Metadata: Ancient Section
Collection
- Country:
- Italy
- Holding institution:
- Mantua Jewish Community Archive
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archivio della comunità ebraica di Mantova
- Postal address:
- via G. Govi 11, 46100 Mantova
- Phone number:
- +39 0376321490
- Web address:
- http://digiebraico.bibliotecateresiana.it/
- Email:
- comebraica.mn@virgilio.it
- Title:
- Ancient Section
- Title (official language):
- Sezione antica
- Creator/accumulator:
- Mantua Jewish Community
- Date(s):
- 1522-1853
- Language:
- Italian
- Latin
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 282 folders
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The Historical Archive of the Jewish Community of Mantua consists of some tens of thousands of individual documents, partly manuscripts and partly in print.
For a summary description of the subjects contained in the ancient section of the archive, the user is referred to the 10 volumes of the repertory of Isaac Bonaiuto Levi, in which the archival situation in the year 1790 is given. A first part (defined by him as "ethical"), described in the first three volumes, includes documents related to the various forms of "national government", or to the persons and institutions in charge of the government of the "nation", that is, of the Jewish community of Mantua: from the members of the "Vicinia general" and the "Vicinia ristretta", to the “legislatori alle regole della contribuenza” (legislators on the rules of tax payment", to the various types of massari (in charge of the Talmud Torà, charity etc.). The "officers" responsible for public services follow: candle makers, lawyers, visitors, assistants to the poor, secretaries, etc., then the “regole e pratiche per gl’incumbenti e per gli ufficiali” (rules and practices for incumbents and for officers) and the accounting records of the massari and other administrators of the Community; there is also a surname index of the names that appear in this part, from "Abbolafia Moisè" to "Zacuto K. R. Moise”.
With the fourth volume begins the description of a second part ("economic"), including: the "Jewish cult" (Synagogues in general, and the various synagogues, in particular: the Scuola Grande Italiana, “simile tedesca detta Beccaria” (a similar German one called Beccaria), Cases School, Ostiglia School, Torazzo Norsa School, Porto School, Levi School, Tizzano and Bonaventura School, Revere School, Sermide and Gazzuolo School, the School in Viadana, the School in Governolo; Pious Brotherhoods in general: for the relief and assistance to the sick, the Company for the morning service and another similar one (Kadasim labecarim), and one for the redemption of prisoners, “catecumenato, battesimi e neofiti” (catechumenate, baptisms and neophytes), Jewish feasts, constitutions and religious practices in general, prayers and religious recitals, fasts and public vows, unleavened bread and related objects, palms and related objects, promises and marriage acts, weddings and related objects, bigamy, divorces, oaths, Jewish books, cemeteries, transport of the deceased, company Kessed ghel, succour in general, weekly and monthly subsidies, “sussidi dotali a nubili dello Stato” ("subsidies for dowries to the unmarried women of the State") and for "foreign" women, poor wayfarers, bequests, legacies, free loans to the "Nationals", civil justice and Jewish criminals, Jewish courts, voluntary jurisdiction, witnesses and testimonies, Jewish and subordinate judges, "internal economy" (internal contributions, pragmatic and sumptuary rules, annuities, active and passive subsidies, slaughterhouse, money lending banks, political constitutions, military guard, proclamations, foreigners, embezzlement, anathema, games, buildings and ghettos, houses and related objects, shopkeepers, shops, warehouses and stalls, gates and doors, small square, streets, purchases and sales, rentals, contracts on the renting of agricultural land (“livelli”) and emphyteusis, possessions and possessors, factories and restorations).
In the sixth volume begins the description of the third part ("politics"), relating to relations with the majority, from a religious point of view (Church in general, Holy Week, viatici and processions, holy images and crosses, Catholic holidays, sermons and preachers, inquisition, external charities, "aid to poor seculars", suffrages to ecclesiastics, gifts to churches) and jurisprudential (civil and criminal forensic judgment, public cases, jail and public works, death, exile, prison, torture, theft, murders, bankruptcies, mutinies, expulsions, charges, public peace).
Finally, the subjects described in volumes 9 and 10, later than 1790, seem to have been grouped according to other criteria.
