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An
Untold Tale of Forbidden Love in Sixteenth Century Pisa
DOCUMENT CITATION: TRANSLATION: Most Illustrious and Excellent Lord, the Prince Regent Tonight members of the staff of the magistrate here in Pisa [Desiderio Colonnetti] found a certain Prospero son of Emanuello son of Prospero da Castro, a Jewish finisher of [chain] mail in this city, sleeping in bed with a certain Giulietta daughter of Francesco, a Christian whore here in Pisa; they were both nude and using each other carnally. The magistrate took them off to jail, where they are now being held. This is a bad case and it sets a bad example which is well-worthy of punishment; I therefore wanted to bring it to the attention of Your Illustrious Excellency, begging you to inform me of your wishes so that I can put them into effect. While awaiting your response, I reverently kiss your hands, praying God to grant you every happiness. From Pisa, 6 February 1567. From Your Most Illustrious Excellency’s faithful and perpetual servant, Piero Gianfigliazzi. II. Piero Gianfigliazzi to Francesco I de’ Medici; 7 February 1568; Mediceo del Principato 534, insert 1, folio 137 Most Illustrious and Excellent Lord, the Prince Regent Yesterday morning I wrote Your Most Illustrious Excellency describing how members of the staff of the magistrate here [Desiderio Colonnetti] found a certain Prospero son of Emanuello, a finisher of [chain] mail, in bed nude with a certain Giulietta, a Florentine whore in this city, and they were using each other carnally. Both of them were taken off to jail, where they are now being held. Since this figures as a bad case and is well worthy of punishment, I begged you to instruct me how I should proceed. This morning, a certain Ser Giuseppe Bolla, the legal agent of this Jew Prospero, presented me with an authorized copy of a privilege granted by the Most Illustrious and Excellent Lord Duke [Cosimo I de’ Medici] on 28 February 1555 [1556 modern reckoning], to all Jews of all nations, stating among other things that: COPY: If it should happen after the date of the present document that any of these Jews, whether male or female, or members of their households as above, should be unofficially or officially accused of the sin of having commingled with a Christian man or woman, we grant that they cannot be unofficially or officially accused to any judge, magistrate or commissioner of ours, but only to us in person; neither can they be arrested or detained without our express license. I did not want to absolve or release him or take any action, since I had already written to your Most Illustrious Excellency and was awaiting instruction regarding your thinking in this matter. I beg you to inform me of this, so that I can put it into operation, as is my goal and my duty. To this end, I reverently kiss your hands, praying that God grant you every happiness. From Pisa on the sixth day of February 1567. From Your Most Illustrious Excellency’s faithful and perpetual servant, Piero Gianfigliazzi. III. Francesco I de’ Medici to Piero Gianfigliazzi; 16 February 1568; Mediceo del Principato 229, folio 103 We have seen what you wrote in your letters of the 6th and 7th regarding that Jew Prospero son of Emanuello. Do not release him without our knowledge and if he wishes to avail himself of the privilege that you enclose, have him produce the original, then you should make a copy of it and send it to us, then we will tell you how to proceed. Wishing you good health. From Florence. TRANSCRIPTION: Ill.mo et Ecc.mo Sig. Principe reggente La famiglia di questo bargelo ha trovato questa notte un Prospero d’Emanuello di maestro Prospero da Castro hebreo aconciatore di maglia in questa città a dormire nel letto con una Giuletta di Francesco di Firenze meretrice in Pisa christiana, ambidua ignudi, usando insieme carnalmente. Et ha condotto l’uno et l’altro nele carcere, dove si ritengono prigionj. Parendo caso brutto, di malo essempio et degno dj castigho. Ho volsuto farne consapevole V. E. I., supplicandola, che si voglia degnare commettermj qual’ sia la voluntà sua, aciòche la possa effettuare et aspettandone risposta, reverentemente le bacio le manj, pregandole da Dio ogni felicità. Di Pisa il dì vj di febraio 1567. D. V. E. Ill.ma fedelissimo e perpetuo servitore Piero Gianfigliazzi II. Piero Gianfigliazzi a Francesco I de’ Medici; 7 febbraio 1568; Mediceo del Principato 534, inserto 1, folio 137 Illustrissimo et Eccellentissimo Signore Principe