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Performance as Exchange: Taxation and Jewish Theatre in Early Modern Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2013

Erith Jaffe-Berg
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In early modern Italy, an unusual form of exchange between Jewish and Christian communities materialized in Mantua: Jews in Mantua were required to perform an annual play as a tribute to their Gonzaga rulers. Elsewhere in the Italian peninsula, far more onerous “performances” were extorted from the Jews during carnival, but in the Mantuan performances, several communities—the ruling Gonzaga family, the Jewish community, and Christian audience members—interacted. I consider these performances a form of taxation because the full cost, which was extensive, was borne by the Jewish community. However, the performances were more than mere payment; they also gave the Jewish community a degree of autonomy and expression and enabled performers to develop their artistic skills, albeit always as the members of the company of “the Jews,” a group that was set apart from the rest of society in early modern Mantua. These theatrical performances can be seen as a public reification of the Jewish community as a distinctively marked but legitimate component of Mantua's economy and social landscape. This dynamic continued in Mantua even as Jews in other parts of Italy were subjected to extremely harsh conditions during the Counter-Reformation and the Catholic Inquisition.

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Theatre Survey , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 389 - 417
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Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 2013 

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References

Endnotes

1. In 1590, de' Sommi wrote to ask Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga to intervene against “instigators” (“instigatori”) and persecutors (“nuoi persecutori”) so that, with the duke's grace, the community could live peacefully (“sotto la felice ombra et sicura protettione di quella”). Leone de' Sommi to Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga, 29 July 1590, F3, C28, Archivi della communita ebraica a Mantova (Jewish Community Archives; hereafter ADCEM), Mantua, Italy.

2. Some historians have argued convincingly that acts such as burning the Talmud and censoring Hebraic texts were expressions of attempts by Christians in the era after the Council of Trent to dialogue with sacred texts rather than attempts to negate their existence. Jewish performances and even performances in Hebrew occurred within the same cultural nexus. See Raz-Krakotzkin, Amnon, The Censor, the Editor, and the Text: The Catholic Church and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon in the Sixteenth Century, trans. Feldman, Jackie ([Hebrew orig., Ha-Tsensor, ha-orech, vehatext (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2005)] Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007)Google Scholar, esp. 183–4. See also Bonfil, Robert, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy, trans. Oldcorn, Anthony ([Italian orig., Gi Ebrei in Italia nell'epoca del Rinascimento (Florence: Sansoni, 1991)] Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. Although Jews did not perform in the giudiate, they were forced to take part in other humiliating and even lethal activities. In Rome, up until 1443, it was customary to roll one of the older members of the Jewish community down from the hills surrounding Rome in a barrel full of sharp nails. The man would generally be dead or dying by the time his body arrived at the city. This ritual was replaced with forced payments toward carnival celebrations that the Jewish community would have to provide. Toaff, Elio, “Il Carnevale di Roma e gli Ebrei,” in Scritti in Memoria di Sally Mayer (1975–1953): Saggi sull' Ebraismo Italiano (Sepher Zikaron le shlomo S. Mayer: Kovetz le Toledot Yehudei Italia (bilingual ed.) (Jerusalem and Milan: Fondazione Sally Mayer, 1956), 325–44Google Scholar. In 1466, Pope Paul II created a footrace for Jews as part of the carnival celebrations in Rome. Jews had to wear red clothes to distinguish themselves from Christians and they would run a course. Nussdorfer, Laurie, “The Politics of Space in Early Modern Rome,” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 42 (1997): 161–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 171. Later, the Jews' races became more degrading; they would be forced to run with animals or to run naked. Toaf, 231; “Carnival,” Jewish Encyclopedia, www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4057-carnival. Simonsohn comments that Jews were forced to take part in carnival celebrations “because of the Christians' desire to bait and maltreat the Jews during their festivities.” Simonsohn, Shlomo, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua (Jerusalem: Kiryath Sepher, 1977)Google Scholar, 656.

4. For more on the giudiate, see Roth, Cecil, The Jews in the Renaissance, 2d ptg. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1964), 245–6Google Scholar; Gunzburg, Lynn M., Strangers at Home: Jews in the Italian Literary Imagination (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 94; and Stow, Kenneth, Theater of Acculturation: The Roman Ghetto in the Sixteenth Century (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001), 94–5Google Scholar. See also Nussdorfer, 172–3. For a recent consideration of the giudiata in Croatia, see Lozica, Ivan, “The Invention of the Giudiata,” Narodna umjetnost: Croatian Journal of Ethnology and Folklore Research 39.1 (2002): 65–74Google Scholar.

5. Beecher, Donald, “Leone de' Sommi and Jewish Theatre in Renaissance Mantua,” Renaissance and Reformation 17.2 (1993): 5–19Google Scholar, at 14.

6. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 106.

7. Beecher, 15. See also Fenlon, Iain, Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)Google Scholar, 37.

8. “Talmud, Burning of,” Jewish Virtual Library, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0019_0_19544.html.

9. Susan Parisi writes that “by the beginning of the seventeenth century, Jewish populations were concentrated in the territories of Mantua … Venice, and to a lesser degree, in Tuscany.” Quoted in Sparti, Barbara, “Jewish Dancing-Masters and ‘Jewish Dance’ in Renaissance Italy: Guglielmo Ebreo and Beyond,” in Seeing Israeli and Jewish Dance, ed. Ingber, Judith Brin (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2011), 235–50Google Scholar, at 242.

10. For the less harsh policies of Guglielmo in the early years of his term, see Sanders, Donald C., Music at the Gonzaga Court in Mantua (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012)Google Scholar, 59.

11. Harrán, Don, Salamone Rossi: Jewish Musician in Late Renaissance Mantua (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)Google Scholar, 25.

12. The Jews were told by Col. Dietrich Stein they were expelled from Mantua on 28 July, 1630 and had to leave within three days. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 54. The Jews petitioned the Emperor to be re-admitted to Mantua, and the Emperor complied on 2 September, 1630. The Jews were to be readmitted to Mantua and were to have their stolen property restored. Ibid, 59. For the Jewish ghetto in Mantua, see Don Harrán, Salamone Rossi, 39–44. For other ghettos, see Ravid, Benjamin, “All Ghettos Were Jewish Quarters but Not All Jewish Quarters Were Ghettos,” Jewish Culture and History 10.2–3 (2008): 5–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in The Frankfurt Judengasse: Jewish Life in an Early Modern German City, ed. Backhaus, Fritz et al. (Edgware, Middlesex: Vallentine–Mitchell, 2010), 5–22Google Scholar.

The first Jewish ghetto was established in Venice, where the Senate made the following decree on 29 March 1516:

BE IT DETERMINED that, to prevent such grave disorders and unseemly occurrences, the following measures shall be adopted, i.e. that all the Jews who are at present living in different parishes within our city, and all others who may come here, until the law is changed as the times may demand and as shall be deemed expedient, shall be obliged to go at once to dwell together in the houses in the court within the Geto at San Hieronimo, where there is plenty of room for them to live.

This translation, which is Benjamin Ravid's, is reprinted in Venice: A Documentary History, 1450–1630, ed. Chambers, David and Pullan, Brian (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992)Google Scholar, 338.

13. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 106.

14. Ibid., 2–3. Simonsohn feels that the presence of these two Jews indicates that there was a settlement in Mantua at the time.

15. Ibid., 104. For information on Jews and printing, see Grendler, Paul F., The University of Mantua, the Gonzaga, and the Jesuits, 1584–1630 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 6; and Amram, David, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963; reprint, London: Holland Press, 1988)Google Scholar, 32, 322–4.

16. See Grendler, 6. Also, Beecher, Donald and Ciavolella, Massimo, “Introduction: The Life and Works of Leone de' Sommi,” in de' Sommi, Leone, The Three Sisters, trans. and annot. Beecher, Donald and Ciavolella, Massimo (Ottawa: Dovehouse Editions, 1993), 7–23Google Scholar. Beecher and Ciavolella's source for the figure of 200 for the Jewish population is Baron, S. W., A Social and Religious History of the Jews, 2d ed., vol. 14 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969)Google Scholar, 87.

17. Beecher and Ciavolella, 12–13; Grendler, 6.

18. Bonfil, 6. For example, in his play Tsahoth B'dihuta d' Kiddushin (A Comedy of Betrothal, 1550), de' Sommi superimposed the typical Renaissance comedy of marriage on Jewish characters. The play exemplifies Bonfil's notion of the mirroring of Christian ideas in a Jewish context, in this case Christian ideas about love.

19. “Rather than being a measure directed against the Jews alone, censorship was initiated precisely because Christians were reading Jewish literature”; Raz-Krakotzkin, 2–3, quote on 2. For general comments about the importance of Bonfil's work as a revision of previous generations of Jewish scholarship on the Renaissance and Counter-Reformation, see ibid., 183–4. Mantua was a center for the publication of Hebrew texts in the mid-sixteenth century; see Grendler, 6.

