Living Under the Evil Pope

The Hebrew Chronicle of Pope Paul IV by Benjamin Neḥemiah Ben Elnathan from Civitanova Marche (16th Cent.)
Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-90-04-41514-0
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 58, 400 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 839 g

Reihe: Studies in Jewish History and Culture

In Living under the Evil Pope, Martina Mampieri presents the Hebrew Chronicle of Pope Paul IV, written in the second half of the sixteenth century by the Italian Jewish moneylender Benjamin Nehemiah ben Elnathan (alias Guglielmo di Diodato) from Civitanova Marche. The text remained in manuscript for about four centuries until the Galician scholar Isaiah Sonne (1887-1960) published a Hebrew annotated edition of the chronicle in the 1930s. This remarkable source offers an account of the events of the Papal States during Paul IV’s pontificate (1555-59). Making use of broad archival materials, Martina Mampieri reflects on the nature of this work, its historical background, and contents, providing a revised edition of the Hebrew text as well as the first unabridged English translation and commentary.

Martina Mampieri has been granted a special mention of excellence in the Alberigo Award 2021 by the European Academy of Religion and Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose. (https://www.europeanacademyofreligion.org/alberigo-award)

"Martina Mampieri provides scholars with a source of great interest, which helps better understand the complex period following the election of Pope Paul IV Carafa from a Jewish perspective. This is undoubtedly an important book that contributes to the advancement of our knowledge regarding that historical moment."

-Alessandra Veronese, AJS Review 45/1 (2021)

"This valuable source is now available to the many – the many including, and this is no small thing, those who study the history of historical writing for itself as that writing began emerging from the shadows at just this time. We are deeply indebted."

-Kenneth Stow, University of Haifa, Emeritus, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 20/1 (2021)

"By triangulating important themes in early modern history with a rich and lengthy narrative source, Mampieri has produced an outstanding contribution to the ever-growing literature on interreligious and intercultural relations in the Papal States."

-Frank Lacopo, Sixteenth Century Journal LIII/2 (2022)

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mampieri, Martina

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Kirchengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien: Leben & Praxis, Soziale Aspekte
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein Organisation & Institutionen von Kirchen und Gemeinden

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations and Bibliographical Notes

Notes on Currency, Measures, and Time

List of Maps and Plates

Transliteration from Hebrew

The Popes of the Roman Catholic Church (16th Cent.)

Introduction

Part 1: The Work and Its Context

1 The Jews in Civitanova Marche (15th–16th Cent.)

1.1 At the Origins of the Jewish Settlement

1.2 Networks of Credit: Moneylending, Trade, and Other Jewish Businesses

1.3 Jewish Life, Jewish Spaces

1.4 Family, Dowry, and Inheritance

1.5 Observant Preaching and the Rise of the Monte di Pietà (1556)

1.6 Crisis and Decline of the Jewish Presence in Civitanova Marche

2 Benjamin Nehemiah ben Elnathan and His Chronicle of Pope Paul IV

2.1 The Author between Fiction and History

2.2 Narrative Structure

2.3 Sources, Language, and Style

2.4 The Legacy of Amalek and the Writing of History

Part 2: A Reading of Paul IV’s Pontificate (1555–59)

3 Paul IV and Papal Policy towards the Jews

3.1 Marcellus II and the Alleged Blood Libel against the Jews of Rome

3.2 Paul IV’s Election to the Papal Throne (1555)

3.3 “Since It Is Absurd …”

3.4 The Burning at the Stake of the Portuguese Conversos in Ancona (1556)

4 Between the Centre and the Periphery of the Papal States

4.1 The Strengthening of the Roman Inquisition

4.2 The Pope’s War with Spain (1556–57)

4.3 The Exile of the Carafas and the Creation of the Sacro Consiglio

4.4 The Government of the Marca and Its Jews (1557–59)

5 Arrest and Imprisonment of the Jews of Civitanova Marche

5.1 “Dangerous Bonds”: Neophytes, Slanderers, and “Jewish Dogs”

5.2 From Civitanova Marche to Rome

5.3 The Inquisition Prisons a

Über Autor(innen)

Martina Mampieri, Ph.D. in History and Jewish Studies (University of Roma Tre and University of Hamburg, 2017), is a Moritz Stern Fellow at the University of Göttingen and was a Starr Fellow in Judaica at Harvard University. She specializes in Jewish cultural history and historiography in early modern and modern times.