemies be consumed’. And then they eat theunleavened bread, and in eating it with the blood in it, it means that the276

body and virtue of Jesus Christ, the God of the Christians, was thus
punished by death and consumed, thus, the blood in the unleavened
bread is thus consumed at a common meal”] (cfr. ibidem, p. 293). For
the Hebrew words which appear in the text, see [Benedetto Bonelli],
Dissertazione apologetica sul martirio del beato Simone da Trentonell’anno MCCCCLXXV dagli ebrei ucciso, Trent, Gianbattista Parone,
1747, p. 145.
9
Machazor le-Rosh Ha-Shanah (“Liturgical Form for the Jewish
New Year”), Yehì razon shel Rosh Ha-Shanah (“New Year’s Wishes”),
s.v. cartì (“leeks”). On the so-called “Haggadah of the Jewish New
Year” and its content, see A. Toaff, Mangiare alla giudia. La cucinaebraica in Italia dal Rinascimento all’età moderna, Bologna, 2000, pp.
134-135.
10
The depositions from Mosè da Ansbach, “a young person
nineteen years old”, on this matter are reported in detail in Divina,
Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp. 20-21.
11“In die Pasce ipsorum Iudeorum, ante cenam, unusquisqueIudeus paterfamilias accipit modicum de sanguine pueri Cristiani etillum ponit in uno ciato pieno vino, quem ciatum postea ponit supermensa, circa quem mensam omnes de dicta familia circumstant; etpaterfamilias ponit digitum in ciato suo, in quo est commixtus sanguis
pueri Cristiani, et deinde curo eodem digito balneato in vino aspergit
totam mensam et ea omnia que super mensa sunt, dicendo certa verba
Hebraica, per que in effectu commemorantur decem maledictiones quas
Deus dedit Pharaoni et Egiptiis, quia nolebant dimittere populum
Iudaicum; dicens quod posteaquam dictus paterfamilias dixit
suprascripta verba, idem paterfamilias iungit hec alia verba: ‘lta
imprecamur Deum quod similiter immittat predictas .X. maledictiones
contra gentes, que sunt inimice fidei Iudeorum’, intelligendo maxime
contra Cristianos” [“On the Jewish Passover, before dinner, each
Jewish head of a family takes a small quantity of the blood of a
Christian child and places it in a glassful of wine, and they put theglassful of wine on the table, around which all members of the family
are sitting; and the head of the family places his finger in his glass,containing the wine mixed with the blood of a Christian child, and then,after bathing his finger in it, he sprinkles the entire table around which
the people are sitting, saying certain words in Hebrew, by means ofwhich they commemorate the ten curses which God inflicted on the
Egyptians, who didn’t wish to release the Jewish people, after which
each Jewish head of a family says the above words, after which he adds
these words: ‘Thus we pray God that he may inflict ten similar curses
against the peoples who are enemies of the Jewish people’, meaning,277

most of all, the Christians”] (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit.,
vol. I, p. 356).
12“Pater ipsius [...] in die Pasce Iudeorum, ante cenam et etiam indie sequenti post Pascha ante cenam, accipiebat de dicto sanguine et deillo ponebat in ciato suo, in quo erat vinum, et deinde aspergebat
mensam maledicendo fidem Cristianorum” [“Their father [...] on
Passover, before dinner as well as before dinner the following day,takes some of the blood and puts it in his glass, containing wine, andsprinkles the table, cursing the Christian faith”] (cfr. ibidem, p. 125).
13
The brief text of the Haggadah is the following: “Con prodigi,
questo è il sangue (zeh ha-dam), come è detto: ‘Farò prodigi in cielo ein terra’ ” [“With miracles, this is the blood (zeh ha-dam), as it is said:‘I will do miracles in the Heaven and Earth’ ”] (cfr. R. Bonfil,
Haggadah di Pesach, Milan, 1962, pp. 62-63).
14“Hoc fecerunt in memoriam unius ex .x. maledictiones quas
dedit Deus Egyptiatiis quando retinebant populum Hebraicum inservitute et quod inter ceteras maledictiones Deus convertit omnem
aquam terre Egypti in sanguinem” [“This they do in memory of the ten
curses inflicted by God on the Egyptians when they held the Hebrews
captive and that, among these multiple curses, God changed all thewater of Egypt into blood”] (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit.,
vol. I, p. 287).
15Israel Wolfgang’s long and detailed report by is reproduced in
Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp. 16-19.
16Israele di Lazzaro managed the principal lending bank at
Piacenza from 1449 until at least 1472 and was the treasurer of theJewish community of the Duchy of Milan in the years 1453-1454. In
1479, he was still alive and represented the heirs of Benedetto da Comoin the negotiations for renewal of the money lending permit in the cityof Como (cfr. Sh. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan,
Jerusalem, 1982, vol. I, pp. 126, 131-133 etc.).
17
On Lazzaro’s deposition, cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da
Trento, cit., vol. II, pp. 23-25.
18
Cfr. ibidem, pp. 25-32, presenting an exhaustive exposition of
the details of Mosè Bamberg’s long deposition.
19
In this regard, see E. Carlebach, The Anti-Christian Element in
Early Modern Yiddish Culture, in “Braun Lectures in the History of theJews in Prussia”, Ramat Gan, Bar-Ilan University, X (2003), 2003, p.
17.
20
For the introduction of the term shegez, shekez (“cosaabominevole”) [something abominable] to indicate the Christianchildren in Judeo-Italian dialect, see, among others, G. Cammeo, Studi
278

dialettali, in “il Vessillo Israelitico”, LVII (1909), p. 214; A. Milano,
Glossario dei vocaboli e delle espressioni di origine ebraica in uso nel
dialetto giudaico-romanesco, Florence, 1927, p. 254; V. Colorni, La
parlata degli ebrei mantovani, in Id., Judaica Minora. Saggi sulla
storia dell’ebraismo italiano dall’antichità all’età moderna, Milan,
1983, p. 614 (the author attempts to provide a less problematical andembarrassing connotation of the term, proposing that it be translated as“street urchin” or “little rascal, scamp”).
21
Cfr. Giulio Morosini, Derekh Emunah. Via della fede mostrata
agli ebrei, Roma, Propaganda Fide, 1683, p. 157.
22
“Iudei patresfamilie in festo Pasce ante cenam, accipiunt
modicum de sanguine pueri Cristiani et de illo ponunt in suo ciato
pieno vino, et cum eo aspergunt mensam” [“The head of the Jewish
family, before the Passover dinner, takes a small quantity of the bloodof a Christian child and places it in his glassful of wine, and sprinkles
the table with it”] (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, p.
192).
23“Ita est de more, ut patresfamilias ponunt pulverem sanguinis
Cristiani in dictis açimis in dicto tempore” [“It is their custom to place
the blood of a Christian child in their unleavened bread at that time”](cfr. ibidem, p. 295).
24“Ipse non curavit habere sanguinem, quia non erat paterfamilias,
quia soli patresfamilias sunt illi qui debent habere (sanguinem) et qui
utuntur” [“He was not worried about obtaining any blood, because he
was not the head of a family, because only the heads of families had to
obtain it (blood) and possess it”] (cfr. ibidem, p. 358).
25
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
25-30.
26
On this argument and on the preeminent role of the head of thefamily in the celebration of the rites of Pesach in the Ashkenazi
environment, see, in particular, Sh. Safrai and Z. Safrai, Haggadah of
the Sages. The Passover Haggadah, Jerusalem, 1998, p. 106 (inHebrew).
27“Sanguis pueri Cristiani est summe necessarius ipsis Iudeis,
videlicet patribusfamilias ipsorum Iudeorum. Et si esset aliquis pauper
Iudeus, qui non possit haberi de sanguine, excusaretur” [“The blood ofa Christian boy is absolutely necessary for these Jews, namely, theheads of Jewish families; anyone who cannot obtain blood, is excused”](cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 356).
28
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
22-23. La biografia di Shimon Katz, rabbino a Francoforte sul Menodal 1462 al 1478, is found in I.J. Yuval, Scholars in Their Time. The
279

Religious Leadership of German Jewry in the Late Middle Ages,
Jerusalem, 1984, pp. 135-148 (in Hebrew).
29
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
26-27.
30“Secundum legem Moisi, precipiebatur ipsis Iudeis quod in die
Pasce unusquisque paterfamilias acciperet de sanguine agni masculi
sine macula, et de illo sanguine poneret super liminaribus hostiorum
domorum suarum; et quod inter ipsos Iudeos est sublata illa consuetudode accipiendo sanguinem dicti agni masculi sine macula, ut supra dixit,
et in eius locum modo utuntur sanguine pueri Cristiani [...] et hoc
faciunt et ita dicunt esse necessarium in pessimam commemorationem
Iesu, Dei Cristianorum, qui fuit suspensus et qui fuit masculus et non
femina, et qui vituperose et turpiter in cruce et in tormentis mortuus
est” [“According to the laws of Moses, the Jews were commanded thateach head of the family should take the blood of male sheep without
fault and paint the lintels of their doorways with it, and that these Jews,
having neglected this custom, of taking the blood of a male sheep
without fault, as set forth above, instead, they use the blood of Christianboys [...] and they do this and say that this is necessary in bad memoryof Jesus, the God of the Christians, who was hanged and who was amale and not a female, and who was shamefully and vilely hanged on
the cross and died in torment”] (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi,
cit., vol. I, p. 357).
31“Illa esio sanguinis Cristiani et quare ita illum comedunt infugatiis [...] est commemoratio sanguinis quem Dominus dixit ad
Moisem ut deberet spargere super liminaria hostiorum domorum
Iudeorum, quando ipsi Iudei erant in servitute Pharaonis” (cfr. ibidem,
p. 186).
32“(Iudei) haberent sanguinem [...] in (malam) memoriam Iesu [...]
in contemptum et vilipendium Iesu, Dei Cristianorum, dicens quodomni anno faciut memoriam dicte passionis [...]; ipsi Iudei faciunt
memoriam dicte passionis Iesu omni anno, quia ponunt de sanguine
pueri Cristiani omni anno in eorum azimis sive fugatiis”[Approximately: “(The Jews) obtain blood [...] in bad memory of Jesus[...] in contempt and outrage of Jesus, the God of the Christians, sayingthat every year, they perform a memorial of the said Passion [...]; theseJews perform a memorial of Jesus, because they place the blood of a
Christian boy in their unleavened bread every year”] (cfr. ibidem, p.
220).
33“Quod iam multis et multis annis (et aliter nescit dicere quot
anni sint, nisi quod credere suo fuit antequam fides Cristiana esset intanta potentia), quod Iudei sapientiores in partibus Babiloniae seu locis
280

vicinis, ut dicitur, fecerunt consilium inter se, et ibi deliberatum fuit,quod saluti animarum ipsorum Iudeorum; et quod talis sanguis nonpoterat prodesse nisi extraheretur de puero Cristiano; et qui puer
Cristianus, dum sic extraheretur sanguis, interficeretur ea forma qua
fuit interfectus Iesus, quem Cristiani colunt pro Deo; et qui puer
Cristianus debeat esse etatis annorum septem vel infra et quod non sit
maioris etatis .VII. annis, sed potius sit minoris etatis; dicens quod si
esset femina Cristiana non esset bona ad sacrificium suum, videlicet ad
extrahendum sanguinem, et talis sanguis mulieris, licet minoris etatis.VII. annis, non esset bonus. Et ratio quia curo Iesus, quem nos
Cristiani colimus pro Deo, fuerit crucifixus et in eius contemptum etvilipendium hoc faciant, conveniens putant ipsi Iudei quod ille a quo
extrahant sanguinem debet esse masculus et non femina”[Approximately: “He said that many, many years ago (he didn’t know
how many, but he believed that it was before the Christian faith becameso powerful), the Jewish wise men in parts of Babylon or nearby, it issaid, held a council and decided that the blood of Christian boys killedin this manner was good for the souls of the Jews, and that this blood
could only be extracted from a Christian boy; and that the Christianboy, when his blood was extracted, had to be killed in the same manneras Jesus, whom the Christians claim is their God, and that the Christian
boy must be seven years of age or less, and that he could not be older
than seven, but that he could be younger, saying that if it was a girl it
was no good for their sacrifice, i.e., to extract the blood, and that the
blood of such a girl, even if she was less than seven years of age, wasno good. And the reason for this is that Jesus, whom the Christians
claim is their God, was crucified, and they do this in contempt andoutrage against them, since these Jews think that the person from whom
one extracts the blood must be a male and not a female”).
34“Quod apud ipsos Iudeos non reperitur scriptum, sed inter ipsos
ita dicitur apud doctos et peritos in lege, et istud habetur ex successione
memorie, et tenetur pro secreto inter ipsos Iudeos [...] et quod necesse
est quod talis sanguis sit sanguis pueri Cristiani masculi et non femine,et qui non sit maioris etatis 7 annorum” [“That no text will be foundamong those Jews, but that it was said among those same Jews andexperts in the law, and that they handed it down from generation to
generation in memory, and it was kept secret among those Jews [...]and that it was necessary for this blood to be the blood of a Christian
boy and not a girl, and that he could not be more than 7 years old”] (cfr.
ibidem, p. 357).
35“Quod omnes praedicti astantes posuerunt manum ad
suffucandum illum, ponendo modo unus, modo alius manum, et quod281

omnes praedicti Judaei adjuverunt ad interficiensum, quia existimantomnes Hebraei quod ille multum promereatur apud Deum, qui
adjuverat ad interficiendum aliquem puerum christianum” [“That all
those present placed their hands on him to suffocate him, some of themplacing one hand, some of them both hands, and that all the above
mentioned Jews helped kill him, because they thought that all those
Hebrews would be promoted before God who helped kill that Christianboy in any way”]. Deposition of Isacco da Gridel of 28 November
1475. Cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 144. On thisargument, see also Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol.
II, pp. 34-36. It should be noted that, according to the trial records, thedefendants accused of the ritual murder at Valréas in 1247 claimed thatthey had performed the rite of crucifixion out of revenge against Jesus,
responsible for the tragic exile of the Jewish people (“debebant eam
crucifigere per illum prophetam, qui vocatur Jesus, per quem sunt in
captivitate et in deffectu ipsius hec fecerunt”) [“they must crucify him
for the prophet whom they call Jesus, for whom they are in captivity
and they did it because of that”] and that the participants had placed
their hands on the child (“quod omnes tetigerunt puellam causa venie”)[“and they all touched the child to obtain indulgence”]. Cfr. M. Stern,
Urkundliche Beiträge über die Stellung der Päpste zu den Juden, Kiel,
1895, vol. II, p. 51.
36
On these funeral rites, proper to German Judaism, see Hilkhot wminhage’ R. Shalom mi-Neustadt (“Rules and Customs of rabbi Shalomof Wiener Neustadt”), by Sh. Spitzer, Jerusalem, 1997, p. 188; A.
Unna, Miminhage’ yahadut Ashkenaz (“Among the Customs of theJews of Germany”), in A. Wassertil, Yalkut minhagim, Jerusalem,
1976, vol. II, p. 34.
37“Et dicit ipse Samuel se scire predicta et ea didicisse non quod
legerit in scripturis suis, sed quia dici audivit et didicit a quodam
preceptore Iudeo qui vocabatur magister David Sprinç, qui regebat
scolas in Bamberg et in Nurremberg, sed quo preceptore ipse Samuel
didicit iam .XXX. annis preteritis. Et dicit interrogatus, quod dictus
magister David ivit postea in Poloniam et nescit an vivit vel sit
mortuus” (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 253).
38
On the life and rabbinical activity of David Tebel Sprinz at
Bamberg, Nuremberg and Poznán, see Germania Judaica, Tübingen,1987, vol. III: 1350-1519, t. I, p. 76; vol. III, t. II, pp. 1014-1015;
Yoseph b. Moshè, Leqet yosher, by J. Freimann, Berlin, 1904, p. XXV,
par. 30; Yuval, Scholars in Their Time, cit., pp. 369-377.
39
Samuele in fact is said to have claimed that ignorant Ashkenazi
were not aware of this custom either. Maestro Tobia da Magdeburg, as282

we have seen, although he was a physician, was not very well versed in
Hebraic culture, seeking to persuade the inquisitors that he had becomeaware of the blood ritual only having come into contact, at Trent, withthe same Samuele, with Mosè “the Old Man” da Würzburg and withAngelo da Verona. “Tobias [...] se numquam usum fuisse dicto
sanguine nec unquam dici audivisse de dicto sanguine, nisi hiis diebus
quibus Samuel, Moises et Angelus sibi dixerunt” (cfr. Esposito andQuaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 318).
40“Et dicit quod ipsi Iudei Italici non habent istud in scripturis suis,
sed bene dicitur quod de hoc est scriptura inter Iudeos qui sunt ultramare” (cfr. ibidem, p. 251).
41
On this argument, see K. von Amira, Das Endinger Judenspiel,
Halle, 1883; R. Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder. Jews andMagic in Reformation Germany, New Haven (Conn.) – London, 1988,
pp. 18-22.
42“(Lazarus and David de Alemania) responderunt se nolle
intromittere in illa re, quia dicebant se esse impeditos ad faciendum
alia, quia volebant ire in Riperiam territorii Brixiensis ad emendum decitronis, causa portandi illos in Alemaniam” [“(Lazarus and David ofGermany) said they didn’t want to get mixed up in this business,because they said they were prevented from doing otherwise, because
they wanted to go to Riva in the Brescian region and buy citrus fruit, totake it to Germany”] (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I;
p. 242). Many Central European Jewish communities provided
themselves with the palm (tulavim) and cedar (etroghim) leaves
necessary for the celebration of the festivities of the Capanne (Sukkot),purchasing them at San Remo and on the Italian Riviera. The 1435
statutes of San Remo provided for the sale of cedar and palm leaves toJews, who were granted the option of choosing cedars in compliancewith the ritual requirements, when the leaves were still attached to thetrees (cfr. R. Urbani and G. Zazzu, Ebrei a Genova, Genoa, 1984, p.
22). Other destinations favored by these emissaries of the Ashkenazi
Jewish communities responsible for purchasing the ritual cedar leaves,
were the Lago di Garda region, celebrated in the responses of rabbi
Mordekhai Jaffe in the mid-16 century, followed by Puglia and theFlorentine countryside (cfr. A. Toaff, Il vino e la carne. Una comunitàebraica nel Medioevo, Bologna, 1989, pp. 124, 127, and, above all, Sh.
Schwarzfuchs, De Gênes à Trieste. Le commerce millénaire descédrats, in G. Todeschini and P.C. Ioly Zorattini, Il mondo ebraico. Gli
ebrei tra Italia nord-orientale e Impero asburgico dal Medioevo all’Età
contemporanea, Pordenone, 1991, pp. 259-286).
43
Ristretto della vita e martirio di S. Simone fanciullo della città di283

Trento, Rome, Filippo Neri alle Muratte, 1594, pp. 9-10.
44
Ibidem, pp. 26-27.
45
In an important essay, Isadore Twersky (The Contribution of
Italian Sages to Rabbinic Literature, in “Italia Judaica”, I, 1983, p.
390) stresses “the sturdy, sometimes aggressive, Ashkenazi sentimentof allegiance which characterizes central and Eastern Europe at thistime, where Ashkenazi origins are flaunted and the scrupulous rigidityof Ashkenazi precedent is held aloft”.
46“(Iudei) habent istud pro secreto, et unus narrat alteri exsuccessione, et aliter non reperitur scriptura inter ipsos Iudeos”[Approximately: “(The Jews) keep this a secret, and tell it fromgeneration to generation, and that otherwise it was not written down
among these Jews”] (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I,
p. 251).
47“Et dicit quod alii Iudei similiter ita faciunt, prout ipse vidit fieriet audivit, dicens quod predicta fiunt secretissime inter ipsos” [“And hesaid that the other Jews did the same, just as he saw and heard it being
done, saying that it was a big secret among them”] (cfr. ibidem, p. 125).
48“Secundum consilium doctorum Iudeorum dicitur quod mulieres
nec masculi minores .XIII. annis non debent interesse quando dicti
pueri interficiuntur, nec etiam illud debent scire, quia mulieres etminores tredecim annis sunt faciles et leves et nesciunt tenere secreta”(cfr. ibidem, pp. 357-358).
49
In the vast bibliography relating to the Toledot Yeshu, see, inparticular, S. Krauss, Das Leben Jesu nach jüdischen Quellen, Berlin,
1902; Hugh Schonfield, Toledot Yeshu According to the Hebrews,
London, 1937; R.Di Segni, Il Vangelo del Ghetto. Le “storie di Gesù”:
leggende e documenti della tradizione medievale ebraica, Rome, 1985;
D. Biale, Counter-History and Jewish Polemics against Christianity.
The “Sefer Toldot Jeshu” and the “Sefer Zerubavel”, in “Jewish Social
Studies”, VI (1999), pp. 130 ss.; Carlebach, The Anti-Christian Elementin Early Modern Yiddish Culture, cit., pp. 8-17.
50
Cfr. Krauss, Das Leben Jesu nach judischen Quellen, cit., pp.
10-11.
51
The manuscript, a late copy of the Toledot Yeshu and other antiChristian polemic writings, is in Hebrew and appears under the name ofMa’asè ha-Nozrì (“The Truth About the Nazarene”). It appears to havebeen copied in Germany around 1740 on a somewhat older copy of the
text. It was put up for sale at Jerusalem by the Judaica Jerusalem
auction house on 5 January 2005. For a summary description of the text
in English, see the auction catalogue (p. 58, n. 122).