20. Raz-Krakotzkin, 2–3, quote on 3.

21. On justifications for the presence of Jews in Italian cities, see Bonfil, 36–44. A Mantuan document from 1540 specifically stipulates “toleration of the Jews” (“tolerauorint mi hac Civitate, et dominio Mantua Hebreos”), guarantees them safety in their synagogues and during religious rituals and ceremonies, and grants them permission to work in Mantua and its domains. The document refers to the fact that since the predecessors of Mantuan rulers had always tolerated Jews in the city and the dominions of Mantua and allowed them freedom to engage in mercantile activities and to pray and attend to their duties, rites, ceremonies, and celebrations, those rights are continued. “Cum Illmi [Illustrissimi] Dmi [Domini] predecessores uri semper tolerauorint mi hac Civitate, et dominio Mantua Hebreos et cos publice versari, negociaq, sua libere agere, sinagogasg [sic], tenero, ac officia, ritus, et cerimonias suas celebrare” (Since our most Illustrious Lord Predecessors have always tolerated Jews in the city and the dominions of Mantua and have allowed them to officially engage, act freely, go to the synagogues, perform their duties, celebrate their ritual ceremonies). The document begins in Latin and continues in Italian, with specific clauses about what goods the Jews could trade. It is dated to the period of Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga's regency for Francesco III Gonzaga, the eventual duke of Mantua. Cardinal Ercole was known for being favorable to the Jews during his twenty-year regency. Edict of Toleration of Jews (tolerauorint mi hac Civitate, et dominio Mantua Hebreos), 28 October 1540, B3389, C8, Archivio Gonzaga, Archivio di Stato di Mantova (hereafter AG, ASM).

22. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 104. In fact, the Edict of Toleration noted above allows Jews “to be able to buy outside of the city and its dominions woolen cloths, be they garments used for various things or those made of foreign cloth, men's garments as well as women garments, and to be able to have and sell these freely, without any impediment in the city and her dominions” (Possano comprar fuori dell città, et dominio prefato ni qualunq, luogo panni di lana, cioè vesti usate d'ogni sorte anchor che fassero di panno forastiero cosi da huomo come da donna, et quelli tener, et vender liberamente senza aluno impedimento in la città et Dominio prenotata”). Edict of Toleration of Jews, 28 October 1540. The fact that Jews may have been able to bring in exotic foreign garments may explain why the mise-en-scènes they created in their performances were noted as being distinctive. But this speculation remains to be examined more closely in a future essay.

23. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 104.

24. Ibid., 104, 322.

25. Quoted in ibid., 105. Simonsohn translates the term “Università” in Italian as “University” but explains that it means a community that was similar to a guild: “The term ‘university of the Jews’ did not come into use by chance, and it reflects the special character of Jewish communal organization in Italy in this period. The name ‘university’ is given to the Christian merchants' and artisans' guilds, that is to say the corporate bodies of Christian society.” Simonsohn, 322.

26. Leone de' Sommi to Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga, 20 May 1578, B3389, C198, AG, ASM. Simonsohn and Francesca Trivellato identify the massari as elected officials who were charged with overseeing community issues and legal disputes. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 340–3; Trivellato, Francesca, The Familiarity of Strangers: The Sephardic Diaspora, Livorno, and Cross-Cultural Trade in the Early Modern Period (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 76–7Google Scholar.

The Jewish community in Piedmont was similarly known as the Università. A document from Turin dated 4 December 1582 shows that there were three representatives (agenti eletti) who were elected by the Jewish community, which was known as l'Università delli hebrei of the Duchy of Piedmont. The document is held in the Archivio di Stato Turin and is reprinted in Segre, Renata, ed., The Jews in Piedmont, vol. 2: 1582–1723 (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and Tel Aviv University, 1988)Google Scholar, 631.

27. An equivalent situation was found in Venice, which also had a corporation, or Università, for the Jews. There Jews were obliged, among other things, to provide loans to the poor of Venice. Documents reveal that Jews were bound to provide these loans at a rate of interest that was strictly regulated by the Venetian authorities. See the condotta (agreement) between Ebrei Tedeschi (German Jews) and the Venetian Senate of 1624 for an example. Chambers and Pullan, 342, 348.

28. As Simonsohn states, it “served as the basis for the autonomy of the Jewish community.” Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 105.

29. Ibid.

30. Ibid., 106. In the Venetian charter of the Jewish merchants of 1589 we gain a sense of the benefits that the Jewish community as a whole could gain from such agreements. Daniel Rodriga, a wealthy and powerful Sephardi merchant, petitioned for this charter on behalf of the Sephardi Jewish merchants of Venice. (The Sephardi community comprised Jews who had lived in Spain and were exiled in 1492, during the Spanish Inquisition.) In the charter, Rodriga pledged to bring more merchants and business to Venice (which was competing with Ancona at the time). In exchange, Venetian authorities would increase taxes and excise duties. He also asked for another ghetto to be constructed to accommodate the Jews in Spalato (Split); for security for Jewish residents of Venice; and for Jews to be granted the rights of citizens, freedom of travel, and the ability to leave should the charter be revoked. Venetian authorities reworded the charter and eliminated the clause about granting Jews the rights of citizens. The charter was originally published by Benjamin Ravid and is reprinted in Chambers and Pullan, 346–9.

