Jewish Theatre Making in Mantua, 1520–1650 9781641892513

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JEWISH THEATRE-​ MAKING IN MANTUA, 1520–​1650

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JEWISH THEATRE-​ MAKING IN MANTUA, 1520–​1650 ERITH JAFFE-​BERG

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. © 2022, Arc Humanities Press, Leeds

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CONTENTS

List of Figures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Chapter 1. Introduction: “Under the Happy Shadow and Secure Protection”. . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2. Beginnings: Jews and the Early Modern Italian Stage 1475–​1540. . . . . . . 33

Chapter 3. A Canny Theatrical Intermediary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Chapter 4. A Virtuoso of Jewish Mantua. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Chapter 5. Jewish Theatrical Production in the Shadow of the Counter-​Reformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Chapter 6. The End of Jewish Performance in Mantua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Chapter 7. Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Appendix 1. Translation of Description of Jewish Performance in Pesaro in 1475. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Appendix 2. Jewish Performances in Mantua. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 183

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Map of Northern Italy with Cities with significant Jewish contribution to theatre-​making in Italy, 1520–​1650. ����������������������������������������������������������viii Figure 2. Illustration of musicians in Jewish illuminated manuscript known as the Getty Rothschild Pentateuch ������������������������������������������������������� 9

Figure 3. Image of Pragmatica, self-​regulation document �������������������������������������������14

Figure 4. Image of “Regina Ebrea” (Queen of the Jews) �������������������������������������������������39 Figure 5. Letter on behalf of De’ Sommi. �����������������������������������������������������������������������������67 Figure 6. Letter on behalf of De’ Sommi. �����������������������������������������������������������������������������87 Figure 7. Letter by De’ Sommi. �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������97

Figure 8. Image of the bound documents and files of receipts held still today by the Jewish Community of Mantua �������������������������������������������������������������� 108 Figure 9. License allowing Simon Basilea to travel without wearing the badge. ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 111 Figure 10. Letter regarding Melet, Ebreo. ASMn, AG 2705 fasc. 8 c. 4 tif. ���������������� 157 Figure 11. Image of “Aron ha-​Kodesh,” or the Arc, at the main synagogue of Mantua, Via Govì������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 158

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Figure 1. Map of Northern Italy with cities with significant Jewish contribution to theatre-​making in Italy, 1520–​1650. Copyright Christian Harder, Esri.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book has been several years in the making, and I owe a debt of gratitude to those who helped my ideas take shape. Early versions of these chapters were presented in a number of invited talks and academic conferences, and I would like to acknowledge and thank the organizers of the California Italian Studies conferences (CICIS), especially Claudio Fogu and Jon Snyder, and the organizers of sessions held at The Renaissance Society of America (RSA), especially Robert Henke, Dana Katz, and Janet Smarr. My thanks to Gabriele Mancuso for inviting me to the 2016 conference at the Palazzo Ducale, Venice, commemorating 500 years to the founding of the Jewish Ghetto. Special thanks to the Theatre Without Borders collective, and especially the organizers of the Cologne meeting (2018), and subsequent virtual conferences (2020, 2021). My thanks to Barbara Fuchs for inviting me to give a talk at the UCLA Center for 17th-​ and 18th-​Century Studies and the Clark Library (2018), and to Julia Lupton at the UCI Shakespeare Center for inviting me (2019) as well as Kyna Hamill for inviting me to Boston University (2019). In addition, I wish to thank several others who have encouraged my work at various stages: Jody Enders, Leo Cabranes Grant, Anastazja Buttitta, Elisa Bastianello, Pamela Brown, Erich Nicholson, Michela Andreatta, Emily Wilbourne, Domenico Pietropaolo, and Rosalind Kerr, who all helped me to shape my thinking to a far greater extent than would otherwise have been possible. During the writing period, I benefited from meetings and discussions about this project at UC Santa Barbara, hosted by Leo Cabranes-Grant and convened by Tracy Davis and Peter Marx in connection with a Routledge Companion of Theatre History and Historiography. I also want to thank M.A. Katritzky and Pavel Drábek for their insightful comments on my work and publication in Translational Connections in Early Modern Theatre. My ideas were greatly shaped through two Bloomsbury projects on Medieval Theatre, the first A Cultural History of Medieval Theatre, edited by Jody Enders, and the second A Cultural History of Tragedy in the Middle Ages, edited by the late Claire Sponsler, and then by Carol Symes, both of which enriched my approaches to the Jewish records and helped me to articulate a few key areas. I would like to thank my co-​authors there, Antonio Donato, Noah Guynn, and Seeta Chaganti. Domenico Pietropaolo has been a steadfast supporter since my graduate days to now, and I thank him for his humanity and his expansive knowledge. Rosalind Kerr, Kyna Hamill, and Emily Wilbourne all presented at a conference I convened on commedia dell’arte in 2019, and have been fellow travellers in the footsteps of commedia dell’arte; I have learned so much from all of their work. I also want to acknowledge and thank Javier Hurtado for presenting at the conference, and Cherie Hamilton, Maribel Apuya, and Clark Barclay for helping to organize the conference in 2019, just months before the global pandemic shut off international travel.

