By establishing ghettos in the Papal States, in 1555 Pope Paul IV marked a milestone in the history of Italian Jews. In spite of the fact that the segregation in Rome came nearly 40 years after the Venetian decree on the settlement of Jews in the laguna (1516) and 9 years after a similar one that was issued in Ragusa (today Dubrovnik, 1546), it was only thanks to the Pope intervention that the experiment became a successful model.
In the following centuries, a little at a time, Italian States in central and northern areas of the peninsula established new ghettos, the last one in 1783 in Corregio.
Meanwhile, Southern Italy, Sicily and the Duchy of Milan, under direct Spanish rule, took a different route and decided to expel the Jews from their territories: first, in 1493 from Sicily; then in 1541 from the kingdom of Naples and at last in 1596 from Milan.
In recent years, many scholars have considered the history of Jews in Italy and segregation during the Early Modern period from multiple perspectives. As a result, the phenomenon of the ghetto, which was undoubtedly the most characteristic and significant experience of the period, is investigated “beyond” and “through” the walls.
The well-known history of discrimination, marginalization, and the ongoing pressure of Catholic proselytism can now be superimposed on a narrative full of nuances, at the center of which are the strained relations between Christians and Jews, as well as the many individual stories through which they materialized.
Please join Centro Primo Levi and Serena Di Nepi from the University of Rome La Sapienza for a seminar that focuses on the ghetto of Rome and Roman Jewry throughout the cenuries of Counter-Reformations.
This event is free and open to the public!
For more information on the program: primolevicenter.org/events/rome-and-the-jews-at-the-times-of-the-ghetto/
For reservations, please email: romelab@primolevicenter.org