Joseph Shatzmiller
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691156996
- eISBN:
- 9781400846092
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691156996.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
Demonstrating that similarities between Jewish and Christian art in the Middle Ages were more than coincidental, this book combines a wide range of sources to show how Jews and Christians exchanged ...
More
Demonstrating that similarities between Jewish and Christian art in the Middle Ages were more than coincidental, this book combines a wide range of sources to show how Jews and Christians exchanged artistic and material culture. The book focuses on communities in northern Europe, Iberia, and other Mediterranean societies where Jews and Christians coexisted for centuries, and it synthesizes the most current research to describe the daily encounters that enabled both societies to appreciate common artistic values. Detailing the transmission of cultural sensibilities in the medieval money market and the world of Jewish money lenders, the book examines objects pawned by peasants and humble citizens, sacred relics exchanged by the clergy as security for loans, and aesthetic goods given up by the Christian well-to-do who required financial assistance. The work also explores frescoes and decorations likely painted by non-Jews in medieval and early modern Jewish homes located in Germanic lands, and the ways in which Jews hired Christian artists and craftsmen to decorate Hebrew prayer books and create liturgical objects. Conversely, Christians frequently hired Jewish craftsmen to produce liturgical objects used in Christian churches. With rich archival documentation, the book sheds light on the social and economic history of the creation of Jewish and Christian art, and expands the general understanding of cultural exchange in brand-new ways.Less
Demonstrating that similarities between Jewish and Christian art in the Middle Ages were more than coincidental, this book combines a wide range of sources to show how Jews and Christians exchanged artistic and material culture. The book focuses on communities in northern Europe, Iberia, and other Mediterranean societies where Jews and Christians coexisted for centuries, and it synthesizes the most current research to describe the daily encounters that enabled both societies to appreciate common artistic values. Detailing the transmission of cultural sensibilities in the medieval money market and the world of Jewish money lenders, the book examines objects pawned by peasants and humble citizens, sacred relics exchanged by the clergy as security for loans, and aesthetic goods given up by the Christian well-to-do who required financial assistance. The work also explores frescoes and decorations likely painted by non-Jews in medieval and early modern Jewish homes located in Germanic lands, and the ways in which Jews hired Christian artists and craftsmen to decorate Hebrew prayer books and create liturgical objects. Conversely, Christians frequently hired Jewish craftsmen to produce liturgical objects used in Christian churches. With rich archival documentation, the book sheds light on the social and economic history of the creation of Jewish and Christian art, and expands the general understanding of cultural exchange in brand-new ways.
Ariel Toaff
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781874774198
- eISBN:
- 9781800340954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774198.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter examines Jewish merchants and craftsmen in late medieval Italy. Jewish carters and pack-saddle makers hired out their goods and conveyances for a daily or weekly rate. These carters from ...
More
This chapter examines Jewish merchants and craftsmen in late medieval Italy. Jewish carters and pack-saddle makers hired out their goods and conveyances for a daily or weekly rate. These carters from the city of Spoleto would often come upon Jewish cloth and saffron merchants from the Umbrian Apennines and the Marches. In Perugia, from 1383, Jews were enrolled in the guild of the cotton-waste and rag sellers, and had close relations with the wool guild, which they partly financed. Moreover, in the villages and larger Umbrian trading centres, Jewish cloth merchants had workrooms and shops where they received their town and country clientèle. Other merchants, too, travelled the roads of Umbria. These were the corn merchants, some of which were Jews. The chapter then considers the Italian leather trade, looking at the rise in the export of hides and leather by Jewish merchants from 1570 until the end of the century.Less
This chapter examines Jewish merchants and craftsmen in late medieval Italy. Jewish carters and pack-saddle makers hired out their goods and conveyances for a daily or weekly rate. These carters from the city of Spoleto would often come upon Jewish cloth and saffron merchants from the Umbrian Apennines and the Marches. In Perugia, from 1383, Jews were enrolled in the guild of the cotton-waste and rag sellers, and had close relations with the wool guild, which they partly financed. Moreover, in the villages and larger Umbrian trading centres, Jewish cloth merchants had workrooms and shops where they received their town and country clientèle. Other merchants, too, travelled the roads of Umbria. These were the corn merchants, some of which were Jews. The chapter then considers the Italian leather trade, looking at the rise in the export of hides and leather by Jewish merchants from 1570 until the end of the century.