284

CHAPTER THIRTEENTO DIE AND KILL
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
In the late 14th century or early 15th century, a woman from
Esztergom, in northern Hungary, wrote to the authoritative rabbi
Shalom of Wiener Neustadt with an urgent and pathetic inquiry. Someyears previously, in her native country, on a Sabbath day, the local
Christians had assaulted the Jews, threatening to baptize their children
by force. Seized by despair, the poor woman, to prevent her children
from forced conversion, seized a knife and piously killed them. She
then fled, taking refuge in Poland. But she was now seized by remorse
and was turning to the learned rabbi to find out how to expiate her guilt
and earn God’s pardon. Shalom of Wiener Neustadt had no hesitationsof this kind and promptly reassured the woman that, in this kind of
tragic situation, the Jewish mother had acted for the better and in an
appropriate manner, and did not therefore deserve to be punished in any
way.1
Years before, in April 1265, when the Christians assaulted theJewish district of Coblenz, in the Lower Rhineland, a Jew, fearing his
family might be baptized by force, decided to kill his wife and fourchildren, cutting their throats with a knife.2 He then turned to Rabbi
Meir of Rothenburg, one of the greatest authorities of Ashkenazi
Judaism, asking if he should do penitence for that cruel action.
“Suicide for the sanctification of God is certainly permitted”,
replied the rabbi, “while, as regards the killing of other persons for thesame reason, one must search for and find evidence in the texts. Any
action of this type has been considered acceptable and even permissible
for some time. We have personally learned and verified as true the factthat many illustrious Jews have killed their own children and wives(under similar conditions)”.3
The fact that the mother from Esztergom and the father from
Coblenz questioned the rabbi at all, asking what type of repentance was
required, under Jewish law, for persons guilty of killing their own
children to protect them from baptism, thus sacrificing them for thelove of God, is a clear indication of a fear on their part that such actions
might be quite incompatible with the dictates of the halakhah, the ritual285

laws of Judaism. This fear, or if one prefers, this sense of uncertainty,
must have been rather widespread among the Jewish populations of theGerman territories, as well as among their rabbis, as in the case of Meirof Rothenburg, since, rather than justify such behavior on the basis of
Jewish law, they preferred to recall illustrious precedents, which had, in
effect, rendered these actions permissible by adoption. The call tosuicide and mass child murder, as well as to examples of collective
martyrdom, such as that of Coblenz in 1096, was indirect, butnevertheless obvious.
In fact, the phenomenon of martyrdom among German Jews at thetime of the First Crusade had no significant precedents in Judaism
capable of explaining and justifying the phenomenon. Jewish
chronicles written subsequent to those events, intended to describe thebehavior of the Jews of the communities of the Valley of the Rhine inthese situations, offered no excuse at all, nor did they appear to feel theneed for justification of any kind. Under such tragic and exceptional
circumstances, the choice to act contrary to the innate instinct tosurvive, and to love and care for one’s children, was irrational,
spontaneous and unpremeditated. The rational dictates of Jewish law
could have no influence in such a situation.4
German Jews were terrorized by the possibility of forcefulconversion to Christianity. They were even more frightened of thepossibility, which became a tragic reality in many cases, of seeing theirown children violently dragged to the baptismal font. With obsessive
insistence, the German Jewish communities, from the beginning of the
Crusades, addressed repeated and often useless appeals to their rulers
so that their children might be protected from forced baptism.5
Supplications to this effect are said to have been repeated over thefollowing centuries, wherever there were Jewish nuclei of German
origin, even in the regions of Northern Italy, becoming one of the
distinctive features of Ashkenazi conduct.6
To the teachers who killed their pupils, the mothers who cut thethroats of their children, the fathers who killed their wives and children,
conversion to Christianity represented a repellent and abhorrent
eventuality. From their earliest childhood, the Jews of the FrancoGerman territories had been taught to view the Christian faith as a
despicable religion, barbarous and idolatrous, dedicated to the worshipof images and holy cadavers. Baptism and the forced conversion of the
Chosen People to the religion of their cruel and ignorant persecutors
was surely the quickest passport to a base and corrupt life, deserving
the severest divine punishment in both this world and the next. Death,death without hesitation of any kind, was to be considered a beneficial
286

and desirable alternative.7
In view of the intolerable menace hanging over the souls of thetender infants, born to be brought up in the love of the True God andaccording to His sacred dictates, yet fated to be immersed against theirwill in the contagious waters of baptism, the lethal blade was the soleadequate response. The blood shed by these innocent children, put todeath for the love of God, was said to have served to bring forward thetime of redemption. Their sacrifice, like that of the uncontaminatedlambs offered as a holocaust on the altar of the Temple, was thought tohelp arouse Divine vengeance against their idolatrous persecutors. This
vengeance was to be consummated from on High, in the Heavens, butneeded to be prepared on Earth. God’s vengeance, and that of thefathers and mothers, compelled to shed the precious blood of theirchildren by the extreme arrogance of the Christians.8
Sometimes the synagogue was destined to be chosen as the favorite
location for the sacrifice of these children and the sanctification ofGod’s name. The place of prayer conferred solemnity and rituality upon
the drama being performed. The Holy Ark with the rolls of the Law(Aron ha-kodesh), the pulpit, also called the almemor (or himah or
tehah in Hebrew),9 the benches upon which the faithful wereaccustomed to sit, were all bathed in the blood of the uncontaminatedvictims, while laments combined with invocations, litanies andimprecations, opening the way to Heaven. The sacred nature of the
Temple failed to slow the arm of those who rose up to immolate, nor
did the act reek of sacrilege. Quite the contrary, these surroundings
constituted the most appropriate theatre for this act of sublime
martyrdom. The story of Isacco, son of David, sacristan (parnas) of thesynagogue at Magonza, who committed suicide during the first Crusadekilling his children and mother and setting fire to the place of prayer,
seems illuminating in this regard.10
In those days, the great majority of the Jewish population ofMagonza, after uselessly seeking refuge in the bishop’s palace, met
death in an indiscriminate massacre. Few of their lives were spared.
Among them, Isacco, the sacristan of the synagogue, had personallybeen compelled to accept conversion to Christianity. But after a few
days, the poor convert, assailed by remorse and repentance, dreamed up
a delirious ritual of expiation based on a series of human sacrifices
intended to move the Eternal to vengeance in a bath of blood.
First of all, Isacco, seized by fervent hallucinations, put his motherto death, burning her alive in her house. He then dragged his children,“not yet of an age capable of discerning good from evil” into thesynagogue. Here, on the pulpit, the almemor, before the Ark containing287

the rolls of the Law, with his own hands, he slaughtered them all, one
by one, offering a sacrifice to God. “And as the blood of the unhappy
children spurted from their mortal wounds, painting the door-posts of
the Ark of the Law, the sacristan devoutly recited: ‘May this blood
serve as an expiation for all my sins’ ”. Immediately afterwards, he set
fire to the synagogue, running from one side of the hall to another, hishands raised to Heaven in an act of prayer, his chanting voice clearly
audible outside the holy sanctuary. And among the flames, before theholy Ark, the miserable Isacco finally found the death he so desired”.11
A psychopath? A lunatic suffering from homicidal religious fits ofinsanity? A poor soul driven mad by desperation and seized by a selfdestructive mania? A madman and masochistic fanatic? The
anonymous author who reports this tragic tale has absolutely no doubt
at all of this kind: Isacco was a “wholesome and upright person, pious,
merciful, and God-fearing”. His behavior deserved to be pointed out as
an example to later generations, and all types of censure in this casewere to be considered absolutely unjustified and inopportune. Isacco
had decided to sacrifice his own children on the almemor, before the
Ark of the Law, the holiest place in the synagogue, according to aritual, recalling, on the one hand, the holocaust offered on the altar of
the Temple of Jerusalem, and, on the other hand, the Biblical sacrificeof Isaac, which, according to the Midrash, had actually been carriedout. The grisly example of the pious sacristan of Magonza appeared toinspire enthusiastic and zealous imitators. The synagogue itself wasthus transformed, in time, into a sort of sacred slaughterhouse, inwhich, among moans and prayers, the blood of the women andchildren, sacrificed for the love of God, gushed forth in torrents: Holy
Ark, pulpit, women’s gallery, benches and steps were all stained red, as
was the altar of the Temple.
At Vienna in 1421, during that city’s violent riots against the Jews,
accused of favoring and supporting the Hussites, the rabbi Natan Eger
visited all the local Jewish boys in their own homes, and instructed
their mothers to slaughter them without remorse if the Christians
attempted to baptize them en masse. One Yiddish chronicle reports
that, on that occasion, the Jewish community gathered a great numberof children together in the synagogue to prevent their forced
conversion, as vehemently demanded by an apostate.
“The Jews of the community at this point began to cry in a loudvoice: ‘Alas, (the Christians), may God forbid, intend to contaminate
our children, holy and immaculate’. They therefore deliberated todeprive them of their lives in order to sanctify the name of God theBlessed.
288

“They drew lots and selected the pious rabbi Jonah Ha-Cohen, who
was responsible for putting the decision into action. This happened
during the Festival of the Capanne (Sukkot).
“While the entire community murmured the formula of the call torepentance in a low voice, turning from one to another, the rabbi placed
himself in front of the Ark containing the rolls of the Law, and cut thethroats of all the children, one after the other. This occurred in the greathall, intended for men’s prayers. The women were also slaughtered,
one by one, in the antechamber of the synagogue, intended for them,and this to sanctify the name of God. The last woman waiting to besacrificed turned to Jonah, the rabbi, asking him to butcher her (without
entering the women’s hall, but) causing his arm to pass through thegrid, which separated the two halls. Then Johan the rabbi, having no
more strength to kill himself, removed the rafters in the synagogue,
made a stack of them, and poured oil on them, asking God to pardon
him for that which he had done to save their souls. Finally, he curled up
on the almemor, setting fire to them from on top, and met death in the
midst of the flames”.12
The blood of the sacrifice, far from contaminating the place, was toserve as an irresistible call to God, exhorting Him to implacable
vengeance against His enemies and those of the Chosen People, as thenecessary preamble to the much-desired Messianic redemption. The
blood of the innocent children, shed in the synagogue “in sanctificationof the name of God”, or “as a sign of contempt and abomination of theheretical crucifix”, therefore served the same function, or, moreexactly, served as two symbolic and successive phases of the very sameprocess towards final redemption.
The depositions of the defendants in the Trent trial were all inagreement as to the fact that the murder of little Simon was said to havebeen committed on Friday, inside the synagogue, located in thedwelling of Samuele da Nuremberg, and, more exactly, in theantechamber of the hall in which the men gathered in prayer. This area,
which was separated from the synagogue, properly speaking, by a door,
was intended for women’s prayers, since there was no women’s
gallery. The door, however, remained half-ajar; during the Sabbath
liturgy, the women peeped in while the rolls of the Law were raised andexhibited by the person officiating at the almemor, before the readingof the weekly fragment of the Penteuch. On that occasion, the womenplaced their fingers to their lips and blew kisses in the direction of therolls, open and placed on show. There, as the physician Tobias da
Magdeburg informed the judges, “according to their customs thewomen gather in the antechamber of the synagogue and come forward289

at the door, when the (rolls with) the precepts of Moses were raised,
which happens every Sabbath based on their rites”.13
Simon’s crucifixion was alleged to have been committed on abench located in the so-called “women’s synagogue”. The boy’s body,now lifeless, was then alleged to have been removed to the central hallof the synagogue and placed on the almemor for the ceremonies of the
Sabbath. Tobias confirmed that, during the Sabbath liturgy, “he hadseen the boy’s body stretched out on the almemor, which is a table inthe middle of the synagogue, on which they place books”.14 Angelo da
Verona stated that “almemor is a Hebrew term equivalent to the Latin
term ‘seat of prayer’; in fact, the almemor is the table upon which theyplace the five books of Moses and is located in the midst of the School.
The child’s body lay supine on the alememor (during the offices of the
Sabbath)”.15
The body was wrapped in a mappah (wimple) of variegated silkand embroidery, a fine cloth the size of a hand towel used to cover therolls of the Law after the reading.16
Israel Wolfgang testified before the Inquisitors of Trent in relation
to the ritual child murder of Regensburg of 1467, at which he had
personally participated, according to his own statement. In this case as
well, the monumental ritual was alleged to have been committed in theantechamber of the synagogue; later, the body of the victim was said tohave been transferred into the prayer room and placed in the almemor,so that the faithful might in some way participate in the significant
ceremony.17
Probably in an attempt to detract from the overly obvious antiChristian connotations of the ritual of the child’s crucifixion, Angelo da
Verona transformed it into an emblematic commemoration of the epic
tale of the exodus from Egypt, explicitly linking it to the celebration of
the Pesach. The wound inflicted on the victim’s jaw was said to havebeen required to recall Moses’ useless appeals to the Pharaoh to free
the people of Israel from the land in which they were being held
prisoner. The wound on the tibia was said to have been a symbolicreference to the Egyptian army’s pursuit of the Jews in flight towards
the Red Sea, and the terror and desperation with which the Jews were
allegedly inflicted in those days. The amputation of the foreskin was
said to have possessed an even more obvious commemorative function,
recalling the mass circumcision of the Jewish people for the first time
when they were about to leave Egypt, at God’s command.18 The
punctures in the victim’s body were said to have been inflicted to betaken as a symbol of the physical punctures inflicted by God upon the
Egyptians, cruelly punished and suffering from a variety plagues.19290Nevertheless, Angelo da Verona’s elaborate explanations,obviously intended to link the rite to the Biblical events celebrated in
the Jewish Passover, hardly appear convincing. The defendants’depositions actually provide obvious indications of the obvious
intention to transform the child’s crucifixion into a symboliccommemoration of the Passion of Christ, referred to contemptuously as
Tolle Iesse mina (= Talui, Ieshu ha-min), i.e., “the hanged one, Jesus
the heretic”.20
In effect, the so-called “Jewish formulae”, which were said to havebeen pronounced on that occasion, cannot be dismissed as the mere
expression of a mysterious, imaginary language, intended to confer
Satanic connotations upon the cruel tale of ritual murder to satisfy thewishes of the inquisitors.21 With some effort, due to the crude
transliteration by Italian notaries of long and complicated phrases
spoken in Ashkenazi Hebrew with a thick German accent, the formulae
can be reconstructed rather satisfactorily, revealing their markedly antiChristian tenor.
For example, the phrase in Hebrew recorded by Samuele ofNuremberg (lu herpo, lu colan, lu tolle Yesse cho gihein col son heno)
and translated by Samuele as: “In contempt and shame of the hanged
Jesus, and thus may it happen to all our enemies”, is only apparently
incomprehensible, due to inevitable errors of transcription by thenotary. The phrase should in fact be reconstructed as le-cherpah, liklimah la-talui Yeshu, cach (or coh) ihye’ le-col soneenu, in theGerman pronunciation (and therefore herpoh instead of herpah),precisely the same significance as attributed to it by Samuele, who hada good knowledge of Hebrew.22
Mosè da Würzburg, “the Old Man”, reported that during the rite,some of those present recited a Hebrew formula which meant: “Thoushalt be martyred as Jesus, the hanged God of the Christians, wasmartyred: and thus may it happen to all our enemies”. At this point, allpersons present responded in unison: “Amen”. The actual phrase, in
mangled Hebrew, is as follows: “Hato nisi assarto fenidecarto cho
Iesse attoloy le fuoscho folislimo cho Iesso”.23 In view of the fact thatthe Hebrew was rendered according to the Ashkenazi pronunciation,
the invective should be reconstructed as follows, leaving little room for
doubt:
Attà nizlvatà we-nikartà ke-Ieshu ha-talui le-boshet we-li-klimà(35th Psalm, 26), ke-Ieshu, which, literally translated, would soundlike:“You have been crucified and pierced like ‘Jesus the Hanged’, in
ignominy and shame, like Jesus”.24
291

For the participants in the ritual, the Christian child seems to havelost his identity (if he ever had any in their eyes) and had actually beentransformed into Jesus the “crucified and hanged”. So many Jewish
boys baptized by force in Christ’s name in the German territories,
beginning with the Crusades; so many others slaughtered by theirfathers and mothers to avoid that holy abuse of power, bathing thealmemor and the steps of the Ark with the rolls of the Law in the
synagogue with their innocent blood – now, in turn, those who
considered themselves the descendents of the victims of forced baptism
imagined that a cruel but holy representation of the memorial of the
Passion was capable of redeeming the descendants from theirunforgettable trauma, with the God of redemption, severe and pious,
capable of vengeance and pardon, involved and satisfied, as a
privileged witness.
***

NOTES TO CHAPTER THIRTEEN
1

Shalom of Neustadt, Decisions and Customs, by Sh. Spitzer,
Jerusalem, 1977, p. 137 (in Hebrew).
2
Cfr. S. Salfeld, Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger
Memorbuches, Berlin, 1898, p. 15.
3
Meir of Rothenburg, Responsa, Decisions and Customs, by Y.Z.
Kahana, Jerusalem, 1960, p. 54 (in Hebrew).
4
In this regard, see the acute observations contained in H.
Soloveitchik, Halakhah, Hermeneutics and Martyrdom in Medieval
Ashkenaz, in “The Jewish Quarterly Review”, XCIV (2004), pp. 77-105(“the correctness of their conduct was axiomatic to them [...] and it was
no less axiomatic to their successors [...]. Convinced of the palpable
reality of the afterlife, feeling its almost graspable closeness [...]
husbands killed wives and parents dispatched their children with a swift
stroke of the knife, certain that they were bestowing upon them the giftof eternal bliss”).
5
Cfr. B.Z. Kedar, The Forcible Baptism of 1096. History andHistoriography, in K. Borchardt and E. Bünz, Forschungen zur
Reichs-, Papst- und Landesgeschichte. Peter Herde zum 65.
Geburtstag, Stuttgart, 1998, pp. 187-200.
6
In this regard, see A. Toaff, Migrazioni di ebrei tedeschi
attraverso i territori triestini e friulani fra XIV e XV secolo, in G.
Todeschini and P.C. Ioly Zorattini, Il mondo ebraico. Gli ebrei tra
Italia nord-orientale e Impero asburgico dal Medioevo all’Età
292

contemporanea, Pordenone, 1991, pp. 10-11; A. Toaff, Gli
insediamenti ashkenaziti nell’Italia settentrionale, in Storia d’Italia.
Annali. XI: Gli ebrei in Italia, t. I: Dall’Alto Medioevo all’età dei
ghetti, by C. Vivanti, Turin, 1996, pp. 160-161.
7
Cfr. Soloveitchik, Halakhah, Hermeneutics and Martyrdom inMedieval Ashkenaz, cit., pp. 105-106 (“Every aspect of the Christianreligion was subject to ridicule and disgust. Much of the intuitive
rejection of conversion in Ashkenazi communities come from therevulsion of Christianity instilled from childhood [...] their suffering
filled them with bitterness [...]. Having one’s children brought up as
Christians meant not only having them raised as savages, worshipping
idols and venerating corpses, but also becoming the blood-stained
persecutors of the Chosen People; and after a barbaric and sin-filled
life, they would be condemned to an eternity of death; a swift stroke ofthe sword was perhaps seen as the greatest kindness that a parent could
bestow upon a child”).
8
In this regard, see, among others, I.J. Yuval, Vengeance andDamnation, Blood and Defamation. From Jewish Martyrdom to Blood
Libel Accusations, in “Zion”, LVIII (1993), pp. 33-90 (in Hebrew); Id.,
“The Lord Will Take Vengeance, Vengeance for His TempIe”. Historia
Sine Ira et Studio, in “Zion”, LIX (1994), pp. 351-414 (in Hebrew). For
a contrary opinion, see E. Fleischer, Christian-Jewish Relations in the
Middle Ages Distorted, in “Zion”, LIX (1994), pp. 267-316 (inHebrew). See also M. Minty, Kiddush Ha-Shem in German ChristianEyes in the Middle Ages, in “Zion”, LIX (1994), pp. 266-269 (inHebrew).
9
From the 13th century onwards, the tribune of the synagogue,(bimah, tevah), seat of the person officiating, was also referred to as thealmemor, a term derived from the Arabic, al-minbar, “pulpit”,
exemplifying the forms and functions of the pulpit. The tribune
contained the table (dukhan) bearing the roles of the Law during theweekly liturgical readings. It is curious to note the manner in which theterm almemor, of Arabic origin, was also adopted by the Ashkenazi
synagogues (cfr. Th. Metzger and M. Metzger, Jewish Life in the
Middle Ages. Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts of the XIIIth to the
XVIth Centuries, Freiburg, 1982, pp. 71-74).
10
The chronicle containing the tale of the tragedy of Isaac, theparnas [sacristan] of the synagogue at Magonza, is reproduced by A.M.
Haberman, Sefer ghezerot Ashkenaz we-Zarf at (“Book of the
Persecutions in Germany and France”), Jerusalem, 1971, pp. 36-38.
11
For a detailed examination of the affair with historical andideological references, see J. Cohen, The Persecutions of 1096. From
293

