Jews in tarot-related areas, 15th century

Now I will turn to tarot-relevant areas in 15th century Italy: Lombardy, Mantua, Padua, Bologna, Ferrara, and Tuscany. I include Mantua because it is part of the ambit of both Lombardy and Ferrara, as well as being a place that figures prominently in the biographies of several Jewish rabbis for and against the Kabbalah. Padua is important because of Giotto, whose work there is an antecedent to the Milanese tarot imagery, then Petrarch, and finally because several important individuals, Jewish and Christian--David Messer Leon, Joseph Delmidigo, Yohannan Alemanno, and Lodovico Lazzarelli--all seem to have been there in the late 1460s, followed by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola in 1480-82.

(a) Lombardy.

First, in Sacerdoti and Fiorentino's 1999 book Italy Jewish Travel Guide, under the heading "Cremona", p. 49, we learn:

Francesco Sforza granted many liberties in the Jews living in Cremona in 1442. The were not required to wear the special identification markings. ... In 1488 he [Israel Nathan of Cremona] was accused along with 37 other Jews, of publishing books which contained offensive ideologies against the Catholic Church. The list of the accused shows that many came from towns, which until recently, were believed to have no Jewish presence: Broni, San Colombano, Monza, Novara, Vigevano, Moraria, Ludi, Bregnano in Baddadda, Vailate in Radadda, Rivolta in Radadda, Bocco d'Adda, Casalmaggiore, San Giovanni in Croce, Catelnovetto, Valenza, Mondello, Como, Castellazzo, Castelnuouvo Scrivia, Voghera, Castelenne Cremonese, Vighizzole, and Arena Po. The trial ended with the deaths of nine Jews. The others were required to pay a fine of 19,000 ducati.

 Milan is not on the list, because Jews then were not allowed to live there. Sacerdoti, in Guide to Jewish Italy, 2003, p. 56, says:

...the Duchy of Milan - ruled first by the Visconti and then the Sforza - only ever gave Jews permission to stay in the city for three consecutive days to deal with their business. That is why they lived in nearby towns like Monza, Abbiategrasso, Melegnano, Lodi, Vigevano, and Binasco, and went up to Milan every day. This "commuting" continued until 1597, when they were expelled from the duchy.

She does not say where she gets this information.

The Jewish Encyclopedia adds, however, regarding the Sforza rulers::

On Jan. 23, 1452, in consideration of the payment of a large sum of money, the Jews of Milan received from the pope, through the intercession of the duke, permission to build synagogues, to celebrate their feasts, and to intermarry, yet the granting of these privileges was excused in ambiguous phrases, and the Jews were compelled to wear the yellow badge.

It add that in 1475 hatred against the Jews in Lombardy became intense, due to troubles in Trent, an alleged incident of Jews' killing and eating Christian infants, and

Although the dukes tried to protect the Jews, the latter seem to have been expelled from the city.

So it seems that in 1452-1475 Jews were indeed permitted to reside in Milan, but that earlier and later they may have had to live outside the city.

(b) Mantua

I quote from the 1999 book, p. 56:

Mantua. The first Jew, Abramo ibn Ezra, arrived in Mantua in 1145. The community increased over the years until it reached its peak in 1600. There were 6,000 Jews living in the city in that year. The Jews were artisans, merchants, businessmen, and moneylenders. They were also close to the Courts, as personal physicians to the Duke. Some Jews were musicians, such as Salamone Rossi, while others were authors of comedies and actors, such as Leone de Sommi and one of his sisters, "Madame Europa."

The part about Abramo ibn Ezra arriving in 1145 is also in the Jewish Encyclopedia, although it doesn't say he was the "first Jew" there. It adds that Jews first appear in the statutes at the end of the 14th century, "when a large number seem to have lived there". According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, the Gonzaga were not entirely consistent in their treatment of Jews, depending on their individual attitudes.

