What is the Jewish Identities Database?

"What is a Jew?" has never been an easy question to answer--least of all for the archival researcher. This is especially the case in regard to Europe and the Mediterranean during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--the period of the Medici Grand Dukedom of Tuscany and the focus of THE MEDICI ARCHIVE PROJECT.

Throughout the long centuries of the diaspora, the Jewish sense of community transcended national and cultural boundaries. The diverse claims of "Judaism" as a religion and "Jewishness" as an ethnic identity had never been clearly distinguished during the middle ages, before the emergence of geographically defined political states. The cultural and religious nationalism of renaissance Europe ushered in a turbulent age of forced relocation for many Jews, further complicating these issues of personal and corporate identity.

The most dramatic upheaval occurred in the Iberian Peninsula. With the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497, many sought immediate refuge in Mediterranean lands. Others converted to Catholicism (voluntarily or not) but eventually emigrated as well to Northern and Southern Europe, North Africa and the Ottoman empire. Some of these continued as "New Christians", some returned to Jewish observance and many lingered in a condition of religious ambiguity. In the Italian states, Jews who considered themselves Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Turkish now lived side-by-side, using a bewildering variety of names and frequently changing their place of residence.

For the archival researcher, recreating the identity of an historic figure usually begins with his or her name in a document. In the Florentine State Archive, however, Jewish names seldom appear twice in the same form. Benedetto di Vita Ebreo, Barrucca ben Hayim Mendez, Baroccas Benaim Spagnuolo, Benedetto Mendes Giudeo, Benedetto da Pisa Mercante and Benito Levantino Medico might or might not be one person with different labels attached.

In order to resurrect the life-stories buried beneath this proliferation of conflicting names, THE MEDICI ARCHIVE PROJECT is now proposing the development of the "Jewish Identities Database." Each Jewish name in the Medici Granducal Archive will be entered in the exact form in which it appears in the document and then linked automatically to its parallel forms in all relevant languages--Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Netherlandish, Latin, Hebrew, Turkish, Arabic, etc. ("Baruch ben Chaim" equals "Benedetto di Vita" and "Benito de Vida", for example).

Names are to be broken down further into their constituent elements--first names (Benedetto, Benito, Baruch), patronymics (ben Chaim, di Vita, de Vida) family names (Mendez), place names (da Pisa, Spagnolo, Levantino) and occupational names (Mercante, Medico.) This will allow the free combination of all possible signifiers, in order to define instances of possible recurrence. The most intriguing challenge here is the fluid nature of place names, family names and occupational names. (Is "Benedetto da Pisa Mercante" a member of the great Da Pisa family or just a Jewish merchant who happened to pass through Pisa? Is "Mercante" an established family name or just a passing reference to his trade?)

This customized "Database" will also record the date and place of each reference to a named Jew. (If "Benedetto di Vita Giudeo" appears in Livorno on 3 May 1601, then "Baruch ben Chaim Mendez" in Pisa on 10 May, then "Benito Spagnolo Ebreo" in Lucca on 20 May and finally "Barucca de Vida Mercante" in Genoa on 25 May, the progression through nearby port cities might encourage a single identification.) The database will also include fields for organizing and tracking additional information relevant to family and social connections. (If "Benedetto di Vita" and "Baruch ben Chaim" each had a brother-in-law in Salonika named "Salamone", we might reasonably deduce that they are the same person.)

Once it is realized, the "Jewish Identities Database" will play a crucial role in many research initiatives. Scholars around the world will be able to enter names and biographical data from their own researches, using the resources of the "Jewish Identities Database" to reconstruct countless lost chapters of the Jewish experience in the early modern period.