reggente. [...] Hiermattina scrissi a Vostra Eccellenza Illustrissima come un Prospero d’Emanuello [di maestro Prospero da Castro] hebreo da Castro conciatore di maglia in Pisa era stato trovato dalla famiglia di questo bargello [Desiderio Colonnetti] nel letto ignudo con una Giulietta [di Francesco] di Firenze meretrice in questa città usando seco carnalmente, et che ambedua erano state condottj in carcere, dove si ritenevano, parendo caso brutto e degno di castigo, et supplicavo quella che mi volessi commettere quanto si dovesse per me esseguire. Et questa mattina da un ser Giuseppe Bolla procurator’ di detto Prospero hebreo mi è stata presentata copia autentica d’un privilegio concesso dall’Illustrissimo et Eccellentissimo Signore Duca [Cosimo I de’ Medici] de’ 28 di febraio, l’anno 1555, a tutti li hebrei di qualsivoglia natione continente in fra l’altre cose. [In margine:] Copia Et se accadesse che alcuna o alcuno di detti hebrei, così mastio come femina, o altri di loro famiglia, come di sopra fussino accusati o denuntiati di haver nel nostro dominio doppo la data della presente peccato del mescolarsi con qualche huomo o donna cristiana, concediamo loro che non possono esser denuntiati o accusati dinanzi a niun’ altro giudice o magistrato o commissario nostro, se non innanzi alla nostra propria persona, né possino da alcuno esser presi o staggiti senza nostra espressa licentia. Non mi son’ volsuto risolvere a relassarlo o far’ altra cosa, havendone scritto come di sopra a Vostra Eccellenza Illustrissima aspettando che da quella mi venga commesso quale sia la mente sua, la quale suplico che mi voglia fare noto, aciò che io la possa mandar’ ad effetto, come ricerca l’obligo mio et con questo fine reverentemente le bacio le mani, pregando ^le da^ Dio ogni felicità. Di Pisa il dì vij di febbraio 1567. D. V. E. Ill.ma fedelissimo e perpetuo servitore Piero Gianfigliazzj III. Francesco I de’ Medici a Piero Gianfigliazzi; 16 febbraio 1568; Mediceo del Principato 229, folio 103 Habbiamo veduto quello che con le nostre de’ 6 et 7 scrivete di quel Prospero di Emanuello hebreo. Non lo rilassate senza nostra saputa, et se egli si vuol’ valere del privilegio che vi allega, fatevi produrre l’originale et traetene voi una copia et ce la manderete che allora vi diremo quanto n’habbiate da seguire. Et state sano. Di Fiorenza. HISTORICAL CONTEXT: It was a "bad case" and a "bad example", a Jewish man and a Christian prostitute, in bed together "using each other carnally." However, it was evidently not a unique case, as demonstrated by the previous ducal "privilege" refering specifically to transgressions of this sort. Pisa was then the chief port of Tuscany, with some 94 Jewish residents (according to the census of 1570), including powerful banking families like the da Rieti, wealthy perfume dealers like the Leucci and skilled craftsmen like the hapless "finisher of chain mail", Prospero di Emmanuello di Prospero da Castro. In Pisa, there was presumably also a shifting and unquantifiable presence of Jewish merchants and sailors, as well as marranos and "New Christians" whose relative Jewishness depended on their immediate circumstances. Probably the most interesting aspect of the present case is the hesitant reaction of the government authorities. Piero Gianfigliazzi, the high official responsible for public order in Pisa, was not prepared to act on his own and referred the matter directly to Prince Regent Francesco de’ Medici (son of Duke Cosimo I) who was then the acting head of state. Even Francesco wished to avoid precipitate action and decided to await clarification of the legal and administrative context of the situation. In sixteenth century Tuscany (and probably other parts of Europe), laws regarding sexual conduct were only sporadically enforced and were highly subject to the moral and political exigencies of the moment. In the early months of 1568, when Prospero and Giulietta had their ill-fated encounter, every action of the approximately seven hundred Jews in the Florentine Dominion was under intense scrutiny. In fact, the count-down was already under way, leading in 1570 to their exclusion from most Tuscan localities and segregation in the Florentine Ghetto. This process is amply documented in Magistrato Supremo 4449 and 4450 in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze, which is now being prepared for publication by The Medici Archive Project. In these years, the base of Jewish settlement in Italy was contracting rapidly, due to concerted pressure from