Moshe Idel (Kabbalah in Italy, pp. 176-177), talks about Mantua in connection with the  Alemanno:

Northern Italy had a significant Ashkenazi population at least from the late thirteenth century. One of the most important Jewish intellectuals in the period under discussion, Yohanan Alemanno, was born in Mantua in 1435 or 1436, the son of a certain R Yitzhaq, who apparently made his living selling manuscripts. 1 Yohanan's grandfather R. Elijah was a physician; he had either been born in Germany or his family had come from there, and he lived for a while in France and then in Aragon, where Yitzhaq presumably married a Spanish woman. The entire family accompanied Elijah to the Vatican, where the king of Aragon sent him on an embassy, while the family apparently remained in Italy. Alemanno, who believed in the importance of climate as a determinant of different qualities in humans, saw himself as embodying the best qualities of all four countries experienced by his family. The family name that he adopted, Alemanno, was the Italian version of "Ashkenazi," and he was very proud of his extraction. 2 The young Yohanan studied with a famous figure in Mantua, R Yehudah Messer Leon, and received the title of doctor. 3 For many years he lived in Florence, where he had an association with Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, whom he mentions explicitly in one of his books, and played a role in the life of the Jewish community there. 4

Jews had been expelled from France in 1394, which perhaps accounts for the move to Spain. It seems that Jews enjoyed many rights in Mantua. They were actively involved in the silk industry, we learn from another source, the.Jewish Virtual Library (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jso ... 14921.html):

MANUELE DA NORCIA moved from Rimini to Mantua in 1428 and obtained permission to open a loan bank (condotta). LEONE DE NURSIA and others were authorized in 1482 to trade in wool and silk cloths.

 I think I have read that the family of David Messer Leon was also in the silk industry there, but I do not recall my source.
.
(c) Padua

From the 1999 book:

The Jewish community of Padua has along uninterrupted history from the 11th century on. ...It ...had a rabbinical academy as early as the mid-14th century. ...the community of moneylenders and merchants....

And the Jewish Enclyclopedia says:

The first Jew in Padua known by name was the physician Jacob Bonacosa, who, in 1255, translated there the "Colliget" of Averroes (Steinschneider, "Hebr. Uebersetzungen," p. 671). Toward the middle of the fourteenth century numbers of Jews from Rome, Pisa, Bologna, and the Marches of Ancona established themselves in Padua as money-lenders; and many of the Jews who had been persecuted in Germany and the Alpine countries removed to Padua after 1440. The statutes of the community were liberal; the population was tolerant; and the Jews were admitted without restrictions. They were placed on an equal footing with other foreigners; and occasionally they were even made citizens of the town.

Their situation worsened once the Carraresi were replaced by the Venetians as rulers, at the end of the 1th century. Their citizenship was revoked; they had to pay for the privilege of being there; "they were no longer allowed to acquire farms or other real estate, and their liberty in respect to commerce also was restricted." But they were also protected from acts of violence. Occasionally, due to the preaching friars, they were expelled. Here is one example related by the Encyclopedia:

In 1455 these preachers incited the population so successfully that the Jews were expelled, and forgiveness was asked in Rome for the toleration which had so long been accorded them. However, the exigencies of the situation proved stronger than the requirements of the faith; and the Jews were again admitted.

The Jews were defended by the students and the University, the Encyclopedia says.

One factor it doesn't mention is that at the beginning of the 15th century the University had begun accepting Jewish medical students from all over Europe; according to one recent academic article, the first Jew graduated in 1409 ("Jewish Medical Students in Padua and Leiden, 1607-1714", at http://www.rmmj.org.il/userimages/243/1 ... rticle.pdf, p. 3). Their presence, it seems to me, would have promoted an influx of Jewish scholars, not as part of the faculty but because Jewish students in Padua would have wanted instruction in other more specifically Jewish studies. Christian influence on Jewish students was greatly feared by the Jewish community (see above article, p. 2). If Jewish medical students were in Padua, we can expect that Jewish scholars would come as well. One example is Elia del Medigo, a Jewish Averroist. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_P ... _Mirandola), Pico della Mirandola studied Arabic and Hebrew with him, and read Aramaic manuscripts with him as well.