31. Leone de' Sommi to Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga, 20 May 1578, B3389, C198, AG, ASM.

32. “L'humilissa. Università de gli heb' Et li Banchieri di Manta, sendo oppressi da molte, et insoportabilit granezze ordinarie et straordinarie, volendo compartir le tasse et le altre spece comuni fra loro.” Ibid.

33. Schirmann, Hayyim, “Yehudah Sommo,” Pargod: Bamah Le-Enyane Sifrut ve-Tiatron [Pargod: Theatre Art and Literature] (June 1963): 9–12Google Scholar, at 9.

34. Beecher and Ciavolella, 13–14. Cecil Roth records this marriage as that of Maddalena Gonzaga, sister of the marchese of Mantua (Francesco II Gonzaga), to Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro. He writes that “the pièce de resistance of the resplendent wedding celebrations was a dramatic performance based on the story of Judith and Holophernes, which according to a report sent home by the bride's brother[,] was staged by and at the expense of the local Jewish community.” Roth, Cecil, The Jews in the Renaissance (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1959)Google Scholar, 246.

35. Fenlon, 40. Fenlon was likely drawing on Cecil Roth.

36. Ibid., 40–1; Roth, 248. Fenlon suggests it was Duke Ercole I of Ferrara, but as Ercole died in 1505, it is likely Fenlon meant Alfonso d'Este (1476–1534), son of Ercole I d'Este. Roth records that the two Jewish actors who were requested from Ferrara were “Solomon and Jacob (Salamone e Jacopo ebrei).”

37. Fenlon, 40–1. Roth also confirms that by 1525, Jewish performances had become established as a contribution to state performances. Roth, 248.

38. “Domani si farà una altra comedia pur a casa delli figlioli del q.m s.r Zoanne, quale recitaràno li Judei, per esser anche per loro composta: et cosi spassaremo questo poco Carnevale.” Ducal Secretary Vincenzo de' Preti to Isabella d'Este, 24 February 1525, B2506, C267, AG, ASM. While the actors are clearly labled as Jewish, neither Mr. Zoanne, nor his children appear to be, and they are not referred to as “Judei.” (The letter was published in D'Ancona, Alessandro, Origini del teatro italiano, Libri tre con due appendici sulla rappresentazione drammatica del contado toscano e sul teatro montovano nel sec. XVI, 2 vols. [Turin: Ermanno Loescher, 1891]Google Scholar, 2:398. In that version, there is some slight variation in the spelling of some of the words from the spellings that appear in the original document; I have used the spellings from the archival document.) Roth suggests the performance may have been based on a Purim Spiel because the holiday of Purim, during the Hebrew month of Adar, which corresponds to February on the Gregorian calendar, was the one time during the Jewish year when theatrical enactments were allowed. Roth, 248. But Simonsohn suggests that it was an original play. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 657. See also Fenlon, 41n.

39. Ducal Secretary Vincenzo Preti to Isabella d'Este, 27 February 1525, B2506, C269, AG, ASM.

40. Ducal Secretary Vincenzo Preti to Isabella d'Este, 20 February 1525, B2506, C266, AG, ASM.

41. Simonsohn notes that for the 1554 production, Jacob Sulani and Samuel Shalit directed and were heads of community. Simonsohn quoted in Fenlon, 41n88. [Fenlon references Simonsohn's earlier Hebrew, Toledot ha-Yehudim bedukhasùt Mantova, 2 vols. (Jerusalem, 1962–4)Google Scholar.]

42. D'Ancona wrote, “[G]li israeliti mantovani non rallegrarono soltanto colle musiche la corte de' Gonzaga, bensì anche coll'arte scenica, come inventori e come attori” (The Jews of Mantova cheered the Gonzaga court not only with music but also with scenic [visual and performative] art, as inventors and actors). D'Ancona, 2:401.

43. “[E] fu dita molto bene, e si sentirono concerti per intermedj eccellentissimi, e sopra tutto si vide una molto bella scena con prospettive mirabili, e carica di lumi.” D'Ancona, 2:402. D'Ancona is quoting from “An Account of the Voyage of the Archdukes of Austria, Their Excellence from Trent to Milan in 1563” (“Relazioni di un viaggio da Trento a Milano fatto nel 1563 dagli Arciduchi d'Austria ecc.”), Trent Archives, Trent. D'Ancona is quoting the source from another source, which he cites as “Mariotti, 1889, anno VIII, pag. 83.”