Martyrdom to Martyrology. The Sociocultural Context of the Hebrew
Crusade Chronicles, in “Zion”, LIX (1994), pp. 185-195 (in Hebrew);
for an opinion closer to my own, see I.J. Yuval, “Two Nations in Your
Womb”. Perceptions of Jews and Christians, Tel Aviv, 2000, pp. 159161 (in Hebrew).
12
Cfr. S. Bernfeld, Sefer ha-dema’ot (“The Book of Tears”),
Berlin, 1924, p. 169. In this regard, see Yuval, “Two Nations in Your
Womb”, cit., pp. 199-200 and, more recently, A. Gross, Struggling with
Tradition. Reservation about Active Martyrdom in the Middle Ages,
Leyden, 2004, pp. 1-44.
13“lnterrogatus ubi erant mulieres ipsorum ludeorum, respondit
quod non erant in sinagoga, quia non est de more eorum quod mulieres
intrant sinagogam. Interrogatus ubi stant mulieres quando celebrantur
offitia sua, respondit quod mulieres tunc stant in camera que est ante
sinagogam. Interrogatus an mulieres stantes in dicta camera possint
videre in sinagogam et maxime ea que sunt super almemore, respondit
quod non, nisi veniant super ostium per quod intratur in sinagogam. Et
dicit, interrogatus, quod secundum eorum consuetudinem mulieres, quese reperiunt in camera que est ante sinagogam, se reducunt super
ostium quando elevantur precepta Moisi in sinagoga. Et dicit,
interrogatus, quod dicta die Sabbati de sero precepta deberunt elevati,
quia omni die Sabbato de sero elevantur, secundum eorum ordines”(cfr. A. Esposito e D. Quaglioni, Processi contro gli ebrei di Trento,
1475-1478. I: I processi del 1475, Padua, 1990, pp. 324-325).
14“Vidit cadaver dicti pueri extensum super almemore, qui est
discus positus in medio sinagoge, super quo ponunt libros” [“He saw
the body of the boy lying on the almemor, placed in the middle of thesynagogue, which is where they place their books”] (cfr. ibidem, p.
324).
15“Et die Sabbati [...] ipse Angelus ivit ad domum Samuelis et
intravit dictas scolas et vidit quoddam cadaver pueri mortui positum
super almemor, quod est verbum Hebraicum, quod est dicere in lingua
latina ‘locus sermonis’; qui almemor est discus quidam super quo
ponuntur quinque libri Moisi. Qui discus sive almemor era positus inmedio Scole, super quo disco erat cadaver dicti pueri, quod cadaveriacebat resupinum” [“And on the Sabbath [...] this Angelo went toSamuele’s house and entered their school and saw the body of the deadboy placed on the almemor, which is the Hebrew word for what iscalled in Latin ‘the place where we give our sermons’, which almemor
is the chest upon which they place books”] (cfr. ibidem, p. 286).
16
Vitale, Samuele da Nuremberg’s agent, stated “quod illud (i.e.,
Little Simon’s body) sic vidit in dicto die Sabbati, de mane, in sinagoga294super almemore, et quod illud erat coopertum quodam palleo de sirico
diversi coloris; et similiter illud vidit dicta die, de sero, tempore quo
dicebantur offitia in eorum sinagoga” [“that they saw it (the body) that
Sabbath, in the morning, in the synagogue, on the almemor, and that itwas covered with a cloth of various colors, and they also saw it thatday, in the evening, when they have their religious services”] (cfr.
ibidem, p. 220). Samuele da Nuremberg confirmed that “dictum corpus
pueri erat coopertum una tovalea, qua tovalea solent uti super suo altari[...] et post coperto dicto corpore et illo stante in almemore, veneruntomnes alii Iudei in sinagogam et ibi dixerunt offitia sua” (cfr. ibidem,
p. 248).
17“Corpus illud fuit portatum [...] in quadam cameram contiguam
Synagogae et illud corpus posuit in quadam capsam. Et dicit quodmane sequenti venerunt plures alii Judaei ad videndum dictum corpus
et in qua die sequenti de sero idem corpus fuit sublatum de capsa etportatum in Synagogam praedictam [...] corpore stante extenso superAlmemore” [“The body was taken [...] into the chamber adjacent to thesynagogue and placed on the chest. And he said that in the morning
several other Jews came and saw the body and that on the following
day the body was taken from the chest and taken into the synagogue [..]and placed on the almemor”] (cfr. [Benedetto Bonelli], Dissertazione
apologetica sul martirio del beato Simone da Trento nell’anno
MCCCCLXXV dagli ebrei ucciso, Trent, Gianbattista Parone, 1747, p.
141).
18
The circumcision of the Jews on the occasion of the exodus from
Egypt, when they are said to have complied with this precept for the
first time, is mentioned in the Midrash: Shemot Rabbah 17, 3-5; 19, 5;
Ruth Rabbah 6; Shir ha-shirim Rabbah 1, 35; 5; Tanchumah 55, 4;Pesiktah de-Rav IV: Kazhanah 63, 27.
19“Interrogatus quod dicat quid importat aut significat illud vulnus
quod factum fuit puero in maxilla dextra, respondit quod hoc significat
quod Moyses per os suum pluries dixit Pharaoni quod debere dimittere
populum suum Israheliticum; et quod vulnus quod habebat puer in tibia
dextra, fit ad significationem quod Pharao et populus Egiptiacus, qui
persequebantur ipsos ludeos, quod in eorum itineribus fuerunt infelices;
et quod vulnus quod habebat puer in virga significat circumcisionem
eorum et quod punctiones que fiunt per corpus pueri significant quod
populus Egiptiacus in omni parte corporis sui fuit percussus” [“Whenasked the meaning of the injury to the boy’s right jaw, he answered that
this meant that the laws of Moses told the Pharaoh orally several times
to let the Israelites go; and that the injury to the boy’s right shinbone
meant that the Pharaoh and the people of Egypt, who were persecuting
295

the Jews, who were unhappy in their wanderings, and that the injury to
his penis referred to their circumcision and that the puncture wounds tothe boy’s body meant that the people of Egypt were inflicted withsuffering in all parts of their body”] (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni,
Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 291).
20
Bonaventura (Seligman) di Mohar, Mosè da Würzburg’s young
nephew, maintained that he had heard those present at the rite
pronounce the words Tolle, Iesse mina, “que verba ipse Bonaventura
nescit quid important” (cfr. ibidem, p. 157). Israel Wolfgang (and hisstatement in this regard was confirmed by Joav da Ansbach, Tobias thephysician’s servant) had, on that same occasion, heard the same words
Tolle, lesse mina from the mouth of Mosè “the Old Man” da Würzburg.
At this, Bishop Hinderbach noted in the margin: “verba enim praedicta
significant tantum ‘suspensus’ Jesus hereticus” ([“the aforesaid words
mean as much as ‘the hanged one’, Jesus the heretic”], cfr. [Bonelli],
Dissertazione apologetica, cit., pp. 149-151). For his part, Bonaventura(Seligman), Samuele da Nuremberg’s cook, recalled that he had heard
the words memmholzdem talui, perhaps a distorted rendering of the
Hebrew mamzer talui, “the hanged bastard” (cfr. Esposito andQuaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. l, p. 138).
21
Anna Esposito maintains in this regard that the phrases“reproducing the curses of the Jews against the Christians, sometimes
rendered in transliterated Hebrew, more often in a sort of pseudoHebrew, and then translated into Latin, and often into Italian as well”
were intended to “augment, through the introduction of words in an
obscure foreign language, the sensation of mystery and fear which werealready, by the very nature of things, afflicting the Hebraic world”. The
insertion of such phrases in fact “seems to have been effected precisely
to confirm, first of all, in all readers of the trial records, the impressionof an obscure Satanic rite smelling of witchcraft” (cfr. Esposito andQuaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, pp. 70-71). For a similar opinion, see
D. Quaglioni, Propaganda antiebraica e polemiche di Curia, in M.
Miglio, F. Niutta, C. Ranieri and D. Quaglioni, Un pontificato ed una
città. Sisto IV (1471-1484), Atti del Convegno, Roma, 2-7 December
1984, Città del Vaticano, 1988, p. 256. W.P. Eckert (Motivi
superstiziosi nel processo agli ebrei di Trento, in I. Rogger and M.
Bellabarba, Il principe vescovo Johannes Hinderbach, 1465-1486, fra
tardo Medioevo e Umanesimo, Atti del Convegno held by the
Biblioteca Comunale di Trento, 2-6 October 1989, Bologna, 1992, p.
393) states that “the Jews had to be made to look ridiculous because
ridicule produces a lethal effect” and that, to attain this objective, theTrent judges demanded “an exact explanation of incomprehensible296

Jewish terms”.
22“Dicebant hec verba in Hebraico, videlicet: Lu herpo, lu colan,
lu tolle Yesse cho gihein col son heno; que verba significant: ‘In
vituperium et verecundiam [translation error for “vilipendium”] illius
suspensi lesu, et ita fiat omnibus inimicis nostris’, intelligendo de
Cristianis” [“He said these words in Hebrew, that is, Lu herpo, lu
colan, lu tolle Yesse cho gihein col son heno, which means, ‘In insults
and contempt for the hanged Jesus, and may this be done to all our
enemies’, meaning the Christians”] (cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione
apologetica, p. 149; Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi, cit., vol. I, p.
247). In the breadth of anti-Christian Jewish literature, it should be
noted that Yannai, for example, poet and composer of liturgical songs,
who lived in Palestine in approximately the 5th century, was the authorof an invective against the believers in Christ to be read during theprayers of Yom Kippur, the solemn fast of expiation. His concludingwords were: “may they (the Christians) be covered with ignominy,
contempt and shame (bushah, cherpah w-klimah)”. Cfr. A. Shanan, Otò
ha-ish. Jesus through Jewish Eyes, Tel Aviv, 1999, pp. 47-50 (inHebrew). On the image of Jesus in anti-Christian literature, in which
He is referred to as talui (“the hanged one”), mamzer (“the bastard”),
min (“the heretic”), see, among others, M. Goldstein, Jesus in the
Jewish Tradition, New York, 1950; T. Walker, Jewish Views of Jesus,
London, 1974; W. Jacob, Christianity through Jewish Eyes, Cincinnati(O.), 1974; T. Weiss-Rosmarin, Jewish Expressions on Jesus, New
York, 1997.
23“Et aliqui ex suprascriptis dicebant hec verba Hebraica,
videlicet: Hatto nisi assarto fenidecarto cho lesse attoloy le fuoscho
folislimo cho lesso, que verba significant: ‘Tu martiriçaris sicut fuitmartirizatus et consumptus lesus Deus Cristianorum suspensus, et ita
fieri possit omnibus nostris inimicis’ ” [“And all the above mentioned
persons said these Hebrew words: Hatto nisi assarto fenidecarto cho
lesse attoloy le fuoscho folislimo cho lesso, which means: ‘You will be
tortured to death and eaten as was Jesus Christ of the Christians thehanged one, and thus may it be with all our enemies’ ”] (cfr. [Bonelli],
Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 149; Esposito and Quaglioni,
Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 354).
24
In Hebrew pronounced the German way, the phrase sounds like
this: Atto nizfavto fenidecarto co-Iesho hattoloy ecc. “Jesus crucified
and pierced”, as an expression of offensive meaning, is found innumerous anti-Christian Hebraic compositions, widespread in medieval
Ashkenazi Judaism (cfr. Shanan, Gtò ha-ish. Jesus through Jewish
Eyes, cit., p. 61).
297

CHAPTER FOURTEEN“DOING THE FIG”:
OBSCENE RITUALS AND GESTURES
Lazzaro, Angelo da Verona’s servant, recalled that, as an introduction
to the contemptuous commemoration of Christ’s Passion, enacted upon
the body of the infant Simon, the zealous Samuele da Nuremberg had
intended to prepare and incite those present with a mocking sermon
ridiculing the Christian faith. In the improvised sermon, Jesus was
described as being born of adultery, while Mary, a woman ofnotoriously easy morals, was said to have been impregnated during her
menstrual period, against all the rules of propriety and custom.1
While the whole theme of Jesus’ adulterous generation was not at
all new, this was not because of any claim that the Virgin was
impregnated during her menstrual period. In fact, this only appeared ina few versions of the Toledot Yeshu – the so-called “Hebraic counterGospels”, written in the German-speaking territories between the 15thand 16th centuries. Samuele’s reference to the anti-Christian text
containing the accusation that Christ was “a bastard conceived by an
impure woman” (mamzer ben ha-niddah) was therefore chronologicallysomewhat premature and doubtlessly characteristic of the intolerant
climate of a certain section of late medieval Ashkenazi Judaism. 2 It isinconceivable to imagine that the naïve Lazzaro da Serravalle shouldhave given free rein to his fantasy by inventing the anti-Christian
thematic details contained in Samuele’s sermon. It is even lessplausible to imagine that the Trent judges and inquisitors might havebeen expert connoisseurs of the various texts of the Toledot Yeshu.
A few years later, in 1488, the Jews of the Duchy of Milan, on trial
for contempt of the Christian religion, were asked by the judges
whether or not they actually referred to Jesus as a bastard and the sonof a menstruating woman. In particular, they demanded whether any
expressions of this kind, which originated in the texts of the Toledot
Yeshu, appeared in a liturgical composition beginning with the words
ani, ani ha-medabber (“It is I, I who speak...”), and in the form of thesecondary feasts of the German rite.3 Many of the defendants
responded in the affirmative and admitted that, in that prayer, Jesus wasindeed referred to as having been “born of a woman having her
298menstrual period”, and “born of a polluted woman, that is, one who wasmenstruating”. In fact, the oldest versions of the Ashkenazi handbookof prayers for ceremonial solemnities contains a commemorative elegy
for the martyrs, massacre victims and suicides in sanctification ofGod’s name, entitled ani, ani ha-medabber, “It is I, I who speak...”,
attributed to Rabbi Efraim di Isacco da Regensburg, and intended forrecital during the Fast of Expiation (Kippur). The elegy contains an
explicit reference to Jesus as “conceived of a menstruating woman”, inconformity with a motif which was widespread in the German versionsof the Toledot Yeshu.4
Not surprisingly, this line of invective rapidly gained ground in theworld of Ashkenazi Judaism, both in Germany and in the more or lessrecently settled regions of sub-Alpine Italy.
Elena was the widow of Raffaele Fritschke, analogous to theGerman family name Fridman, rendered into Italian as Freschi or
Frigiis.5
Her husband, a famous physician and rabbi from Austria orBohemia, had become one of the most influential and esteemed
personages of the Jewish community of the German rite of Padua by
the end of the 15th century and the early 16th century. His death isthought to have occurred in the city of Venice around 1540. A few
years later, Raffaele and Elena’s son, Lazzaro Freschi, later a friend
and esteemed colleague of Andreas Vesalius, graduated with brilliant
medical credentials from the Studio di Padova, and was invited tooccupy the chair of surgery and anatomy in that university, accepting
the job and occupying that position from 1537 until 1544. No later than1547, Maestro Lazzaro Freschi moved to the old ghetto of Venice,together with his mother, and was admitted as a member of the local
Ashkenazi community.
A dramatic turning point came a few years later, before the end of
1549, when Lazzaro, physician son of Rabi Raffaele Fritschke,converted to Christianity for reasons unknown. To avoid doing thingsby halves, the Paduan physician also persuaded his mother Elena tovisit the baptismal font and embrace the religion of Christ. From thatmoment on, Lazzaro, now known as Giovanni Battista Freschi Olivi,
became a severe critic of his former religion and an open accuser of theJewish world from which he originated. Thanks to his zealous andindefatigable polemical efforts, the Talmud was placed on the Indexand finally burnt by the public hangman in the Piazza San Marco on 21
October 1553 by decision of the Council of Ten.6
But while Giovanni Battista Freschi Olivi gave all outward signs of
having enthusiastically embraced the Christian religion, his aged299

mother Elena, who must have been at least seventy years old, proved
herself rather less convinced of the wisdom of the step taken. The
virulently anti-Christian religious upbringing which she had received
during her year in the Ashkenazi environment had left an indelible
imprint and continued to influence her spontaneous mental attitudes,
even after her conversion.
In 1555, Elena was brought before the Holy Office of Venice
under the accusation of having publicly given vent to blasphemous
expressions regarding Christianity. Only the authoritative interventionof her son, who was compelled to plead his mother’s mental infirmity
for purposes of defense, sufficed to get her out of trouble. 7 One Sundayin March of that year, Elena, while attending Mass in the Church of San
Marcuola, just as the priest was reciting the Credo, had been unable torefrain from mockery, expressing her outrageous contempt with
malevolent terms of speech. Jesus, she alleged, was not conceived by
the Virgin Mary by the virtue of the Holy Spirit at all, but was thebastard son of a whore.
“Last Sunday (17 March 1555) [...] finding herself at the said Mass(in the Church of San Marcilian) [...] the mother of meser Zuan
Baptista, a Hebrew physician having become a Christian, just as thepriest was saying the Credo: Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex
Maria Virgine et homo factus est, said the following, or similar, words:‘You’re lying through your teeth. Jesus was the bastard born of awhore’ ”.8
The anti-Christian sentiments expressed through the texts of theToledot Yeshu and assimilated by the old Paduan Jewish woman thus
found an uncontrollable outlet, in church, in an automatic and perhaps
involuntary reflex. Poor Elena’s basic personality was still Jewish andAshkenazi, and would probably remain so forever afterward.
A few years later, two other Ashkenazi Jews were tried by theInquisition of Venice for insulting the Christian faith, and once again,
the accusation turned on the allegation of Jesus’ spurious birth as theson of a menstruating woman. Aron and Asser (Asher, Anselmo) were
two aimless and unaccomplished youths having arrived in the ghetto of
Venice around 1563, the one from Prague and the other from Poland.
They later decided to convert to Christianity and enter the Casa dei
Catecumeni [Church institution for the conversion of Jews and infidels]to try to make ends meet by means of a self-interested and calculated
baptism. But they obviously proved to be rather poorly convinced of
the basics of the Christian religion, since they were indicted by theHoly Office for uttering unspeakable insults against Jesus and theVirgin Mary.9 The two Ashkenazi youths appeared to have been300

nurtured upon massive doses of the anti-Christian motifs characteristicof the Toledot Yeshu.
“Esso (Asser) began to say that the Lord God was a bastard son ofa whore, saying in the Hebrew language that the Lord God wasengendered while the Madonna was having her menstrual period, and,what is even more insulting, saying mamzer barbanid,10 which means
what I said above [...] He uttered opprobrious words offensive to theDivine Majesty and the glorious Virgin Mary, asserting that Christ wasa bastard born by carnal sin when the Madonna Virgin Mary washaving her menstrual period”.11
Almost a century had passed since the Trent trials and thepolemical motifs of Samuele da Nuremberg’s sermon over the corpseof little Simon-Jesus, taken from the Toledot Yeshu – which had now
become a classical text – were still alive and well in the Ashkenazi
environment of the valleys of the Loire and the Rhône, the Rhine andDanube, the Elba and the Vistula, and all communities having migrated
down from the other side of the Alps to the plains of the Po and the gulfof Venice.
Another outrageous assertion about the Christian religion very
widespread among Jews of German origin was based on the Talmudic
dictum that Jesus was to suffer punishment in the coming world,
condemned to immersion in “boiling excrement”.12 The Jewish bankersof the Duchy of Milan accused of contempt for the Christian faith in1488 were asked whether their texts claimed that Jesus was condemnedto the pains of Hell and placed in a pot full of excrement. Salomone
Galli da Brescello, a Jew from Vigevano, had no difficulty in admittingthat he had indeed read that malodorous prophecy in a little notebook
which passed through his hands in Rome during the Pontificate of
Sixtus IV.13 Salomone, a Jew from Como, and Isacco da Parma, aresident of Castelnuovo Scrivia, confirmed that they, too, were awareof the Hebraic texts asserting that Jesus, in the future world, wasdestined to be immersed in a bath of steaming feces (“Jesus the
Nazarene [...] is being punished in excrement, in boiling shit”).14
It should be noted in this regard that the Hebraic sources refer to asignificant and revealing episode linked to the sanguinary massacre of
the Jewish community at Magonza in 1096. On that occasion, David,
son of Netanel, the person responsible for the synagogue services(gabbay), is said to have turned to the Crusaders about to kill him
cruelly, wishing them the same fate as Jesus, “punished by immersion
in boiling excrement”.15 When it came to anti-Christian polemic,
Ashkenazi Jews didn’t beat around the bush, and the tragic events ofwhich they were the victims served as a justification for an301

uncompromising hatred, verbally insulting and violent in action, at least
whenever possible.
On the other hand, the Christians, too, loved the idea of the pious
Jew, the scrupulous observers of the Law, immersed up to the neck inbaths of excrement, as a well-deserved punishment for their arrogant
blindness. Friar Luisi Maria Benetelli of Venice, lecturer in Hebrew at
Padua and later at Venice, reported, with ill-concealed satisfaction, amalodorous anecdote of ancient origin describing a Jew, devoteobserver of the Sabbath, compelled to pass the week-end among themiasmas of a filthy cesspool due to his obtuse religiosity.
“Mr. Salomone, having fallen into the bog of a ditch, so as not toviolate the feast day of the Sabbath, rejected the charity of a Christian
who offered to pull him out. Sabbath sancta colo, de stercore surgere
nolo [I must adhere to the Sabbath, and do not wish to be pulled out of
the shit]. The following day, the same good man passed by again, andthe Jew beseeched him for assistance in getting out of the ditch, but theChristian excused himself saying, ‘Yesterday was your feast day, today
is mine’, and left him there to enjoy that aromatic stench all Sunday.
Sabbatha nostra quidem Salomon celebrabis ibidem”.16
For many, the synagogue, particularly, during the most significant
moments of the liturgy, was the most suitable place to confer solemnityand sacral effectiveness upon anathemas, invective and contempt, often
accompanied by the dramatic exhibition of aggressive and mocking
gestures. One of the most important days of the Jewish calendar among
the Jews of the German territories during the Middle Ages was the feast
of Pesach, when they opened the doors of the holy Ark to extract therolls of the Law. It was then, in the context of prayers for the festivity,that they cursed the Christians in stentorian voices, “uttering
imprecations to which one cannot listen”.17 But the insults and thecontempt were also pronounced by the litigious faithful, who had, or
who considered themselves to have, reciprocally outstanding accounts
to settle. In the early 16th century, the rabbi Jechiel Trabot lamented
the widespread wickedness of taking advantage of the ceremonies ofthe synagogue to engage in furious verbal disputes, which sometimes
concluded with recourse to fisticuffs. These violent disputes,
accompanied by insults and curses, usually occurred “with the Sederopen”, that is, when the rolls of the Law were exhibited and placed,
open, upon the almemor for reading.18
The [Ashkenazi] Jews possessed a vast range and picturesquecatalogue of anathemas against Jesus and the Christians, generally
reinforced by appropriate gestures of mockery and contempt, often
taking the form of obscene and scurrilous jests. Offensive and obscene302

gestures, ritualized and sanctified by the holy temple in which they
were performed, constituted an effective instrument of communication,
directed at their own community, to request and obtain the anticipatedand complacent approval, or at least silent complicity. The insults andscurrilous gestures most frequently resorted to [by Jews] during the
Middle Ages, right down to the end of the early modern age, include
the rhythmic stamping of the feet to create an ear-splitting din intended
to drown out any mention of the memory or even the very voice of theadversary; the act of sticking out the tongue and/or making faces, theact of spitting in the face, the act of uncovering the buttocks and thegesture of “doing the fig”. The latter, considered a particularly insulting
gesture of contempt, was performed by displaying the hands with the
thumb tightly inserted between the index and middle fingers, asymbolic allusion to the female genital organ during the act of
copulation.19
When, in the weekly readings of the Pentateuch, they reached thefragment relating to the Amalek (Deut. 25: 17-19), considered Israel’s
implacable enemy and persecutor par excellence throughout history, theparticipants in the liturgy of the synagogue stamped their feet violently,
accompanied by a deafening noise to drown out any mention of theirname. This often occurred during the recitation of the meghillah, theroll of Esther, during the feast of Purim, at every mention of Haman,
Assuerus’s cruel minister, inventor of the plan to exterminate theJewish people in the land of Persia. The hubbub was also renewed at
any mention of Zeresh, Haman’s faithful consort, and his numerous
children, in the liturgical text. In this connection, Leon da Modena
recalled that “some people, at the mention of Haman’s name, beat on
the benches of the synagogue as a sign that they were cursing him”, acustom the existence of which was confirmed by the convert Giulio
Morosini, who stated that, at Venice, the Jews pounded violently on theflat surfaces of their wooden benches in the synagogue as a sign ofexecration of the hated enemy, “pound on the benches of the synagogue
with all their strength as a sign of excommunication, saying in a loudvoice, ‘May his name be blotted out’, and ‘May the name of theimpious putrefy’ ”.20
One of the most widespread prayers of the Jewish ritualistic
formulary was doubtlessly the one beginning with the words ’Alenu
leshabbeach (“We must praise the Lord”), which was to be recitedseveral times a day and during feasts and solemnities. This text,
sometimes called a sort of “Credo of Judaism”, not surprisingly
contained expressions particularly critical of Jesus and Christianity.
Ecclesiastical censure therefore dealt severely with this prayer, erasing303