We have Lazzarelli (1447-1500) in NE Italy (Padua and Venice, among other places) in the late 1460s (Hanegraaff, Ludovico Lazzarelli: The Hermetic Writings and Related Documents, pp. 12-14) and perhaps Alemanno. About Lazzarelli, Hanegraaff says (p. 12):

While Venice would remain Lazzarelli's main residence for a couple of years, he seems to have moved around through the surrounding region. In 1468 (36), he attended a tournament of armed riders, and it inspired him to write a heroic poem...

Two other works can be dated to 1468. One was dedicated to the Venetian ambassador to Padua. The other was an oration given in Sacila, where he was staying with his brother and the Emperor happened to stop. The Emperor "decided to express his appreciation by officially crowning the poet with laurels" (p. 14). By 1471, he had finished his De gentilium deorum imaginibus, probably while in Venice, Hanegraaff says. That book uses many images also found in the "Tarot of Mantegna", of course. Its original dedication was to Borso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara at the time of his death in 1471.

Both Idel and Hanegraaff make much of the influence of Alemanno on Lazzarelli. Whether and when they knew each other personally is a complex issue, as is another issue, where Alemanno was at different times, absorbing or spreading different influences. I will put it off until I come to discuss Florence.

(d) Bologna

About Bologna, I have already mentioned the Jewish synod there in the time of Martin V. The 1999 book, p. 117, says:

Jews have lived in Bologna as far back as the 3rd and 4th centuries. The Jewish community was charcterized by continuous expulsions, returns, enclosures in the ghetto, and emancipation.

Here is more, from Sacerdoti's 2003 book:

Jewish refugees from Rome and central and northern Italy arrived in Bologna in the 14th century. Many of them were merchants, especially cloth dealers. Significantly, in Bologna trading in used cloths was included in the "Guild of Drapers, Cloth Merchants, Pitch Workers, Titleless, and Jews".

The Jewish Encyclopedia's article on Bologna tells us that in 302 a Jewish cemetery was established there. The next record is of their expulsion in 1171. They are recorded again in the late 13th century, as one place Hillel of Verona (along with Forli, Ferrara, and the Rome area) stayed. It says that in 1308 a magnificent vellum scroll of the Pentateuch was presented to the Prior of the Dominicans, a portion of which still existed in 1906. Enclosed in a ghetto in 1366, by the end of tha century they owned houses all over the city. In 1416 they were ordered to wear yellow badges, but that was soon rescinded, perhaps by Martin V. In 1473, Fra Bernardino da Feltre preached against them, but "without effect". the Encyclopedia says.

Newman relates that in 1465 a chair in Hebrew was established in Bologna. In fact, such a chair at Bologna had been ordered by the Papacy at the Council of Vienne a century and a half earlier, 1311, along with ones at Paris, Oxford, and Salamanca (Newman p. 70), for the purpose of obtaining converts among the Jews and for justifying repression. Newman says (p. 323):

The Pope is quoted as saying that he wished "before condemning the Talmud he might know what it is." (59)
____________
59. Hefele, cf. 482; Clement 5, 1, 1.

The University of Paris established such a chair in 1325 and kept it continuously occupied. Oxford established one around 1321 and kept it established intermittently. These positions were held by Jews who had converted to Christianity; anyone else would not have known enough Hebrew to offer more than an introductory study. Practicing Jews of course were not permitted.

(e) Ferrara

The 1999 book says (p. 123):

There were Jews living in Ferrara as early as the 13th century. The community prospered throughout the 15th century. This was primarily due to the Este Dukes, who explicitly declared themselves the "protectors of the Jews." In 1451, they refused to expel the Jews as per instructions of the Pope.