44. Borrowing from classical sources such as Terence and Plautus, Ariosto produced his signature five-act structure around the Renaissance themes of love, conflict between parents and children, and issues related to marriage. He achieved this with the aid of the favored Renaissance theatrical device of disguise. Ariosto's play was written in prose in 1509 and performed in Ferrara during carnival. He revised the play into verse form sometime between 1528 and 1531. For more on I suppositi and Ariosto, see Brand, Peter, “Ariosto and Ferrara,” in A History of Italian Theatre, ed. Farrell, Joseph and Puppa, Paolo (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 44–50Google Scholar.

45. Fenlon, 41.

46. Burattelli, Claudia, Spettacoli di corte a Mantova tra Cinque e Seicento (Florence: Casa Editrice Le Lettere, 1999)Google Scholar, 156.

47. As Beecher and Ciavolella state: “However the accent is placed, the record of regular performances by a permanent Jewish troupe, formed as early as the 1520s, is beyond dispute.” Beecher and Ciavolella, 13.

48. “Il primo marzo i signatori della città, i rappresentanti delle arti, gli ebrei, sei compagnie di fanferia hanno accompagnato l'ingresso dell'Imperatore in Praga.” Ducal Secretary Gianfrancesco Anguissola to Duke Guglielmo of Mantua, 3 July 1567, B450, C22, AG, ASM. The duke was in Casale.

49. Burattelli, 167.

50. Guglielmo was too young to assume power in 1550 when his predecessor died, so his mother, Margherita, and uncle, Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga, acted as regents on his behalf until he was ready to assume the reins of power in 1556, at age 18. Various riots against the Jews occurred during the celebrations of Guglielmo's marriage to Eleanora of Austria in 1561 and during the celebrations for the birth of his son, Vincenzo, in 1562. In these riots, Jewish shops were looted, documents and promissory notes were burned, and Jewish houses were attacked. Although Guglielmo did not instigate the riots and sent soldiers to defend the Jews, the riots did occur under his rule. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 25.

51. The bull is reprinted in its original Latin with an English translation in Stow, Kenneth R., Catholic Thought and Papal Jewry Policy, 1555–1593 (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1977), 294–8Google Scholar. Parts of the bull are also translated in Bonfil, 67–8. For a recent discussion of the bull and its impact, see Ravid, Benjamin, “Cum Nimis Absurdum and the Ancona Auto-da-Fé Revisited: Their Impact on Venice and Some Wider Reflections,” Jewish History 26.1–2 (2012): 85–100CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I thank the anonymous reader for directing me to this source. The bull began, “As it is completely absurd and intolerable in the utmost that the Jews, who through their own fault were condemned by God to eternal servitude, should now be ungrateful towards Christians” and then announced a series of changes in economic and religious policies toward Jews. At first, the change was most visible in an order that the Talmud be confiscated and burned in Rome in 1553. The confiscation of the Talmud then spread to Venice, Ferrara, and Mantua, centers for the publishing and printing of Jewish books.

52. For example, Guglielmo's wife established a “house of converts” where Jewish converts to Catholicism could find food and shelter. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 26–7.

53. “L'esibizione dei sudditi ebrei sulla vetrina internazionale del palcoscenico di corte aveva probabilmente costituito, all'epoca guglielmina, uno dei tanti segnali di autonomia del ducato dall'influenza della Santa Sede” (The performance of the Jewish subjects in the international showcase of the court stage probably constituted, in the time of Guglielmo, one of many signs of the autonomy of the duke from the influence of the Holy See). Burattelli, 167.

54. On the regulation of Jewish marriages, see Beecher and Ciavolella, 13; and Beecher, 5. The Catholic Church considered any marriage that was not performed by a priest, with three witnesses, and after the publication of banns to be clandestine. Thus, by definition, all Jewish marriages were “clandestine.” On forced baptism, see Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 26–7.

55. “Hebrei, liquali oltre che alle volte sono di scandalo alli Christiani, con la troppo famigliar conversatione e che hanno insieme danno loro occasioni di commettere delli errori” (Jews, some of whom sometimes are scandalous to Christians, with conversation that is all too familiar and who both have given themselves opportunities to commit errors). Decree against Contact and Fine If Such Contact Occurs, 1 March 1576, B3389, C189, AG, ASM.

56. “Volendo noi che gli Hebrei quali per a commodità de sudditi nostri tolleriamo che posanno habitare in questa nostra Città, & Dominio, siano in modo differenti dalli Christiani, che senza esser conosciuti non possano meschiarsi con essi” (We would wish that the Jews whom we tolerate for the convenience of our subjects and are allowed to live in our city and dominion would be marked as different from Christians, who would not commingle with them if they were identified [as Jews]). B3389, C193, AG, ASM. The letter is dated 28 August 1577.

