Jewish History of Venice

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

Essential to any history of Venice during its glory days is the story of its Jewish population. Venice gave the world the word ghetto. Astonishingly, the ghetto prison turned out to be as remarkable a place as the city of Venice itself, as a literary, cultural and interfaith revival flourished.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Harry Freedman. His new book Shylock’s Venice tells the story of Venice's Jews, from the founding of the ghetto in 1516, to the capture of Venice by Napoleon in 1798.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

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Transcript

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0:19.1	info. UK. That's HPv-info-Co. UK. On the 29th of March 1516 the Venetian Senate decreed that the entire Jewish community of Venice,
0:45.0	as well as any Jews who subsequently arrived, be segregated to their own quarter,
0:50.0	a quarter that became known as the Jewish ghetto.
0:54.0	Despite a restriction on movement and home ownership,
0:58.0	despite segregation, higher taxes,
1:00.0	and an increase of at least a third above the rental price given to a Christian,
1:04.3	the ghetto became a haven, a flourishing place for the Jewish cultural renaissance.
1:09.9	Among the notable men and women living there were the poet Sarah Copia Solam, the philosopher
1:16.2	Leonie Abreo, the musician Christian Tammudist, and Elijah Halfon, who became an advisor to Henry VIII.
1:24.0	We might then ask why does the fictional Sharlok,
1:27.2	Avericious money lender immortalized in Shakespeare's merchant of Venice
1:31.7	remain the most famous Jew of early modern Venice.
1:35.2	How do we go about restoring these remarkable stories to Venice's history?
1:41.0	Joining me to discuss these questions among others is Harry Friedman, author of a new book
1:46.7	Shylock's Venice, the remarkable history of Venice's Jews and the ghetto. Harry, welcome to not just the Tudors.
1:57.0	My pleasure, thank you for inviting me Shazawa.
	...

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