And in 2003 (p. 116):

Jews lived in Ferrara from the Middle Ages. Initially they settled in various areas of the city, but from the 15th century they were concentrated behind the cathedral, where the ghetto was later to be established.

Under the Duchy of Este, the community enjoyed its finest years: the dukes offered shelter to refugees from Spain and Portugal after 1492 and from Eastern Europe when the Jews were expelled in 1532....But the dukes also granted them the right to practice several professions and various commercial activities in addition to the traditional moneylending.
...
The period of peace and well-being ended in 1597, when Duke Alfonso died with no male heirs and Ferrare was annexed to the Papal States. Cesare of Este, in the minor branch, moved his court to Modena and many Jews followed him.

Idel in Kabbalah in Italy mentions Ferrara while describing Kabbalist activity in Rome during the 1280s; in the course of discussing manuscripts of Maimonides now in Paris and London he notes (p. 95) that:

they were copied by "R. Yehonathan ben Eliezer ha-Kohen . . . from the community of Ferrara." 37

These also contain much Kabbalist material by other authors, Idel says.

The Jewish Encyclopedia says (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6090-ferrara):

It would seem that Jews existed at Ferrara in 1088, but not until the thirteenth century was their number large enough to give them a status in history. In 1275 an edict was issued in their favor, with a clause providing that neither the pope nor the duke nor any other power might relieve the authorities of their duties toward the Jews.

It goes on to talk of Hillel of Verona being there at that time, as well as a philosophical opponent, ending:

Of the existence of Jews in Ferrara during the fourteenth century the only evidence is furnished by the name of a rabbi, Solomon Hasdai, who was active at Bologna also.

I have read somewhere about debates between Christians and Jews in 15th century Ferrara. These would have necessitated a knowledge of Jewish materials by Christians, to defeat them on their own ground. Pico's 1486 900 Theses is just one example of this project, in written form.

It is sometimes said that it was only for commercial reasons that these rulers welcomed Jews. On the one hand, Borso in 1451 told the Pope that they had been there "from time immemorial", but also, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia he:

imposed high taxes upon them, while the princes no doubt borrowed money from them without paying interest. The Jews were further called upon on various occasions to undertake special tasks. In 1456 Borso forced them, as a penalty "for insults to religion," to lay out at their own expense a long avenue of poplars.

On the other hand,

The dukes of Este not only protected the Jews, but even offered an asylum to those who were persecuted. Thus in 1473 Duke Ercole I. declared, probably in answer to the pope's request for their expulsion, that in the interest of the duchy he could not spare them, and that he would therefore relieve them not only from all special burdens, but also from the payment of the sums formerly extorted as taxes by papal legates.

But I do not think purely pecuniary interests motivated the Estense. Among them there was a spirit of toleration in general, an openness to ancient traditions for the sake of deepening their own understanding--an openness reflected in the art they commissioned--and a resistance to the Dominican Inquisition and the Franciscan and Dominican preachers, whose sermons were directed not only against the Jews in their midst but to their own love of card games.

In the same area as Bologna and Ferrara, Forli deserves a mention because in 1418 a large congress was held there with representatives from Rome, Padua, Ferrara, Bologna, Romagna, and Tuscany. It passed numerous decrees, designed to elevate morality and avoid negative attention from Christians. Among other things, "The people were forbidden to play cards or dice or to permit the same to be played in their houses", according to the Jewish Encyclopedia, punishable by fine or excommunication. These were binding until the end of 1426.

(f) Tuscany

Here the story starts with Pisa. From the 1999 book, pp. 150-151:

In the mid 1390s, the City of Pisa invited Jews to settle in their city. The invitation was extended to a Roman group, which included the family of Vitale de Matassia da Roma. He became the most important Jewish banker during the Renaissance. He was protected by the Medici family. Vitale soon took the surname of Da Pisa.

