| THE
FLORENTINE GHETTO: ESSENTIAL PUBLICATIONS FROM
THE
MEDICI ARCHIVE PROJECT
The Origin of the Florentine Ghetto: An Edition of Magistrato
Supremo 4449 and 4450 in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze,
by Ippolita Morgese with contributions from Michele Luzzati and
Edward Goldberg (Toronto University Press: 2008).
Carlo
Pitti and the Florentine Ghetto: Documents from the Pitti Archive,
by Ippolita Morgese (forthcoming).
In 1570-71,
Grand Duke Cosimo I de'Medici created the first Ghetto in Florence.
For many years, he had withstood heavy political and moral pressure
from Pope Pius V and King Philip II of Spain to limit the freedom
of his Jewish subjects. Cosimo's decision to ghettoize but not
expel them was in fact a gesture of pragmatic liberalism.
The Jews
in Tuscany numbered only 795, according to the official Jewish
census of 1570 (in Magistrato Supremo 4450, pp.179-80.) Living
in small scattered communities, they had long enjoyed cordial
relations with the Medici family and the Medici state. Most of
these Jews were directly or indirectly involved in banking and
their financial network was essential to the Tuscan economy.
To resolve
the Jewish question in an orderly manner, Cosimo I de'Medici turned
to the Magistrato Supremo, a five-man executive council under
direct granducal control. He authorized Carlo Pitti, his agent
on this council, to prepare a full report on the Jews in Tuscany
and then issue an official recommendation regarding their fate.
Magistrato Supremo 4449 and 4450, two volumes of documents in
the Florentine State Archive, chronicle this process with almost
clinical precision.
 Magistrato
Supremo 4449
- is titled
DEI CAPITOLI D' EBREI ("The Charters of the Jews")
and contains 245 pages of documents, mostly in Latin. The council's
first task was to determine the current state of Jewish settlement
and Jewish business activity in Tuscany, in order to determine
the legal and practical ramifications of any eventual decision.
In this volume, they assembled all the "charters"
of commercial privileges granted to Jews since 1547, forming
a detailed record of Jewish financial practice throughout the
mid-sixteenth century. After the institution of the Florentine
Ghetto in 1570-71, the council continued to file such charters
for another thirty years, fully documenting the reorganization
of Jewish businesses in the early Ghetto period.
-
Magistrato
Supremo 4450
is titled PROCESSO CONTRA LI EBREI CHE NEL DOMINIO DI SUA
ALTEZZA STAVANO ET HABITVANO DICONO CHE HOGI E STATO LORO
PROHIBITO, 1570. ("Proceedings Against the Jews Who in
the Past Stayed and Lived in His Highness's Dominion, Which
Is Now Forbidden to Them, 1570.") These 270 pages of
documents, largely in Italian, record another phase of the
information-gathering process. Under Carlo Pitti's direction,
the council sent agents throughout Tuscany to gather complaints
against the Jews from their neighbors and Christian business
associates. These complaints focus almost exclusively on the
moral and practical implications of usury in Christian society,
offering many insights into the evolution of state-sponsored
anti-semitisim in early modern Europe.
THE MEDICI
ARCHIVE PROJECT is now preparing complete transcriptions of both
Magistrato Supremo 4449 and 4450. These documents will be published
in a definitive critical edition, including scholarly essays,
English summaries and full indices.
Highlights from Magistrato Supremo 4449 and 4450
(click on link below to view highlights)
Magistrato
Supremo 4449
Magistrato
Supremo 4450
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