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The
Medici Granducal Archive:
Documents for Jewish History, Religion and Culture
Prince
Francesco (I) is warned of the arrival of Portuguese apostates
from Catholicism who claim to be Jewish (1569)
Citation:
Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Mediceo del Principato 4898, ff.514v-515r.
Oliverotto
Guidotti (Tuscan Ambasador, Madrid) to Crown Prince Francesco
de'Medici
Date:
12 August 1569
DOCUMENT
". .
. In Lisbona è la peste, et fa non poco danno morendovene
ogni dì oltre a trenta persone, che se bene non par gran
cosa alla grandezza della città, va però continuendo
con questa occasione alcuni, ch'erono di razza di Giudei, se bene
son battezzati, vivendo malvolentieri christiani si sono fuggiti
di quivi per andare in altre parti a pigliar la fede de' lor padri;
de' quali alcuni hanno preso la volta d'ltalia sperando d'haver
ad esser comportati, come quei Marani, che sono in Ferrara. Ma chi
li raccetta può sapere, che e' sono apostati, a non Giudei,
perche essendo stati in Spagna, dove non possono star Giudei, è
cosa certa che tutti tengono il caratere del battesimo . . ."
TRANSLATION
". .
. In Lisbon, there is now the plague, which wreaks no little havoc,
leaving more than thirty dead every day. Though that might seem
no great thing, considering the site of the city, some persons who
were of the Jewish race are taking this opportunity to flee from
there in order to resume the faith of their fathers elsewhere --
even though they were baptized and lived as Christians against their
will. Some of them are heading to Italy, where they hope to be treated
like those "marani" in Ferrara. Those who receive them,
however, should be aware that they are apostates and not Jews. Since
they had all been in Spain, where no Jews are allowed, it is certain
that all of them underwent baptism..."
NOTES
- This
notice appears in a lengthy diplomatic dispatch from the Tuscan
Embassy in Madrid, primarily discussing the revolt of the
Moriscos in Andalusia.
- The
crucial point is that apostates from Catholicism were subject
to the Inquisition. Since all Jews had been expelled from
Spain or converted in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497, any
person leaving either country in 1569 was, by definition,
a Christian. Nonetheless, such persons were sometimes protected
and allowed to return to Judaism, even by popes, on the grounds
that their conversion to Catholicism had been forced.
- Attitudes
toward these Jews of Spanish and Portuguese origin varied
from state to state. What is particularly notable in this
document is the clear use of "racial" terminology.
The Tuscan ambassador refers to the Jews as a "razza",
adopting a particularly Iberian notion of Jewish identity.
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