http://historyhub.ie/flora-cassen-philip-ii-of-spain-italian-jewish-spy-sacerdoti
A bitter confli... more http://historyhub.ie/flora-cassen-philip-ii-of-spain-italian-jewish-spy-sacerdoti A bitter conflict between the Spanish and Ottoman empires dominated the second half of the sixteenth century. In this early modern “global” conflict, intelligence played a key role. The Duchy of Milan had fallen to Spain, and for Jewish men like Simon Sacerdoti (c.1540-1600), expulsion by King Philip II (1527 -1598) was a very real risk. But Sacerdoti, scion to one of Milan’s wealthiest Jewish families, had direct access to high-level information from the enemy Ottomans, information that was of great value to Philip and to Spain.
Responses to 7 October: Antisemitic Discourse , 2024
For Jews worldwide, the graphic images of Hamas violence targeting children, women, and the elder... more For Jews worldwide, the graphic images of Hamas violence targeting children, women, and the elderly on October 7, 2023, stirred a profound sense of déjà vu, a chilling reminder of the Holocaust. It raised difficult questions among Jews: Could history be repeating itself? Is this a modern-day 'Kristallnacht’? Is it time to consider leaving our homes? Comparisons to the Holocaust are understandable, given the Nazi genocide’s catastrophic impact on Jewish history and collective memory. Still, they may misconstrue the volatile realities facing diaspora Jews in the twenty-first century. Focusing on the diaspora outside of the State of Israel, this essay argues that, although no historical comparisons are perfect, the condition of diaspora Jews since the early 2000s bears closer resemblance to the Middle Ages than the Holocaust.
This book presents to the public for the first time a truly remarkable medieval manuscript, the L... more This book presents to the public for the first time a truly remarkable medieval manuscript, the Lombard Haggadah. Illustrated with seventy-five watercolor paintings created in the circle of the famous artist, Giovannino de Grassi in Milan in the late fourteenth century, it is the earliest stand-alone Italian Haggadah.
French
Dès le Moyen Âge, les juifs d’Europe furent contraints de porter des marques distinctives ... more French Dès le Moyen Âge, les juifs d’Europe furent contraints de porter des marques distinctives d’une variété de formes et de couleurs. La plus connue était la rouelle jaune. Ces marques – parfois des badges, parfois des chapeaux – avaient pour but de différencier les juifs de la population chrétienne, mais pour les juifs qui devaient les porter, ils faisaient bien plus que cela, ils avaient un effet profondément humiliant. On a longtemps cru que la couleur, en particulier le jaune, était ce qui conférait leur caractère humiliant aux signes distinctifs. Cet article montre que l’impact de la couleur était plus complexe : d’une part, elle pouvait certes contribuer aux connotations négatives du signe, mais d’autre part, de par sa fluidité, elle était précisément ce qui permettait aux juifs de résister aux marques et de combattre leurs effets nocifs.
English From the Middle Ages on, European Jews were made to wear distinctive signs. Those signs came in a variety of shapes and colours, but the best known was the yellow badge. The distinctive signs were meant to separate Jews visually from the Christian population, but for the Jews that had to wear them, they were far more than a sign: their effect was deeply humiliating. It has long been considered that their yellow colour was what made those signs humiliating. This article shows that the impact of that colour was more complex: the fact that it was yellow could indeed contribute to the negative connotations of the signs, but its fluidity was precisely what enabled the Jews to resist those markings and to fight against their noxious effects.