all polemical mention of the faith in Christ from the manuscripts andprohibiting any printing of the full text. Yet, nonetheless, during thepersecutions of the Middle Ages, it was precisely this prayer which wasmost frequently shouted at their persecutors by Jews when the timecase to sacrifice their lives to God.
In the tradition of the German Jews, at the phrase “So that they (theChristians) may prostrate themselves and turn their prayers to vanity
and nullity, to a God which is not the Savior”, it was the custom toperform gestures of reproof and contempt, such as stamping the feet,shaking the head or jumping up and down on the ground.21 Giulio
Morosini reported that, even in his time, when the Jews of Venicerecited the liturgical hymn ’Alenu le-shabbeacuh, which he describedas “contumelious against Christ and Christians [...] some attest that,when saying these words, they are accustomed to show abomination by
spitting”.22 Insulting and scurrilous gestures and obscene acts, even,and most particularly, if performed within the holy confines of thesynagogue, lost their negative connotations and served to underline andstress their passionate hatred and implacable contempt.
On the Sabbath right after little Simon’s murder, when the child’s
body was placed on the almemor, the Jews of Trent, gathered in the
synagogue, abandoned themselves to excessive gestures absolutely
without inhibition or restraint. According to the deposition of Angelo
da Verona’s servant, Lazzaro, Samuele da Nuremberg, after concluding
his fiery anti-Christian sermon against Jesus and His Mother, rushed up
to the almemor, and, after “doing the fig”, slapped the boy in the faceand spat on him. Not to be outdone, Angelo de Verona imitated theseoutrageous gestures, spitting and slapping the corpse, while Mosè “theOld Man” da Würzburg “did the fig”, mockingly showing his teeth,
while Maestro Tobias allowed himself to be carried away in theperformance of other acts of violence, with no shortage of slapping andspitting.
This scandalous spectacle was crowned by the other participants,
led by Isacco, Angelo’s cook, and Mosè da Bamberg, the traveler,
Lazzaro and Israel Wolfgang, the painter, and Israel, Samuele’s son,who, in addition to “doing the fig” like the others, stuck out his tongue
and made faces. For their part, Joav da Ansbach, Maestro Tobias’s
scullery boy, had no hesitation in performing obscene gestures, and,coarsely raising his caftan, displayed his buttocks [and genitals]
shamelessly, a blasphemous act sometimes reserved solely for thepassing of holy processions.23 Joav himself, in his confession, addedthat he had bitten the child’s ear in an attempt to imitate or outdo
Samuele da Nuremberg.24 Anna da Montagana, the latter’s daughter-in304

law, confirmed that she had indeed been present at this unedifying
scene.25
Bella, wife of Mayer, son of Mosè of Würzburg, recalled that she
had been present at the exhibition of similar insulting gestures, always
at Trent, three or four years earlier, on the occasion of another childmurder, also committed in Samuele’s house. In this case as well, theoutrageous ritual had been performed in the synagogue during the hourof prayer.26 For his part, Israel Wolfgang described the details of the1467 ritual murder at Regensburg in which he claimed to haveparticipated personally, stating that “the same insulting acts as those at
Trent, in Samuele’s house”, were performed in Sayer’s stiebel [parlor]in the presence of the child’s body [as in 1467].27
Giovanni Hinderbach summarized the Trent defendants’depositions relating to the scene of the outrageous acts performed in the
synagogue in a letter sent to Innsbruck in the fall of 1475, addressed tothe orator of the Republic of Venice before Sigismundo, Archduke ofAustria, written in a kind of Italian which was unusual for him andsomewhat crude:“The said Jews, or some of them, the said body having been placedon the almemor, said the following, or similar words, in the Hebrew
language: ‘This be in contempt and shame of our enemies’, referring to
us Christians. Quite a few others ‘did the fig’ in the eyes of the corpse,
while others raised their hands to heaven and stamped their feet on the
ground, while others spat in the face of the said body, saying theseother words: ‘Go to the God of Jesus, your God, and Mary, may she
help you; pray to her to free you, and may she rescue you from ourhands’ ”.28
The bishop of Trent was either suffering from a memory lapse or
was committing a more or less intentional error here, because the Jews
could not have defied Jesus and the Madonna to come to the assistanceof the poor child on that occasion. In fact, in their eyes, the boy lying
on the almemor and the Crucified Christ were one and the same person.
Simon did not exist – if he had ever existed – and, in his place, they
saw the Talui, Jesus the hanged, and the Teluiah, the hanged or
crucified woman, as Mary was called in an extemporaneous Hebraic
neologism. To them, he was the Christ, and whoever had engendered
Him – the detestable embodiments of Christianity, responsible for theirmiserable Diaspora, their bloody persecutions and forced conversions.
Almost trance-like, they cursed and swore, performed contemptuousand obscene gestures, each one recalling tragic family memories andthe many sufferings of those who, in their eyes, had embraced the crossas an offensive weapon.
305

The indignities heaped upon this innocent, sacrificed child in someways resembled the Cabalistic rite of the kapparot (“The [Fast of]
Expiation”), an established custom among German Jews on the eve of
the solemn fast of Kippur. On that occasion, young white free-range
roosters were whirled around the head of the sinner to assume thesinner’s transgressions. The roosters were later sacrificed, taking
punishment upon themselves on behalf of the guilty-mindedtransgressors.29 This ritual was intended to bring about the symbolictransfer of a person’s sins onto an animal, which was then sacrificed,
serving a similar function to that of the expiatory goat [scapegoat].
Where the cock assumed the guilt of the entire community, the roosterof the cabbalistic, magical kapparot served as a receptacle for the sinsof the individual, erased through the killing of the innocent bird. The
custom of the kapparot, widespread among the Ashkenazi Jews of
Venice, was vividly described, as usual, by Samuele Nahmias, alias
Giulio Morosini.
“All the males and females in the house go out and look for whitechickens: the men look for a white rooster, while the women look for awhite hen, and then they whirl these chickens around their heads
several times, saying these words [...] ‘This be in exchange for myself,
may this take my place, this be my expiation, may this bird go to its
death while I go on living’. After the ceremony, they butcher the birds
and eat them, and then they give some of the meat to some poor person,in charity, in the belief that if God had condemned any of them todeath, He would now have to settle for the rooster or hen in exchange[...]. They all practice this ritual, particularly in the Levant and inGermany”.30
Once again, at the beginning of the 18th century, the Minorite friar
Luigi Maria Benetelli severely censured those Jews of Venice,presumably belonging to the German community, who unperturbedly
maintained the custom of the kapparot on the eve of the Fast of
Expiation. According to him, these Jews intended to transfer the ballastof their own sins onto the white roosters, condemned to be sacrificed,
while irreverently imitating the Passion of Christ.
“Many of you, on that day, dress in white and search for a whiterooster without a single reddish feather (since red is the color of sin),and, clutching it by the neck and whirling it around your heads threetimes, pray that the rooster may expiate their sins; they torment therooster by pulling its neck, they butcher it, throw it violently on the
ground, and finally, they roast it; denoting, by means of the first
torment, that they themselves deserve to be strangled; by means of thesecond torment, that they themselves deserve to be killed with a noose;306

in the third, that they themselves deserve to be stoned; and in the
fourth, that they themselves deserve to be burnt for their sins. Not all(and for this reason, I said ‘many’) practice this ceremony even today.
To me, it is enough that many of them, although unintentionally, admit,in fact, that the Messiah, which is white for its divinity and red for
Humanity, should expiate sin”.31
Similarly, as with the kapparot, in the case of the Christian child,
his crucifixion transforms the child into Jesus and into Christianity,
symbolically allowing the community to savor that vengeance against
the enemies of Israel which is a necessary, although insufficient,preamble to their final redemption. The crescendo of insults andcontemptuous gestures in front of the almemor of the synagogue wasnot, paradoxically, directed against the innocent boy, but rather, against
Jesus, “the hanged one”, whom the boy personified. Whether by ‘doing
the fig’, spitting on the ground, grinding their teeth or stamping theirfeet, all the participants in the spectacular representation, alive andcharged with tension, repeated the Hebrew wish, ken ikkaretu kol
oyevecha, which means, “thus may our enemies be consumed”.32
The women also had their role to play in the ritual of vilification,and their role was not one of secondary importance. Their enthusiastic
participation in the display of verbal and gestural contempt during thefunctions of the synagogue was well known to everyone and caused no
surprise. Rabbi Azriel Diena, in a ritual response sent to the heads of
the Jewish community of Modena in the month of November 1534,
censured the bad habits of the women, who, in the synagogue, as wellas on the Sabbath and during the festivities, “when the solemn moment
arrives in which the rolls of the Torah were extracted from the Ark,
they rise up, as if they were infuriated, launching a barrage of insults
and curses against all those whom they hated”.33 Beniamin Slonik,
rabbi of Grodno in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in his manual ofhonest female behavior in the Ashkenazi communities, which wastranslated into Italian several times, attempted, in an effort to teachthem to restrain themselves and cool their burning ardor, to explain thepredisposition of Jewish women to imprecate and fling endlessanathemas. According to the scholarly Lithuanian, the women suddenly
restrained themselves “when they curse with kalalot (anathemas),which the women are very accustomed to doing, because they cannot
revenge themselves physically due to their lack of strength, and start tocurse and swear at all other persons who have displeased them in someway”.34
Even the Jewish chronicles of the Crusades, which exalted theheroism and readiness for martyrdom of German Jewish women,307stressed the manner in which they disdainfully rejected “conversion to
the faith of the crucified bastard (talui mamzer)” and, showing
praiseworthy courage and surprising temerity, did not hesitate to shout
insults and curses at their Christian aggressors.35
Bella, the wife of Mayer and daughter-in-law of Mosè of
Würzburg, in her deposition dated 6 March 1476, recalled the women’s
active participation in the contemptuous ritual allegedly performed in
the synagogue of Trent during the child murder committed the year
before.
The same Bella, together with Brunetta, Samuele of Nuremberg’s
wife, and Anna, his daughter-in-law, Brünnlein, Angelo da Verona’s
mother, Anna, Maestro Tobias’s first wife, now deceased, all appearedat the threshold of the synagogue during the ceremonies to see thechild’s body, which lay stretched out on the almemor. They thenenthusiastically joined the ritual of imprecations, spontaneously begun
by the men, waving their arms and shaking their heads as a sign ofcensure and spitting on the ground.36
These acts were accompanied by the ever-present scurrilous
gesture of “doing the fig”, which was exalted and almost sanctified by
the fact that it was being performed in a place of worship, whether asynagogue or a church. It is not, therefore, surprising that the display of
those contemptuous gestures was one of the charges brought by theHoly Office of Venice against the elderly Elena Freschi (Fritschke),survivor of a poorly digested conversion to Christianity. According to
the testimony of the Venetian patriarch Donna Paola Marcello, in fact,that Sunday, during Mass in the church of San Marcuola, just as thepriest had started reciting the Credo, the arrogant Paduan convert “gotvery angry and made ugly faces and said bad words, and, among otherthings, I heard her say: ‘You’re lying through your teeth’. And I saw
her ‘do the fig’ towards the altar where the priest was saying Mass”.37
The clash of religions therefore occurred on several different levels
simultaneously, passing from ideological diatribe, with scholarly andreligious features, to sneering and curses, accompanied by codified
gestures of proven and obvious effectiveness, with obscene andinsolent meanings.
***

NOTES TO CHAPTER FOURTEEN“Samuel fecit quandam predicationem et dixit non esse verum
quod lesus Christus fuisset ex vergine natus, sed quod eius mater,
1

308

videlicet beata virgo Maria, fuerat meretrix et adultera et Christus exadultera natus et quod fuerat exginta tempore quo menstrua patiebatur”[“Samuele declared that it was not true that Jesus Christ was born of avirgin, but that His mother, i.e., the Virgin Mary, was a whore and an
adulteress and that Christ was born of an adulteress and that He wasconceived while she was having her menstrual period”] (Archivio diStato di Trento, Archivio Principesco Arcivescovile, sez.lat., capsa 69,
n. 163).
2
In this regard, see R. Di Segni, Due nuove fonti sulle “Toledot
Jeshu”, in “La Rassegna Mensile di Israel”, LV (1989), pp. 131-132.
The author stresses that “the importance of the information inferredfrom the Trent trial lies in the fact that, for the moment, it is the oldest
source which explicitly considers Jesus to be the son of a menstruating
woman” and records, as “worthy of note, the German origin of thenarrator, which could cause one to assume that the information is of thesame origin as well”. It seems implicit that Riccardo Di Segni does notconsider the tale of Samuele of Nuremberg’s anti-Christian sermon as
the fruit of suggestive pressures of the Trent judges upon the accused,
but he places it in relationship with the reasons for the anti-Christianpolemic present in contemporary Ashkenazi Judaism with peculiar
sociocultural characteristics. On the story of Jesus the “bastard, son of amenstruating woman” in the Toledot Yeshu and on its importance, see
Id., Il Vangelo del Ghetto. Le “storie di Gesù”: leggende e documentidella tradizione medievale ebraica, Rome, 1985, pp. 120-123.
3
The defendants were required to respond in relation to the “verba
scripta in dicto libro Mazor (recte: Machazor, the liturgical form forthe feasts) sibi ostensa in capitulo quod incipit: Anni, anni amezaber(recte: anì, anìha-medabber), videlicet in lingua latina: Io sonno quelloche parla” (cfr. A. Antoniazzi Villa, Un processo contro gli ebrei nella
Milano del 1488, Milan, 1986, pp. 132-135).
4
Machazor le-yamim noraim le-fì minhage’ bene’ Ashkenaz(“Handbook of solemnities according to the custom of the German
Jews”). II: Yom Kippur, by E.D. Goldshmidt, Jerusalem, 1970, pp. 555557.
5
On the Ashkenazi name Frishke, Fritschke, Frits, Fritse, Fridman,
rendered into Italian as “Freschi” or “de Frigiis”. See A. Beider, A
Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given Names, Bergenfield (N.J.), 2001, p.
315.
6
On the personage of Maestro Lazzaro di Raffaele Freschi, hisconversion to Christianity and his anti-Jewish activity at Venice, see S.
Franco, Ricerche su Lazzaro ebreo de Frigeis, medico insigne ed amico
di Andre Vesal, in “La Rassegna Mensile di Israel”, XV (1949), pp.
309

495-515; F. Piovan, Nuovi documenti sul medico ebreo Lazzaro “deFrigeis”, collaboratore di Andrea Vesalio, in “Quaderni per la storia
dell’Università di Padova”, XXI (1988), pp. 67-74; D. Carpi, Alcune
nuove considerazioni su Lazzaro di Raphael de Frigiis, in “Quaderni
per la storia dell’Università di Padova”, XXX (1997), pp. 218-225.
7
The trial of the Holy Office at Elena Freschi Olivi is reported andtranscribed by P.C. Ioly Zorattini, Processi del S. Uffizio contro ebrei e
giudaizzanti. I: 1548-1560, Florence, 1980, pp. 51-52, 151-224. On thiscase, see also B. Pullan, The Jews of Europe and the Inquisition of
Venice (1550-1670), Oxford, 1983, pp. 282-289.
8
Cfr. Ioly Zorattini, Processi del S. Uffizio contro ebrei e
giudaizzanti, cit., vol. I, p. 152.
9
The trial of Aron and Asser before the Inquisition of Venice istranscribed by P.C. Ioly Zorattini, Processi del S. Uffizio contro ebrei e
giudaizzanti. II: 1561-1570, Florence, 1982, pp. 17-19, 31-48. In thisregard, see also Pullan, The Jews of Europe and the Inquisition of
Venice, cit., pp. 296-297.
10
The Hebrew expression mamzer barbanid is an obvious
corruption of mamzer bar ha-niddah, “bastard son of a menstruating
woman”, and not, as maintained by Ioly Zorattini, “mamzer barchanit”(?), “turncoat bastard, deserter” (cfr. Ioly Zorattini, Processi del S.
Uffizio contro ebrei e giudaizzanti, cit., vol. II, p. 33).
11
Cfr. ibidem, pp. 33, 46.
12Babylonian Talmud, Ghittin, c. 57a.
13
“Interrogatus si dicunt lesum Christum damnatum est in inferno
et ibi positum est in vase uno pleno stercore et si habent predicta scripta
in libris eorum vel aliis scripturis, respondit et dicit quod semel incivitate Romana et tempore papis Sisti audivit predicta verba et vidit
predicta in uno quinterneto et verba ea legit” [“In reply to the questionof whether it is said that Jesus Christ is in hell and was placed in a vasefull of excrement there and whether such words appeared in their books
or other scriptures, he answered and said that he had read theaforementioned words in Rome, in a booklet during the reign of Pope
Sixtus”] (cfr. Antoniazzi Villa, Un processo contro gli ebrei nella
Milano del 1488, cit., p. 102).
14
Salomone da Como stated “quod comprehendere ipsius quod
(Iesu) sit iudicatus in stercore calido” [“that he understood that (Jesus)
was being punished in hot excrement”] (cfr. ibidem, pp. 112-114).
15
Cfr. A.M. Haberman, Sefer ghezerot Ashkenaz we-Zarf at(“Book of the Persecutions in Germany and France”), Jerusalem, 1971,
p. 36.
16
Luigi Maria Benetelli, Le saette di Gionata scagliate a favor310degli Ebrei, Venice, Antonio Bortoli, 1703, p. 410.
17
In this regard, see S. Krauss, Imprecation against the Minim in
the Synagogue, in “The Jewish Quarterly Review”, IX (1897), pp. 515517.
18
In this regard, see Y. Boksenboim in Azriel Diena, Sheelot wteshuvot. Responsa, by Y. Boksenboim, Tel Aviv, 1977, vol. I, p. 12
note 5, and, more recently, R. Weinstein, Marriage Rituals Italian
Style. A Historical Anthropological Perspective on Early Italian Jews,
Leyden, 2004, pp. 225-226.
19
In this regard, see P. Burke, Insulti e bestemmie, in Id., Scene divita quotidiana nell’Italia moderna, Bari, 1988, pp. 118-138; Id., L’art
de l’insulte en Italie au XVIe et XVIIe siècle, in J. Delumeau, Injures etblasphèmes, Paris, 1989, pp. 249-261.
20
Leon da Modena, Historia de’ riti hebraici, Venice, Gio.
Calleoni, 1638, pp. 80-81; Giulio Morosini, Derekh Emunah. Via dellafede mostrata agli ebrei, Roma, Propaganda Fide, 1683, p. 836. On
gestural language in Jewish liturgy, see, recently, U. Ehrlich, The NonVerbal Language of Jewish Prayer, Jerusalem, 1999 (in Hebrew).
21
On the expressions and anti-Christian meanings of the hymn
’Alenu le-shabbeach, see, most recently, I.J. Yuval’s exhaustive
treatment in “Two Nations in Your Womb”. Perceptions of Jews andChristians, Tel Aviv, 2000, pp. 206-216 (in Hebrew).
22
Morosini, Derekh Emunah. Via della fede mostrata agli ebrei,cit., pp. 277-278.
23“Samuel stans apud Almemor coepit facere ficas in faciem pueri
et illud colaphis caedere et in faciem expuere. Moyses antiquus
similiter faciebat ficas, quas dum sic faceret, ostendebat dentes,
irridendo et Angelus expuendo in faciem pueri, illud colaphis caedebat.
Tobias cum manu sinistra coepit capillos pueri et cum caput eiusdem
pueri quateret super Almemor, tenendo capillos per manum cum alia
manu pluries colaphizavit faciem pueri, in illamque expuit. Et Israel,filius Samuelis, tenendo os apertum, emittebat linguam et fecit ficas etIoff, elevatis pannis, ostendit posteriora et pudibunda [displayed his
buttocks and genitals], et Isaac, coquus Angeli, similiter fecit ficas etcolaphis cecidit puerum. Et Moyses forensis fecit ficas, et Israel pietor
similiter fecit ficas et similiter omnes alii Judaei ibi adstantes feceruntaliquos actus illusorios [...] et Lazarus fecit ficas et semel cum manu
aperto percussit faciem pueri et per capillos cepit puerum et eius caput
quassavit”. [Approximately: “Samuele, standing near the altar, started
to ‘do the fig’ in the boy’s face and then he started to strike him andspit in his face. Moses the Old Man also ‘did the fig’, and, while he wasdoing it, he showed his teeth, grimacing, and Angelo spat in the boy’s
311

face, then started striking him. Tobias, with his left hand, held the boy
by the hair, holding his hair in his left hand, and with the other hand hestarted to strike the boy in the face, on the altar, over and over again,
and to spit in his face. And Israel, Samuele’s son, opened his mouth,stuck out his tongue, ‘did the fig’ and Joff, raising his hem, displayed
his buttocks and genitals [at least, if we assume that “pudibunda” =“filled with shame”, feminine nominative or ablative singular, is an
obvious translation error for “pudenda” = “genitals”, neuter accusative
plural; otherwise the sentence makes no sense, either grammatically orin context], and Isacco, Angelo’s cook, also ‘did the fig’ and struck theboy. And Moses did the fig in front of everybody and Israel piously did
the same, and so did all the other Jews who were there performed actsof mockery [...] and Lazarus ‘did the fig’ and struck the boy in the faceand held the boy by the hair and shook his head violently”] Depositionof Lazzaro da Serravalle dated 20 November 1475 (cfr. [Benedetto
Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica sul martirio del beato Simone da
Trento nell’anno MCCCCLXXV dagli ebrei ucciso, Trent, Gianbattista
Parone, 1747, p. 119). Peter Burke (Insulti e bestemmie, cit., p. 127)
maintains that the public exhibition of the private parts was a classicalgesture of contempt during the passage of Christ in a procession.
24“Quo puero sic stante, Samuel cum dentibus momordit aurem
dicti corporis et idem Joff cepit aurem praedicti corporis illam
stringendo cum dentibus” [Approximately: “The boy being on the altar,
Samuele bit the corpse on the ear with his teeth and Joff did the same,
fastening his teeth tightly”] (cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica,
cit., p. 119).
25“Die sequenti post festum Paschae (Anna) vidit corpus illius
extensum super Almemore et vidit in Synagoga omnes infrascriptos [...]
qui colaphis caeciderunt dictum puerum” [“The day after Easter (Anna)
saw the body lying on the altar and saw all the above mentioned
persons in the synagogue [...] who began to beat the above mentionedboy”] (cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 121).
26“Modo possunt esse anni tres vel quatuor et nescit dicere
praecise quot anni, fuit interfectus alius puer in domo Samuelis, qui
quadam die in vigilia tunc Paschae ipsorum Judaeorum de sero fuitportatus per Tobiam in domum Samuelis [...] Et dicit quod postea diesequenti [...] ipsa Bella vidit corpus dicti pueri in Synagoga priusprandium, hora quo celebrantur officia; quo corpore sic stante omnes
suprascripti Judaei et etiam alii Judaei advenae, qui tunc se repereruntin Civitate Tridenti, illuserunt contra corpus dicti pueri [...] illudendo etdicendo illamet verba: Tolle, suspensus, Tluyo, suspensa” (cfr. ibidem,
pp. 121-122).
312

“Qui omnes, corpore stante super Almemore, illuserunt in dictum
corpus, faciendo quasi easdem illusiones, pro ut factum fuit Tridenti indomo Samuelis” [“Everybody ridiculed the body lying on the altar,
making jokes...” (cfr. ibidem, p. 141).
28
The text of Hinderbach’s letter is reproduced in F. Ghetta, Fra
Bernardino Tomitano da Feltre e gli ebrei di Trento nel 1475, in“Civis”, suppl. 2 (1986), pp. 129-177.
29
The formula recited in the act of whirling the white chickens
around the head is as follows: “This is instead of me, it is in my place,
this is for my expiation (kapparah); this cock shall go to its death while
I will proceed towards a happy life with all Israel. Amen”. On the riteof the kapparot in the customs of the Ashkenazi Jews, see Siddur miberakhah (“Correct order of benedictions according to the customs of
the German Jews”), Venice, Pietro & Lorenzo Bragadin, 1618, cc. 3536.
30
Morosini, Derekh Emunah. Via della fede mostrata agli ebrei,cit., p. 665.
31
Cfr. Benetelli, Le saette di Gionata scagliate a favor degli Ebrei,cit., p. 222.
32
Angelo da Verona reported that “omnes dicebant infrascripta
verba in lingua Hebraica: chen icheressù chol hoyveha, que verba inlingua Latina sonant: così sya consumadi li nostri inimizi” (cfr. A.
Esposito e D. Quaglioni, Processi contro gli ebrei di Trento, 14751478. I: I processi del 1475, Padua, 1990, p. 290).
33
Azriel Diena, Sheelot w-teshuvot. Responsa, cit., vol. I, pp. 1014.
34
Mizwat nashim melammedah. Precetti da esser imparati dalle
donne hebree, composto per Rabbi Biniamin d’Harodono in lingua
tedesca, tradotto ora di nuovo dalla detta lingua nella Volgare per
Rabbi Giacob Halpron Hebreo a beneficio delle devote matrone &Donne Hebree tementi d’Iddio, Venice, Giacomo Sarzina, 1615, p. 98.
35
Cfr. Haberman, Sefer ghezerot Ashkenaz we-Zarf at, cit., pp. 34,
38-39. For a rather vague discussion of this matter, see S. Goldin, The
Ways of Jewish Martyrdom, Lod, 2002, pp. 119-121 (in Hebrew).
36“Et dicit se vidisse dictus corpus ut supra, dum ipsa Bella esset
super hostio Synagogae, cum qua etiam aderant Bruneta, uxor
Samuelis, Anna, ejus nurus, Bruneta, mater Angeli, et Anna, uxor tunc
Tobiae, qua mortua est jam duobus annis vel circa. Quae omnes
infrascripte mulieres et ipsa Bella illuserunt contra dictum corpus sic
jacens super Almemore, ut supra, faciendo ficas et expuendo in terram,
admovendo manus et quatiendo capita sua et dicendo praedicta verba”[“...and all the above mentioned women ridiculed the body lying on the27

313

altar, ‘doing the fig’ and spitting on the ground, waving their arms andviolently shaking the boy’s head and repeating the above mentioned
words”], (cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., pp. 121-122).
37
Cfr. Ioly Zorattini, Processi del S. Uffizio contro ebrei e
giudaizzanti, cit., vol. I, pp. 154-155.