both the Papacy and the Spanish Crown. In 1540, there was a mass expulsion from the Spanish-ruled Kingdom of Naples, followed soon after by escalating tensions in the Papal State. In 1555, Pope Paul IV issued a bull limiting Jewish habitation in the city of Rome to a separate Ghetto; he also mandated that Jews wear a distinctive emblem and excluded them from the practice of most trades, the owning of real estate and the employment of Christian servants. In 1566 and 1569, his successor Pius V issued further restrictive legislation, forbidding Jewish settlement in the Papal State outside the Ghettos of Rome and Ancona. Meanwhile, the Popes were waging an intense political and theological campaign to impose their example on the rest of Italy, in direct contradiction to the Medici’s own policy of pragmatic tolerance. Beginning in the 1540s, the young Cosimo I de’ Medici actively encouraged Jewish settlement in the Florentine Dominion in hope of attracting investment capital. To this end, he issued numerous commercial charters to Jewish bankers from the mid ‘40s through the late ‘60s, allowing them to lend money at interest despite the Church’s longstanding ban on usury. Notwithstanding his own inclinations, Cosimo was under inexorable pressure to regularize the status of his Jewish subjects according to the emerging Roman legislation. There were two chief issues at stake: Catholic orthodoxy and legal jurisdiction. Though the Pope had the right to pronounce on matters of faith, in the temporal sphere the Duke of Florence (later Duke of Florence and Siena, then Grand Duke of Tuscany) was sovereign ruler of his own territory and lord of its inhabitants. After the Papal Bull of 14 July 1555, the Medici regime kept a close eye on the political and jurisdictional implications of Jewish settlement. In this regard, the "privilege" of 28 February 1556, cited by Prospero’s legal advisor Ser Giuseppe Bolla, acknowledged the wrongness of miscegenation between Christians and Jews. At the same time, it mandated that such wrongdoing was a civil matter under direct ducal authority and not within the purview of the Pope or the Inqusition. On 6 May 1567, after much study and discussion, the Medici made a major concession to Roman practice and introduced the "segno" for Jews in their territory: this identifying emblem was a circle of yellow cloth for men and a yellow sleeve for women. Nine months later, when Prospero and Giulietta were taken in flagrante, the prostitute could thus have had no doubt regarding the social identity of her client—nor indeed, of the particular heedlessness of their behavior at that moment. The cited "privilege" of 1556 is yet to emerge in the archive. Indeed, the Ducal administration in Florence was apparently unable to locate the paper in question, unless they were merely throwing the burden of evidence onto the Jew and his lawyer. There is no indication that the Pisan notary Ser Giuseppe Bolla registered such a document in 1556 or 1568, as he should have done in order to give it full legal force. In any case, the "privilege" was never published as a general decree and it is therefore difficult to gauge its frame of reference. Did the "privilege" deal only with the issue of miscegenation? Or did Ser Giuseppe Bolla extract a single paragraph from a longer document setting out the full terms of the Duke’s civil jurisdiction over certain of his Jewish subjects? Though the paragraph might well have been taken out of context, it is difficult to imagine that it was an outright invention. On the human level, we can also wonder about the ultimate fate of Prospero and Giulietta. Why was this Florentine prostitute, Giulietta di Francesco, plying her trade in Pisa? Was this her only encounter with Prospero or did they have an ongoing relationship of some sort? Only one point seems clear: Prospero di Emanuello di Prospero da Castro was eager to throw himself on the mercy of the ultimate authority in Florence, whether this be the relatively laissez faire Duke Cosimo or his more Catholic and Spanish son, Prince Regent Francesco. For better or for worse, Jews in Tuscany persevered in seeing the Medici as their protectors, which was probably more accurate than not, in the complex if generally hostile world they occupied. SPECIAL THANKS to Ippolita Morgese, who researched the files of Notary Giuseppe Bolla. ILLUSTRATIONS:
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 © 2002 by The Medici Archive Project |
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