57. Burattelli, 166–7. The list of total performances for carnival is longer. See Simonsohn, Shlomo, “Lehakat ha-Teatron Shel Yehudei Mantuva” (The Theatre Troupe of the Jews of Mantua), in Pargod: Bamah Le-Enyane Sifrut ve-Tiatron [Pargod: Theatre Art and Literature], ed. Mark, Arieh (June, 1963), 13–17Google Scholar, at 14.

58. “Negli anni successivi, invece, l'impiego degli ebrei si limitò alle sole recite carnevalesche.” Burattelli, 167. She also adds that as music became more important to life in Mantua, Jewish actors were increasingly excluded; but she affirms the turn to Counter-Reformation as the true cause.

59. “In seguito la stessa predilezione per il teatro musicale avrebbe contribuito a escludere gli attori ebrei dalle rappresentazioni di maggiore importanza, ma la causa principale di questa progressiva riduzione del ruolo della communità israelitica nel contesto spettacolare gonzaghesco è quasi sicuramente da cercare nel graduale adeguamento ai dettami della Controriforma avviato da Vincenzo e accelerato dai suoi successori.” Ibid. Burattelli and Simonsohn described the attitudes of Vincenzo and Guglielmo toward Jews differently. Writing from the perspective of Jewish history, Shlomo Simonsohn presents Guglielmo as more punitive than Vincenzo; see Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 662–3, on Vincenzo. Writing from a theatre historian's perspective, Claudia Burattelli emphasizes (1) that Guglielmo's actions were motivated by his desire for sovereignty from the Holy See; and (2) that Vincenzo was more accommodating than Guglielmo to the Holy See. Burattelli feels that Vincenzo's capitulation to the pope marks the beginning of the decline of Jewish theatre during his reign, a process that led to the end of public performance by Jews in 1650.

60. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 663.

61. “Perciò volendo Noi provedere, che i figliuoli d'Hebrei, conforme all'antico costume di Santa Chiesa, non siano battezzati, senza saputa delli loro padri, & madri, Ò almeno d'uno di loro, acchioche il sacramẽto del Battesimo proceda senza fraude, & anco à fine, che in questa nostra Città, et suo Dominio … posiano vivere senza sospetto, così gl'Hebrei, come i Christiani insieme con i figliuoli, & famiglie loro.” Edict of Toleration of Jews, 17 January 1588, B3389, C201–2, AG, ASM.

62. Ibid.

63. D'Ancona wrote, “[G]li israeliti poterono in Mantova esercitarsi oltre che al traffico e al cambio, anche alle più culte discipline.” D'Ancona, 2:398–9.

64. “Abbiamo qui un fatto nuovo e curioso: le recite di commedie fatte dagli Ebrei mantovani per ordine o col conseno, e ad ogni modo alla presenza della Corte. La Università israelitica di Mantova era, a quel che emerge dai documenti, una specie di compagnia comica permanente al servizio de' principi: aveva almeno nel suo seno individui sempre pronti a far da attori. E questo fatto, del quale via via vedremo le prove, raccogliendole tutt'insieme per una serie non breve di anni, attesta insieme la tolleranza de' sovrani e la cultura della famiglia giudaica mantovana” (We have here a new and curious fact: the recitation of comedies by the Jews of Mantua by order and consent and in any case at the presence of the court. The Jewish community of Mantua was, as apparent in the documents, a kind of permanent theatre company at the dukes' service which always had actors at the ready to perform. And this fact, for which we will see more and more proof over a number of years, attests both to the tolerance of the sovereigns and the assimilation and artistic merit of the Jewish Mantuan family). D'Ancona, 2:398.

65. Beecher and Ciavolella, 13. See also Burattelli, 142–4.

66. Beecher and Ciavolella, 13–14. Nonetheless, Beecher suggests that the connection between performance and taxation, however plausible, is still conjectural: “Nowhere do contemporary documents specify directly that the plays were employed as a negotiating tool, or even that they were perceived to be a form of taxation.” Beecher, 7.

67. Simonsohn quotes from the community minute book. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 663.

68. Simonsohn records that the organizers of the event, Meir Basan, Shmuel Moshe Meliashirili, and Mordechi Memili, stated that de' Sommi reimbursed the community with these funds because he did not want to take its money for his work in the theatre. Simonsohn, “Lehakat ha-Teatron Shel Yehudei Mantuva,” 14.

69. Beecher and Ciavolella, 17. Although de' Sommi wrote the play for the carnival of 1587, that performance was postponed. Beecher and Ciavolella suspect that a performance of this play may have been mounted in 1589 but note that it was definitely produced during the carnival of 1598, when it was directed by Abraham Sarfati.

70. “Hieri si rappresentò una comedia d'istrioni hebrei, che non fu mal recitata affatto, et fu quella degli Ingiusti sdegni, con intermezzi piacevoli, ma di poca inventione et spesa.” D'Ancona, 2:426. The letter is dated 2 May 1584.