Some of the oldest and most enduring anti-Jewish stereotypes have to do with money. They include ... more Some of the oldest and most enduring anti-Jewish stereotypes have to do with money. They include the beliefs that Jews are rich, that they are “naturally” good at making money, that they cannot be trusted, and that they use money, perfidiously, to control people and institutions to the detriment of society at large. The dominant scholarly narratives on the subject typically acknowledge the (stereotypical) idea that Jews have always and disproportionately been involved with money, but instead of attributing this to the Jews’ perfidious nature or intentions, they argue that it is the result of centuries of discrimination against Jews in Europe. These accounts further argue that the Jews’ economic involvement was a positive factor in the development of Europe’s economy. Two new books—Julie Mell’s The Myth of the Medieval Jewish Moneylender and Francesca Trivellato’s The Promise and Peril of Credit—vigorously challenge this traditional academic narrative. Mell applies data analysis to archival sources to demonstrate that the medieval Jewish moneylender, a staple of Jewish history, is a myth, while Trivellato marshals the power of digital databases to trace and debunk the early modern legend that Jews invented bills of exchange (the precursors of today’s checks). Both authors combine in-depth and corrective historical study with a reflection on the state of scholarship on Jews and money, from the nineteenth century to today. After examining Mell’s and Trivellato’s books in detail, this essay argues that their challenges to traditional historiography should be taken seriously and prompt renewed research and debate into this important topic.
Sartorial discrimination was one of the ways that pre-modern European rulers sought to define and... more Sartorial discrimination was one of the ways that pre-modern European rulers sought to define and demean Europe’s Jews. The Jewish badge was an external mark placed on the Jews’ bodies to identify them; however, it was a removable or “mobile” mark. As a result, whatever the badge did to or commu- nicated about the Jews was usually not permanent and often was subject to nego- tiations among Jews, their neighbors, and the authorities. Using examples from the Duchy of Milan in the second half of the sixteenth century, a time of increas- ingly strict enforcement of anti-Jewish sign regulations, this essay focuses on how traveling Jews in particular were harassed for not wearing the yellow badge or hat. It explores how sartorial discrimination threatened these Jews’ freedom of movement as well as their ability to choose how to represent their own identity. And it shows that the Jews resisted the authorities’ attempts to stigmatize them in a variety of ways, including, counter-intuitively, by being recognizably Jewish.
The city of Antwerp in Belgium has long been reluctant to deal with its responsibility for the de... more The city of Antwerp in Belgium has long been reluctant to deal with its responsibility for the deportation of the city's Jews during the Holocaust. But two recent books, both written by grandchildren of collaborators, suggest that a reckoning may slowly be starting.
De praalwagen was antisemitisch, maar niet om de gelijkenis met Nazi propaganda. Wel omdat het de... more De praalwagen was antisemitisch, maar niet om de gelijkenis met Nazi propaganda. Wel omdat het de eeuwenoude mythe van joden en geld weerlegde.
When Jews challenge grotesque caricatures on Belgian carnival floats, or soccer fans who sing "bu... more When Jews challenge grotesque caricatures on Belgian carnival floats, or soccer fans who sing "burn the Jews," they're told that they have no sense of humor, that they should "suck it up--or leave."
By contrast to many fields subsumed under the umbrella of minority or ethnic studies that have de... more By contrast to many fields subsumed under the umbrella of minority or ethnic studies that have defined the subjects of their inquiries in opposition to the ethnic/race/gender normative of society, Jewish studies has, since its inception in the 19th century, been driven by an intense aspiration to fashion itself along the norms of the European/west-ern humanistic tradition. In this essay I suggest that the early modern era may offer a unique opportunity to revise this paradigm and offer two directions for the future of the field: the synthesis of the Jews' histories of persecution and integration in Europe; and the exploration of the Jews' role in global history.
A bitter conflict between the Spanish and Ottoman empires dominated the second half of the sixtee... more A bitter conflict between the Spanish and Ottoman empires dominated the second half of the sixteenth century. In this early modern “global” conflict, intelligence played a key role. The Duchy of Milan, home to Simon Sacerdoti (c.1540-1600), a Jew, had fallen to Spain. The fate that usually awaited Jews living on Spanish lands was expulsion—and there were signs to suggest that King Philip II (1527-1598) might travel down that road. Sacerdoti, the scion of one of Milan’s wealthiest and best-connected Jewish families had access to secret information through various contacts in Italy and North-Africa. Such intelligence was highly valuable to Spanish forces, and Philip II was personally interested in it. However, this required Sacerdoti to serve an empire—Spain—with a long history of harming the Jews, and to spy on the Ottomans, widely considered as the Jews’ supporters at the time. This article offers a reflection on Simon Sacerdoti’s story. Examining how a Jew became part of the Spanish intelligence agency helps us understand how early modern secret information networks functioned and sheds new light on questions of Jewish identity in a time of uprootedness and competing loyalties.