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x Acknowledgements In Italy, my thanks to Dr. Daniela Ferrari, who was the director of the Mantuan State Archives when I first visited there, to Luisa Onesta Tamassia, current director, and to Franca Maestrini, who facilitated my connection with members of the Jewish community. Warm thanks to the Director of the Jewish Community of Mantua, Dr. Emanuele Colorni, who gave me access to the Jewish Community Archives. Special thanks to Stefano Patuzzi for meeting with me in Mantua and to Giorgio Pavesi for generously sending me his publication, to Elisa Bastianello who met me in Venice, and Edward Goldberg who met me in Florence. I have been fortunate to have worked with a supportive editorial team, and my thanks go to Erika Gaffney, Claire Hopkins and the entire team at Arc Humanities. Special thanks to Nicoletta da’Ros, Michela Andreatta, and Sean Dennison for careful edits in Italian, Hebrew, and English, respectively, and for elucidating translation questions. My thanks to Robin Russin for reading and commenting on some early chapters, and special thanks to Christian Harder for creating the beautiful map. I benefited from comments made by the anonymous readers, and I would like to thank them for their thoughtful suggestions. A number of grants made my research travel possible, and I want to acknowledge the UCR Committee on Research (COR) research grant, the Delmas Krieble Fellowship for work in Venice (2018), and research funds from UCR which allowed for subvention funds for this publication. My home-​base at the Department of Theatre, Film and Digital Production (TFDP) at UCR has offered me the best in collegiality and friendship. My thanks go to: Kate Anger, Bryan Bradford, Patricia Cardoso, Charles Evered, Donatella Galella, Rickerby Hinds, Kimberly Guerrero, Stu Krieger, Bella Merlin, Root Park, Robin Russin, Annika Speer, Kerry Jones and Ben Tusher. Other colleagues at UCR have been invaluable in the wisdom and support given over the years, and I would like to thank: Katharine Henshaw, Susan Ossman, Georgia Warnke, Rodgerio Budasz, Susan Straight, and Jeanette Kohl. To all my students at UC Riverside for inspiring me in teaching and researching and thinking about the ways the past is always connected to the present, in art making and culture. My love and gratitude to my parents, Yoram and Sharon Jaffe, and to Danny, Adrienne, Kaela and Charlie Jaffe, Donna Geffner Schaeffer and Sandy Schaeffer (may his memory be blessed), and Linda and John Buckle. I want to honor the memory of my late parents-​ in-​law, Yehudah and Ruthie Har-​Zion, who passed away while I was writing this book. As always, my family is my life, and my love and thanks go to Adam, Liv, and Mica— ​I dedicate this book to them and my parents.

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION: “UNDER THE HAPPY SHADOW AND SECURE PROTECTION”

In his letter

of appeal to Guglielmo Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua, Leone de’ Sommi, the Jew (Leone de’ Sommi, Ebreo), acting as a spokesman for his community, described himself as living “under the happy shadow and secure protection” (sotto la felice ombra et sicura protettione).1 In Italian, De’ Sommi uses the word ombra, which translates today to mean both shade and shadow. In the sixteenth century, ómbra meant an obscured area of little light,2 which could also have been used in the sense of the interplay of shadow and light in a painting.3 Metaphorically, Jewish life in early modern Mantua meant living within a mixture of light and darkness, and finding umbrage—​both shade in the positive sense, and shadow in the potentially negative sense—​under the Gonzaga Dukes. Who was Leone de’ Sommi? What did he mean when he said he was living under “the happy shadow” of the Duke? Why did a theatre-​maker become the singular most important Jewish community member to negotiate the status of the Jews in Mantua at this time? Why would a place such as Mantua, which regularly played host to the most important professional theatre-​makers, want to have the Jews making theatre alongside the Christians? Was there anything special about what the Jews could offer in their performances? And, at the heart of it all, in what ways did theatre become a basis for cultural exchange? 1 Quoted in Erith Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange: Taxation and Jewish Theatre in Early Modern Italy,” Theatre Survey 54.3 (2013): 408n1. A note about the notation system for the archives is found in the bibliography.

2 See the online encyclopedia and dictionary (vocabolario) Treccani (Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti) where ombra is defined as: “Zona oscura, o di minore luminosità” (www. trecc​ani.it/​voca​bola​rio/​ombra). 3 In Treccani, the related sense of the word is connected to painting and visuality: “Per analogia, nel disegno, nell’incisione semplice o a retino, nella pittura, si dicono ombre i toni scuri (ottenuti col tratteggio o con la tinta) con cui si rappresentano le zone d’ombra e si dà rilievo alle immagini: luci e ombre, in un quadro, in un disegno, ecc. (e in senso fig., aspetti positivi e negativi, per es. nello stile di uno scrittore, o in una descrizione, momenti lieti e tristi nella vita di un individuo, nei rapporti fra due persone, e sim.)”

(As an analogy, in drawing, in the simple incision, or in the retina, in a painting, the term used is shade your dark tones (created by a tint) with which you represent the shadowed area and allow it relief/​importance/​emphasis to the images: light and shadow, in a painting, in a drawing, etc.). Treccani (Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti).

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2 Introduction This book is about an extraordinary chapter of Jewish history and an equally compelling chapter of Italian–Jewish relations. It is about a 130-​year-​long tradition in Mantua in southern Lombardy, where the Jewish community staged an annual play in order to both placate and entertain the Gonzaga Dukes. In return, the Dukes made it possible for the Jews to live within Mantua and her dominions, the region known as the Mantovano, in relative security and safety. As Azariah de’ Rossi, another Jewish resident of Mantua, put it, in a period in which Jews were not wanted in most of Europe, Mantua was a “Kiriya Aliza” (‫קריה עליזה‬, a happy city) for Jews, a safe haven and a creative mecca.4 While a “happy shadow” and a “happy town” suggest a positive existence for the Jews, in de’ Sommi and de’ Rossi’s articulation, the Jews still existed in the shadows. The umbrage provided by the Duke, and by extension, the region, also implies a degree of secrecy and subordination. Therefore, the connotation of something being hidden and not entirely safe is implicit in early modern Jewish theatre-​making in Mantua. After all, while performance was often celebratory, it was also onerous and at times dangerous. Nevertheless, a great deal of theatrical sharing took place in Mantua, and this cultural exchange stood in contrast to the more usual forms of monetary exchange (such as money lending) or exchange of goods (commerce and the second-​hand clothing trade) that were normally associated with Jewish enterprise in Europe and that were common in other communities, including Mantua. As the noted theatre historian Alessandro d’Ancona put it: We have here a new and curious fact: the recitation of comedies by the Jews of Mantua by order and consent and in any case at the presence of the court. The Jewish community of Mantua was, as transpires from the documents, a kind of permanent theatre company at the princes’ [dukes] service which always had actors at the ready to perform. And this fact, for which we will see more and more proof over a number of years, attests both to the tolerance of the sovereigns and the cultural merit of the Jewish Mantuan family. The laws that later became more strict against the Jews, were then still benign: the protection of the Princes [dukes] was present and effective. And in Mantua, Jews could take part in the most cultivated disciplines, in addition to mercantile and money changing ventures.5

4 Shlomo Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua (Jerusalem: Kiryat Sepher, 1977), 602 in reference to Azariah de’ Rossi’s Meor Einaim (Light of the Eyes) where the term “happy city” was used. Azariah De’ Rossi, Me’or Einayim (Mantua 1573–​1575, rpt. Vilnius: Casal, 1866).