314

CHAPTER FIFTEENISRAEL’S FINAL DEFIANCE
Israel da Brandenburg, the young Saxon painter and miniaturist who
arrived at Trent on the occasion of the fateful Passover of 1475 on oneof his frequent trips to the cities of the Triveneto region in search ofclients, Jews and Christians, was the first to opt for a rapid conversion
to Christianity. He had already successfully braved the baptismal
waters by the time the interrogations of the principal persons implicatedin the child murder of Simon began in late 1475. Wolfgang was given a
new name selected for him by Hinderbach, in honor of a saint forwhom the prince bishop of Trent showed particular affection.1 As
Wolfgang was to confess at a later time, he had decided to abjure thefaith of his fathers simply in the hope of saving his skin.2 And thecircumstances proved him right. Or at least, they proved him right, at
first.
Two months later, by the end of June, upon conclusion of the firstphase of the trials, the principle defendants, nine in total, including
Samuele da Nuremberg, Angelo da Verona and the physician Tobias da
Magdeburg, were condemned to death and executed. The old man
Mosè da Würzburg had died in prison before being sentenced to
execution. The trials were then all temporarily suspended by order ofthe Archduke of Austria, Sigismund. A few of the minor defendants, allof them from among the servants to the two principal money lenders
and the physician Tobias, were in prison waiting to learn their fate. By
contrast, the women of the small community were confined underhouse arrests in Samuele’s house, kept under surveillance by thebishop’s gendarmes.
Giovanni Hinderbach had taken a liking to the young convert,
Israel Wolfgang, and had demonstrated his trust in him by admitting
him freely to the castle and allowing him to sit at table among his
servants and courtiers. But his trust was not entirely disinterested. In
the summer of 1475, Wolfgang, the convert painter, was in fact the
only Christian in Trent who could read and understand Hebrew. Thisknowledge was indispensable to the young bishop, who, having
confiscated the goods of the condemned, found himself in need ofsomeone capable of deciphering the bank ledgers of the Jews, drawn
315up, as was normally the case, in Hebrew. The value of the pledges andtheir ownership by the citizens of Trent or foreigners could only be
determined by means of a correct interpretation of the entries appearing
in those books. In early June, Hinderbach decided officially to entrust
Israel Wolfgang with the paid task of supervising the restitution andredemption of the collateral amassed in the vaults of the Jewish banks.3
The Saxon painter’s new workplace was now the money lending shop
formerly owned by the deceased Samuele da Nuremberg. Here, theyoung Wolfgang spent a great part of his time, working diligently andcapably.
But at the same time, Israel Wolfgang had simultaneously decided
to use his conversion as a disguise, permitting him more easily to help
the Jewish women confined under house arrest, facilitating their escapeand expatriation.4 He secretly informed his influential and powerfulprotector of these intentions: Salomone da Piove di Sacco, who had
allowed Wolfgang to stay in his home as a guest, allowing him to meethis family and learn their secrets. The nearby city of Rovereto, locatedin the high valley of Lagarina, which belonged to the Republic ofVenice and was therefore outside bishop Hinderbach’s jurisdiction, hadbeen selected as the general headquarters of the representatives of the
Ashkenazi community of the Veneto region for the task of making
every effort to obtain the release of those defendants still in prison in
Trent, and to invalidate the trials. Salomone Cusi, sent to Rovereto by
Salomone da Piove, informed anyone who needed to know of Israel
Wolfgang’s full preparedness to bring about the prisoners’ release,particularly the women, quickly, and without attracting attention.5
Jacob of Brescia, Jacob di Bonaventura da Riva, and Cressone da
Nuremberg, some of the more prominent exponents of the “lobby”
gathered at Rovereto, were perfectly well aware of the dangerous
mission which the bold young Saxon, camouflaged as a Christian, had
voluntarily assumed.
Jacob da Brescia was the brother of Rizzardo, accused of being oneof the principal recipients of the blood originating from the Regensburg
child murder. The money lender did business at Gavardo, in the
Bresciano region, and, in testimony of his authority, in 1467, Milanese
officials referred to him as “the Jew who is the head of the otherJews”.6 For more than a decade, from 1475 to 1488, Jacob diBonaventura da Riva was generally considered the most influential
banker at Riva del Garda.7 Cressone (Gherson) was another highly
prominent Ashkenazi Jew. A native of Nuremberg, he had reached
Rovereto around 1460, but he had only received authorization from theDoge Nicolò Tron to bring his daughter and the family’s movable316

capital from his native city in 1471.8 Starting in 1465, a patrician from
Rovereto, Delfino Frizzi, had permitted him to live in his palace and to
become associated with the Adige river navigation business.9 In his
spare time, Cressone da Nuremberg also worked successfully in themoney trade, an activity which often took him to the principal centersof the zone, including Riva del Garda.10
In the summer of 1475, the air at Trent was charged with tension.
The minds of both Jews and Christians were filled with uncertainty
about the fate of the defendants still in prison, as well as concern for the
executed defendants’ wives and children. Israel Wolfgang and his
diligent collaborators were concerned with the total confiscation of all
the defendants’ property, the redemption of the collateral deposited intheir shops, the reimbursement of all sums borrowed – promptly
convoyed in Hinderbach’s strongboxes. In the meantime, as we haveseen, the Dominican Battista de’ Giudici, bishop of Ventimiglia, thePope’s delegate commissioner, moved from Rome to Trent to shedlight on Simon’s murder and to search for errors by the prince bishop,
suspected of the trials towards the resulting conclusion. Before Pope
Sixtus IV, Salomone da Piove insistently supported the sending of thiscommissioner to save those defendants still in prison and to muffle theundesirable scandal threatening to overwhelm the other German Jewish
communities of northern Italy, jeopardizing delicate interests andlaboriously captured positions while irremediably upsetting the politicalhinterland which had made these interests possible.
In August 1475, on the road to Trent, the commissioner of theJudges was crossing the Veneto with a small retinue of functionaries
and collaborators. It seems that they were accompanied by three Jews,
who joined them traveling from the region of Padua.11 Two of these areeasily identifiable as Salomone da Piove and Salomone Fürstungar.
Perhaps the third was Rizzardo da Regensburg’s brother, Jacob da
Brescia, returning from Rovereto. Fürstungar, the unscrupulous
wheeler-dealer and expert intriguer with a thousand resources andinfluential and multifarious contacts, was probably identical with oneof the most prominent figures in German Jewry, transplanted to the
Veneto region. This person was Salomone da Camposampiere, who,
together with Salomone da Piove, a friend and colleague, maintained
despotic control over the money trade at Padua and the district.12
Battista de’ Giudici entered Trent in the early part of the month of
September, taking up quarters at the Albergo Alla Rosa, in the Viadelle Osterie Grandi, from which the Wharf of Buonconsiglio was quite
visible. He courteously declined bishop Hinderbach’s invitation to be
his guest at the castle, probably intending to control his meetings and317

movements in this way, on the grounds that the inn, although Germanowned, was well-known for its appetizing Italian cuisine, a quality
particularly appreciated by the Dominican inquisitor, who consideredhimself a man of good taste, not one disposed to compromise inculinary matters.13 De’ Giudici was escorted by a small retinue,
including his assistant Raffaele, a one-eyed notary, blind in one eye,
who knew German and could act as an interpreter, and a mysterious
priest, old and hunchbacked, who always wore a torn black frock-coat.
The Albergo alla Rosa also hosted Salomone Fürstungar, the influential
wheeler-dealer who accompanied the apostolic commissioner withprudence and circumspection, meeting him frequently and speaking
Italian, without need for an intermediary of any kind.14
Israel Wolfgang was now required to respect the delicate anddangerous commitments which he had voluntarily assumed. The young
Saxon had been duly warned of de’ Giudidi’s arrival by Salomone da
Piove, and knew that Fürstungar would contact him [Wolfgang]
immediately.
They met at night, in the stalls of the Albergo alla Rosa, far fromprying eyes. Fürstungar informed Wolfgang that Gasparo, assistant toSigismondo’s steward, had procured a safe conduct for him [Wolfgang]
to travel to Innsbruck and confer with the Archduke of Austria in orderto obtain a definitive suspension of the trials and the release of theimprisoned women. He also asked Wolfgang to make himself available
to the apostolic commissioner through the one-eyed notary, who knew
German, and to deliver secret messages to the women, confined in
Samuele da Nuremberg’s house, messages to be transmitted to
Wolfgang from the general headquarters of the Ashkenazi Jews, set up
in Rovereto. The women were reassured, and informed of the goodprospects of Wolfgang’s mission before Sigismundo and thecommissioner’s full readiness to do everything possible to obtain theirrelease. Fürstungar entrusted Israel Wolfgang with money for his
expenses and trouble.15
The next day, it was the one-eyed notary’s turn to take theinitiative of meeting Israel Wolfgang. The location of the appointment
was the “stube” near the fountain behind the Chiesa di San Pietro, apublic bath in a discreet area of Trent where the streets were usuallyempty. The notary informed the young painter that he would soon becalled upon to talk with the commissioner and, knowing that Wolfgang
could freely enter the rooms of the castle of Buonconsiglio, he asked
Wolfgang to spy on Hinderbach’s movements and to inform him, thenotary, Raffaele, of any rumors going around at the castle relating to
the Jews still held in jail as well as on the eventuality of a resumption318

of the trials.
For his part, Israel Wolfgang warned the one-eyed notary that heintended to continue to avoid the Jews so as not to awaken suspicion,
informing him, in the meantime, of what he had succeeded in gleaningfrom the information floating around. A rumor was current at Trent thatthe apostolic commissioner was in cahoots with the Jews and proposed
to exonerate all those condemned for Simon’s murder, and bring about
the release of anyone still in prison, including the women. In thisregard, Israel Wolfgang knew that Hinderbach was not at all preparedto permit Battista de’ Giudici to meet the women for the purpose ofinterrogating them, and therefore expressed his intention to remove
them from house arrest in Samuele’s dwelling and throw them inprison, in separate cells.16
With his usual circumspection, Salomone Fürstungar, before
leaving for Trent on his way back from Innsbruck, had contacted
another person, considered a certain friend of the Jewish families. This
was Roper, known as Schneider Jud, a German known as the “tailor to
the Jews”, who had for years frequented their houses and was linked tothem through strong ties of solidarity. For these reasons, he wasarrested during the first phase of the trials and subjected to torture. But
he confessed nothing, obviously because he knew nothing. He had
finally been released and remained a friend to the Jews, although withjustifiable caution.
We must not, therefore, be surprised that Schneider decided to go
to Rovereto to meet the representatives of the Ashkenazi Jews, offering
them his assistance. During the meeting, he was informed by Salomone
Cusi, Salomone da Piove’s delegate, and Cressone da Rovereto ofFürstungar’s planned mission before the Archduke Sigismondo. Now
Fürstungar now assigned Schneider, directly, with the same tasks as
Israel Wolfgang, i.e., first of all, that of keeping contact with thewomen, and bringing them letters and information.17
Israel Wolfgang and Roper Schneider had become the Jewish
women’s messenger boys, their only precious source of information,
the only chink onto external reality. But they had to be careful to avoid
discovery. The bishop’s soldiers, in fact, occupied Samuele’s house, inwhich the women were confined, guarding the external door. The
Saxon painter could easily enter the house, since it contained some of
the late banker’s collateral, but if he was caught talking to the women
he would arouse the gendarmes’ justifiable suspicions. The solution
was to communicate orally, in the courtyard located at the rear of thehouse, where the women faced a small balcony overlooking the stall.
Any letters sent to them, as well as any letters written in response, by319

contrast, were exchanged through a chink dug in the surrounding
wall.18
Sara, Maestro Tobias’s widow, and with her, Bella and Anna, were
informed by Israel Wolfgang of the commissioner’s favorable attitude
towards them, as well as his plans to liberate them and the hopes linked
to Fürstungar’s ambassadorship at Innsbruck. In the letters sent from
Rovereto and written in Hebrew, Fürstungar himself, with Jacob of
Arco and Cressone, asked the women for detailed information about theconditions of their imprisonment and any coercive methods employed
by Hinderbach to make them confess. For his part, Israel Wolfgang was
now fully committed, working diligently and enthusiastically in thedesperate attempt to free Sara and the other prisoners. The intrepid
Saxon painter was thus compelled, despite himself, to neglect thegraces of his mistress, Ursula Oberdorfer, a prosperous local beauty
with whom he was accustomed to entertain himself concealed at
Angelo’s tavern, in the San Pietro district. To seal his love, Israel had
recently given the young lady, who was, of course, a Christian, aprecious silver ring with a valuable stone, obviously taken from
Samuele’s pledges, which he was supposed to safeguard.19
The same apostolic commissioner convened Israel Wolfgang to his
room in the inn, in the wee small hours of the morning, undermaximum secrecy. All of de’ Giudici’s collaborators were there:
Raffaele, the secretary responsible for drawing up the minutes; the oneeyed notary, who knew German and who acted as a translator, and thehunchbacked priest in a black cassock. Invited under oath to set forth
his version of the facts, the young Jew, now nominally a Christian, toldof the horrible tortures to which the accused, all innocent, had been
subjected during trial, for the purpose of extorting their confessions.
Hinderbach and his jailers were accused of orchestrating a colossal
injustice accompanied by ignoble machinations, all for profit. The Jews
of Trent were said to be the mere victims of a pitiless theorem [theorem= an indicative conditional: if A, then B], intended to demonstrate their
guilt at all costs.20
Israel Wolfgang was later to admit that he lied to thecommissioner, in his effort to be of some assistance to the poor women
who were still in prison.21 Interrupting the painter’s “domesticated”
report, the one-eyed notary asked him whether he could do something
to help the women escape from their involuntary abode.
The response was in the negative. Gendarmes were everywhere
and were determined to be effective guards, subjecting Sara and hercompanions in misfortune to strict supervision.
As early as late September, Salomone Fürstungar returned to320Trent, disillusioned by his meeting with Sigismundo at Innsbruck. The
archduke had in fact refused to intervene to free the prisoners and was
persuaded that the trials should resume for the purpose of arriving at a
final determination of the defendants’ guilt or innocence. The path was
now free for Hinderbach, who had probably exerted pressure on
Sigismundo to obtain a decision of this kind. For his part, Fürstungar,
angered by the unexpected failure of his mission, was now resolutely
determined to avenge himself upon the implacable bishop of Trent bydispatching him to his Creator, perhaps in the company of his
collaborators. And he knew he had a bold assassin at hand, prepared to
do the job.
Israel Wolfgang was urgently summoned to the usual meeting
place, at night. In the stalls of the “alla Rosa” inn, Fürstungar informed
Wolfgang of the negative outcome of the appointment with Sigismundo
and asked him to carry out an immediate plan to terminate
Hinderbach’s existence by poisoning.22 The poison was to be put in his
food while circumventing the many precautions with which the prudent
bishop had thought fit to protect his life. The young painter, eager tocarry out the new mission entrusted to him, carefully examined
Hinderbach’s habits at table. All dishes and wine placed on the tablewere tasted by various persons on three occasions, i.e., by the cook, inthe kitchen, by the steward, in putting the dish on the sideboard, and by
the waiter, in placing it on table. The poison therefore had to be placedin the food after the last servant had tasted it. Israel Wolfgang said he
was capable of choosing the right time, but needed to find the raw
material, an effective and lethal poison. Upon his return to the castle at
Buonconsiglio, he quickly set to work..23
Among the stationary materials in the office, Israel Wolfgang
knew there was a box containing materials belonging to a friend andcolleague who had recently died, Friar Pietro, a German who hadearned his living as a painter, miniaturist, and occasionally as analchemist. The ingredients used by the monk in preparing his colors
were bound to include some solid arsenic. Israel Wolfgang was not
mistaken: a respectable chunk of red arsenic, or cinnabar-coloredarsenic sulfide, soon found its way into his pockets.
The next night, the Saxon painter hasted to meet Fürstungar again;
with justifiable satisfaction, Wolfgang showed him the poison he had
obtained. But the astute and expert German go-getter only needed aglance to realize that that Wolfgang’s lump of bi-sulfide of arsenic wasalmost harmless, and would never have troubled the bishop of Trentwith anything more serious than a passing belly-ache. At any rate, heoffered to supply his young assassin as quickly as possible with good321

arsenic, capable of poisoning the bishop effectively.24 But for a varietyof reasons, the project, although never formally abandoned, was to takeanother course, and Israel Wolfgang is not thought to have seen
Salomone Fürstungar again.
Battista de’ Giudici wasn’t discouraged either. Unable to meet the
women and other defendants due to Hinderbach’s refusal, he concluded
that he could do little by remaining at Trent. The hostile andintimidating climate – as he saw it – in which he was compelled towork, actually prevented him from making the desired progress in his
inquiry.25 The failure of Salomone Fürstungar’s mission to Sigismundo,of which de’ Giudici had been duly informed, was only an obvious
prelude to the imminent resumption of the trials, leaving him with very
little time in which to work, carrying the dossiers to Rome with only
moderate hope that the appeals process might be approved and that thedefendants might be released before they suffered the anticipatedpunishment.
In very late September 1475, less than one month after de’Giudici’s arrival in the city, the pontifical commissioner decided toleave Trent and move to Rivereto, outside Hinderbach’s jurisdiction.
The choice of city seemed a rather delicate one, since Rovereto was
known as the established general headquarters of the Ashkenazi Jewish
community of northern Italy, actively mobilized some time before, in
their efforts to exonerate the accused from any responsibility in
Simonino’s murder. It was also foreseeable that the bishop would spareno pains in representing the apostolic functionary as being under the
thumb of the Jews. And Hinderbach lost no time in stressing theunsuitability of de’ Giudici’s decision. In a letter to the humanist friend
Raffaele Zovenzoni, the bishop of Trent [Hinderbach] noted that thereasons for the commissioner’s [de’ Giudici’s] move to Rovereto were
just phony excuses and that the presence of the Jews gathered in thecity at that time was highly suspicious.26
Before leaving Trent, commissioner de’ Giudici sent his one-eyednotary to Israel Wolfgang to inform him, Wolfgang, of his, de’Giudici’s intentions and later availability. De’ Giudici, who intended toleave for Rome as quickly as possible to confer with the Pope and try to
get him to stop the trials, is said to have warned the Saxon convert justin time for Wolfgang to reach Rovereto. In fact, the commissioner
wished to take Wolfgang with him to see Sixtus IV, considering
Wolfgang’s testimony of fundamental importance. At Rome, Israel
Wolfgang is also thought to have been assisted financially, as usual, by
Fürstungar. In the meantime, Wolfgang was to maintain his contacts
with the commissioner and keep him informed of everything going on
322