These are, in volume 9: mutinies [anti-Jewish revolts?] (1791-1795), agricultural supply (“annona”) (1791-1803 ), military accommodation (1798-1809), unleavened bread 1804-1809), Jewish academy (1791-1805), anathema (1792-1802), arts in general (1791-1798), purchases, rents and alienations (1791-1809), "Jewish economic company", or entrances and outgoings of the community (1791-1809), members of the major assembly (1791 -1800), butchery (1791-1806), municipal taxes (1791-1809), Orek Kaim association (1798), "houses", or visits to the houses of the ghetto; house maintenance (1791-1802), mourning (1792), "censo", or census searches, receipts, proclamation of the reception of the census, rules for the census (1791-1809), members of the company (1791-1801 ), Sciomerim Labocher association (1797-1798), association of pious women (1796), Bicur Kolim association (1792-1802), political constitutions (1791-1809), Rodefé Sedek association (1792), Mazal Bedulà association (1804), surgery (1791-1803), catechumen and baptism (1791-1805), military conscription (1797-1809), Kadashim Labecarim association (1792-1803), morning company (1792-1799), cemetery (1792-1809), commerce ( 1791-1809), religious constitutions (1791-1809), coffee shop owners (1792-1794), church and related issues (1791-1803), national taxes (1791-1809), prisons (1791-1803), lawsuits (1791-1808), brotherhoods in general (1798-1803), divorces (1791-1796), duties and finances (1791-1797), depositories (1791-1802), deputies to the agreements (1791-1802), deputies to the box (1793-1801), exile (1793), "Ebron", or donations to the Holy Land (1795-1803), emigrants (1797-1798), Florence (this is the correspondence with Lampronti, consisting of a single document of 1791), “Filare” (1792-1796 ), thefts (1793-1803), loan at an interest (1797-1802), bankruptcies and interdictions (1806), bakers (1791-1805), managers of the warehouses (1791-1799), foreigners (1792-1804), Ferrara (1791-1800), cheese makers (1791-1809), feasts (1791-1809), forensic civil judgment (1791-1806), war (1792-1801), jail and public work (1803), Gorizia (1792), jurisprudence (without date), Gazzuolo (1793), Guastalla (1803), Criminal Forensic Judgment (1791-1809), Jewish Civil Judgment (1791-1803), oaths (1795-1802), ghetto (1794-1797), Military Guard (1797-1809), Jewish night watch (1801-1809), gambling (1791-1799), "Ierosolima", or Jerusalem (1793-1809), Lippiano (1800), Lugo (1798), luminaries for the sovereigns’ happiness (1791-1808), imputations (1796-1799), immodesty (1792-1808), fires (1791-1809), bequests (1791-1808), books (1794-1802), Livorno (1793-1804), wood-cutters (1793-1796), freedom of worship (1798-1806), masks (1791-1804), medicine (1791-1803), death (1791), "Mezzetti", or intermediaries (1792-1806), Metamorphosis of the national government (1792-1803), Modona (1797-1803), massari to the University (1791-1800), massari to charity (1791-1802), massari to the [? Talmud Torà – written in Hebrew italics] (1791-1799), massari to the mercy (1791-1799), massari to the taxes (1791-1800), massari to the guard (1791 -1803), massari to the police (1791-1800), massari to the butchery (1792), nubils of the state rescued at the wedding (1791-1807), weddings (1796-1802), "Nolo d'effetti", or rental of objects (1796-1799), innkeepers, trattorias and warehouse keepers (1791-1801).