5 “Abbiamo qui un fatto nuovo e curioso: le recite di commedie fatte dagli Ebrei mantovani per ordine o col consenso, e ad ogni modo alla presenza della Corte. La Università israelitica di Mantova era, a quel che emerge dai documenti, una specie di compagnia comica permanente al servizio de’ principi: aveva almeno nel suo seno individui sempre pronti a far da attori. E questo fatto, del quale via via vedremo le prove, raccogliendole tutt’insieme per una serie non breve di anni, attesta insieme la tolleranza de’sovrani e la cultura della famiglia giudaica mantovana. Le leggi, che andarono più tardi aggravandosi contro gli ebrei, erano allora assai benigne: viva ed efficace la protezione de’principi: e gli israeliti poterono in Mantova esercitarsi oltre che al traffico e al cambio, anche alle più culte discipline.” d’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, Libri tre con due appendici sulla rappresentazione drammatica del contado Toscano e sul teatro montovano nel sec. XVI, 2 vols. (Turin: Ermanno Loescher, 1891), 2: 398–​99.

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Introduction

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Theatre made by the Jews for Christians and Jewish audiences reveals that another dimension of intercultural communication and exchange was happening. Mantua was, after all, a fount of cultural activity in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, a destination city for performers of commedia dell’arte as well as a city that nourished the nascent opera. The concurrence of Jewish theatre-​making with the emergence of very highly developed performances in music and dance is not coincidental. There was far more of a cross-​current of influences than we may suppose among the musicians, dancers and actors, both Jewish and Christian, busily at work making and inventing new performance forms. While there were strict laws of separation between the Jews and Christians, and while these were outwardly publicized to the Holy See and to the broader community, there was, simultaneously, a large degree of collaboration, as we shall see. This collaboration was vital for the Jewish community’s well-​being, and, it appears, for Mantua, and for many of the professional Christian actors, musicians and dancers who made their living producing works through various degrees of collaboration with the Jews. For the Christian rulers, too, the Jewish performers became a hallmark of the Carnival season and other celebrations. Performance was not the consequence of cultural exchange between Jews and Christians but was one of the means by which the complicated nature of cultural communication and exchange took place. It was a central way that Jews negotiated and helped shape the terms of their existence within Mantua. Performance was a mutually beneficial currency that the Gonzaga Dukes and the Jews could use to calibrate their relations with one another. From 1520–​1650, the Jews of Mantua used performance as a basis for creating an exchange with their Gonzaga rulers and as a pretext for interacting with the broader Christian Mantuan population. The exchange occurred on all levels—​ financial, ideational, creative, and personal—​because all of these are part of what it means to perform. Plays required writers to put ideas into storylines. Play productions required finances to cover the costs of costumes, sets, space, texts, actors, directors, and designers needed to transform the word from the page to the stage. Last, plays required audiences reacting emotionally, and whose commitment to “suspending disbelief” made it possible for the two-​way process of theatre to occur. One component of that audience was the funding patrons, whose beneficence made it possible for the entire project to occur in the first place. The Gonzaga patrons were politically astute leaders who held their own interests in mind, and they used the Jewish performances as a means of broadcasting their own power and autonomy as a principality independent from the Holy See and from other encroaching European powers. In addition, all too often, the Jews financed these productions, making the free entertainment in exchange for the offering of safe haven—​a financially good bargain for the Gonzaga. This arrangement meant Jewish performances were a nearly free form of entertainment the Dukes could wield for their own purposes: wedding celebrations, birthdays, civic events, impressing visiting dignitaries, and personal satisfaction. There may have been a degree of exploitation on the part of the Gonzaga, but there were also mutual benefits for the Jews. For that reason, the idea of performance as currency may more accurately reflect the exchange that took place. For the Jews, performances meant they had to become

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4 Introduction self-​sufficient, relying on their own funding sources, as well as on the intergenerational talents within the community. It also meant taxing themselves internally. Sometimes, performances occasioned collaborations with Christian actors, playwrights, and theatre producers, which meant that the Jews’ sources for information and professional know-​how also flowed in from the “outside” Christian world of professional performers. Conversely, the story of the Jewish theatre-​makers of Mantua also reveals how Jews affected their Christian counterparts, even the professional actors of the commedia dell’arte, providing talent for Christian productions and exposure to a certain degree of Jewish cultural rituals and language. Furthermore, commedia dell’arte is especially relevant as a collaborative partner for the Jews as there is considerable evidence to suggest that commedia dell’arte played a central role in establishing what modern European (and, through the colonial encounter, American) theatre is. The Jewish theatre-​makers in Mantua were exposed to the work of commedia dell’arte professionals, sometimes collaborating with these professionals, at the very time in which the comici (commedia dell’arte actors) were laying the foundations for what modern European theatre would become. That a minority community would happen to be present at the inception of modern European theatre, and that they had a hand in the evolution of this theatre, is a perspective that has hitherto never been explored fully. The co-​presence of a cultural minority community and a theatrical powerhouse compel us to re-​evaluate how we view early modern European theatre, recognizing that a more diverse set of people had a hand in its development. In artistic terms, this mutual influence was evident in a number of ways I chart in the chapters of this book. In pragmatic terms, this influence was apparent when the Jews provided entertainment, funding, costumes and props, legal advice, and other help for Christian professional actors in Mantua and elsewhere. That being the case, we can see how out of the shadows emerges an interesting picture of the Jews contributing mightily to culture-​making while at the same time doing so within their own marginalized social position.