In a year that has seen commentators across the board ask whether Jews should stay in or leave Fr... more In a year that has seen commentators across the board ask whether Jews should stay in or leave France, Elisheva Baumgarten and Judah Galinsky's volume, <i>Jews and Christians in Thirteenth-Century France</i>, is a welcome reminder of the Jews' long history in the French <i>Hexagone</i>. The editors and contributors to this rich and thought-provoking book collectively discuss several difficult questions with nuance and intelligence. Their overarching goal is to "focus attention upon the unique trends that characterized European society and culture in the thirteenth century" through the prism of continuities and changes in the lives and intellectual production of the Jewish and Christian communities, and in the relations between the two groups (4). This is important, because, as the editors remind us, not only is the thirteenth century "somewhat overlooked," but what precisely constituted France at the time was not clearly defined (1). Moreover, it is original because whereas previous generations of scholars have studied French Jewry as part and parcel of Ashkenazi Jewry, the authors of the essays presented in this volume make a special effort to explore the features and characteristics that distinguished the cultural and intellectual production of French Jews from that of their German brethren. Thus they clarify not only the differences between southern and northern European medieval Jewries, but as the editors write at the end of their introduction "one can assume that Jewish communities would have felt a close affinity to each other despite cultural differences. Nevertheless this would not have invalidated a sense of belonging to specific places" (11). One may ask, of course, if living in France could have meant anything to thirteenth-century Jews given that French identity as we know it today did not yet exist at the time, and that many of the articles in this collection examine conflict between Jews and Christians (polemics), persecution (trial against and burning of the Talmud), and discrimination against French Jews. But our inability to fully grasp medieval expressions of French identity and the fact that the Jews' identity was complicated by their religious otherness does not invalidate the editors' point that place matters. Where one grows up, the neighbors one interacts with, the local political culture, but also the climate, landscape, and food-all these factors matter and contribute to shaping a personal individual and communal identity. To their credit the editors do not attempt to simplify what must have been a complex constellation of identities related to religion, geography, language, and community. On the contrary, the picture of France's Jewish and Christian communities and of the relations between them that emerge out of this volume is rich and multilayered. Baumgarten's and Galinsky's collection of essays shows that despite their differences, Jews and Christians inhabited the same world, reacted to similar trends (albeit in their own ways), and forged relations that transcended physical violence by Christians on Jews and rhetorical violence on both sides. One strategy adopted by the editors to illustrate the Jews' integration in French life is to offer parallel essays on Jewish and Christian scholarly and literary production. Thus the reader can see that both groups were engaging with biblical texts in new ways and grappling with similar questions. Lesley Smith (chapter 1) examines theological commentaries to the Bible and the Ten Commandments. The commentaries produced by university scholars tended to be fairly uniform, but those produced for pastoral care presented new and innovative interpretations suggesting that by the thirteenth century scholarship had moved beyond the confines of the university. Margo Stroumsa Uzan's essay (chapter 2) follows with a gendered analysis of the use of devotional books in the commercial town of Arras. She shows that the Books of Hours were designed for women, while Psalters were for men. The Books of Hours reflect the rise in importance of secular women and emphasize their responsibility for their children's education and their husbands' salvation. By contrast, Jewish communities at the time tended to exclude women from religious rituals. However, this did not translate into a greater exclusion of Jewish women from French society. As Anne E. Lester shows in her study of Christian lay women (chapter 12), who were often marginalized and called "little women" in legal documents, Jewish and Christian women were connected through neighborhood relations. Belonging to the same place can transcend religious boundaries and examining this can help us integrate Jews into the history of medieval France. Finally, Sara
It is a little known fact that as early as the thirteenth century, Europe's political and religio... more 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.