at Buonconsiglio, sending regular epistolary reports to his protector,
Salomone da Piove, who was well able to make best use of them. But
the most important recommendation was that Salomone should do
everything in his power to enable the women to escape from theirenforced confinement in Samuele’s home.27
With the departure from Trent of Fürstungar, who continued,
cautiously and with circumspection, to watch de’ Giudici and his
retinue in their every move, Israel Wolfgang became the only Jew,although formally converted, left in the city, able to render any
assistance to the women and other detainees. He was perfectly aware of
the delicate nature of this role. Although he was able to leave Trent
without impediment, reaching liberty on other, safer shores, the young
painter from Brandenburg was not prepared to abandon the dangerous
mission which he had voluntarily assumed. He was certainly notlacking in either courage or recklessness. He is believed to haveremained at Trent, engaged in his desperate attempt to save the women
defendants, at the risk of his life, to the bitter end.
Immediately upon his arrived at Rovereto, the apostolic
commissioner ordered the bishop of Trent to free the prisoners without
delay, particularly, the women and children, and he prohibited
subjecting them to torture. At the same time, the Jews presented
Battista de’ Giudice with an appeal disputing the validity of the trials,
signed by Jacob da Riva and Jacob da Brescia.28 They were ready toaccept it, instructing Hinderbach to respond to thirteen counts in an
indictment accusing him, among other things, of bringing the trials
solely to misappropriate the property of the condemned, estimated attwenty thousand florins.
The efforts expended to cause problems for the inquisitorialmachinery set up at Trent enjoyed an initial success on 12 October
1475, when Sixtus IV himself, at the request of the Jews gathered atRovereto, instructed Hinderbach to release the incarcerated women andchildren, said to be confined in precariously unhealthy conditions, andwhom Sixtus believed to be innocent.29 De’ Giudici, for his part,
invited Giovanni da Fondo, the notary at the Trent trials, to appear
before him to testify as a witness. The notary’s refusal was clear and
immediate. Giovanni in fact maintained that he feared for his life: theJews at Rovereto would not hesitate to have him murdered.30
In the meantime, Fürstungar, alias Salomone da Composampiero,reaching Val Lagarina together with the apostolic commissioner,
abandoned Rovereto immediately to travel to Verona in an attempt to
procure the services of Gianmarco Raimondi, one of the best lawyers in
the city. Having obtained an appointment, Fürstungar explained to the323Veronese jurist, Raimondi, that, in the cause of the Jews of Trent, he
could count on the support of illustrious Roman prelates, and that eventhe apostolic commissioner himself had only arrived in the area thanks
to the considerable financial commitments assumed by the Germanorigin Jewish community to ensure the commissioner’s very
appointment before the Pope. Raimondi was offered a fee at the rate ofthree florins a day to overcome his foreseeable hesitation, but to noavail: Raimondi had no intention at all of taking the case.31
At Trent, Israel Wolfgang had an unexpected meeting. Waiting forhim one morning under the portico of Samuele’s bank, was a German
Jew whom Wolfgang had met some time back, in his uncle’s house at
Erlangen, near Nuremberg. The German Jew told him that he, too, hadconverted to Christianity, taking the Christian name of Giovanni Pietro
by baptismal deed, registered at Mantua, but that he had remained
faithful in one way or another to the faith of his fathers. To allay
suspicion, he told people that he had been moved to visit Trent by the
miracles of little Simon, but had, in reality, been sent by the general
headquarters of the German Jews at Rovereto to make contact with
Israel Wolfgang. In particular, he had been instructed on his mission in
Trent by no less a personage than the usual Salomone da Piove, andwith him, Aronne da Castelnoveto.32 The latter was to be tried andcondemned in 1488 for contempt of the Christian religion, together
with the other heads of the Ashkenazi community of the Duchy of
Milan.33
The Mantuan convert known as “Giovanni Pietro” asked Israel
Wolfgang to place him in contact with the women detainees and toobtain useful information from them; he moreover wished to obtainfirst-hand news about the goings-on at Buonconsiglio. Promptly
satisfied, he [Giovanni Pietro] was successful in meeting secretly with
Brunetta, Samuele of Nuremberg’s obstinate widow, and asked her
whether she and the other prisoners had been subjected to torture,despite the intimations of the commissioner and the Pope.34 But there
was not much time left – not even to organize one last desperateattempt to arrange for the women’s escape and conveyance to safety.
The meeting between Israel Wolfgang and Giovanni Pietro da
Mantova, the German Jew from Erlangen, was held on 18 October.
Two days later, the Trent trials were officially re-opened, on
Hinderbach’s initiative, with the explicit consent of the court at
Innsbruck.
One week after that, Israel Wolfgang was already in trouble,
betrayed by Lazzaro da Serravalle and Isacco da Gridel di Vedera,
Angelo da Verona’s servants, as well as by Mosè da Franconia, teacher
324

of Tobias’s children, and Joav da Ansbach, the ignorant scullery boy in
Tobias’s kitchen, who, tortured and confessing, out of envy or spite,
had accused the young Saxon painter of responsibility for little Simon’s
murder.35
Israel Wolfgang was arrested on 26 October while dining at the
castle, calmly and with a good appetite, with the bishop’s officials andcourtiers. Immediately transferred to the prisons of the Buonconsiglio,
he was subjected to an exuberant dose of torture to induce him to say
whatever he knew or imagined.
The other defendants were condemned and publicly executed
between 1 December 1475 and 15 January of the following year. At thefoot of the scaffold, Mosè of Franconia and the coarse Joav bothconverted to the faith in Christ, in the hope of alleviating their own
suffering.36
Wolfgang was, deliberately, the last to be executed, condemned by
Giovanni Hinderbach’s tribunal on 19 January 1476.
Offended and feeling betrayed, Hinderbach made no exception of
any kind for Wolfgang, and punished him much more harshly thaneven the principal defendants on trial; his body, cruelly broken on thewheel, was devoured by animals. The young Saxon painter andminiaturist, “who said that he was less than twenty five years old,
although he looked at least twenty nine”, faced martyrdom without
batting an eye, dying a death which, both in his eyes and from the pointof view of that German Judaism to which he belonged, he had beentaught to court to sanctify the name of God (’al qiddush ha-Shem).
His death was accompanied by unflaggingly indecorous antiChristian grimaces and a scornful profession of polemical faith. The
voluntary sacrifice of Israel Wolfgang, the boy from Brandenburg,
counter-balanced, or, more exactly, flanked, the involuntary sacrifice oflittle Simon, in a holy tragedy in which the basic elements of the plot,
cruel and bloody, had been composed centuries before, in Hebrew andYiddish, in German and in Latin, in the valleys washed by the muddy
waters of the Rhine and the Main, the Rhône and the Danube, theAdige and the Ticino, where it was said that the god of the rivers
claimed their innocent victims every year.
“Yes, I am perfectly persuaded and convinced that killing Christianchildren and consuming their blood and swallowing it was a good thing[...] If I could obtain the blood of a Christian boy for our Passover feast,of course I would drink it and eat it, if I could do so without attracting
too much attention. Know ye that, although I have been baptized, I,
Israel, son of Meir, may he rest in peace, a Jew of Brandenburg, intend,
and have established in my soul, that I wish to die a true Jew. I had
325myself baptized when I saw that I had gotten caught, and in doubt that I
might be condemned to death, believing that I could avoid it, as
actually happened. Know ye, therefore, that I, Israel da Brandenburg,
Jew, do not consider anything believed and observed by the Christianreligion to be true at all. I believe with an unshakeable faith that thereligion of Israel is correct and holy”.37
But not everything had gone wrong, at least from Israel da
Brandenburg’s point of view. Not a single week had passed since his
arrest before the young Saxon Jew, in his cell, was informed that
Hinderbach had finally given in, perhaps in part to counterbalance
foreseeable criticism of his decision to reopen the trials, and hadconsented to release the incarcerated women’s children. These wereMosè and Salomone, the children of Verona and of Dolcetta; Seligman,
Meir of Würzburg’s young boy; Samuele da Nuremberg’s daughter-inlaw Anna’s young boy, still in diapers; and the numerous offspring of
the late Tobias, whose four children were named Joske, Mosè, Chaim
and David. An envoy from the apostolic commissioner appeared at the
castle of Buonconsiglio on 2 November and took delivery of thechildren, who were later taken to Rovereto and entrusted to the Jews.38
Little is known of their fate. Many of them were probably takenback to Germany and adopted by relatives or persons known by them,and seem to have disappeared from the pages of history. Only Mosèand Salomone, Angelo da Verona’s children, remained safely in Italy,
entrusted to the Ashkenazi community which had worked so actively toobtain their release.39 Following the confessions of Brunetta, Samueleda Nuremberg’s widow, and the other women, followed by theirconversion to Christianity, which occurred in January 1477, attempts toreturn the children to their mothers proved fruitless.40
Bella, Anna and Sara, who had, at the time, voluntarily entrusted
their children to the Jews of Rovereto – now that they were converted
and baptized under the names of Elisabetta, Susanna, and Chiara –wanted them back urgently, ceding to the pressures of those who
wished them to have the children baptized. Pope Sixtus IV himself, bya bull of 20 June 1478, addressed to Hinderbach, exhorted him to takeall steps to ensure that they might be returned to the recently converted
women, together with their dowries; the children were to be baptized.
But his attempts in this direction were too late; it was like closing thebarn door when the horse has already been stolen.
“We still wish, and we enjoin you to it with the same authority,that you shall use all diligence to ensure that the children of thecondemned Jews be returned to their baptized mothers, together with
their dowry, wherever that might be found, compelling any opponent or326

rebel by means of ecclesiastical censure and other means granted bylaw”.41
But the last scene of the drama was yet to be enacted. The drama
finally concluded with the solemn appearance at the baptismal font ofSalomone, the physician Tobias’s feeble-minded servant. The poor
imbecile, deemed incapable of understanding or consenting, had
survived the trial for little Simon’s murder because he gave no
indication of knowing or remembering anything about it. Now, to markthe occasion of the feeble-minded Salomone’s baptism, under the nameof Giovanni, in a crowded ceremony in the Chiesa di San Pietro at
Trent, it was the common desire of all that he might also recover thelight of the intellect.42 The body of the sainted little martyr Simon was
invoked aloud to perform this one last appropriate miracle.
***

NOTES TO CHAPTER FIFTEEN
1

Cfr. D. Rando, Dai margini la memoria. Johannes Hinderbach(1418-1486), Bologna, 2003, p. 398.
2
The podestà of Trent stated with some uncertainty “quodWolfgangus asseruit se minorem 25 annis et licet ex aspectu videatur
major annorum 28 vel circa” [“that Wolfgang said he was less then 25
years old, but you could see from his face that he was at least 28”]. At
an earlier date, on 21 April 1475, a record was made in the trial
documents “quod Israel Hebreus, qui ad praesens in carceribus
detinetur, occasione q. Simonis interfecti, desiderat effici Christianus et
Baptisma suscipere; idcirco praelibatus Reverendissimus Dominus
mandavit dictum Israelem de carceribus relaxari pro nunc, ita quod deCastro non exeat, ad hoc ut in fide instrui possit et deinde si visum
fuerit Baptizari” [Approximately: “that Israel the Jew, who is presently
being held in jail in relation to the killing of Simon, wishes to become a
Christian and undergo baptism; for this reason, the Prince Bishopcommands him to be released for now, as long as he doesn’t leave thecastle, so that he might be instructed in the faith, and we therefore
consent to his baptism”]. Israel Wolfgang later admitted that he had
been baptized to escape condemnation to death, “quare ipse
Wolfgangus fecit se baptizare, quia vidit se captum et dubitavit necondemnaretur ad mortem, credens se illam evadere, ut evasit” (cfr.
[Benedetto Bonelli] [“because this Wolfgang caused himself to bebaptized because he saw that he had gotten caught and feared he might
be sentenced to death, believing he could escape death, which in fact he327

did”], Dissertazione apologetica sul martirio del beato Simone da
Trento nell’anno MCCCCLXXV dagli ebrei ucciso, Trent, Gianbattista
Parone, 1747, pp. 138, 140, 147). In this regard, see also G. Divina,
Storia del beato Simone da Trento, Trent, 1902, vol. II, pp. 78 ss.; R.
Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475. A Ritual Murder Trial, New Haven (Conn.),
1992, pp. 95-96.
3
On 8 June 1475 it was announced that Hinderbach “praelibatus
Reverendissimus Dominus, attento quod non sit aliquis, qui libros
Hebraicos dictorum Judaeorum legere sciat, cum supradictis libris
nomina omnium qui habent pignora apud Judaeos scripta sint in
Hebraicis litteris, nec alius sit qui dictos libros legere valeat, de quo
verosimilius confidi possit, quam de suprascripto Israele, nun facto
Christiano et nominato Wolfgango, eidem Wolfgango licentiam dedit
quod possit exire de Castro etc.”] [Approximately: “since His Most
Reverend Lordship saw that there was nobody else who could read
what was written in the books of the Jews, said books containing
notations as to all the pledges held by the Jews, written in Hebrew, andthat nobody else who can be trusted is any good at reading them, except
for the above mentioned Israel, who has now become a Christian and iscalled Wolfgang, he gave the said Wolfgang permission to leave thecastle, etc.”] (cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 140).
4Israel Wolfgang confessed to the Trent judges that, taking
advantage of his new condition as a Christian, “volebat adjuvare
judaeos, si potuisset” [“that he wanted to help the Jews, if possible”](cfr. ibidem, p. 147).
5
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
87-90.
6
On Jacob da Brescia, see, in particular, F. Glissenti, Gli ebrei nel
Bresciano al tempo della Dominazione Veneta. Nuove ricerche e studi,
Brescia, 1891, pp. 714; A. Gamba, Gli ebrei a Brescia nei secoli XVXVI, Brescia, 1938, p. 31; F. Chiappa, Una colonia ebraica in
Palazzolo a metà del 1400, Brescia, 1964, p. 37; Sh. Simonsohn, The
Jews in the Duchy of Milan, Jerusalem, 1982, vol. I, pp. 433, n. 1013
and 677, n. 1632.
7“Iacob Ebreus et socii habitator Ripae”, [“Jacob the Jew, andassociates, residents of Riva”], or “Iacob Ebreus et socii dantes ad
usuram in Rippa” [“Jacob the Jew and his money-lending associates inRiva”], are very often recalled in the advisory orders of Riva del Garda
and in the notarial documentation for the years 1475-1488 (cfr. M.
Grazioli, L’arte della lana e dei panni nella Riva veneziana del sec. XVin due documenti dell’Archivio Rivano e Riva veneziano. Le uscite
ordinarie, in “Il Sommolago”, III, 1986, n. 1, pp. 109-120; IV, 1987, n.
328

3, pp. 5-54; M.L. Crosina, La comunità ebraica di Riva del Garda, sec.
XV-XVIII, Riva del Garda, 1991, pp. 29-35). It is not entirely
impossible that Jacob da Arco, of whom we know nothing, may be
identical with this Jacob da Riva.
8
The privilege of the Doge Nicolò Tron, relating to the transfer in
1471 of the daughter of Cressone da Nuremberg to Rovereto, isrecalled by R. Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder. Jews andMagic in Reformation Germany, New Haven (Conn.) – London, 1988,
p. 44.
9
Cfr. G. Boldi, Gli estimi della città di Rovereto (1449, 1460,
1475, 1490, 1502), Rovereto, 1988, pp. XXV, 92, 180, 343. Cressone,
who at Rovereto lived in the Frizzi palace “under the Rock”, possessed
real property in the district.
10
On Cressone’s banking activity, which included patrician
families among his clients, such as the Counts of Lodron, see C.
Andreolli, Una ricognizione delle comunità ebraiche nel Trentino tra
XVI e XVII secolo, in “Materiali di lavoro”, 1988, n. 1-4, pp. 157-158.
On his involvement in the Riva del Garda affairs, see Crosina, La
comunità ebraica di Riva del Garda, cit., p. 29.
11
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
69-70.
12
The reasons leading me to accept the proposed identification ofSalomone Fürstungar with Salomone da Camposampiero, alreadyadvanced by Daniele Nissim (La risposta di Isacco Vita Cantarini
all’accusa di omicidio rituale di Trento, Padua 1670-1685, in “Studi
Trentini di Scienze Storiche”, LXXIX, 2000, p. 830), are many, of
considerable weight: 1) it seems implausible that a personality of major
importance in the panorama of Ashkenazi leadership in the Veneto, like
Salomone da Camposampiero, should be quite absent from the
documentation relating to the efforts of the Jewish community to savethe Trent defendants, in contrast to what happened with his friend andcolleague Salomone da Piove; 2) Salomone Fürstungar, whose namedoes not appear in the documentation on the Jews of Padua having
come to light so far, is described in the trial records as a recognized
leader of the Paduan Jews, among whom he had been living for sometime, so much so as to have a perfect knowledge of Italian, in addition
to German (which fits Salomone da Camposampiero perfectly); 3)
Fürstungar was able to dress “like a Christian”, a privilege enjoyedonly by Jewish physicians and bankers, including Salomone daCamposampiero. On Salomone da Camposampiero and his family, cfr.
D. Jacoby, New Evidence on Jewish Bankers in Venice and the
Venetian Terraferma (c. 1450-1550), in A. Toaff and Sh.
329

Schwarzfuchs, The Mediterranean and the Jews. Banking, Finance andInternational Trade (XIII-XVIII Centuries), Ramat Gan, 1989, pp. 160177; D. Carpi, L’individuo e la collettività. Saggi di storia degli ebrei a
Padova e nel Veneto nell’età del Rinascimento, Florence, 2002, pp. 61110.
13
The inn alla Rosa, “a good inn”, among the most popular ofTrent, located in the district of the German inns beyond the northerngate of San Martino, was managed by the Bavarian family of Michael
di Konrad and his son Michael (cfr. E. Fox, Storia delle osterietrentine, Trent, 1975, pp. 84-87; S. Luzzi, Stranieri in città. Presenzatedesca e società urbana a Trento, secoli XV-XVIII, Bologna, 2003, pp.
229-236).
14
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
73, 86.
15
Ibidem, pp. 78-79; Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., pp. 98-100.
16
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
79-80.
17
Cfr. ibidem, pp. 87-90. On the interrogation and tortures towhich Roper Schneider was subjected, see A. Esposito and D.
Quaglioni, Processi contro gli ebrei di Trento, 1475-1478. I: I processidel 1475, Padua, 1990, pp. 38-40.
18
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
84-85.
19
Cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 148; Divina,
Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, p. 95.
20
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
81-83.
21“Wolfgangus interrogatus a dicto Monoculo (the one-eyednotary), illo Notario interprete D. Commissarii, respondit quod delato
sibi juramento [...] nec ipsi, nec alii Judaei interfecerunt dictum puerum[...] et ideo dixit et testificatus est quia ipse Wolfgangus volebat
adjuvare Judaeos si potuisset”] (cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione
apologetica, cit., p. 147).
22“(Salomon) rogabat ipsum Wolfgangum quod debebat cogitaremodum aliquem, per quem posset ulcisci. Et cum ipse Wolfgangus
respondisset quod erat contentus quod ulcisceretur, si modo posset,
praedictus Salomon dixit sibi Wolfgango quod deberet bene advertere
et diligenter considerare castrum, videlicet bene advertere quem
modum servabat Reverendissimus Dominus in bibendo; et si aliquo
modo idem Reverendissimus Dominus posset venenari et quod bene
debeat considerare ista et in reditu ejusdem Salomonis postea referresibi Salomoni. Cui Salomoni ipse Wolfgangus ita promisit facere”
330

[Approximately: “(Salomone) told Wolfgang that he should think ofsome way to get revenge. And when Wolfgang told him he would be
happy to get revenge, Salomone told him that he should take great careand study the castle carefully, and see who served His Most Reverend
Lordship his drink, and see if there was any way that that he might bepoisoned, and that he should think about this, and report back to
Salomone later. Which Wolfgang promised to do”] (cfr. ibidem, p.
145). In this regard, see Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit.,
vol. II, pp. 127-145; Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., pp. 101-102.
23“Salomon dixit sibi Wolfgango an posset venenare
Reverendissimum D. Episcopum Tridentinum, cui Salomoni ipse
Wolfgangus respondit quod praefatus Reverendissimus Dominus
faciebat sibi fieri magnas custodias, faciendo sibi facere credentias, etquod ipse Wolfgangus tamen tentaret et videret si posset illum
venenare. [...] Wolfgangus cogitaverat de venenando ipsum
Reverendissimum Dominum et alios hoc modo, quia volebat conterere
dictum venenum et postea se approximare credentiae, super qua
deferentur fercula, quae postea deferuntur in mensam Reverendissimi
Domini et tentare, si illud venenum poterat proijcere vel in vinum vel in
fercula, et hoc interim dum dicta fercula starent super credentieria,
pincerna aut aliis ibi existentibus non advertentibus” (cfr. [Bonelli],
Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 146).
24“Wolfgangus vidit dictum frustum veneni super disco inCancellaria et accepit tantum de dicto veneno, quantum esset una
avellana, et illud portavit ad dictum Salomonem, qui Salomon respondit
quod illud non erat de bono veneno ad interficiendum et quod idem
Salomon bene portaret de bono veneno pro interficiendo” (cfr. ibidem,
p. 146).
25
The apostolic commissioner also lamented the true and proper
climate of Trent, humid and rainy, which is said to have reduced him toa state of infirmity for three weeks (see Battista de’ Giudici, Apologia
Iudaeorum. Invectiva contra Platinam, by D. Quaglioni, Roma, 1987,
pp. 49-59).
26
In the missive, Hinderbach stressed that “Iudei et quidam
doctores qui apud Rovredum, oppidum nobis vicinum, sunt, ubi etiam
legatus ille seu commissarius se pretextu adverse valitudinis que illum
et suos hic invasit pridem se reduxit” (Esposito and Quaglioni,
Processi, cit., vol. I, p. 17).
27
In this regard, see Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento,
cit., vol. II, pp. 93-94.
28
Cfr. ibidem, pp. 101-104; Esposito e Quaglioni, Processi, cit.,
vol. I, pp. 19-21.
331

“Verum, exponitur nobis pro parte ludeorum, quod illic adhuc
nonnulli pueri et femine, de quorum innocentia nullum dubium esse
dicitur, detineantur infirmi, non absque vite, propter infirmitatem
huiusmodi, periculo, carcerati. Hortamur in Domino fraternitatem tuam,ut, si carcerati predicti circa eiusdem pegni negocium culpa carent,
eosdem relaxare, et operam suam etiam apud ducem ipsum, si
necessarium fuerit, in hoc efficaciter impartiri velit, ut pro iustitie
debito relaxentur” (cfr. Sh. Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and theJews. III: Documents, 1464-1521, Toronto, 1990, p. 1232). See also
W.P. Eckert, Aus den Akten des Trienter Judenprozesses, in P. Wilpert,
Judentum im Mittelalter, Berlin, 1966, p. 300.
30
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
112-113, n. 6.
31
The lawyer, Raimondi, hastened to write to Hinderbach a few
days later, on 12 October 1475, informing him of Salomone
Fürstungar’s report during the meeting. “Nonnulli Judeorum hic
commorantium, oblato non parvo pondere auri, patrocinium meumhabere quaesierunt et dietim sedulo aureos tres pollicebantur,
subjungentes quod apud Summum Pontificem favores plurimos
Praelatorum consequebantur et Delegatum Apostolicum impetrasse
magna exposita pecunia. Haec et alia verba, quae mihi somnia
videbantur, percepi a Salomone, hic commorante”. The letter was
published by Bonelli (Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 145) and isreproduced by Divina (Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II,
p. 105).
32
In this regard, see Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento,
cit., vol. II, pp. 114-117; Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475, cit., pp. 99-100.
33
On the 1488 trial of Samuele, a resident of Castelnoveto, and theother German Jews living in the Duchy of Milan, see Simonsohn, The
Jews in the Duchy of Milan, cit., vol. II, p. 897; A. Antoniazzi Villa, Un
processo contro gli ebrei nella Milano del 1488, Milan, 1986, pp. 107108.
34
Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp.
116-117.
35
Cfr. ibidem, p. 135.
36
Cfr. ibidem, pp. 57-60.
37“Quod ipse Wolfgangus tenet et firmiter credit quod sit bene
factum interficere pueros christianos et comedere et bibere sanguinem[...] et quod si ipse Wolfgangus posset habere de sanguine pueri
christiani in festo Paschae ipsorum Judaeorum, etiam de illo biberet etcomederet, dummodo posset illum secrete comedere et bibere; et quod,
licet sit baptizatus, tamen intendit et in animo suo statuit velle mori ut
29

