Francesca Bregoli
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804786508
- eISBN:
- 9780804791595
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804786508.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
This chapter offers an introduction to Jewish life in Livorno while investigating the close bonds connecting Livornese Jews with the Tuscan state and culture. It first discusses the Livornina charter ...
More
This chapter offers an introduction to Jewish life in Livorno while investigating the close bonds connecting Livornese Jews with the Tuscan state and culture. It first discusses the Livornina charter (1593), which lay the ground for Jewish life in the Tuscan port, and the exceptional status of Livorno. It then moves to analyzing the interconnection between the governance structures of the nazione ebrea and the Tuscan administration, an arrangement that distinguishes Livorno from other contemporary Sephardi centers. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of the Tuscan Enlightenment in the study of Livornese Jewish history. Under the rule of Francis Stephen of Lorraine and Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine Tuscan culture and policies were defined by attention to economic, social, and cultural reform. This reforming vocation provides a vantage point to study the Livornese Jewish encounter with outside culture as well as the ways in which Livornese Jews engaged with Enlightenment policies.Less
This chapter offers an introduction to Jewish life in Livorno while investigating the close bonds connecting Livornese Jews with the Tuscan state and culture. It first discusses the Livornina charter (1593), which lay the ground for Jewish life in the Tuscan port, and the exceptional status of Livorno. It then moves to analyzing the interconnection between the governance structures of the nazione ebrea and the Tuscan administration, an arrangement that distinguishes Livorno from other contemporary Sephardi centers. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of the Tuscan Enlightenment in the study of Livornese Jewish history. Under the rule of Francis Stephen of Lorraine and Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine Tuscan culture and policies were defined by attention to economic, social, and cultural reform. This reforming vocation provides a vantage point to study the Livornese Jewish encounter with outside culture as well as the ways in which Livornese Jews engaged with Enlightenment policies.
Francesca Bregoli
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804786508
- eISBN:
- 9780804791595
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804786508.003.0010
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
This chapter draws comparative conclusions about the significance of the Livornese example. While the specificity of Enlightenment Tuscany and the system of the port of Livorno account for its ...
More
This chapter draws comparative conclusions about the significance of the Livornese example. While the specificity of Enlightenment Tuscany and the system of the port of Livorno account for its distinctiveness, this case study has larger implications for Sephardi and Italian Jewish history. First, the chapter recapitulates the ways in which the Livornese model of intellectual engagement with eighteenth-century culture offers an alternative to the Anglo-Jewish Enlightenment and to the Haskalah in its early and later phases, comparing Livornese scholars to further Italian and Sephardi examples. It then offers final remarks on the ways in which the confrontation with the reforming absolutism that defined eighteenth-century Tuscan policies provided another crucial venue for Livornese Jewry's encounter with Enlightenment ideas. In particular, the continued importance of the corporate nazione ebrea is significant when comparing Livorno with contemporary Italian examples, as well as with the cases of Bordeaux, Amsterdam, and London.Less
This chapter draws comparative conclusions about the significance of the Livornese example. While the specificity of Enlightenment Tuscany and the system of the port of Livorno account for its distinctiveness, this case study has larger implications for Sephardi and Italian Jewish history. First, the chapter recapitulates the ways in which the Livornese model of intellectual engagement with eighteenth-century culture offers an alternative to the Anglo-Jewish Enlightenment and to the Haskalah in its early and later phases, comparing Livornese scholars to further Italian and Sephardi examples. It then offers final remarks on the ways in which the confrontation with the reforming absolutism that defined eighteenth-century Tuscan policies provided another crucial venue for Livornese Jewry's encounter with Enlightenment ideas. In particular, the continued importance of the corporate nazione ebrea is significant when comparing Livorno with contemporary Italian examples, as well as with the cases of Bordeaux, Amsterdam, and London.
Francesca Bregoli
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804786508
- eISBN:
- 9780804791595
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804786508.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
This book offers a new take on the engagement of Jews with outside culture and the interplay of the Jewish community with the reforming state through a study of the Jews (nazione ebrea) of ...
More
This book offers a new take on the engagement of Jews with outside culture and the interplay of the Jewish community with the reforming state through a study of the Jews (nazione ebrea) of eighteenth-century Livorno, a bustling free port in Tuscany, an Italian state known for its far-reaching reforms inspired by Enlightenment principles. Based on sources both internal and external to the community, it combines cultural analysis with a study of economic policies and political developments, and integrates lines of inquiry informed by Italian and Jewish historiography. The first few chapters trace the participation in Tuscan culture, awareness of Enlightenment thought, and scientific reformist aspirations of a number of Livornese Jewish scholars, and it argues that the study of the natural sciences, university study, and medical research enabled educated Livornese Jews to engage with Enlightenment values and ideals. The book then concentrates on Jewish reactions to Tuscan reforms that affected the community's economic and political life. On the one hand, the Jewish leadership responded actively and selectively to these reforming efforts; on the other hand, ambivalent individual responses to the state's endeavors were informed by the pursuit of utilitarian interests that bypassed the Jewish authorities. Finally, by showing that the generous privileges enjoyed by the nazione ebrea had conservative rather than liberalizing effects in the long run, the book offers a critique of the oft-repeated claim that Jewish economic utility fostered smooth processes of integration.Less
This book offers a new take on the engagement of Jews with outside culture and the interplay of the Jewish community with the reforming state through a study of the Jews (nazione ebrea) of eighteenth-century Livorno, a bustling free port in Tuscany, an Italian state known for its far-reaching reforms inspired by Enlightenment principles. Based on sources both internal and external to the community, it combines cultural analysis with a study of economic policies and political developments, and integrates lines of inquiry informed by Italian and Jewish historiography. The first few chapters trace the participation in Tuscan culture, awareness of Enlightenment thought, and scientific reformist aspirations of a number of Livornese Jewish scholars, and it argues that the study of the natural sciences, university study, and medical research enabled educated Livornese Jews to engage with Enlightenment values and ideals. The book then concentrates on Jewish reactions to Tuscan reforms that affected the community's economic and political life. On the one hand, the Jewish leadership responded actively and selectively to these reforming efforts; on the other hand, ambivalent individual responses to the state's endeavors were informed by the pursuit of utilitarian interests that bypassed the Jewish authorities. Finally, by showing that the generous privileges enjoyed by the nazione ebrea had conservative rather than liberalizing effects in the long run, the book offers a critique of the oft-repeated claim that Jewish economic utility fostered smooth processes of integration.