In volume 10: palms (1791-1809), privileges to the Jews (1790-1806), police (1791-1804), Padua (1796), Parma (1798-1803), loans (1791-1809), doors and porters ( 1791-1799), bearers (1791-1809), small square (1795-1807), sermons (1795-1801), “pateria” (1804), Pisa (1792), Piacenza (1798), procurators (1798), personal representation for princes and sovereigns (1790-1808), food dealers (1799-1800), rules for rescue (1791-1809), rules for contributing to the public (1792-1802), Rome (1792-1799), rules for the rescue of unmarried women (1803), rules for forced loans and massari (1791-1802), rules for the massari to charity (1791-1797), rules for depositories (1791-1807), Rivarolo (1793), rules for the company and massari (1791 -1802), rules for the general vicinie (1791-1803), "Regalli", or gifts to the soldiers (1791-1802), Rovigo (1809), Reggio (1792-1800), rules for the deputies to the agreements (1798- 1806), rules for the massari to the university (1792-1799), rules for the archive and the archivist (1792-1809), rules for the incumbenzari, massari and assemblies in general (1791-1809), rules for mactanti, visitors etc. (1791-1809), receipts (1791-1809), rules for Talmud Torà (1791-1809), Revere (1791-1798), rules for chancellors and “ragionato” (1797-1801), rules for major assemblies (1799- 1801), ruins of buildings (1791-1804), rules for the restricted assembly (1791-1795), rules for the economic company (1797-1803), rules for the night guard and Massari (1791-1809), rules for the company [? chessed ghel – written in Hebrew italics] (1795-1802), rules for the rabbis (1792-1802), rules for deputies to the box (1792-1801), Sermide (1797-1802), relief to poor Christians (1796-1797), doctors (1791-1801), synagogues in general (1792-1806), service to Christians (1791-1803), Cases Synagogue (1801-1803), Governolo Synagogue (1803), Ostiglia Synagogue (1798-1806), Great Italian Synagogue (1793-1803), healthcare (1791-1809), register of births and deaths (1791-1809), "Arme", or rifles ( 1792-1797), shops and post offices (1793-1795), streets (1792-1807), Norsa Synagogue (1792-1802), rabbis (1804-1809), Siena (1795), Sinigaglia (1800), silk mills (1792- 1794), relief to poor Jews (1791-1801), Tiberias (1791-1809), tutors and pupils (1791-1808), Great German School (1800-1802), schools and pupils (1791-1803), witnesses (1799 -1803), Vendors of “morticina” meat or butchered poultry (1792-1800), Urbino (1793), begging wanderers (1791-1807), Vienna (1791-1792), Villerecci (1791-1799), Viadana (1792-1795), Venice (1795-1800), Verona (1792-1804), annuities (1793-1809), general vicinie (1791-1809), Salonico (1805), slaughterhouse (1806), employees (1804-1809), theatres (1797 ), Sefat (1794-1804), summary of the annual expenses of the cashier (1791-1798), annual expenses of the Mercy (1791-1798), annual expenses for the Talmud Torà (1791-1803), annual expenses of deputies to the charity (1791-1809), annual expenses for the night watchmen (1791-1810), annual expenses for forced loans (1791-1802), annual costs for cleaning roads and courts (1791-1803), annual expenses for medicines to the poor (1791-1809), expenses (1799-1803), vaccination (1804-1809).
- Archival history:
-
Towards the middle of the 16th century, the idea was formed to prepare a wooden case with a lock destined to contain all the documents concerning the life of the Jewish community of Mantua. A copy of the key to this chest was entrusted to each of the three massari in office who probably carried out their work in a room in the Great Synagogue.
Over time, the archive grew significantly with all types of documents: letters, simple receipts for payments or loans, notarial deeds, contracts of various kinds, court reports, accounting records, copies of notices and edicts, private contracts, pleas, inventories. There were many documents written in Hebrew and concerning internal community relations; there were numerous printed documents and communications in Italian sent by the city authorities to the "University" for information (notices, edicts, proclamations); less numerous, but equally interesting, were the documents printed in Hebrew concerning sumptuary laws, the so-called pragmatic ones. Finally, in December 1778, Rabbi Azriel Yitzhaq Levi (known also by his Italian name, Bonaiuto Isacco), secretary of the Community, proofreader for the Tipografia d’Italia (Italy’s Printing House) and amateur poet, was commissioned by the Great Council to rearrange all the documents in the archive: "[...] in order to reduce the Archives of this Community to the greatest possible public and private utility".
From 1789 onwards Levi, with the help of an assistant, devoted himself with considerable skill and endless patience to the reorganisation and classification of all the material present in the archive of the Jewish Community of Mantua and wrote a precise and rich "Historical Encyclopaedic Repertoire of the Archive of the Jewish Nation of Mantua up to the whole year 1790". The work was divided into three parts ¬-- Ethics, Economics and Politics -- and was hand-written in ten massive volumes, all single except the fifth which is double.