Chapter Organization of the Book

The book is organized chronologically in order to detail the story of the emergence and development of theatre by the Jews of Mantua. It is the first and only book-​ length study of Mantuan Jewish theatre. The research here relies on several decades of work accomplished by Italian and Israeli scholars. Salient among these are the works of Alessandro d’Ancona (1880) on Italian theatre, Shlomo Simonsohn (starting in the 1950s) on Jews in Mantua and Hayyim (Jefim) Schirmann (1960s and 1970s) on the Jewish Mantuan theatre-​makers. Shlomo Simonsohn’s History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua, originally completed in the post-​World War II period, is still the most comprehensive compendium of information about this community as a whole. In addition, a number of important contemporary scholars working since the 1990s have further enlightened us about Mantua as a context for Jewish theatre-​makers. Among these, the Italian scholar Claudia Burattelli looms large. Her Spettacoli di corte a Mantova tra Cinque e Seicento (1999) is the first book since the work of d’Ancona to

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Introduction

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offer a serious consideration of the Jewish contribution to the arts of Mantua, with a full chapter dedicated to the subject. Italian scholars Siro Ferrone and Alessandra Veronese, the Israeli scholars Ahuva Belkin and Yair Lipshitz, and the Canadian-​ and US-​based Donald Beecher and Massimo Ciavolella have greatly enhanced the perspectives in this area, and I will refer to their research, among others throughout the book.6 Simonsohn continued researching this subject up until his death in 2019. He put the study of the Jews of Mantua in context best when he wrote: I am more convinced than ever that Jewish Mantua’s contribution to learning and the arts, to the sciences and literature and to most other fields of cultural interest, was overwhelming in comparison to that of most other Jewish communities in the later Middle ages and early Modern times.7

Famed Italian theatre scholar Siro Ferrone foregrounded the relevance of this topic when he indicated there is as of yet no study of the many ways in which Jews contributed to professional theatre-​making in the golden age of Italian theatre, a subject he considers important for a fuller understanding of the evolution of Italian theatre.8 In many ways, this book is an answer to Ferrone’s call for a detailed study of the Jewish interactions with theatre-​making in Italy writ large. This book-​length study of Jewish Italian early modern theatre enhances these important scholarly works by exploring the contribution of Jews as theatre-​makers (actors, producers, writers) and as financial and artistic contributors to the cultural nexus of Mantua at a time in which Mantua was a crossroads for the professional commedia dell’arte actors, international visitors, and the budding proto-​operatic musical scene. In the book I draw from important recent scholarly, interdisciplinary research in the areas of dance, music, and art history which has developed in the last few decades, in the work of scholars such as Iain Fenlon, Anne 6 See Claudia Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte a Mantova tra Cinque e Seicento (Florence: Casa Editrice Le Lettere, 1999), especially 81–​180; Ahuva Belkin, ed. Leone de’ Sommi and the Performing Arts (Tel Aviv: Assaph, 1997); Yair Lipshitz, “Performance as Profanation: Holy Tongue and Comic Stage in Tsahut bedihuta deqidushin,” in Renaissance Drama, n.s. 36/​37 Italy in the Drama of Europe, ed. Albert Russell Ascoli and William N. West (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2010); Yair Lipshitz, Leshon ha-​Kodesh, Girsat ha-​Comedia: Dramot Intellectualyot al bamat “tsahut bedihuta deqiddushin” (The Holy Tongue, Comedy’s Version—​Intertextual Dramas on the Stage in “A Comedy of Betrothal” [Hebrew]) (Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University Press, 2010); Donald Beecher and Massimo Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works of Leone De’ Sommi,” in The Three Sisters by Leone De’ Sommi. Translated and annotated by Donald Beecher and Massimo Ciavolella, Carleton Renaissance Plays in Translation 14 (Ottawa: Dovehouse, 1993), and Donald Beecher, “Leone de’ Sommi and Jewish Theatre in Renaissance Mantua,” Renaissance and Reformation/​Renaissance et Réforme 17.2 (1993). 7 Shlomo Simonsohn, “Savants and Scholars in Jewish Mantua: A Reassessment,” in Rabbi Judah Moscato and the Jewish Intellectual World of Mantua in the 16th–​17th Centuries, ed. Giuseppe Veltri and Gianfranco Miletto (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 299–​310, at 299.

8 Siro Ferrone, Attori Mercanti Corsari: La Commedia dell’arte in Europa tra Cinque e Seicento (Turin: Einaudi, 1993, republished 2011).

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6 Introduction MacNeil, Emily Wilbourne, Don Harrán, and Dana Katz.9 Additionally, I rely on recent research by Italian scholars such as Alessandra Veronese and Giorgio Pavesi.10 However, a project based on the Jewish contribution to theatre has only been explored either in relation to Leone de’ Sommi or in single chapters of other books, such as Simonsohn’s encompassing History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua, my own book Commedia dell’arte and the Mediterranean or the Italian-​language work by Claudia Burattelli and in article-​length studies by Donald Beecher, Alessandra Veronese, and Emily Wilbourne. Jewish Theatre-​Making in Mantua, 1520–​1650 considers the Mantuan Jewish theatre-​ makers as a group, within the context of other theatrical developments, such as scenic innovations and the performances of the commedia dell’arte. In order to look at Jews and theatre more broadly, in the remainder of this chapter, I contextualize the Mantuan theatre in comparison with other “performances” by Jews that took place across the peninsula. Since disputation was often conceived of as a theatrical event, I include it with other forms of rhetoric and disputation.11 I also provide a brief history of the Jewish presence in Mantua, describe Mantua’s cultural composition and detail the main social institutions and the organization of the Jewish community. Among the social institutions, I discuss the confraternities, as well as the financial organization within the community. In Chapter 2 I introduce the earliest Jewish performances in Pesaro and connect them to Mantua. The chapter covers the reigns of Francesco II Gonzaga, Federico II, and Francesco III and ends just as Guglielmo takes office in 1550. This was also the time when Leone de’ Sommi first appeared on the Mantuan scene, and his presence, and introduction of the first play in Hebrew, Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin, changed the way in which Jewish theatre operated and placed the Jews in an ever-​more central role within the general theatre-​making scene.12 9 See Anne MacNeil, Music and Women of the Commedia dell’arte in the Late Sixteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003); Emily Wilbourne, “Lo Schiavetto (1612): Travestied Sound, Ethnic Performance, and the Eloquence of the Body,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 63.1 (Spring 2010): 1–​44; Don Harrán, “Madama Europa, Jewish Singer in Late Renaissance Mantua,” in Festa Musicologica: Essays in Honor of George J. Buelow, ed. Thomas J. Mathiesen and Benito V. Rivera. Festschrift series No. 14 (New York: Pendragon, 1995), 107–​231; and Dana E. Katz, The Jew in the Art of the Italian Renaissance (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008).