71. “Non fu molto bella in sè, ma fu ornata di bellissimi intermedi et di regalissimo apparato di scena.” Quoted in ibid., 2:422.

72. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 664.

73. The massaro for the performance was Abramo da Udine. The archival record includes a receipt for payments made by Abramo and a note about the items that were loaned for the performance, which included candles (candeline). “Lista delle persone che hanno partecipato all commedia ‘Accessi de Amor’” (List of the people who participated in the play ‘Accessi de Amor’ [The Pangs of Love]), ca. 17 February 1605, F9, C1: 3, ADCEM. Elsewhere the file notes that woman in the Jewish community named Zipora was to be reimbursed for a contribution she made to the performances (67).

74. Burattelli, 156.

75. See “Concessione della licenza di ‘andare di notte senza il lume’ per i partecipiani alla commedia” (Concession for a license to walk at night without lights so as to participate in a comedy), 1605; “Ricevuta di pagamento per fabbricare scarpe ad uso della commedia” (Receipt of payment for making shoes for a comedy), 11 January 1606; and “Ordine di pagamento per le persone che prestano servizio durante la comedia” (Payment order for people who work during the comedy), ca. 1605–6, F10, C1: 107, 105, and 111, respectively, ADCEM.

76. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 663.

77. Simonsohn quotes the note sent from Ferrara to Mantova. Simonsohn, “Lehakat ha-Teatron Shel Yehudei Mantuva,” 15.

78. Ibid.; and Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 662.

79. “Nota delle spese per l'acquisto di dolciumi presso la spezieria del Leone, in occasione della visita del duca di Mantova in sinagoga il 3 marzo 1590” (Note of expenditure for the purchase of candy at the pharmacy of the Lion, during the visit of the Duke of Mantua in synagogue 3 March 1590), F3, C21, ADCEM.

80. D'Ancona wrote that “already on 10 March 1592 there was a precedent established and a special commission created by the Jewish community authorized the spending of 25 scudi for each such occurrence, and this happened again in the years 1594, '96 and '97, that being the year in which the duke died, and again in '98” ([G]ià a' 10 marzo 1592 erasi stabilita una volta per tutte, che la commissione speciale tratta dal seno della corporazione fosse authorizzata a spendere venticinque scudi per ciascuna di tali occorrenze, e che queste tornarono anche negli anni 1594, '96 e '97, ed è l'anno in cui nulla si fece per la morte del duca di Ferrara, e anche nel '98). D'Ancona, 2:428.

81. D'Ancona quotes from a letter from the ducal secretary Annibale Cheppio: “due to the death of the Duke of Ferrara, I believe his excellence would not want to have plays performed” ([P]erchè per la morte del duca di Ferrara, credo che S. A. non avrà voglia di Commedie). Annibale Cheppio to [the Jewish community], 31 October 1597, quoted in D'Ancona, 2:428. D'Ancona identifies the duke as Alfonso II, the last duke of Ferrara, who died on 27 October 1597.

82. “Guglielmo per la gratia di Dio Duca di Mantova, & di Monferato &c. Volendo Noi Provedere … Che non sia lecito alli Christiani andar sulle feste delli hebrei ne alli hebrei andar sulle feste de Christiani, sotto pena de venticinque scudi per ciascuno che contrafarà questo nostro … [words blotted out].” Later in the decree he institutes a fine of ten scudi for mixing with Jews or dancing with, singing with, or teaching Jews. “Che li hebrei no prattichino in Casa de Christiani, massimamẽte di dõne cantare, sonar, ò ballare, overo per insegnare à cantare, sonare, ò ballare, se non hauranno licenza in scritto da noi, sotto pena di dieci scudi per ogni volta che contrafaranno” (That the Jews do not practice [and take equal part] in the house of Christians by singing, playing instruments or dancing, or even by teaching to sing, play instruments, or dance, unless they have written license from us, on pain of ten scudi for each time that they violate this). Decree against Contact and Fine If Such Contact Occurs, 1 March 1576. B3389, C189, AG, ASM.

83. Beecher and Ciavolella, 17.

84. Simmel, Georg, The Philosophy of Money, trans. Bottomore, Tom and Frisby, David (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978)Google Scholar, 129.

85. For examples of this distinction, see letters written by two people who attended performances. One was Belisario Vinta, secretary to the archduke of Tuscany, who on 2 May 1584 wrote to the grand duke of Tuscany (Cosimo I de' Medici) that “Hieri si rappresentò una comedia d'istrioni hebrei” (Last night a comedy was presented by the Jewish actors). The second person was Massimiliano Cavriani (majordomo for Vincenzo Gonzaga), who refers in a letter written on 30 January 1576 to “due Comedie nella scena di Castello: una dalli Christiani e l'altra dalli Hebrei” (two plays set in Castello: one by the Christians and another by the Jews). Both quoted in D'Ancona, 2:426.

