«Republica da ogni altro dominio separata». Esperimenti politici nelle comunità ebraiche dell’Italia dell’età moderna

The Jews organised their lives in the diaspora in communities that were recognised by the majority and in which they could live according to their own laws. This organisation varied in time and space and has been the subject of a long debate about its role in the analysis of the relationship between Judaism and politics. In early modern Italy, Jewish communities equipped themselves with written documents to regulate their internal life and, above all, their power relations. The documents, written in different languages (Hebrew, Portuguese and vernacular), represent a privileged observation space for understanding the institutional changes that affected the communities during this period. In Rome, Venice and Florence in particular, Jewish groups from different social and ethnic backgrounds drew up rules in the vernacular that were authorised by the Christian authorities in order to manage the conflicts that affected them. These statutes testify to a moment of invention and reinvention of Jewish political life and a complete reconceptualisation of the foundations of power and community within Judaism, allowing us to look at the history of Jewish political tradition beyond the conventional interpretation of the vertical relationship with the majority authorities.