10 See Alessandra Veronese, “Le carte dell’ archivio ebraico di Mantova: testimonianze inedite dal XVII secolo,” in Maestranze, artisti e apparatori per la scena dei Gonzaga (1480–​1630): Atti del convegno internazionale di studi (Mantova, 26–​28 febbraio 2015), ed. Simona Brunetti (Italy: Bari, 2016), 53–​64; Pavesi, Leone de’ Sommi Hebreo e il Teatro della Modernità (Mantua: Gilgamesh 2015) and Giorgio Pavesi, Man-​Tovà l’interculturalità in scena: Danza, teatro e musica nel XVI secolo (Mantua: Progetto Grafico, 2019).

11 Baron writes about disputations: “Other similar intellectual confrontations, which often delighted interested audiences as much as a theatrical performance took place before Ludovico il Moro in Milan and Ercole I d’Este in Ferrara.” Salo Wittmayer Baron, A Social and Religious History: Late Middle Ages and the Era of European Expansion, 1200–​1600 (Columbia: Columbia University Press, 1937. 2nd rpt. 1970), 170. 12 This play is transliterated differently by Belkin who uses Ṣahuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin while Lipshitz uses Tsahut bedihuta deqiddushin.

7

Introduction

7

I devote the entirety of Chapter 3, “A Canny Intermediary” to De’ Sommi, the most famous and accomplished among the theatre-​makers of Mantua. In connection with De’ Sommi, I look at Guglielmo Gonzaga as patron, and I study this example of a relationship between an artist and patron—​also a relationship between a Christian ruler and a Jewish artist. I then consider the dual role De’ Sommi played as a massaro (leader) of the community and as an intercultural theatrical writer and producer (early impresario), as well as the author of the first play in Hebrew. Far from a conservative spokesman for his community, De’ Sommi, in my reading, emerges as a controversial figure unafraid to take on his community’s ideas about theatre and the sacred and profane applications of Hebrew. In this sense, he was a truly “Renaissance man” able to provocatively fuse the Christian and Humanist values of theatre-​making into a Jewish context, sometimes at a cost. Because discussion of Jewish theatre-​making often begins and ends with De’ Sommi, in Chapter 4 I bring to light other famous figures from the Jewish theatre-​making world. The chapter titled “A Virtuoso of Jewish Mantua” introduces the popular actor Basilea as a counterpart to De’ Sommi’s model of a playwright, director and producer. Basilea’s one-​man performances relied on his virtuosic ability to put together an entire play using his voice alone, with limited stage craft. These solo performances recall the work of the Venetian buffoni and hark back to the medieval troubador tradition. Nevertheless, despite Basilea’s relatively simple stage work, in this period before, during and after ghettoization, more costly performances were characteristic, and therefore, the chapter ends with a bridge to the next chapter in which I consider how the Counter-​Reformation period and ghettoization affected theatre-​making. Chapter 5 allows me to consider the Counter-​Reformation period and what it meant for the Jewish theatre-​makers who were conditioned by its limitations. In this chapter, I consider the darker side of the shadowed existence of Jews as sometimes exploited providers of entertainment. I re-​assert what others and myself have called theatre as taxation, by reflecting on the onerous cost of the increasingly expensive performances the Dukes demanded of the Jewish community. At the same time, the very constraints placed on Jews forced them to evolve into increasingly professionalized contractors. In this evolution, I introduce the role of multi-​generational families who took a hand in costume and prop making. As the theatrical exchanges took on an increasingly commercial value, I show how the Jewish community fashioned itself in professional ways as theatre-​makers. While the narrative of the book seems to lead to a growing productivity among the Jewish community as theatre-​makers, it comes as a surprise that, in fact, theatre production in Mantua virtually came to a total stop in the middle of the seventeenth century, precisely the time in which Jews took an increasing role in theatre-​making elsewhere, notably in Venice. Why did theatre-​making in Mantua stop? Chapter 6 has to do with the end of performance—​how the 130-​year-​long tradition came to an abrupt stop in 1650. Rather than simply accepting that the theatre tradition died out, or that ghettoization inevitably led to the end of exchanges, a fact that is contradicted both in Mantua and in other places, such as Venice, I suggest that the explanation lies

8

8 Introduction somewhere else entirely—​deep within the Jewish community itself. There, I explore the types of internal pressures within the community that eventually led to the end of theatre-​making. My consideration of intracommunal pressures is enhanced by my observation of the simultaneous emergence of disputation in Mantua. In this connection, I introduce Rabbi Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol (b. 1451 Avignon–​ 1525 Ferrara), and later Rabbi Judah Briel (1643–​1722). Disputation, in which Jews defended their own religious beliefs, is a very different form of cultural exchange in comparison with theatre-​making. While both have a performative element to them, theatre-​making, as I explore it in the book, relies on a great deal of mutual respect and interaction that places the communities almost at the same level. Disputation, on the other hand, is both combative and has a putative dimension that automatically puts the Jew in a defensive position. The fact that disputation appears to have been initiated by the Jews themselves, as an alternative to theatrical exchange, says a lot about their desire to withdraw from intercultural exchange to greater insularity and separation. It also says much about the increasing power of Rabbis, many of whom were of converso origin and took a more reactionary tack to leading their communities. The end of theatre in Mantua was, therefore, also a consequence of the tumultuous waves of migration and displacement of Ashkenazi Jews, the turbulence of Messianic Judaism and the growing preoccupation of both the Jewish and Christian communities with Kabbalism, all of which I study in this chapter. At the end of the book, I offer an appendix of the play productions in Mantua (known to me) and the dates they were performed. I note the Jewish community members who were involved in each, as well as the famous non-​Jewish writers, directors, or musicians who took part in them. The appendix was something suggested to me in an earlier publication, and I hope it will serve as a resource that helps to provide a bird’s-​ eye view of the development of Jewish theatre-​making in Mantua. I am certain the appendix will be an ongoing, evolving one, and in the future there will undoubtedly be a need to revise and update more details about the productions the Jews of Mantua had a hand in creating. I hope this spurs the creation of a database or appendix for an even more comprehensive archiving of all the productions created by early modern Jews throughout the Italian Peninsula.

