Jews and Magic in Medici Florence by Edward L. Goldberg

Author:Edward L. Goldberg [Goldberg, Edward L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS037020, LIT004210, HIS022000
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Published: 2011-03-05T05:00:00+00:00

Fire at the Fair

‘We arrived in Ferrara early this morning, which is Tuesday, but we didn’t find the ambassador. So, we can expect him to appear this evening, on the road from Bologna.’58 Benedetto Blanis wrote Don Giovanni dei Medici an emotional appeal on 21 August 1618 – the only surviving letter from his nine months in Venice.59

Benedetto had a sister to visit in Ferrara and a mysterious errand to transact. Luca Albizi, a ranking Tuscan diplomat, was making an overnight stop on his way to Venice,60 and the Jew joined the welcoming party. Whatever Benedetto hoped to achieve,61 his meeting was overwhelmed by a family catastrophe:

I bitterly regret having come to Ferrara. Instead of rejoicing in the company of my sister, I find that I am here to weep with her in her misfortune. Her husband – my brother-in-law – was at the fair in Lugo di Romagna, which is a big and fine fair held every August on the Feast of the Madonna in a field that is like a vast marketplace. This year, alas, the entire fair went up in flames and was razed to its very foundations in only an hour … All of the merchandise was destroyed and even the metals melted down, with an estimated loss of a million in gold.62

Ferrara had been one of the greatest Italian centres of Jewish life and culture until its annexation by the papacy in 1598. Many Jews then left, while others remained under increasingly difficult circumstances.63 One of Benedetto’s sisters64 was married to a local merchant, Salamon Finzi, and the annual fair at Lugo was a major regional event that attracted both Jewish and gentile traders:65

My sister’s unfortunate husband had 2,000 scudi of his own merchandise with him. Even worse, he brought stock that was not yet paid for because he wanted to make a good show at the fair. So, he now owes three or four Jewish merchants an additional three or four hundred scudi. Considering these circumstances, I beg Your Most Illustrious Excellency to write a letter of recommendation to the Papal Legate in Ferrara, Cardinal [Jacopo] Serra, asking him to grant my brother-in-law a respite for a number of years … Even if he has nothing left, he is ready to scrimp and save day and night in order to satisfy those Jews who are his creditors. He only asks that they allow him a reasonable period of time and do not force him to flee.66

Having posted his letter, Benedetto quickly left town – following Luca Albizi back to Venice.

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