The Jewish inhabitants of medieval Rome, like their Christian neighbors, dwelt in a landscape crowded with monuments to and memorabilia from the city’s glorious history. Alongside its collections of imperial and ecclesiastical artifacts, Rome also housed—or was said to house—countless items from the ancient Jewish past, such as the ritual vessels from the Jerusalem Temple. Moreover, as both Jewish and Christian sources attest, many of the “Jewish” objects that found their way to Rome were prized—and even revered—by Jews and Christians alike. In this presentation, I show how the paradoxical image of Rome as a repository for “Jewish” artifacts illuminates the strategies by which Roman Jews and Roman Christians rooted their quite distinctive claims on the ancient past in the terrain of the shared city.
Come join Centro Primo Levi and Ra’anan Boustan from Princeton University for this exciting session about how the city of Rome served as a storehouse for jewish artifacts.
This event is free and open to the public!
For more information on the program: primolevicenter.org/events/io-so-jodio-romano/
For reservations, please email: romelab@primolevicenter.org