The History of Jews in Mantua

Like earlier centuries, the sixteenth century was a period of ebbs and flows of fortunes for Jews in the Italian Peninsula. Once welcomed for their ability to conduct trade and provide bank loans that were otherwise forbidden for reasons of usury, Jews often fell victim to raids and aggression by the rulers as well as by the commoners, sometimes the one independent of the other. Notwithstanding this volatile backdrop, Northern Italy in particular proved fertile ground for a number of Jewish musicians, dance instructors and theatre-​makers (see Figure 2). In fact, cultural production of Jews at the time appears

9

Introduction

Figure 2. Illustration of musicians in Jewish illuminated manuscript known as the Getty Rothschild Pentateuch. The Getty Library and Research Institute.

9

10

10 Introduction to be integrally linked with their political and economic functioning within Northern Italian early modern cities. As Robert Bonfil puts it: [A]‌t the dawn of the modern era, the Italian peninsula was the home of the largest Jewish population in Christian Europe. Italy played an active and many-​faceted role in bridging East and West, with Venice in particular acting as the customary point of transit for Jews traveling between western Christian Europe and the eastern Ottoman Empire, which included the land of Israel. Their movements were important not only for trade between the two areas but also for intellectual exchanges carried out by migratory scholars seeking a satisfactory living.13

Along with Venice, Mantua provides a key example of intellectual and cultural exchange: that of performance, existing on the spectrum between aesthetic production and economic necessity. The rules that regulated relations between the Jews and Christians of Italy took root in the Middle Ages; therefore, in order to understand the Jews of Mantua in the early modern period, we must look back to this earlier period. The re-​emergence of Jewish communities in Italy after their expulsion in 855 was also punctuated by a shift in professions from maritime trade to moneylending.14 It is likely that there was a Jewish presence in Mantua going back as early as Roman times. By 1145 we have a definitive indicator of the presence of Jews, with the writing of a Hebrew grammar book called Tsahut by Abraham ben Ezra; 1145 also saw the mention of another Jew, Samuel of Mantua.15 Jews were permitted to live in Italy because they could serve the population by lending money to its poorer segments, especially farmers whose fortunes were often affected by unexpected weather and other social factors. In exchange, Jews were “tolerated” and allowed to live in Italian cities, although they often had to pay a Jewish tax.16 13 Robert Bonfil, “A Cultural Profile,” in The Jews of Early Modern Venice, ed. Robert C. Davis and Benjamin Ravid (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 169. 14 On this shift, see Diane Owen Hughes, “Distinguishing Signs: Ear-​Rings, Jews and Franciscan Rhetoric in the Italian Renaissance City,” Past & Present 112 (August 1986): 12–​14. 15 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 2–​3. Simonsohn feels that the presence of these two Jews indicates that there was a settlement in Mantua at the time.

16 On justifications for the presence of Jews in Italian cities, see Bonfil, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy. Translated by Anthony Oldcorn (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. Originally published as Gli Ebrei in Italia nell’epoca del Rinascimento (1991)), 36–​44. On the Jewish tax, see Hughes, “Distinguishing Signs,” 13. A Mantuan document from 1540 specifically stipulates “toleration of the Jews” (tolerauorint mi hac Civitate, et dominio Mantua Hebreos), guarantees them safety in their synagogues and during religious rituals and ceremonies, and grants them permission to work in Mantua and its domains. The document refers to the fact that since the predecessors of Mantuan rulers had always tolerated Jews in the city and the dominions of Mantua and allowed them freedom to engage in mercantile activities and to pray and attend to their duties, rites, ceremonies, and celebrations, those rights are continued. “Cum Illmi [Illustrissimi] Dmi [Domini] predecessores uri semper tolerauorint mi hac Civitate, et dominio Mantua Hebreos et cos publice versari, negociaq, sua libere agere, sinagogasg [sic], tenero, ac officia, ritus, et cerimonias suas celebrare” (Since our most Illustrious Lord Predecessors have always tolerated Jews in the city and the dominions of Mantua and have allowed them to officially engage, act freely, go to the synagogues, perform their duties, celebrate their ritual ceremonies). The document begins in Latin

11

Introduction

11

As Dana Katz puts it in her study of the representation of the Jew in the Italian art of Urbino, Mantua, and Ferrara: “[t]‌olerance as a political concept offered limited social forbearance to select marginalized groups while opposing policies of expulsion and extermination.”17 Banking was not the only service Jews provided in Mantua; Jewish merchants and artisans also contributed to the economy.18 The Jew, being an outsider or a stranger, took on the roles that Christian residents could not. As the sociologist Georg Simmel has explained it: Throughout the history of economics the stranger everywhere appears as the trader, or the trader as stranger. As long as economy is essentially self-​sufficient, or products are exchanged within a spatially narrow group, it needs no middleman: a trader is only required for products that originate outside the group. Insofar as members do not leave the circle in order to buy these necessities—​in which case they are the “strange” merchants in that outside territory—​the trader must be a stranger, since nobody else has a chance to make a living.19

These functions were bureaucratically controlled: Jews were contractually allowed to work as bankers, merchants, and artisans and were protected by the Gonzaga rulers, who levied a tax in exchange. Whereas the Beede [tax] paid by the Christian citizen changed with the changes of his fortune, it was fixed once and for all for every single Jew. This fixity rested on the fact that the Jew had his social position as a Jew, not as the individual bearer of certain objective contents. Every other citizen was the owner of a particular amount of property, and his tax followed its fluctuations. But the Jew as a taxpayer was, in the first place, a Jew, and thus his tax situation had an invariable element. This same position appears most strongly, of course, once even these individual characterizations (limited though they were by rigid invariance) are omitted, and all strangers pay an altogether equal head tax.20

and continues in Italian, with specific clauses about what goods the Jews could trade. It is dated to the period of Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga’s regency for Francesco III Gonzaga, the eventual duke of Mantua. Cardinal Ercole was known for being favorable to the Jews during his twenty-​year regency. Edict of Toleration of Jews (tolerauorint mi hac Civitate, et dominio Mantua Hebreos, October 28, 1540, B3389, C8 (the designations are B for busta (file) and C for cartella (folder)), Archivio Gonzaga, Archivio di Stato, Mantova (Gonzaga Archives, State Archives of Mantua; hereafter AG, ASMn). 17 Katz, The Jew in the Art, 4.