The Da Pisa family maintained their connections with other Jewish communities scattered throughout Tuscany, the rest of Italy and the entire Mediterranean. These connections were familial, religious, cultural, and financial. They hosted relatives, friends, and scholars from throughout the Medieterranean. These men studied Talmudic and Cabbalistic tractates.

However, the Jewish Encyclopedia reminds us that Benjamin of Tudela reported twenty families there c. 1165. It adds that in the 13th century, statutes of the republic "exclude Jews from giving evidence, and command them to wear the Jews' badge".

The 1997 book Tuscany Jewish Itineraries documents Jewish activity in other Tuscan towns. This appears to be from commune archives. Here we must remember that often only the moneylenders would be recorded, as they required official permission. If they actually lived in the towns, there would be other Jews as well, if only to meet religious/dietary obligations. But the "moneylenders" may have included such persons as "partners", if that was the only way a Jew could get permission to live in a particular town. The sources are mostly silent on that issue.

In Angiari, which the famous battle of 1440 is named after, documents in the town archives inform us of a special tax levied on the Jewish community from 1442 to 1571 (p. 25)

Arezzo documents the opening of a pawn shop there in 1388, by Deodato di Ariele from assissi, Leone di Consiglio from Cammerino and other associates, and another in 1389 by a Jew from Siena and nine other associate). The book adds (p. 29)

Both banks were branches of banks established elsewhere in Tuscany, and the moneylenders did not actually live in Arezzo.

Cortona (p. 33):

By the first half of the 14th century Jews were living in Cortona. A document of 1237 shows the community of Perugia turning to the Jews of Cortona for news about the "Cardinal of Jerusalem", Filippo di Cabasolles, whom the Avignon Pope Gregory XI had appointed his ambassador to Perugia.

Jewish pawnshops are allowed to open in 1404 and 1405, run by Jews from Perugia, followed by others in 1411 and 1421, from Arezzo in partnership with those in Cortona. Later in the century, Fklorentine Jews opened a bank there.

In Lucignano in 1436, a bank was set up by a Jew from Forli (p. 103). In Montelpulciano, it was 1428 (p. 105). In Monte San Savino, it was 1421, set up in partnership with the Isaac da Pisas, of the powerful banking family(p. 107). In Pistoia, 1397, followed by another in 1399 by some Jews of Pisa (p. 119). In Prato, "end of the 14th century", with permission granted by the Commune of Florence (p. 140). In San Gimignano, Jewish moneylenders were there by 1330, but by 1410 they had left. In 1420 Vitale Abramo from Rome struck a deal that "gave Jews almost equal rights with other citizens". In a few decades, this led to the town being put under interdict, lifted in 1462 (p. 141).

In San Miniato, it was 1393, by Matassia di Sabato from Rome, a member of the da Sinagoga family. In 1427 a grandson, Abramo, "was given permission to open 3 pawnshops in Florence, a move which marked the beginning of the Jewish commubity in that city." (p. 143).

In Siena, Jews are documented from 1229, and had been living there some time (p. 151). The main business was moneylending. In 1439 Jews there were obliged to wear a distinguishing "O" but "bankers were exempt".

In Volterra, the first documented Jew is in 1386, profession unlisted (p. 164). Banks were charted starting in 1392, by Sabato di Dattallo from Rome, a member of a famous banking family.

For Florence, I will start with the 1999 book (p. 138), although there are so many demonstrable errors it must be treated with caution. You will recall that the Vitali family had been invited to Pisa and later changed its name to "da Pisa'.

In 1430, the Medici family invited fourJewish families (the Pisas, Tivolis, Rietis, and the Fanos) to settle in the city and practicve moneylending. The Jews had to submit to precise specifications and work with fixed taxes, which were set by the rulers. These taxes were lower than what the Florentine bankers had been charging.