http://historyhub.ie/flora-cassen-philip-ii-of-spain-italian-jewish-spy-sacerdoti
A bitter confli... more http://historyhub.ie/flora-cassen-philip-ii-of-spain-italian-jewish-spy-sacerdoti A bitter conflict between the Spanish and Ottoman empires dominated the second half of the sixteenth century. In this early modern “global” conflict, intelligence played a key role. The Duchy of Milan had fallen to Spain, and for Jewish men like Simon Sacerdoti (c.1540-1600), expulsion by King Philip II (1527 -1598) was a very real risk. But Sacerdoti, scion to one of Milan’s wealthiest Jewish families, had direct access to high-level information from the enemy Ottomans, information that was of great value to Philip and to Spain.
Responses to 7 October: Antisemitic Discourse , 2024
For Jews worldwide, the graphic images of Hamas violence targeting children, women, and the elder... more For Jews worldwide, the graphic images of Hamas violence targeting children, women, and the elderly on October 7, 2023, stirred a profound sense of déjà vu, a chilling reminder of the Holocaust. It raised difficult questions among Jews: Could history be repeating itself? Is this a modern-day 'Kristallnacht’? Is it time to consider leaving our homes? Comparisons to the Holocaust are understandable, given the Nazi genocide’s catastrophic impact on Jewish history and collective memory. Still, they may misconstrue the volatile realities facing diaspora Jews in the twenty-first century. Focusing on the diaspora outside of the State of Israel, this essay argues that, although no historical comparisons are perfect, the condition of diaspora Jews since the early 2000s bears closer resemblance to the Middle Ages than the Holocaust.
This book presents to the public for the first time a truly remarkable medieval manuscript, the L... more This book presents to the public for the first time a truly remarkable medieval manuscript, the Lombard Haggadah. Illustrated with seventy-five watercolor paintings created in the circle of the famous artist, Giovannino de Grassi in Milan in the late fourteenth century, it is the earliest stand-alone Italian Haggadah.
French
Dès le Moyen Âge, les juifs d’Europe furent contraints de porter des marques distinctives ... more French Dès le Moyen Âge, les juifs d’Europe furent contraints de porter des marques distinctives d’une variété de formes et de couleurs. La plus connue était la rouelle jaune. Ces marques – parfois des badges, parfois des chapeaux – avaient pour but de différencier les juifs de la population chrétienne, mais pour les juifs qui devaient les porter, ils faisaient bien plus que cela, ils avaient un effet profondément humiliant. On a longtemps cru que la couleur, en particulier le jaune, était ce qui conférait leur caractère humiliant aux signes distinctifs. Cet article montre que l’impact de la couleur était plus complexe : d’une part, elle pouvait certes contribuer aux connotations négatives du signe, mais d’autre part, de par sa fluidité, elle était précisément ce qui permettait aux juifs de résister aux marques et de combattre leurs effets nocifs.
English From the Middle Ages on, European Jews were made to wear distinctive signs. Those signs came in a variety of shapes and colours, but the best known was the yellow badge. The distinctive signs were meant to separate Jews visually from the Christian population, but for the Jews that had to wear them, they were far more than a sign: their effect was deeply humiliating. It has long been considered that their yellow colour was what made those signs humiliating. This article shows that the impact of that colour was more complex: the fact that it was yellow could indeed contribute to the negative connotations of the signs, but its fluidity was precisely what enabled the Jews to resist those markings and to fight against their noxious effects.
