"We do not sell them this tolerance": Grand Duke Ferdinando I's Protection of Jews in Tuscany and the Case of Jacob Esperiel

Ferdinando I de' Medici promoted extraordinary religious tolerance in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany during his reign. His Livornine laws of 1591 and 1593 granted Jews in Pisa and Livorno broad freedoms, rare in sixteenth-century Europe. Newly uncovered archival documents reveal how Ferdinando cons...

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Détails bibliographiques
Publié dans:The sixteenth century journal
Auteur principal: Kaborycha, Lisa (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Publié: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc. [2018]
Dans: The sixteenth century journal
RelBib Classification:AD Sociologie des religions
BH Judaïsme
CC Christianisme et religions non-chrétiennes; relations interreligieuses
KAH Époque moderne
KBJ Italie
KDB Église catholique romaine
Sujets non-standardisés:B ESPERIEL, Jacob
B Law
B Tuscany (Italy)
B Jews
B FERDINANDO I, Grand-Duke of Tuscany, 1549-1609
B Inquisition
B Religious Tolerance
B Italy
B History
B HUMAN rights; Religious aspects
Description
Résumé:Ferdinando I de' Medici promoted extraordinary religious tolerance in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany during his reign. His Livornine laws of 1591 and 1593 granted Jews in Pisa and Livorno broad freedoms, rare in sixteenth-century Europe. Newly uncovered archival documents reveal how Ferdinando consistently defied the papacy in defense of his Jewish subjects. This article examines Ferdinando's efforts on behalf of one Jewish merchant named Jacob Esperiel. Ferdinando went to great lengths to protect Esperiel and his family from the Roman Inquisition, yet he was not the first Medici to have a favorable policy toward Jews. Motivated by mercantilism and ragione di stato, the family had welcomed the Jewish community in Florence during the Renaissance. Moreover, this pattern of tolerance endured beyond the Medici; eventually the Grand Duchy of Tuscany would break new ground in human rights as the first European state to ban capital punishment in 1786.
ISSN:2326-0726
Contient:Enthalten in: The sixteenth century journal