332

realis Judaeus, et ipse Wolfgangus fecit se baptizare, quia vidit secaptum et dubitavit ne condamnaretur ad mortem, credens se illam
evadere, ut evasit [...] et ipse Wolfgangus nihil credit de his quae fides
Christiana tenet et observat et quod tenet pro firmo quod fides
Judaeorum sit justa et sancta” [Approximately: “That Wolfgang heldand firmly believed that it was a good thing to kill Christian boys andeat and drink their blood [...] and that if he could obtain the blood of
Christian boys during the Jewish Passover feast, he would eat and drinkof it, as long as he could eat and drink of it in secrecy; and that it was
lawful to be baptized, but that he intended and wished in his soul to diea real Jew, and that he had himself baptized because he saw he had
gotten caught and was afraid he’d be condemned to death, and thinking
he could get off, which he did [...] and that he didn’t believe there wasany truth in the Christian faith and that he firmly held that the faith of
the Jews was holy and just.”] (cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica,
cit., pp. 147-148).
38
In this regard, see Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento,
cit., vol. II, p. 110. Battista de’ Giudici is said to have been lateraccused of having delivered the children to the Jews of Rovereto
instead of having them baptized (“in quantum tradidit sanguinem
innocentem perfidis Iudeis, videlicet infantes illos, qui modo essent
Christiani, quorum animae plus valerent quam totus mundus”). Vedi
[Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 132.
39
The ritual decisions of the well-known rabbi Israel Isserlein ofWiener Neustadt refer to a compromise relating to the sharing of theinheritance of Angelo da Verona (who here appears under the name ofEngel mi-Trient) among the orphan children, in a dispute before arabbinical tribunal, the judges of which were from Treviso, Verona andPadua (Israel Isserlein, Pesaqim w-ketavim, Fürth, 1738, c. 17b, par.
102-103). Since Isserlein died in around 1460, it is not possible that the
response, obviously linked to a situation later than 1475, can be
attributable to him; the response was probably erroneously included
among his writings. In this regard, see I.J. Yuval, Scholars in TheirTime. The Religious Leadership of German Jewry in the Late Middle
Ages, Jerusalem, 1984, p. 261. In August of 1498, the brothers, Mosèand Salomone, Angelo’s sons, appointed as their procurator Manueleda Rovigo to recover the loans forming part of their father’s inheritance(cfr. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchy of Milan, cit., vol. IV, pp.
2847-2848). It should be noted that Mosè, son of the late Angelo da
Verona, was still alive and presumably rather old by the mid-Sixteenth
century. He lived at Cremona (cfr. Simonsohn, The Jews in the Duchyof Milan, cit., vol. II, pp. 1335, 1357).
333

40

On the conversion of the women detained at Trent, see, inparticular, [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., pp. 158-160;
Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, pp. 204-206.
41“Preterea volumus, et eadem tibi auctoritate iniungimus, quodomnem adhibeas diligentiam, ut infantes Iudeorum damnatorum filii,
eorum baptizatis matribus, una cum dotibus matrum eorundem, apud
quoscumque reperiantur deposite, omnino restituantur; contradictores
quoslibet et rebelles per censuram ecclesiasticam, et alia iuris remedia
compescendo” (cfr. Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews, cit.,
pp. 1246-1247). In this regard, see also Eckert, Trienter
Judenprozesses, cit., p. 300. My text includes Divina’s translation of
the passage from the Papal bull, Divina (Storia del beato Simone da
Trento, cit., vol. II, p. 212).
42(Comparuit) Joannes Neophytus, alias Salmon in Judaismo
denominatus, genua sua humiliter et devote flectens, et manus suas
versus eandem capsam, in qua corpus praefati Beati Simonis et
Martyris conservatur, tendens [...] in signum contritionis ac votorum
suorum Omnipotenti Deo ac Beato Simoni” [“Johann the convert, alias
Salomon, his Jewish name, humbly and devoutly (appeared) on bended
knee, with his hands extended towards the vault in which the body ofthe Holy Saint Simon is kept, as a sign of contrition and prayer to the
Omnipotent God and Saint Simon”] (cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione
apologetica, cit., pp. 159-160). See also Divina, Storia del beato
Simone da Trento, cit., vol. II, p. 60.

334

DOCUMENTARY APPENDIX
1. Venice1452, 28 February1452, l March
The physician Abbe de Mosè del Medigo di Candia, imprisoned in
the Carceri Nuove of Venice under the accusation of having
crucified lambs at Passover, in contempt of the Christian religion,is accused together with the money lender Bonomo da Mestre of
having attempted to bribe Antonio Priuli, “district mayor in theLevant” of Venice. The Avogaria di Comun condemns Bonomo andacquits Abba del Medigo.
– ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3650 (I), cc. 28r-29r.
Die XXVIII februarii. Bonomus ebreus filius Moisi contra quem
processum fuit per dominos advocatores comunis et offitium suum ineo, de eo et pro eo quod dum ipse Bonomus alquotiens iret visitatum
Abbam ebreum carceratum in carcere novo ad requisitionem
dominorum auditorum novorum sententiarum veluti sindicorum
levantis et quandoque intercessisset nominem dicti Abbe cum viro
nobili ser Antonio de Priolis, uno dictorum auditorum in ipso casu,
ausu temerario et non propendens quantum hoc redundabat in infamiam
et dedens nobilium huius rei publice, dixit ipsi Abbe falso et contra
veritate quod vir nobilis ser Antonius predictus rogabat ipsum Abbam
ut sibi mutuo daret ducatos quinquaginta ex quo ipse Abbas, repertis
ipsis denariis, etiam ipse mutuo eos dedit ipsi Bonomo ebreo, credens
ut ipsos mutuo daret ipsi ser Antonio de Priolis, qui Bonomus ipsos
denarios pro se retinuit. Cumque post aliquos menses ipse Abba vellet
denarios suos et hoc diceret ipsi ser Antonio de Priolis, ipse ser
Antonius turbatus ex hac gulositate, predictum manifestavit dominis
advocatoribus comunis ut de omnibus et predictis latius patet perprocessus camere; ductus et placitatus fuit ipse Bonomus in Consilio de
XL, in quo posita fuit pars si videtur vobis per ea que dicta sunt quod
procedatur contra Bonomum ebreum filium Moisi qui, postposito omni
timore Dei et domini nostri, accepit ab Abba ebreo carcerato ducatos.L. pro subornando virum nobilem ser Antonium de Priolis sindicum335

levantis et eos pro se retinuit ut est dictum.
Datis atque receptis in ipso consilio ballotis XXXIII fuerunt: nonsinceris -10-, de non -1- et de parte -22-. Capto ergo de procedendo,
positis diversis partibus, captum fuit quod ipse Bonomus stare debeat
uno anno in carceribus et solvat ducatos centum auri et quod sit
bannitus per quinque annos de Venetiis et districtu, et si in dicto
tempore se permiserit reperiri quod stare debeat uno anno in carceribus
et solvat ducatos ducentos auri et iterum banniatur et totiens quotiens sepermiserit reperiri; et quod de predictis vel aliquo predictorum non
possit sibi fieri gratia, donum, remissio, revocatio vel aliqua declaratio
nisi per sex consiliarios tria capita de XL, XL, de XL et quatuor partes
Maioris Consilii, nec possit poni de faciendo aliter sub pena contenta inparte nova contrabandorum.
Die primo martii. Abba ebreus carceratus absolutus, sed tamen
contra quem processum fuit per dominos advocatores comunis etoffitium suum et pro eo quod, dum esset carceratus, ad istantiam
virorum nobilium ser Antonii Grandonico et ser Antonii de Priolis
auditorum et sindicorum levantis, et Bonomus ebreus filius Moisi, qui
ipsum quandoque visitabat in carceribus, falso et contra scientiam
ipsius ser Antonii sibi dixisset quod prefatus ser Antonius de Priolis
rogabat ipsum Abba ut ei mutuaret ducatos quinquaginta; ipse Abbas
potius pro subornando quem ad aliud finem dedit ipsi Bonomo ducatos.L., credens quod ipse Bonomus eos daret ipsi ser Antonio, sed ipse eos
retinuit pro se, ut latius patet per processus camere ductus et placitatus
fuit in Consilio de XL in quo sub die XXVIII februarii proxime elapsi
primo posita fuit pars si videtur vobis pro ea que dicta et lecta suntquod procedatur contra Abbam ebreum, carceratum ad instantiamsindicorum levantis, qui postposito omni timore dominii nostri dedit
Bonomo ebreo ducatos .L. auri ut eos daret pro subornatione viro nobili
ser Antonio de Priolis sindico ut est dictum.
Datis atque receptis in ipso Consilio ballotis XXXIII fuerunt: nonsinceris -11-8-, de non -12-16- et de parte -9-9- et quomodo nil captum
fuit. Secondario, sub die primo instantis, posita dicta parte in dicto
Consilio et datis atque receptis in ipso Consilio ballotis XXXII fuerunt:non sinceris -11-8-, de parte -5-5- et de non -16-19- et sic captum fuitde non et remansit absolutus.

2. Venice1452, 30 October

336

Abba del Medigo di Candia, tried on a charge of having crucified
lambs at Passover, in contempt of the Christian religion,
incarcerated at Venice, is accused of having committed
blasphemous acts in his cell against the faith in Christ. Abba iscondemned.
– Asv, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3650 (I), c. 49rv.
Die XXX octobris MCCCCLII, indictione prima. Abba Moisis delMedigo ebreus, contra quem processum fuit per dominos advocatorescomunis et offitium suum in eo et pro eo quod, dum esser carceratus
per sindicos levantis inculpatus de crucifixione agni, parvipendens
Dominum nostrum et spiritu diabolico ductus, quodam die accepta
zangula de loco suo eam in vilipendium crucifixi posuit sub ymagine
Jesu Christi crucifixi dumque carcerati redarguerentur eum cepit dicere
quod domina nostra virgo Maria fuerat incantatrix et docuerat Jesum
talia facere et quod habuerat tres viros et alios filios, diridendo demiraculis virginis predicte, ut latius patet per processus camere. Ductus
et placitatus fuit in Consilio de XL in quo posita fuit pars si videtur
vobis per ea que dicta et lecta sunt quod procedatur contra Abbam
ebreum Moisis de Cretta qui existens carceratus propter fidem, ductus
spiritu diabolico in maximam ignominiam fidei catolice multa
turpissima verba dixit contra virginem Mariam et Jesum Christum,accipiendo zangulam et eam ponendo ante crucifixum ut est dictum.
Datis atque receptis in ipso Consilio ballotis XXVIII fuerunt: nonsinceris -11-, de non -2- et de parte -15-. Capto itaque de procedendo,
positis diversis partibus, captum fuit quod iste Abbas stare debeat uno
anno in carceribus et solvat libras mille advocatoribus comunis.

3. Venice1454, 7 June
Abba di Mosè del Medigo and other Jews from Candia are accusedof having crucified a lamb on Passover 1451, as they wereaccustomed to do every year, in contempt for Jesus and theChristian religion. Abba and the other accused, arrested andtransferred to the prisons of Venice, are tried before the Maggior
Consiglio.
– Asv, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3650 (II), cc. 9v-l0r.
337

Die septimo junii MCCCCLIIII, indictione II. Abas quondam Moisi
ebreis absolutus sed tamen contra quem processum fuit per dominos
advocatores comunis et offitium suum in eo et pro eo quod dum alias
viri nobiles ser Laurentius Honoradi et ser Antonius Gradonico olim
sindici ad partes levantis se reperissent in civitate Candide et ad eorum
aures, ex fama publica, pervenisset quod ebrei ibidem commorantes invilipendium catolice fidei christiane omni anno crucifigebant unum
agnum in sanctissimo die veneris sancti, ipsi sindici super fama publica
examinaverunt multos testes. Postea, post recessum suum per regimen
Crette, fuit examinata Marina Vergi, olim ebrea et effecta tunc
christiana, ex qua testificatione inter alios nominatus fuit ipse Abbas inpropria domo quadam nocte crucifigisse unum agnum in ignominia
Jesu Christi, ex quibus scripturis ipse Abbas et ceteri nominati ininfrascripta testificatione fuerunt per sindicos placitati, collegiati etintroducti ad Maius Consilius et in tertio consilio absoluti. Cumque ex
postea dictum consilium absolutionis fuisset incisum propter placitareadvocatores, ut patet in libro processum, modo condemnatione facta
contra virum nobilem Hieronymum Lambardo et spectabilis vir
dominus Nicolaus Bernardo tunc advocator comunis intromisisset
ipsum Abbatem et successive dominus Antonius Diedo honorabilis
advocator intrasset secum in oppinione una cum viris nobilibus ser
Thadeo Justiniano, ser Antonio Gradonico et Candiano [Bolani]
auditoribus et in hac parte sindicis accesserunt ad Consilium Maius etiterum introducentes solum ipsum Abbatem primo sub die XXI maii
proxime preteriti posuerunt partem tenoris infrascripti: verum si videtur
vobis per ea que dicta et lecta sunt quod procedatur contra Abbatem
quondam Moisi del Medigo ebreum qui, postposito omni timore huius
christianissime rei publice, in maximum opproprium fidei catolicae
ausus fuit, una cum aliquibus aliis perfidis ebreis, in civitate nostra
Candide in die veneris sancti renovare misteria passionis domini nostri
Jesu Christi et crucifixerunt unum agnum, quod etiam ipse Abbas indomo sua fecit ut est dictum.
Datis atque receptis in ipso consilio ballotis -307- quia ipsum
consilium poterat in presenti casu esse in ordine cum ballotis -300-,
vigore partis capte propter hoc modo ipso consilio fuerunt: non sinceris-91-69-, de non -85-95- et de parte -131-142- et quomodo nihil captum
fuit.
Secundario sub die VII junii presentis introducto modo ipso
consilio casu predicto et datis atque receptis ballotis -500- fuerunt: nonsinceris 123-, de parte -123- et de non -254- et sic remansit absolutus.

338

4. Venice1463, 29 December
The Consiglio dei Dieci di Venezia grant the merchant David
Mavrogonato di Candia, his children and descendants, a series ofprivileges for having revealed a conspiracy hatched at Venice in1461 to the detriment of Venice, and for having contributed to thecondemnation of the defendants. On 10 February 1464,
Mavrogonato asked that the privilege be extended to his businessassociate, the banker Salomone da Piove di Sacco.
– Asv, Inquisitorato agli Ebrei, envelope 19, doc. no. 3 (copy in ASV,
Inquisitorato agli Ebrei, envelope 39).
1463, die 29 decembris. Cum David Mavrogonato Judeus de Creta
esset pro suis agendis Mercator in Venetiis et in Appellatione coram
Auditoribus Sententiarum et unus papa Cretensis revelasset Capitibus
el Consilio .X. certam suspitionem tradimenti et vellet esse secretus,
visum fuit Capitibus Consilii .X. quod ipse David, qui fuerat Interpres
papatis, relictis rebus suis et Appellatione sua, iret in Cretam ad
denotandum Regi Cretae et capi faciendum nominatos et suspectos,
quam rem idem David libenter fecit et sagaciter executus fuit omnia.
Cumque ibi stando, pro una re habuisset quamdam notitiam de
Joanne Gavala, qui volens reincendere proditionem Siffi miserat
Litteram et postea percusserat Joannem Milisino, pro qua causa cum
ignotum esset quis scripserat illam Litteram et quis percusserat, per
Regimen Cretae publicata et per istud Consilium .X. confirmata fuittalea danda yppr tria statim et .V. singulo Anno et participatio
officiorum et beneficiorum cum Descendentibus et tres bannitos, sicut
constat per Litteras Regis Cretae. Ipse David die 12 Mensis Octobris
dedit notitiam Regi Cretae de hac re, cumque Regimen non ita cito ad
inquirendum et procedendum attendisset, die 18 Mensis Novembris
Regimen Rethimi inquisivit et processit, et captum Gavala mori fecit,
nullo dato praemio denunciatori nec ibi, nec hic, quam de Mensis
Octobris conscientia et accusatio ipsius facta fuerat Regi Cretae.
Cumque praedictus David, nunc reversus ad Capita, exposuisset
incomoda sua cum eundo, stando et redeundo de Mandato Capitum .X.
passus fuit et publicum odium, quod ipse in tota insula tam per
Christianos quam per Judeos acquisisset, cum jam digito mostraretur abomnibus, tam pro prima causa quam pro ista secunda, nec petat propter
hoc praemium Taleae, sed solum gratiam Dominij et infrascriptas339

petitionem et justum sit ac conveniens honori Nostri Dominij etexemplo aliorum quod non per charitatem sed per praemia serviunt,
quod pro retributione fidei suae ad Dominum Nostrum et pro
recognitione laborum et accusationum suarum, postquam non petit
limitatam taleam, aliquid sibi per Nos concedatur, quod sit publicum
signum gratitudinis. Et audito Consilio et responsione Regis Cretae
super denuntia et super Judaeis Castellorum et etiam Nobilis Viri ser
Leonis Duodo ultimi Duche Cretae.
Vadit Pars quod, excepto Capitulo de extrahendo aliquem deBanno, dictae petitiones sibi concedantur, tenor quarum talis est
videlicet:
MCCCCLXIII. Ser. Ducali Dominio, suoque Excellenti Consilio
supplicat et reverenter petit fidelis Servus suus David q. Eliae
Mavrogonato, Zudio de L’isola Vestra de Crede. Cum sit, che per lui
sia sta’ fatto e compidamente esequito tutto quello li fò commesso per
Magnifico Signor Cavi di .X. in andar in Candia, e poi revelado el fattode Zan Milisino per lo qual vene in le vostre man Zuanne Gavala, elqual aveva taja yppr. .III. de subito e yppr. .V. all’Anno, partecipazion
de officij e beneficij con suo Descendenti in perpetuo, e cavar trè debando, confermada per lo Excellente Consejo de .x., de le qual cosefaza la Vostra Clemenzia quanto li par e piase, o per la so Fameja, laqual è povera proveda a so piacer perché se trova in gran povertade.
+ E sel par alla Vostra Signoria che domanda, Io supplico che perle Colte, le qual nui Zudij pagemo in Crede, Io David con mie Fioli etutti Descendenti in perpetuum, ne per Zudij ne per altri mai non sia
accresudi più di quello al presente Io son in Estimo, zoè pp. uno all’Anno, ne altra angaria ne possa esser messa mai più ne accresuda, ma
sempre siano in lo Extimo ch’io sono al presente.
+ Item una Casetta a pepian so’ de un Zudio, sotto la Casa deSabatheo Caxani confiscada in Comun zà longo tempo, la qual seaffitta alcune fiade yypr. .8. over .X. all’ Anno, et alcuni Anni non setrova affittar, supplico sia concessa a mi e mie Discendenti liberamente
in perpetuum.
+ Item perche il Mangano hà de sovra una Terrazza, qual el
Reggimento de Crede ogni do Anni convien far conzar e reparar, e
spende yppr. .L. e da la in suso, Supplico me sia concessa quella
Terrazza, ch’è solo lajere, sulla qual Io possi edificar qualche Casa, equella Terra vacua, la qual i se daladi, della qual utilità alcuna non sehà, azochè per quella Io abbia la mia Entrada sù quella Terrazza,
supplico me sia concesso passa .IIII. per larghezza e per longhezza,quanto è la Casa del dito Mangano, siando tegnudo tegnirlo in colmo amie spese.
340

+ Item degnasse le Vostre Magn. veder la resposta del Reggimento
de Crede per lo abitar di Zudijin li Castelli Vostri, Castel nuovo e
Castel Bonifacio, e de gratia conciederme che i predetti Zudei possa
tornar ad abitar e star in li ditti Castelli con quelle condizion e muodi intutto si como i stava avanti che de là i fosse remossi. Recordando alla
Vostra Signoria che tal abitazion sarà cum segurtà del Vostro Stado,
perché i ama el Stado Vostro e mostrolo cum effetto al tempo dellarebellion gran da e per i sui privileggi el se dichiara e pruova. Item elsarà cum utele della Signoria per la entrada de quelli Castelli.
+ Item degnasse la Vostra Signoria reffarli la Lettera lui ave dalle
Vostre Magn., quando per quelle el fò mandado in Crede, azochè el sia
libero da Corsari e mala zente, e questo in vita soa. + Item se degni
conciederli ch’el non porta segno del .O. per suo salude, e ch’el possi
portare Arme cun uno appresso de sì per segurtà della sua Persona,azochè da qualche Villan over altra mala persona non li possi esser
fatta violenzia over vergogna e mal per quello la fatto per Vui.
+ Item li sia concesso poder cavar de Bando per puro omicidio do
Persone solamente. Ex margine: 1463, die primo Februarij. David
praedictus dixit et declaravit quod Socius suus, signi non portans etarma (portans), est Salomon qm. Marci (de Plebesacci), cujus auxilio etconsilio usus fuit in praedictis et omnia praedicta.