86. Simmel, 169.

87. “It should be recognized that most relationships between people can be interpreted as forms of exchange. Exchange is the purest and most developed kind of interaction, which shapes human life when it seeks to acquire substance and content.” Ibid., 82.

88. Ibid., 90.

89. Simmel continues: “Whoever attends a concert is satisfied with their money outlay when they hear the expected programme with the expected perfection. The artist, however, is not satisfied with the money; he also expects applause.” Ibid., 405.

90. Ibid.

91. For Simmel, the exchange remains subjective and relative: “Value develops in the interval that obstacles, renunciation and sacrifice interpose between the will and its satisfaction. The process of exchange consists in the mutual determination of taking and giving, and it does not depend upon a particular object having previously acquired a value for a particular subject.” Ibid., 90.

92. Goodchild, Philip, Theology of Money (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009)Google Scholar.

93. Ibid., 203.

94. Ibid., 17, where Goodchild continues: “Money circulates between and participates in all three dimensions. It is an instrument of exchange, a promise of value, and a measure of value.”

95. Goodchild disagrees with views that highlight the subjective nature of value: “one cannot presuppose, however, that such subjective choices are independent of the operations of the market.” Ibid., 87.

96. Ibid., 265n32.

97. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 27.

98. “Ricevuta di pagamento di mille scudi d'oro come dono dell'università degli Ebrei a Sua Altezza Serenissima” (Receipt of payment of one thousand gold scudi as a gift from the Università of the Jews for His Serene Highness), 28 August 1579, F1, C60, ADCEM.

99. “Ricevuta relativa a una tassa speciale imposta ai ‘non contribuenti’ dell'Università degli Ebrei di Mantova” (Received from a special tax imposed on “non-taxpayers” of the University of the Jews of Mantua), ca. 1579–80, F1, C62, ADCEM.

100. On occasion, the Jewish performers who excelled at their craft were allowed greater mobility and did not have to wear the branding sign. This was the case for de' Sommi and for Simone Basilea, a character actor who was lauded for his comedic presentation. As late as 1612, the year the ghetto was created, Basilea was allowed to “go and be in whatever city and place in our state, and recite comedies without having a sign on his hat or in another place, as other Jews must do, except in Mantova, where we would like that he will have one single sign” (andare et stare in qualsivoglia città et luoghi dei nostri stati, et recitar comedie senza portar segno alcuno al capèllo o in altro luogo come fanno gl'altri hebrei, eccetto che in Mantova, dove vogliamo che porti il solito segno). Burattelli, 162.

101. De' Sommi wrote, “Leone de Sommi hebreo, assicurato dalla benignità di quella, s'induce a chiederle per singular gratia et favore, un decreto di poter egli solo per anni X dare stanza in Mant.a da rappresentare comedie, a coloro che per prezzo ne vanno recitando, offerendosi egli dare ogni anno a' poveri della Misericordia, sacchi due di formento per mostrarsi in parte grato de l'havuta gratia, overo il prezzo di quello, a chi più piacerà a l'Ecc. V., il che, benchè senza suo merito, per gratia ricerca, a piedi di quella devotamte inchinandosi” (Leone de' Sommi the Jew, assured by the good will [of the duke] brings himself to ask him by his singular grace and favor, for a decree to permit him for only ten years to have a room in Mantua in which to present plays, for a price, and he would offer in exchange to give each year to the poor of the Misericordia two sacks of grain [or wheat] to show some gratitude of receiving this grace, and he is also ready to offer that price to anyone else that would most please your grace, and that is what this one devotedly bowing at your feet, is looking for by grace, though without any merit on his own part). De' Sommi to the Duke, 15 April 1567, quoted in D'Ancona, 2:405.

102. Raz-Krakotzkin, 24.

103. Ibid., 25.

104. Simonsohn, “Lehakat ha-Teatron Shel Yehudei Mantuva,” 15.

105. Ibid. Simonsohn cites documents in the ADCEM. Details about this first decade of the seventeenth century are found in the file for 1605–6, F10, C1, ADCEM. The file contains various receipts for performances, as “Concessione dell licenza di ‘andare di notte senza il lume’” (Concession for a license to walk at night without lights), payment orders for people who took part in the performance of the play, receipts for shoes to be used for the play, list of items such as candles needed for a ballet, and information about the specific payments for the massari of the various performances.

106. Simonsohn, “Lehakat ha-Teatron Shel Yehudei Mantuva,” 16.

107. This is the interpretation Simonsohn takes from Jewish archival sources. Ibid.