All the papers were subdivided by topic and at the time of their filing, were "skewered" in the centre with a long needle that carried a thin strip of leather ending in a knot. This system, drastic and in truth not very respectful of the possible importance of the document, explains the presence of a hole in the centre of all the documents collected in the archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The first mention of Jews in Mantua dates from the 12th century, when Abraham ibn Ezra finished his grammatical work “Zahot”(1145) there. Apparently, he was in the city again in 1153. There are no further references to Jews in connection with Mantua until they are mentioned in the new statutes of the city at the end of the 13th century, when a large number seem to have lived there.
Under the Gonzagas, in 1610 Jews in Mantua constituted about 7.5% of the population. Jewish bankers were invited to start transactions in Mantua and its province, where some 50 Jewish settlements of varying sizes flourished, such as Bozzolo, Sabbioneta, Guastalla, Viadana, Revere, Sermide, and Ostiano.
Until the 19th century, the Jewish community of Mantua was the only important one in Lombardy. The Gonzagas treated the Jews relatively well for the times, by honouring their agreements, protecting Jewish merchants from the guilds and from physical violence. The Jews engaged in various trades and crafts: banking, jewellery, clothing, printing, and were also very involved in court life and culture.
Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga decided that a ghetto should be established in the capital in 1602. This plan was started in 1610. The Mantuan community was the last of the large Italian communities to be confined to a ghetto and among those who did not object to the foundation of a ghetto.
By 1761, there were 2,114 Jews living in the city. During the 18th century, the Jewish community of Mantua was one of the largest in Italy. When the duchy passed from the Gonzaga to the Austrian Empire in 1707, it was the largest community in Lombardy and together with Trieste and Gorizia one of the few Italian dominions of the Habsburgs.
Under the Habsburgs the situation of the Jews improved: between the 1770s and 1780s there were between 2,100 and 2,200 individuals within the city (8-10% of the entire city population). As part of the Austrian Empire, Mantua’s Jewish community underwent the legal and social transformations of the Austrian Jewish emancipation, with an unstable equilibrium between individual and communal rights. By 1791, the emperor Leopold had granted Mantuan Jewry legal equality together with the possibility of buying houses in and outside the ghetto.
Although not all restrictions were abolished, the Austrian reform in favour of Jews continued during the French and Napoleonic eras. During French rule, the ghetto was abolished. The Jews of Mantua, like their coreligionists elsewhere in Italy, took an active part in the Italian Risorgimento. In 1866 when Mantua became part of Italy Jews were fully emancipated.
Migrations had halved and impoverished the community of Mantua; the area of the ghetto was progressively abandoned, with only the poorest of the population remaining. Between 1894 and 1904, the ghetto began to be demolished. By 1901, Mantua had lost nearly half of its residents, with only 1,093 Jews affiliated with the community. In 1930, there were 500 Jews living in Mantua. This decreasing trend continued in the years of persecution and deportations from 1938 to 1945 and after World War II. During World War II, over 50 Jews were deported to the death camps or killed.
For further information see: Italia Judaica. "Mantova", https://www7.tau.ac.il/omeka/italjuda/items/show/655
F. Cavarocchi, La comunità ebraica di Mantova fra prima emancipazione e unità d'Italia, Giuntina, Firenze, 2002.
E. Colorni, La comunità ebraica mantovana: appunti di storia, Mantova, Mantova ebraica, 2000
- Access points: locations:
- Mantua
- Subject terms:
- Agriculture
- Aid and relief
- Aid and relief--Philanthropy and charity
- Art
- Cemeteries
- Census
- Conversion to Christianity
- Crime
- Education
- Education--Talmud Torah
- Financial matters
- Financial matters--Moneylending
- Ghettos (non-Holocaust era)
- Jewish community
- Jewish daily life and religious practices
- Jewish holidays
- Jewish oath
- Jewish-Christian relations
- Legal matters
- Marriage and divorce
- Matsah
- Migration
- Migration--Emigration
- Military
- Rabbis
- Real estate
- Ritual slaughter
- Synagogues
- Taxation
- Trade and commerce
- Vital records
- Welfare
- Yerusha Network member:
- Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center - Milan
- Author of the description:
- Samuela Marconcini; Centro di documentazione ebraica contemporanea; 2019