Some of the oldest and most enduring anti-Jewish stereotypes have to do with money. They include ... more Some of the oldest and most enduring anti-Jewish stereotypes have to do with money. They include the beliefs that Jews are rich, that they are “naturally” good at making money, that they cannot be trusted, and that they use money, perfidiously, to control people and institutions to the detriment of society at large. The dominant scholarly narratives on the subject typically acknowledge the (stereotypical) idea that Jews have always and disproportionately been involved with money, but instead of attributing this to the Jews’ perfidious nature or intentions, they argue that it is the result of centuries of discrimination against Jews in Europe. These accounts further argue that the Jews’ economic involvement was a positive factor in the development of Europe’s economy. Two new books—Julie Mell’s The Myth of the Medieval Jewish Moneylender and Francesca Trivellato’s The Promise and Peril of Credit—vigorously challenge this traditional academic narrative. Mell applies data analysis to archival sources to demonstrate that the medieval Jewish moneylender, a staple of Jewish history, is a myth, while Trivellato marshals the power of digital databases to trace and debunk the early modern legend that Jews invented bills of exchange (the precursors of today’s checks). Both authors combine in-depth and corrective historical study with a reflection on the state of scholarship on Jews and money, from the nineteenth century to today. After examining Mell’s and Trivellato’s books in detail, this essay argues that their challenges to traditional historiography should be taken seriously and prompt renewed research and debate into this important topic.
Sartorial discrimination was one of the ways that pre-modern European rulers sought to define and... more Sartorial discrimination was one of the ways that pre-modern European rulers sought to define and demean Europe’s Jews. The Jewish badge was an external mark placed on the Jews’ bodies to identify them; however, it was a removable or “mobile” mark. As a result, whatever the badge did to or commu- nicated about the Jews was usually not permanent and often was subject to nego- tiations among Jews, their neighbors, and the authorities. Using examples from the Duchy of Milan in the second half of the sixteenth century, a time of increas- ingly strict enforcement of anti-Jewish sign regulations, this essay focuses on how traveling Jews in particular were harassed for not wearing the yellow badge or hat. It explores how sartorial discrimination threatened these Jews’ freedom of movement as well as their ability to choose how to represent their own identity. And it shows that the Jews resisted the authorities’ attempts to stigmatize them in a variety of ways, including, counter-intuitively, by being recognizably Jewish.
The city of Antwerp in Belgium has long been reluctant to deal with its responsibility for the de... more The city of Antwerp in Belgium has long been reluctant to deal with its responsibility for the deportation of the city's Jews during the Holocaust. But two recent books, both written by grandchildren of collaborators, suggest that a reckoning may slowly be starting.
De praalwagen was antisemitisch, maar niet om de gelijkenis met Nazi propaganda. Wel omdat het de... more De praalwagen was antisemitisch, maar niet om de gelijkenis met Nazi propaganda. Wel omdat het de eeuwenoude mythe van joden en geld weerlegde.
When Jews challenge grotesque caricatures on Belgian carnival floats, or soccer fans who sing "bu... more When Jews challenge grotesque caricatures on Belgian carnival floats, or soccer fans who sing "burn the Jews," they're told that they have no sense of humor, that they should "suck it up--or leave."
By contrast to many fields subsumed under the umbrella of minority or ethnic studies that have de... more By contrast to many fields subsumed under the umbrella of minority or ethnic studies that have defined the subjects of their inquiries in opposition to the ethnic/race/gender normative of society, Jewish studies has, since its inception in the 19th century, been driven by an intense aspiration to fashion itself along the norms of the European/west-ern humanistic tradition. In this essay I suggest that the early modern era may offer a unique opportunity to revise this paradigm and offer two directions for the future of the field: the synthesis of the Jews' histories of persecution and integration in Europe; and the exploration of the Jews' role in global history.
A bitter conflict between the Spanish and Ottoman empires dominated the second half of the sixtee... more A bitter conflict between the Spanish and Ottoman empires dominated the second half of the sixteenth century. In this early modern “global” conflict, intelligence played a key role. The Duchy of Milan, home to Simon Sacerdoti (c.1540-1600), a Jew, had fallen to Spain. The fate that usually awaited Jews living on Spanish lands was expulsion—and there were signs to suggest that King Philip II (1527-1598) might travel down that road. Sacerdoti, the scion of one of Milan’s wealthiest and best-connected Jewish families had access to secret information through various contacts in Italy and North-Africa. Such intelligence was highly valuable to Spanish forces, and Philip II was personally interested in it. However, this required Sacerdoti to serve an empire—Spain—with a long history of harming the Jews, and to spy on the Ottomans, widely considered as the Jews’ supporters at the time. This article offers a reflection on Simon Sacerdoti’s story. Examining how a Jew became part of the Spanish intelligence agency helps us understand how early modern secret information networks functioned and sheds new light on questions of Jewish identity in a time of uprootedness and competing loyalties.