5. Venice1473, 3 September
Anselmo (Asher, Hossar) “with the beard”, a German Jew of
Venice, smuggler and alchemist, is arrested by the Avogaria di
Comun for having sold two false gold bars to a Venetian artisan,
defrauding the assayer of Rialto.
– Asv, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3653 (II), cc. 44v-45r.
Die III septembris (1473). Anselmus iudeus a barba, contra quem
processus fuit et est per antescriptos dominos advocatores in Consilio
XL pro eo quod, ad finem defraudandi mercationis et maioris sui lucri,
ausus est in fundo denariorum fundellorum, ubi sollitum est accipi
sagium argenti, fundidit aliquantum limature aurri itaquod videbaturargentum ipsum tenere aurum in multis [...]ractis. Sicque cum ipsis
fundelis accessit ad sagiatorem folee auri in Rialto, qui sagium fecit etfecit bulletinum ipsi iudeo prout solitum est fieri, quem postea
341

argentum dictus Anselmus vendidit Joanni Antonio partitori in eiusdem
danno et deceptione. Ex quo formato processu tanquam prefati domini
accedentes ad Consilium XL posuerunt processum infrascripti tenoris:
si videns vobis per ea que dicta et lecta sunt quod procedatur contra
Anselmum iudeum pro istis duobus fundellis argenti fundatis,
demonstrantibus tenere aurum et non tenentibus nisi in locis in quibus
solit acceperi sagium per sagiatorem comunis, vinditis Joanni Antonio
partitori ad eiusdem deceptionem et dannum maximum, ut est dictum.
Quod datis atque receptis in ipso Consilio sub die ultimo augusti
proxime ballotis XXVI fuerunt non sinceros -16-14-, de non -2-1-, decrocedendo -18 (recte: 8)-11-, et quomodo nil captum fuit. Fuitsecundario in prefato Consilio per dictos advocatores sub die
infrascripto III septembris posita ipsa pars, verum si videbitur vobis inomnibus ut supra; et datis atque receptis in ipso Consilio ballotis XXVI
fuerunt non sinceris -10-, de non -2-, de procedendo -14-.
Captum ibidem de procedendo et positis diversis partibus, captum
fuit quod iste Anselmus compleat menses sex in carceribus, perpetuo
privetur possendi exercere mercaturam auri et argenti grezorum
Venetiis, sub pena ammissionis argenti et auri in quibus dere[...]rocontrafacente. Et quod istud argentum fraudis commisse sit ammissum
quod totum sit Advocatorum comunis: ita tamenquod primo et anteomnia detracta infrascripti argenti satisfiat infrascripto Joanni Antonio
partitori pro eo quod habere restat, et quod postea advocatores comunis
habeant pro tanta summa regressum contra Anselmum supradictum, et
quod non incipiat tempus carceriorum nisi prius cum integritate
satisfecerit et restituerit denarios suos Joanni Antonio partitori
descripto. Verum si casus mortis ipsius Anselmi occurreret aut quod decarceribus aufugerit et tot bona ipsius Anselmi non invenientur, tuncargentum predictum, ad manus Advocatorum perventum, obligatum sit
integre satisfactioni infrascripti Joanni Antonio.

6. Venice1472, 29 May
A network of counterfeit money smugglers is discovered by the
Venetian authorities. The fraudulent trade, directed at the Venicemarket from Ferrara, is headed by the banker Salamoncino da
Piove di Sacco and his right-hand man, Zaccaria di Isacco. The
persons responsible, both Jews and Christians, are arrested andsentenced to various penalties.
342

– ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3635 (II), cc. 8v-9v.
Die XXVIIII maii, MCCCCLXXII, indictione Vta. Joannes Antonius
de Mediolano et Abundius de Cumis, contra quos et quemlibet quorum
fuit et est processum per antescriptos dominos Advocatores comunis et
officium suum in Consilio de XL, in eo et pro eo quod confessi fuerunt
se pluries conduxisse e Ferraria Venetias multam quantitatem
monetarum argenti falsarum, verum grossetos et grossones adsimilitudinem stampe Dominii Nostri, quas monetas scienter
accipiebant a fabricatoribus illarum et illas, renduetas Venetias,
dispensabant diversis personis, a quibus habebant ad incontrum ducatos
auri et argentum cum certa sua utilitate de tot pro centenario, ut depredictis latius patet per processum camere, quare ducti et placitati cum
fuissent per antedictos dominos Advocatores comunis in dicto consilio
sub die XXVII mensis maii suprascripti, in quo primo posita fuit parshuius tenoris contra Joannem Antonium, verum: cum Joannes Antonius
de Mediolano, habitator Ferrariae, confessus fuerat se pluries
conduxisse Venetias multam quantitatem monetarum argenti falsarum
ad similitudinem stampe Dominii Nostri, scienter acceptam Ferrarie afabricatoribus illarum, et illa dispensasse diversis personis, a quibus
habuit ad incontrum ducatos auri et argentum cum sua utilitate, vadit
pars quod, auctoritate huius consilii, idem Joannes Antonius intelligatur
et sit incursus penas legis Maioris Consilii 1454 lecta huic Consilio,
verum quod postprandium conducatur in medio duarum colunnarum,
ubi ipsi abscidatur manus dextera ita quod ex brachio separetur eteruantur ambo oculi et solvat ducatos mille.
Datis igitur atque receptis in ipso Consilio ballotis XXVII fuerunt
non synceris -14-15-, quod non sit incursus -8-7-, quod sit incursus -55.
Quocirca videntes prefati domini Advocatores intentionem Consilii
sub die 29 infrascripto venerunt ad Consilium predictum et relicta
infrascripta prima parte qua pendebat posuerunt partem de procedendo,
verum si videtur vobis per ea que dicta et lecta sunt quod procedatur
contra Joannem Antonium de Mediolano, habitatorem Ferrarie, etAbundium de Cumis confessos pluries conduxisse Venetias multam
quantitatem monetarum falsarum ad similitudinem stampe Dominii
Nostri, scienter emptam et acceptam Ferrarie a fabricatoribus illarum,
et illam dispensasse diversis personis cum sua utilitate, ut est dictum.
Datis igitur atque receptis in ipso Consilio ballotis XXVIIII fuerunt nonsynceris -0-, de non -0- de procedendo -XXVIIII-; capto itaque deprocedendo et positis diversis partibus, captum fuit quod Joannes
343

Antonius infrascriptus hodie postprandium hora solita conducatur inmedio duarum colunnarum, ubi per ministrum iustitie sibi abscidatur
manus dextera et eruatur unus oculus et solvat ducatos quingentos auri
Advocatoribus, de quibus detur quartam partem accusatori, et postea
banniatur de perpetuo de Venetiis et de omnibus terris et locis Dominii
Nostri, tam a parte terre quam maris. Et si contrafecerit et captus
fu[er]it; conducatur Venetias ubi in medio duarum colunnarum sibi
eruantur alter oculus et remittatur ad bannum et sic publicetur. Et
successive item alias fuit hec pars et capta verum quod iste Abondius
hodie post prandium hora solita conducatur in medio duarum
colunnarum, ubi per ministrum iustitie sibi abscidatur manus dextera eteruatur unus oculus et solvat ducatos Vc. auri Advocatoribus, de quibus
detur quartum accusatori, et postea banniatur perpetuo de Venetiis et deomnibus terris et 10cis Dominii Nostri, tam a parte terre quam maris. Et
si contrafecerit et captus fuerit, conducatur Venecias, ubi in medio
duarum colunnarum sibi eruatur alter oculus et remittatur ad bannum etsic publicetur. Die II iunii publicata in schalis Rivoalti per Bagatinum
preconem.
Die dicto. Salamoncinus Salomonis, hebreus de Plebesacci, contra
quem fuit et est processum per infrascriptos dominos Advocatores in eo
et pro eo quod, spiritu avaritie ductus, non contentus de usuris quibuspe(...) et ipse insidant, scienter se inmiscuit in acceptando etdispensando de monetis falsis cum utilitate ducatorum .X. pro
centenario, sicut ad torturam confessus est et ut de predictis latius patet
per processum camere. Quare ductus et placitatus fuit in Consilio de
XL in quo posita demum fuit pars huius tenoris, verum: si videtur vobis
per ea que dicta et lecta sunt, quod procedatur contra Salamoncinum
filium Salomonis, feneratoris in Plebesacci, qui post posito timore
Dominii Nostri, scienter acceptavit et dispensavit de monetis falsis
suprascriptis cum utilitate ducatorum .X. pro centenario, ut est dictum.
Datis igitur atque receptis in ipso Consilio ballottis XXVIII fuerunt
non sinceris -1-, de non -0-, de parte -XXVII-; capto atque deprocedendo et positis diversis partibus, captum fuit quod iste
Salamoncinus (de Plebesacci) stet menses sex in carceribus clausus etsolvat ducatis duomille nostro Arsenatui et mille Advocatoribus nostris,
qui dent quartum accusatori. Et non incipiat tempus carceris nisi cum
integritate persolverit et deinde banniatur per annos decem de Venetiis
et districtus et Padua et territorio paduano. Et si tempore banni
contrafecerit, stet anno in carcere et solvat ducatis mille et iterum
remittatur ad bannum et sic publicetur in schalis Rivoalti. Die II iunii
publicata in schalis Rivoalti per Bagatinum preconem.
Die dicto. Nicolaus Fugaçonus, becharius de Veneciis, et socii,
344

contra quos processum fuit et est per antescriptos dominos Advocatorescommunis et offitium suum in consilio XL, in eo et pro eo quod etiam
ipse habuit commertium cum Abundio infrascripto, conductoremonetarum falsarum, a quo recepit satis bonam quantitatem dictarum
falsarum pecuniarum, cum utilitate XIII pro centenario et fuit medius
ad faciendum quod Salamoncinus (de Plebesacci) suprascriptus haberetde dictis monetis cum infrascripto Zacharia etiam iudeo sumti depredictis latius pate[n]te per processum camere, quare conductus etplacitatus fuisset per prefatos dominos Advocatores comunis in
Consilio de XL; demum posita fuit pars huius tenoris, verum si videtur
vobis per ea que dicta et lecta sunt quod procedatur contra Nicolaum
Fugaçonum, Lau rentium Paulo et Zachariam iudeum, qui spiritu
avaritie ducti, scienter acceptaverunt cum certa utilitate monetas argenti
falsas, ex Ferraria Venetias conductas, illas dispensando pro bonis, ut
est dictum.
Datis igitur atque receptis in ipso Consilio ballotis XXVIII fuerunt
non synceris -0-, de non -0-, de procedendo XXVIII. Capto itaque deprocedendo et positis diversis partibus, captum fuit quod iste Nicolaus
Fugaçonus compleat annum in carcere et deinde banniatur per annos
octo de Venetiis et districtu. Et si tempore huius banni contrafecerit etcaptus fuerit, pene predicte sibi duplicentur et remittatur ad bannum
suum et quod banchum becharie sibi reservetur.
Laurentius Paulo compleat annum unum in carcere et solvat
ducatos centum Advocatoribus et deinde banniatur per annos octo de
Venetiis et districtu. Et si tempore huius banni contrafecerit et captus
fuerit, pene predicte, tam carceris quam pecunie, sibi duplicentur et ad
bannum declarando quod tempore huius banni possit assumi et ire pro
scriba galearum nostrarum, non possendo tamen perpetuo venire intra
confinia sub pena predicta et sic publicetur. Et sic publicata fuit die II
iunii in scalis Rivoalti per Bagatinum preconem.
Zacharias iudeus quondam Isahach, hospes in Venetiis, compleat
annum unum in carcere et solvat ducatos ducentos auri, quorum centum
sunt nostri Arsenatui et alii centum Advocatorum comunis, et non
incipiat tempus carceris nisi prius solverit et deinde banniatur per annos
octo de Venetiis et districtu. Et si tempore banni contrafecerit, pene
suprascripte sibi duplicentur et sic duplicetur.

7. Padua
1481, 10 May
1485, 3 November345As a result of the dishonest bankruptcy of the Soave lending bankowned by David Schwab, involving, on the highest levels, thebankers Salamoncino da Piove di Sacco and Anselmo, son ofSalomone da Camposampiero, the factor of the Soave bank isarrested at the petition of the small savers, left penniless. To
represent them, the “rag paper maker” Aronne di Jacob da Wil. In
1481, the parties to the dispute, resorted to arbitration, apparently
without any satisfying results, before two German rabbis from
Padua, Isach Ingdam and Viviano da Vacheron.
– ASP, Notarile, Luca Talmazzo, 251, c. 58r; Asp, Notarile, Ambrogio
da Rudena, 779, c.460r.
1481, indictione XIV, X maii. “In comune al disco dell’Orso”.
Haron ebreus qm. Jacob, habitator in contrata Domi, parte una,
Jacob qm. Salomonis de Plebe, suo nomine et Fais et Salamonis (=Salamoncini) fratrum, Isachetus qm. Consilii de contrata Strate,
Enselmus, filius Salamonis de Campo Sancti Petri, nomine dicti eiuspatris, parte altera, super quibuscumque differentiis existentibus interdictas partes, se compromiserunt in magistrum Isach Ingdam, hebreum
habitatorem in contrata Domi, electum pro parte dicti Haron, et inmagistrum Vivianum de Vaischoron, de contrata S. Canciani, electum
per suprascriptos Jacob et socios, secundum morem, leges et stillum
alme civitatis Veneciarum.
[...]
1485, indictione III, III Nov. “In comune, ad banchum ser
Ambrosii de Rudena”.
Cum de anno 1484, die 4 septembris, per dominum Bernardum
Maripetro, capitaneum Suapis, in executione litterarum dominorum
supragastaldionum civitatis Veneciarum, ad instantiam Aronis hebrei
qm. Jacob (de Wil), strazaroli de Padua, et sociorum, uti creditorum
banchi Suapis, intromissa fuerint nonnulla bona penes gubernatores etfactores dicti banchi Suapis pro summa et quantitate ducatorum millequingentorum auri vel circha, que quidem bona postmodum subtracta
fuerint. Propter quod, ad instanciam dicti Aronis et sociorum, fuerat et
sit incarceratus in carceribus comunis Padue Jacob qm. Lazari, uti
factor tunc dicti banchi Suapis, ut ita dictus Jacob fassus est.
Quapropter dictus Jacob, intendens se a dictis carceribus liberare,
sponte consignavit in soluto dicto Aroni (de Wil), acceptanti nomine
suo et consociorum suorum, excepto Henselmo, cum quo dictus Jacob
dixit esse in concordia, ducatos .CLV. auri existentes penes
346

Salamonzinum hebreum de Plebe, per ipsum habitos ab Henselmo filioDavid de Suave, nomine dicti Jacob, absque tamen licentia et consensu
dieti Jacob, ut dixit dictus Jacob. Quos denarios dictus Jacob affirmavit
fuisse et esse dictorum bonorum intromissorum ad dictum banchum
Suapis.

8. Venice
1488, 22-23 May
Salamoncino da Piove sends an assassin, Isaia Teutonicus, toVenince, with the job of killing Aronne da Wil. The latter, although
seriously wounded in the head, survives. The Avogaria di Comunproceeds with the arrest of Salamoncino and the condemnation of
the attacker in absentia.
– ASV, Avogaria di Comun, Raspe, 3656 (II), c. 72rv.
Die XXII maii, MCCCCLXXXVIII, indictione VI. Isayas iudeus
theotonicus, solitus alias esse famulus Salamoncini iudei de Plebesacci,absens, contra quem processum fuit et est quod antescriptos
Advocatores et officium suum in Consilio XL [...] criminalibus
deputato in et pro eo quodcum coram officium suum in consilio
prefatorum dominorum Advocatorum comunis cum gravissima querella
comparuisset Aron quondam Jacob, iudeus (de Wil), et exposuisset
quod quodam siro circa prima, in secundam horam noctis, dum veniret
ab hospitio iudeorum de contracta sancti Pauli et iret ad domum Jacob
iudei generi sui, parum procul ab ipso hospitio fuerit a quodam
incognito proditorie a parte posteriori cum uno case percussus etvulneratus una percussione de taleo supra caput, cum maxima effusione
sanguinis et fracturam longa per unum digitum, pro quo quidem delicto
petebat iustitiam administrari et fieri debitas provisiones, unde quod
domini Advocatores, cum de malefactore aliter noticiam habere nonpossent, accedentes ad prefatum consilium XL, proposuerunt casum ettandem ibidem posita et capta fuit pars de talea sub die XXI aprilis
proxima et consequentis publicata in schalis Rivoalti, cuius vertute data
noticia officio prefatorum dominorum Advocatorum quod dictus Isayas
fuerit et est ille qui tale maleficium commisit gratia et ad instantiam
infrascripti Salamoncini.
Unde formato diligenti processu seperinde domini Advocatores
accesserunt ad prefatum Consilium, ubi posuerunt et sic captum fuit347

quod ipse Isayas retineretur propter ea ubicumque terrarum et locorum
Dominii Nostri illustrissimi examinaretur, collegiaretur et cetera alliter
proclamatus in schalis Rivoalti ad se defendendum, cum termino
dierum octo qui dum non comparuisset imo in sua contumacia
perseverasset, fuit absens placitatus in prefato Consilio per antescriptos
dominos Advocatores, ita quo quidem posuerunt partem infrascripti
tenoris: si videtur vobis per ea que dicta et lecta sunt, quod procedatur
contra Isayam teothonieum iudeum, alias solitum esse famulum
Salamoncini iudei de Plebesacci absentem, sed legitime citatum super
schalis Rivoialti, ex eo quod, ad instantiam dicti Salamoncini, de mense
januarii 1486, tempore noctis, percussit Aronem iudeum proditorie, una
percussione de taleo super capite cum incisione et effusione sanguinis
ac offensione ossis, ut est dictum.
Et datis atque receptis in ipso consilio ballotis XXX, omnes
fuerunt de procedendo. Capto itaque de procedendo et positis diversis
partibus, captum fuit quod iste Isayas sit bannitus perpetuo de Venetiis
et districtu et de aliis terris et locis Nostri Dominii ad confinia furum.
Et si quo tempore contrafecerit banno et captus fuerit, conducatur ad
locum delicti commissi ubi sibi manus dextera amputatur et deinde,
cum ea appensa ad collum, conducatur in medio duarum colunnarum
ubi sibi caput a spatulis amputetur sic quod moriatur, et habeat quod
illum reperit et dederit in vinis Nostri Dominii libras quingentas debonis suis, si haberi potuerint, sin autem de bonis Nostri Dominii etpublicetur super schalis Rivoalti. Die 14 maii infrascripti publicatussuper schalis Rivoalti per Petrum Rubeum preconem in omnibus ut
supra.
Die XXIII maii infrascripti Salamoncinus quondam Salamonis
iudeus de Plebesacci, contra quem processus fuit et est per prefatos
dominos Advocatores in prefato consilio XL ex eo quod, dum data
fuisset talia suprascripta in Consilio XL super casu infrascriptis insultis
et vulneris in personam infrascripti Aronis, et publicata in schalis
Rivoalti, dictus Salamoncinus, credens habere beneficium talee
suprascripte, venit ad officium advocarie se ipsum manifestavit etquomodo ipse erat in societate eiusdem Isaie suprascripti ut quod, eius
Salamoncini causa motus, ipsum taliter vulneravatur sed huius am[...]
verum causam fuisse quia sepius et continue fuerat molestatus
Salamoncinus ipse in litibus ab ipso Arone, sicut per eius
manifestationem in processu apparet, verum prefati domini
Advocatores, considerantes formam et tenorem talee superinde date,inter cetera continentis quod, si cum percussore fuissent plures uno adcommittendum dictum excessum, si unus eorum accusabit ipsum
percussorem et auctorem dicte percussionis si quis fuit Advocatoribus
348

comunis sicque per comunis accusam habeatur veritas, habeat taleampecuniarum et esset absolutus ab omni pena in quam prope hoc posset
incurrere ut in ea ligitur, non habentes nec tenentes prope hoc
Salamoncinum ipsum, cum fuerit auctorem dicti delicti, posse gauderevel habere beneficium talee, quandoquidem ex verbis [...] exctradatur
auctor ipse a tali beneficio, accesserunt ad Consilium prefatum de XL
ubi posuerunt et sic captum fuit quod ipse Salamoncinus, iam propterea retentus, bene retentus remaneat ad petitionem Advocatorum
comunis et pro clariori rei successus informatione et veritate iterum deplano examinetur, collegietur res sicque iterum examinatus, formato
diligenti processu, patefactis omnibus fuit collegiatus et tandem ductus
et placitatus in eodem Consilio per prefatos dominos Advocatores,
presens sese defendendo cum advocatoribus suis, in quo quidem
tandem posita fuit pars tenoris infrascripti: si videtur vobis per ea que
dicta et lecta sunt quod procedatur contra Salamoncinum quondam
Salamonis de Plebesacci iudeum, qui fuit mandator et autor dicte
percussionis ut est dictum.
Et datis atque receptis heri in primo consilio ballotis XXX fuerunt
non sinceris -8- 6-, de non -7-9-, de procedendo -15-15-, et quomodo
nil captum fuit. Secundario hodie in ipso consilio per eosdem dominos
Advocatores in ipso Consilio posita ipsa pars, verum si videtur vobis
per ea que dicta et lecta sunt, quod procedatur contra Salamoncinum etcetera in omnibus, ut supra. Et datis atque receptis in ipso consilio
ballottis XXXIIII fuerunt non synceris -11-5-, de non -7-10-, deprocedendo -16-19-. Capto itaque de procedendo et positis diversis
partibus, captum fuit quod iste Salamoncinus compiere debeat menses
sex in carceribus clausus, solvat ducatos ducenti auri, quorum centum
sint hospitali Pietati, alii vero centum sint Advocatoribus comunis, sit
postea bannitus per annos quatuor. Et si quo tempore contrafecerit
banno et captus fuerit, stet per annum in carceribus clausus et solvat
alios ducatos ducentos auri, quorum centum sint ipsorum Advocatorum
comunis et alii centum dentur capienti illum, et hoc tociens obprovetur
quotiens contrafecerit. Et publicatur super schalis Rivoalti. Die 14 maii
1488 publicata super schalis Rivoalti per Petrum Rubeum preconem inomnibus ut supra.

9. Pavia
5236 (= 1476), March
The banker Manno di Aberlino (Mendele b. Abraham) of Pavia
349

sends a message in Hebrew to the physician Omobono (Simcha
Bunim Sal) of Venice, pharmacist at San Cassiano. Charged withdelivering the missive to the addressee is the priest, Paolo da
Novara, amanuensis at the Trent trials, on the order of Giovanni
Hinderbach, later accused of being in the pay of the Jews of the
Duchy of Milan with the job of poisoning the Trent bishop. In theletter, Manno recommends that Omobono reassure his Christiancreditor, a certain Tommaso, probably from Venice, who isdemanding the payment of 42 ducats. The Pavian banker
undertakes to transfer the sum without delay, as agreed. Manno
warns Omobono to pay attention to what the courier of the letter,i.e., Paolo da Novara, has to communicate to him, so as to be able totake what may appear to him to be the most suitable decisions at alater time.
– AST, Archivio Principesco Vescovile, s.1., 69, 68.
Rivolga Dio il suo volto verso di te e ponga su di te la pace.
Al dotto, operoso e caro parente, l’esperto medico Simcha(Omobono) Sal, che Dio conservi in vita.
Ho ricevuto un messaggio scritto dal nostro amico messer
Tommaso, che mi chiede 42 ducati perché è venuto il momento dipagarglieli. E così intendo fare, inviandoglieli con una persona di
fiducia, come è giusto. Comunicagli la cosa a nome mio, assicurandolo
che manterrò appieno le mie promesse.
Se il latore di questa lettera ti parlerà, prestagli ascolto e poi decidi
secondo la tua intelligenza. Stammi in pace, secondo i tuoi desideri ed i
desideri del tuo parente e umile servitore Manno.
Venezia.
Al sapiente e alacre medico, il magnifico messer Si. [Signore]
Bunim (Omobono) Gerta Sal, che Dio conservi in vita.

350

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