Lorenzo Medici (1449-1492) invited several Jewish humanists to his court, such as Jochanan Alemanno, Abraham Farisani, and Elia Delmedigo. Delmedigo was a disciple of Pico della Mirandola. His prestige is shown by his accompanying of the Medici family in the famous fresco of the Palazzo Medici Riccardo (Vua Cavour #1). The fresco, painted by Benozzo Gozolli, represnted the 'Adoration of the Magi,' but in reality, depicts and exalts the Medici Court, in its pomp and splondor. Delmedigo is among the group of wise men.

I suspect that the Italian word translated "taxes" would be better rendered as "rates". Also, I think probably the relationship of Delmedigo and Pico was lost in translation: the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906 (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8343-italy) says of Delmedigo:

Pico di Mirandola was a disciple of the last-named, as were many others, who learned from him the Hebrew language or studied philosophy under his guidance.

Delmedigo was born around 1458, Pico in 1463. Wikipedia says that Delmedigo "wrote pamphlets for Pico" and traveled to Florence "to translate manuscripts from Hebrew to Latin for Pico" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elia_del_Medigo), but in later life he tried to dissociate himself from Pico as much as possible. The Gozolli fresco, of course, was painted in 1459-1461, rather too early for him to be in it. But perhaps some other Jew is there. The other names, Alemanno and Farisani, deserve further investigation. I cannot find any mention on the Web or in various books to a Farisani in the 15th century. I will discuss Alemanno in a separate post.

The 1999 book continues:

The Florentine Jews experienced their first persecutions when Girolomo Savanarola began to preach against them in the city. There were partial expulsions in 1477 and in 1491. A general expulsion in 1495 was averted thanks to the enormous loan that the Jews made to the republic. The threat, however, was repeated in 1527.

Actually, Savanarola, a Dominican, did not arrive until 1478, and then only to tutor novices. For 1477 and earlier, other sources blame Franciscans, as we will see.

The book goes on to describe how the Jews fared much better with the return of the Medici in the 16th century, even being allowed to become farmers. This ended in 1571 when Cosimo I did what he had to do in order to get the title of Grand Duke from the Pope, namely, create ghettos in Florence and Siena and put all the Jews of Tuscany inside them.

The Jewish Encyclopedia says that "Jews settled here probably before 1400", but apparently not much before, because "there was an abundance of capital" there in the Middle Ages. It adds:

But having admitted the Jews, the Florentines granted them at once many rights and privileges. In 1414 the republic sent a Jewish banker, "Valori" by name, to represent it at Milan before the Duke of Visconti. As the latter refused to receive a Jewish ambassador, Florence declared war against him. This friendly attitude of the Florentines, however, was as subject to change as their government; the Jews were expelled and readmitted at the pleasure of the Senate. That Jews were in the city in 1441 is indicated by the fact that a "maḥzor" according to the Italian ritual was written there and sold in that year (Zunz, "Ritus," p. 84).

I have not found elsewhere any mention of a Jewish banker in Florence in 1414, or of a war between Florence and Milan then, much less over the issue of disrespect to a Jew. The war with Milan was in 1422 or so, over Milan's encroachment on Florentine territory. [Added later: for more on this, see my addition at the end of this post.]

For another account, here is Tuscan Jewish Itineraries (p. 46):

Certain early medieval documents conserved in the Florence Archives mention names that may well refer to Jews. The first definite evidence of a Jewish presence, however, dates from the 13th century and refers to people passing through the city, not an established community of moneylenders. In fact, it was not until 22 November 1396 that the Commune of Florence officially allowed Jews to practice banking in the city. In 1430 the city authorities explicitly called upon the services of Jewish bankers believing that they would be easier to control than their Christian counterparts.

The first Loan-bank license was granted on 17 October 1437, probably partly due to the favorable policy of Cosimo il Vecchio de' Medici. Thereafter all the most important families of moneylenders - including the da Pisa, the da Rieri and the da Tivoli - were attracted to the city... 