In a year that has seen commentators across the board ask whether Jews should stay in or leave Fr... more In a year that has seen commentators across the board ask whether Jews should stay in or leave France, Elisheva Baumgarten and Judah Galinsky's volume, <i>Jews and Christians in Thirteenth-Century France</i>, is a welcome reminder of the Jews' long history in the French <i>Hexagone</i>. The editors and contributors to this rich and thought-provoking book collectively discuss several difficult questions with nuance and intelligence. Their overarching goal is to "focus attention upon the unique trends that characterized European society and culture in the thirteenth century" through the prism of continuities and changes in the lives and intellectual production of the Jewish and Christian communities, and in the relations between the two groups (4). This is important, because, as the editors remind us, not only is the thirteenth century "somewhat overlooked," but what precisely constituted France at the time was not clearly defined (1). Moreover, it is original because whereas previous generations of scholars have studied French Jewry as part and parcel of Ashkenazi Jewry, the authors of the essays presented in this volume make a special effort to explore the features and characteristics that distinguished the cultural and intellectual production of French Jews from that of their German brethren. Thus they clarify not only the differences between southern and northern European medieval Jewries, but as the editors write at the end of their introduction "one can assume that Jewish communities would have felt a close affinity to each other despite cultural differences. Nevertheless this would not have invalidated a sense of belonging to specific places" (11). One may ask, of course, if living in France could have meant anything to thirteenth-century Jews given that French identity as we know it today did not yet exist at the time, and that many of the articles in this collection examine conflict between Jews and Christians (polemics), persecution (trial against and burning of the Talmud), and discrimination against French Jews. But our inability to fully grasp medieval expressions of French identity and the fact that the Jews' identity was complicated by their religious otherness does not invalidate the editors' point that place matters. Where one grows up, the neighbors one interacts with, the local political culture, but also the climate, landscape, and food-all these factors matter and contribute to shaping a personal individual and communal identity. To their credit the editors do not attempt to simplify what must have been a complex constellation of identities related to religion, geography, language, and community. On the contrary, the picture of France's Jewish and Christian communities and of the relations between them that emerge out of this volume is rich and multilayered. Baumgarten's and Galinsky's collection of essays shows that despite their differences, Jews and Christians inhabited the same world, reacted to similar trends (albeit in their own ways), and forged relations that transcended physical violence by Christians on Jews and rhetorical violence on both sides. One strategy adopted by the editors to illustrate the Jews' integration in French life is to offer parallel essays on Jewish and Christian scholarly and literary production. Thus the reader can see that both groups were engaging with biblical texts in new ways and grappling with similar questions. Lesley Smith (chapter 1) examines theological commentaries to the Bible and the Ten Commandments. The commentaries produced by university scholars tended to be fairly uniform, but those produced for pastoral care presented new and innovative interpretations suggesting that by the thirteenth century scholarship had moved beyond the confines of the university. Margo Stroumsa Uzan's essay (chapter 2) follows with a gendered analysis of the use of devotional books in the commercial town of Arras. She shows that the Books of Hours were designed for women, while Psalters were for men. The Books of Hours reflect the rise in importance of secular women and emphasize their responsibility for their children's education and their husbands' salvation. By contrast, Jewish communities at the time tended to exclude women from religious rituals. However, this did not translate into a greater exclusion of Jewish women from French society. As Anne E. Lester shows in her study of Christian lay women (chapter 12), who were often marginalized and called "little women" in legal documents, Jewish and Christian women were connected through neighborhood relations. Belonging to the same place can transcend religious boundaries and examining this can help us integrate Jews into the history of medieval France. Finally, Sara
It is a little known fact that as early as the thirteenth century, Europe's political and religio... more 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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Talks by Flora Cassen
A bitter conflict between the Spanish and Ottoman empires dominated the second half of the sixteenth century. In this early modern “global” conflict, intelligence played a key role. The Duchy of Milan had fallen to Spain, and for Jewish men like Simon Sacerdoti (c.1540-1600), expulsion by King Philip II (1527 -1598) was a very real risk. But Sacerdoti, scion to one of Milan’s wealthiest Jewish families, had direct access to high-level information from the enemy Ottomans, information that was of great value to Philip and to Spain.