18 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 104. In fact, the Edict of Toleration noted above allows Jews “to be able to buy outside of the city and its dominions woolen cloths, be they garments used for various things or those made of foreign cloth, men’s garments as well as women garments, and to be able to have and sell these freely, without any impediment in the city and her dominions” (Possano comprar fuori dell città, et dominio prefato ni qualunq, luogo panni di lana, cioè vesti usate d’ogni sorte anchor che fassero di panno forastiero cosi da huomo come da donna, et quelli tener, et vender liberamente senza aluno impedimento in la città et Dominio prenotata). Edict of Toleration of Jews, October 28, 1540. The fact that Jews may have been able to bring in exotic foreign garments may explain why the mise-​en-​scènes they created in their performances were noted as being distinctive. 19 Georg Simmel, in The Sociology of Georg Simmel, trans. Kurt Wolff (New York: Free, 1950), 402–​8. 20 Simmel in Kurt Wolff, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 3.

12

12 Introduction Thereby, the Jew paid a tax that was not changeable but fixed: it had the effect of branding the Jew based on his identity rather than in relation to the service he provided. It was a social tax that held economic benefits for society. In exchange for the tax, the Jew was allowed to live and find protection and undertake services that he alone was able to provide (principally moneylending and buying and selling second-​hand clothing and rags). As we will see, performance also functioned as a social tax connected to the Jewish tax and became fixed for the 130 years of its continuous existence. The taxation of Jews in Mantua underwent three phases: before 1481, the rulers gave charters to individuals; this changed in the second part of the fifteenth century, when the contracts began to cover larger groups of bankers and merchants.21 By the third phase, in 1511 and thereafter, the community was organized as a “Università,” or officially, the Università degli Ebrei (the community of Jews), or the corporation or guild of Jews who lived in Mantua and in the region of the Mantovano; as a corporate unit, the Jews received charters permitting them to live in the region and undertake various businesses.22 Simonsohn translates the term “Università” in Italian as “University” but explains that it means a community that was similar to a guild: “The term ‘university of the Jews’ did not come into use by chance, and it reflects the special character of Jewish communal organization in Italy in this period. The name ‘university’ is given to the Christian merchants’ and artisans’ guilds, that is to say the corporate bodies of Christian society.”23 As I argue in my co-​written essay with Seeta Chaganti and Noah Ghuynn, the Università made it possible for the Jews to take up their community’s interests by constituting themselves as a corporate body with negotiating power much bigger than individual members could have. Thereby, the Jews were also making use of existent Christian structures, such as guilds, upon which to model the Università.24 The result was a large degree of autonomy for working out business within the Università, making it possible for the Jews to lead themselves. In order to accomplish this, the Jews appointed three leaders, two among the Italiani and one among the Ashkenazim, known as massari.25 The word massaro was commonly used for the leaders of the community, and its derivation leaves open a number of possibilities, ranging from money to estate management.26 The massari were among the most respected and wealthy members of 21 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 104.

22 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 104, 322. 23 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 322.

24 Seeta Chaganti, Noah Guynn, and Erith Jaffe-​Berg, “Institutional Frameworks,” in A Cultural History of Theatre in the Middle Ages, ed. Jody Enders (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), 27. 25 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 500. This was decided in the second half of the sixteenth century.

26 It could be that the word massaro derived from the word meaning money in Levantine Arabic. It is equally possible that it came from another direction, as an archaic form of the Italian word massaio (which means estate manager), a term used largely to indicate someone who presides over the administration and cultivation of an estate. In “Treccani, La Cultura Italiana” www.trecc​ ani.it/​voca​bola​rio/​mass​aro/​it says: “nel linguaggio degli storici, il coltivatore del manso, divisione agrarian medieval, che prestava la sua opera in condizione libera o servo, e che, in età comunale,

13

Introduction

13

the community, and there were sometimes massari who were appointed for valued tasks, as was the case when a massaro or group of massari were appointed to take charge of the play productions (commedie). The families that were best known in Mantua included many who would eventually emerge in the documents relevant for theatre; these were the Norsa family (bankers, rabbis and scholars); the Portaleone family (physicians, scholars); the Finzi (bankers, scholars and rabbis); the De’ Rossi (merchants, artists, scholars); and the Basilea (rabbis), among several others.27 In addition to appointed leaders, the community as a whole had to receive permission in the form of a “toleration” allowing them, as a community of Jews, to live in Christian lands. For the entire Università, be it in Mantua or elsewhere, charters, known as condotte (in Venice and Milan) and pragmatiche (in Mantua) were written granting the Jews privileges and protection and defining the terms under which they could conduct business, and also what they could wear, how they would socialize, and generally how they would conduct their lives (see Figure 3).28 Many of these rules governing business and dress were true for Christians as well, but Jews came under particular scrutiny and were especially vulnerable to the whims of the rulers. Jews made a living as bankers, merchants (including the lucrative silk trade), book publishers, artisans and sellers of second-​hand clothing and rags, known in Italian as strazzaria.29 Earlier, in Mantua in the late 1400s, Jews engaged in the textile trade to such a degree that Christian merchants complained, and by the late 1500s Jews were restricted to the strazzaria, selling mostly second-​hand clothing.30 However, it must be pointed out, and this will be increasingly important as we consider cultural differentiation within the Jewish community, it was mainly the Ashkenazim (Eastern European or German Jews known as Tedeschi) and the Italiani (Italian Jews who could trace their background to Italy from the period of 70 AD) rather than the Sepharadim (Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula, migrating either from Spain or Portugal) who engaged in selling the strazzaria. The Sephardic and the Levantine Jews (who arrived from the Eastern Mediterranean, including the Levant, Middle East and the Ottoman region, including Turkey and the Balkans) had more fu via via sostituito dal mezzadro, o dal piccolo affittuario.” massaro or massaio is derived from the Latin mansionarius, then mansiarius and massarius. It refers to the massa, where a peasant was responsible for … “deriva dal latino mansionarius, poi mansiarius e massarius. Si referisce alla massa (o mansa) o mansus.” “Un contadino responsabile di un maso ossa un fattore e di quanto connesso a tale attività.” “Nel Basso Medioevo, nell’età communale, massaro era il titolo che assimeva il titolare della gestione delle financze di un commune.” 27 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 518–​19.