[I omit a discussion of where in the city they lived and where their cemetery was. 

The period under the early Medici was marked not only by relative calm but also by intense cultural exchanges between Hebrew scholars and Christian Humanist writers and philosophers. It seems that the iconography of Lorenzo Ghiberti's Paradise Door (1425-1452) was designed by the Humanist Ambrogio Traversari after consultations with a Jewish philosopher. Lorenzo il Magnifico went to great lengths to protect the Jewish community. In 1477 he stopped an attempt to expel the Jews from the city - the result of the fervid anti-Jewish feelings aroused by the preaching of Bernardino de Feltre. On Lorenzo's death in 1492 the city became a Republic, and Florentine Jews had to face far rougher times; now the preaching of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savanarola convinced the rulers of the city first to withdraw Jewish loan-bank licenses and transfer to them to the Christian Monti di Pieta (1497), and then to expel the Jewish moneylenders altogether. A serious episode of religious intolerance occurred in 1493, when a Jew was accused of having damaged the face of Giovanni Tedesco's 14th century statue of the Virgin in the Art of Pharmacy niche on the left side of the church of Orsanmichele in Via del Lamberti. Found guilty, the man was brutally executed and an inscription on the building rcords the episode: Hanc ferro effigiero petiit redeus et index, ipse sui vulgo dilaniatus obut. MCCCLXXXXIII.

There are a couple of erroneous things here. First,  even under Lorenzo, Florence was a republic. After his death the leadership of the republic soon changed from Medici to Savanarola, that's all. Secondly, I find no verification of de Feltre in 1477.  The Encyclopedia Judaica, 2nd edition 2007, Vol. ,7 p. 84 (at http://books.google.com/books?id=TLxYAw ... 77&f=false) says

In 1477 Lorenzo the Magnificent successfully stopped an attempt to expel the Jews from the city.

but no mention of de Feltre at that date. That source does mention anti-Jewish demonstrations in 1458 and 1471; it confirms the execution in 1493, saying that the man was "falsely accused". I am not sure if the inscription on the church acknowledges that. Another source (The Hebrew Book in Modern Italy p. 222, http://books.google.com/books?id=GhlxHJ ... 77&f=false cites Cassuto (Gli Ebrei a Firenze, 1918, pp. 50-53) regarding Franciscan anti-Jewish preaching at Easter 1473, adding:

they presumably sowed the seeds for further restrictions set upon the Jews in the following years, ending in 1477 with their partial expulsion .

Cassuto is at http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/f ... nfo/749012. There is a mention in a footnote on p. 52, in the context of other Franciscans in 1472-73, but nothing about de Feltre in particular.

I found the part about Traversari of considerable interest and will explore it in another post..

Also, I see that Cassuto discusses the case of the alleged Jewish banker Valori, over whom a war with Milan was allegedly fought, on pp. 30-32. He says that some of this comes from Depping, Les Juifs dans le Moyen-Age, 1859, repeated in Bedarride, Les Juifs en France and in the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906; it derives ultimately from a sentence in Sanuto's Vite de' duchi di Venezi:

Fu mandato Bartolomeo Valori, uomo giudeo, il qual vivea di cambi e avea una testa a suo modo superbo.

(Bartolomeo Valori was sent, a Jewish man, who lived by exchange and had a superb head and manner.)

This was then translated into French in Daru, L'histoire de la republique de Venise, 1819. Cassuto says it was actually 1423, and although Valori is described as "uom giudeo", in Italian this is a negative epithet with more diffuse meaning than the literal sense, a possibility that Daru tried to explain in a footnote, ignored thereafter. "Di cambio" suggests banking or money-changing. I see nothing in Cassuto's discussion about a war being fought on his account, but I have not translated all of it.

In this section I have issued several promissory notes about particular people, especially:Traversari, Alemanno, Lazzarelli, and Pico, at least. I will discuss them more thoroughly in what follows.