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Renaissance in the Graveyard: The Hebrew Tombstones of Padua and Ashkenazic Acculturation in Sixteenth-Century Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2013

David Malkiel*
Affiliation:
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
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Abstract

The acculturation Ashkenazic Jews in Italy is the focus of the present discussion. By 1500 Jews had been living in Padua for centuries, but their cemeteries were destroyed in the 1509. Four cemeteries remained with over 1200 inscriptions between 1530–1860. The literary features of the inscriptions indicate a shift from a preference for epitaphs written in prose, like those of medieval Germany, to epitaphs in the form of Italian Jewry's occasional poetry. The art and architecture of the tombstones are part and parcel of the Renaissance ambient, with the portals and heraldry characteristic of Palladian edifices. The lettering, too, presents a shift from the constituency's medieval Ashkenazic origins to its Italian setting. These developments are situated in the broader context of Italian Jewish art and architecture, while the literary innovations are shown to reflect the revival of the epigram among poets of the Italian Renaissance.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Jewish Studies 2013 

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References

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11. This figure does not include undated tombstones, at least ten of which are almost certainly from the sixteenth century.

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13. The number preceding the date of death refers to the number of the cemetery, in this case the earliest of Padua's surviving cemeteries, and then to the number of the inscription, based on the series in a transcription of inscriptions created in 1890 by the community rabbi, Alessandro Zammatto. For an edited and annotated edition of the Padua inscriptions see Malkiel, David, Shirei shayish: Ketovot mi-batei ha-ḥayyim shel Padova, 1529–1862 (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2013)Google Scholar. Naftali ben Joseph Kohen was not a renowned individual, and nothing further need be said about him. The same is true for all the Paduan Jews whose tombstones are singled out for discussion below, apart from the few whose careers merit elaboration.

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16. The ratio of graves to years in this period suggests that the corpus is incomplete. Note, however, that there are no gaps—spatial or chronological—between graves in the graveyard. The problem of the ratio of gravestones to the overall population of Padua's Jewish community is equally perplexing for the entire period from 1529 to 1862.

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26. The poem for Biancha Marini (3.192, d. 1810) is the only exception in the entire corpus.

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29. “Known in the gates” (Proverbs 31:23). The jar of manna is a complimentary reference to the deceased, because a Talmudic passage relates that the original jar of manna was hidden with the ark (B. Yoma 52b), and the latter is a common Hebrew euphemism for the coffin.

30. Esther 1:6.

31. 1 Kings 1:9.

32. The literary and architectural features of the tombstones of early modern Germany are elaborated below.

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37. For a full image of Abraham Luzzatto's tombstone see fig. 9.

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43. Manaresi, “Araldica,” 932.

44. For a map of the connotations of heraldic beasts, which are plotted between the vertical poles of good and evil, and the horizontal poles of intellectual versus physical force, see Pastoureau, Figures et couleurs, 175.

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49. “There are three crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of the priesthood and the crown of royalty, and the crown of the good name is greater than them” (M. Avot 4:13).

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51. I am grateful to Michael Ryzhik of Bar-Ilan University for this suggestion. In any case, the adoption of the Sephardic font does not reflect the impact of the Sephardic constituency, which was negligible in Padua.

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56. Brocke and Müller, Haus des Lebens, 29–33.

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82. Seder Eliyahu Zuta, 2:248; cited in Shulvass, Moses A., The Jews in the World of the Renaissance, trans. Kose, Elvin I. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1973), 39Google Scholar.

83. B. BK 60b.

84. 'Igerot bet Karmi: Cremona 330–337, ed. Boksenboim, Yacov (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1983), 142Google Scholar.

85. On this issue, the italiani represent the Jews of the Mediterranean basin and the Islamic realm. See Twersky, Isadore, “Ha-Yahadut ha-'Ashkenazit (min ha-me'ah ha-‘asirit ‘ad sof ha-mèah ha-ḥamesh ‘esreh,” Enẓiklopediah ḥinukhit (Jerusalem: Ministry of Education and Bialik Institute, 1964), 4:257–59, 261–63Google Scholar; Twerksky, Isadore, “Religion and Law,” in Religion in a Religious Age, ed. Goitein, S.D. (Cambridge Mass.: Association for Jewish Studies, 1974), 6982Google Scholar; Twersky, Isadore, “Talmudists, Philosophers, Kabbalists: The Quest for Spirituality in the Sixteenth Century,” in Jewish Thought in the Sixteenth Century, ed. Dov Cooperman, Bernard (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983), 431–59Google Scholar.

86. Shmeruk, Chone, “Defusei Yiddish be-Italia,” Italia 3 (1982): 112–75Google Scholar; Yiddish in Italia; Shulvass, “Ashkenazic Jewry in Italy,” 120–21; Fram, Edward, My Dear Daughter: Rabbi Benjamin Slonik and the Education of Jewish Women in Sixteenth-Century Poland (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 2007)Google Scholar; Elboim, Jacob, “Kishrei tarbut ben Yehudei Polin le-ven Yehudei 'Italia ba-me'ah ha-shesh ‘esreh,” in Gal-‘Ed 7–8 (1985), 1140Google Scholar; Baruchson, Shifra, Sefarim ve-kore'im: Tarbut ha-keri'ah shel Yehudei 'Italia be-shilhei ha-renesans (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1993), 119–75Google Scholar.

87. Bonfil, “La presenza Ashkenazita in Italia,” Yiddish in Italia, 217.

88. Pinkas va‘ad K”K Padova 338–363, 1:164, no. 158.

89. Pinkas va‘ad K”K Padova 338–363,1:324, no. 545.

90. Tosafot on B. Menaḥot 20b, s.v. nifsal.

91. P. Sotah 7:5 (33a).

92. See also the responsum of Azriel Diena to the Jews of Ostia, regarding the struggle between the Ashkenazi and italiani over control of the synagogue rite: She'elot u-teshuvot, ed. Boksenboim, Yacov (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1977), 1:6265Google Scholar, no. 23.