La comunità ebraica di Verona nel XVI secolo (1539-1600)

This doctoral thesis intends to reconstruct and describe the history, traditions and life of the Jews in Verona, Italy during the 16th century. The fundamental data for this research are culled from the community Minutes Books. Almost two decades ago, Yakov Boksenboim edited three volumes that include several outstandingly important Veronese Minutes Books. Four of them (included in volumes 1-2) have been translated by the author of this work from Hebrew into Italian: they contain the resolutions passed at the meetings of the Jewish community's council of Verona between 1539 and 1600. The wording of the resolutions is brief and succinct. Only the actual decisions are recorded, without reference to the discussions that preceded them. The minutes are in chronological order and include both date and a list of the attendees. The records deal with all aspects of the community's activities and accurately reflect its internal structure, organization and inner life. The dissertation delineates the main features of the established organizational framework of the community: its councils, officials, regulations and ordinances, financial system and tax regulations. It fleshes out the picture of the economic and social standing of its members, their businesses and professions, as well as their religious life, their educational institutions and the blossoming of pious confraternities for public assistance. The dissertation concentrates on nomenclature and genealogy of Veronese Jewish society, as well as on the languages spoken by the Jews in Verona and on the local printing of books in Yiddish and Hebrew. Special attention is paid to relations with gentiles and with neighbouring Jewish communities such as those in Mantua and Padua and to developments during the period of the erection of the Ghetto (1599-1600).