Overview

It is a little known fact that as early as the thirteenth century, Europe's political and religious powers tried to physically mark and distinguish the Jews from the rest of society. During the Renaissance, Italian Jews first had to wear a yellow round badge on their chest, and then later, a yellow beret. The discriminatory marks were a widespread phenomenon with serious consequences for Jewish communities and their relations with Christians. Beginning with a sartorial study - how the Jews were marked on their clothing and what these marks meant - the book offers an in-depth analysis of anti-Jewish discrimination across three Italian city-states: Milan, Genoa, and Piedmont. Moving beyond Italy, it also examines the place of Jews and Jewry law in the increasingly interconnected world of Early Modern European politics.

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9781107175433

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Reviews

'In this fascinating study, instead of focusing on the better-known Venice, Rome, and Florence and their ghettos, Flora Cassen has chosen to concentrate on northern Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the under-studied areas of Piedmont, the Duchy of Milan, and Genoa, where Jewish communities were small. ... a stimulating and informative contribution to Jewish-Christian studies.' Christopher F. Black, Renaissance and Reformation

Author Information

Flora Cassen is Associate Professor of History and JMA and Sonja Van der Horst Scholar in Jewish History and Culture, both at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on the history of Jews in early modern Italy, Spain, and the Mediterranean. She has published articles on these subjects in the Association for Jewish Studies Review and The Journal of Early Modern History.

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