Religion and law in the Western Sephardi community: some remarks from the case of Livorno during the Early Modern Period

Mauricio Dimant

Autori

Mauricio Dimant L'Università Ebraica di Gerusalemme (Israele)

Parole chiave:

Western Sephardic Diaspora, Justice, Law, Livorno, Confessionalization, Political and Territorial borders

Abstract

This article examines documents of the Sephardic Community of Livorno during the 17th century, with special attention to the escamot that refer to legal aspects of Jewish life in this port-city, in order to contribute to the study of the religious community experiences during political changes in Europe in the Early Modern Period. This enables analysis of how, and to what extent, the mechanisms of communal socialization and social control in the public and private spheres were related to the process in which the territorial authority and the political control of its borders were reinforced in Tuscany. It argues that Sephardic community legal decisions reinforced political processes in Livorno (and Tuscany), rather than merely been unconnected to them. This argument implies reconsidering not only the role of Diasporic religious communities in local political context, but also the role of local context in the tension between religion and law. From this perspective, it is possible to deepen our understanding of the experience of religious communities regarding the conception on Justice.

Keywords: Western Sephardic Diaspora; Justice; Law; Livorno; Confessionalization; Political and Territorial borders.

Riferimenti bibliografici

Brubaker, Rogers. "The ‘diaspora’diaspora." Ethnic and racial studies 28.1 (2005): 1-19.
Cesarani, D. & Romain, G. Eds. Jews and Port Cities, 1590-1990: Commerce. Community, and Cosmopolitanism. London/Portland, 2006.
Cooperman, Bernard Dov. Trade and Settlement: The Establishment and Early Development of the Jewish Communities in Leghorn and Pisa (1591-1626). Harvard University, 1976.
Fischer, Lucia Frattarelli, and Stefano Villani. "“People of Every Mixture”. Immigration, Tolerance and Religious Conflicts in Early Modern Livorno." Immigration and Emigration in Historical Perspective 1 (2007): 93-107.
Fischer, Lucia Frattarelli. "Jews in Tuscany in the Modern Age." Racial Discrimination and Ethnicity in European History. Pisa (2003): 49-62.
Kaplan, Yosef Mauricio. “A Diaspora in Transition – Cultural and Religious Changes in Western Sephardic Communities in the Early Modern Period.” ERC Advanced Grant 2011 Research proposal (2011).
Kaplan, Yosef Mauricio. “Between Christianity and Judaism in Early Modern Europe: The Confessionalization Process of the Western Sephardic Diaspora.” Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the course of history: exchange and conflicts. G, Lothar & Willoweit, D. Eds. München, 2011.
Quaglia, Anna Maria Pult. Early Modern Tuscany: ‘Regional’ Borders and Internal Boundaries. Pisa, 2009.
Quaglia, Anna Maria Pult. Citizenship in Medieval and Early Modern Italian Cities. Pisa, 2006.
Schilling, Heinz. "Confessionalization: historical and scholarly perspectives of a comparative and interdisciplinary paradigm." Confessionalization in Europe. Aldershot, 2004.
Schilling, Heinz. Early modern European civilization and its political and cultural dynamism. London, 2008.
Toaff, Renzo. "Statuti e leggi della «Nazione ebrea» di Livorno-1. Gli statuti del 1655." La Rassegna Mensile di Israel 34.11 (1968): 33-51.
Toaff, Renzo. "Statuti e leggi della «Nazione ebrea» di Livorno-II. La legislazione dal 1655 al 1677." La Rassegna Mensile di Israel 38.4 (1972): 17-32.
Trivellato, Francesca. "The Port Jews of Livorno and Their Global Networks of Trade in the Early Modern Period." Jews and Port Cities, 1590-1990: Commerce. Community, and Cosmopolitanism. Cesarani, D. and Romain, G. Eds.  London/Portland, 2006.
Trivellato, Francesca. The familiarity of strangers: The Sephardic diaspora, Livorno, and cross-cultural trade in the early modern period. New Haven, 2009.
Uberti, Carlotta Ferrara degli. "The ‘Jewish Nation’of Livorno: A Port Jewry on the Road to Emancipation." Jews and Port Cities, 1590-1990: Commerce.Community, and Cosmopolitanism. Cesarani, D. and Romain, G. Eds. London/Portland (2006): 157-170.