Papers by Flora Cassen
Dès le Moyen Âge, les juifs d’Europe furent contraints de porter des marques distinctives d’une variété de formes et de couleurs. La plus connue était la rouelle jaune. Ces marques – parfois des badges, parfois des chapeaux – avaient pour but de différencier les juifs de la population chrétienne, mais pour les juifs qui devaient les porter, ils faisaient bien plus que cela, ils avaient un effet profondément humiliant. On a longtemps cru que la couleur, en particulier le jaune, était ce qui conférait leur caractère humiliant aux signes distinctifs. Cet article montre que l’impact de la couleur était plus complexe : d’une part, elle pouvait certes contribuer aux connotations négatives du signe, mais d’autre part, de par sa fluidité, elle était précisément ce qui permettait aux juifs de résister aux marques et de combattre leurs effets nocifs.
English
From the Middle Ages on, European Jews were made to wear distinctive signs. Those signs came in a variety of shapes and colours, but the best known was the yellow badge. The distinctive signs were meant to separate Jews visually from the Christian population, but for the Jews that had to wear them, they were far more than a sign: their effect was deeply humiliating. It has long been considered that their yellow colour was what made those signs humiliating. This article shows that the impact of that colour was more complex: the fact that it was yellow could indeed contribute to the negative connotations of the signs, but its fluidity was precisely what enabled the Jews to resist those markings and to fight against their noxious effects.
Reviews by Flora Cassen
EMoDiR Panels by Flora Cassen
Books by Flora Cassen
A bitter conflict between the Spanish and Ottoman empires dominated the second half of the sixteenth century. In this early modern “global” conflict, intelligence played a key role. The Duchy of Milan had fallen to Spain, and for Jewish men like Simon Sacerdoti (c.1540-1600), expulsion by King Philip II (1527 -1598) was a very real risk. But Sacerdoti, scion to one of Milan’s wealthiest Jewish families, had direct access to high-level information from the enemy Ottomans, information that was of great value to Philip and to Spain.
Dès le Moyen Âge, les juifs d’Europe furent contraints de porter des marques distinctives d’une variété de formes et de couleurs. La plus connue était la rouelle jaune. Ces marques – parfois des badges, parfois des chapeaux – avaient pour but de différencier les juifs de la population chrétienne, mais pour les juifs qui devaient les porter, ils faisaient bien plus que cela, ils avaient un effet profondément humiliant. On a longtemps cru que la couleur, en particulier le jaune, était ce qui conférait leur caractère humiliant aux signes distinctifs. Cet article montre que l’impact de la couleur était plus complexe : d’une part, elle pouvait certes contribuer aux connotations négatives du signe, mais d’autre part, de par sa fluidité, elle était précisément ce qui permettait aux juifs de résister aux marques et de combattre leurs effets nocifs.
English
From the Middle Ages on, European Jews were made to wear distinctive signs. Those signs came in a variety of shapes and colours, but the best known was the yellow badge. The distinctive signs were meant to separate Jews visually from the Christian population, but for the Jews that had to wear them, they were far more than a sign: their effect was deeply humiliating. It has long been considered that their yellow colour was what made those signs humiliating. This article shows that the impact of that colour was more complex: the fact that it was yellow could indeed contribute to the negative connotations of the signs, but its fluidity was precisely what enabled the Jews to resist those markings and to fight against their noxious effects.