28 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 104. On the condotta see Moses Avigdor Shulvass, The Jews in the World of the Renaissance (Leiden: Brill, 1973), 122–​27.

29 For information on Jews and printing, see Paul F. Grendler, The University of Mantua, the Gonzaga, and the Jesuits, 1584–​1630 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 6; and David Amram, The Makers of Hebrew Books in Italy (1963; rpt. London: Holland, 1988), 32, 322–​24. On the strazzaria, see Shulvass, The Jews in the World of the Renaissance, 129. 30 Shulvass, The Jews in the World of the Renaissance, 136–​38.

14

14 Introduction

Figure 3. Image of Pragmatica, self-​regulation document, printed in Hebrew and kept at the Jewish Community Archives, Mantua (ADCEM). (Image taken by author.)

15

Introduction

15

money, liquid assets, and mercantile experience, and they engaged in trade.31 However, very few of the Sephardic or Levantine Jews settled in Mantua.32 In the early sixteenth century, the community of Jews in Mantua numbered about 150 or 200 out of a population of 32,000.33 A hundred more Jews were living in the area surrounding Mantua known as the Mantovano, the “domains” of Mantua, which included Sabbioneta, Bozzolo, Castiglione delle Stiviere Solferino, Castel Goffredo, Guastalla, Novellara, and Luzzara. In the mid-​sixteenth century, an influx of Jewish refugees expelled from the Papal States, Milan and other parts of Europe swelled the population and changed its composition. By 1587, there were 1,591 Jews out of a total population of 50,000, with another 253 Jews living in the region of the Mantovano.34 Interestingly, this population growth occurred during the Counter-​Reformation, a period marked by the successive sessions of the Council of Trent (1545–​1563), which resulted in increasingly stringent laws of surveillance of the Jews. This was also a period of waves of expulsion from other places: notably, the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily in 1492; the Kingdom of Naples in 1541; the Papal States (except Rome and Ancona, where they were allowed to continue to live) in 1569; and the Duchy of Milan in 1597. The period was also marked by the creation of ghettos, in cities such as Rome (1555), Florence (1571), Siena (1571), Verona (1602), Padua (1603), Ferrara (1624), and Pesaro (1634). Historians such as Amnon Raz-​Krakotzkin have argued that the Counter-​Reformation period not only occasioned the censoring of Jewish texts, but also became a basis for maintaining a dialogue between Jews and Christian Hebraists, and therefore was a period of strong degrees of contact between the communities. From the Jewish perspective, Bonfil has emphasized that for Jews this was a period in which they came into increased contact with the Christian “other,” a situation that both led to Jewish self-​awareness and comparison with the Christian and, ultimately, served as a catalyst for self-​definition.35 Katz further differentiates the “vulnerability of tolerance policies” towards the Jews in the state of Milan as compared with Mantua, Urbino and 31 Shulvass, The Jews in the World of the Renaissance, 138. 32 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 500–​501.

33 Grendler, The University of Mantua, 6. Also, Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction,” 7–​23. Beecher and Ciavolella’s source for the figure of 200 for the Jewish population is Salo Wittmayer Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews: Late Middle Ages and the Era of European Expansion, 1200–​ 1600 (Columbia: Columbia University Press, 1937. Second rpt., 1970), 87. 34 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction,” 12–​13; Grendler, The University of Mantua, 6. Susan Parisi notes that by the late sixteenth century the Jewish Community of Mantua numbered as many as 2,300 people. Susan Parisi, “The Jewish Community and Carnival Entertainment at the Mantuan Court in the Early Baroque,” in Music in Renaissance cities and Courts: Studies in Honor of Lewis Lockwood, ed. Lewis Lockwood, Jessie Ann Owens, and Anthony M. Cummings (Warren: Harmonie Park, 1997), 293–​305, at 296. 35 Bonfil, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy, 6. For example, in his Comedy of Betrothal, de’ Sommi superimposed the typical Renaissance comedy of marriage on Jewish characters. The play exemplifies Bonfil’s notion of the mirroring of Christian ideas in a Jewish context, in this case Christian ideas about love.

16

16 Introduction Ferrara, where “tolerance prevailed.”36 A similar dynamic was at work in the case of theatre performance, even when it contained a coercive dimension. As I have discussed elsewhere, productions meant that there was continuous contact between the Jewish and Christian communities, whether it be over the negotiations over the terms of performance and payments or over the content of the productions.37 Simonsohn, too, emphasizes that while the Church prohibited contact between Christians and Jews, that held for the general population but did not necessarily hold for the nobility or the courts.38 “Close cultural and social contact between the Gonzaga rulers and the Jews is one side of the many-​faceted character of the Marquises and Dukes, whose Christian piety did not restrict their secular tendencies in the cultural field.”39

Marks, Surveillance, and Ghettoization of Jews in Early Modern Italy

Recent acts in the US and elsewhere serve as a recurrent reminder of the vulnerability of underrepresented, minority populations who are often visibly marked by their difference (either by racial identification or by their clothing). The Middle Ages and Renaissance were an earlier iteration of exposure to “others,” and the exchanges these occasioned created an anxiety resulting in increased demands that “others” be demarcated through apparel. The early modern struggle to tolerate was thereby challenged by the need to control and surveil in order to harness the fear of the “other.” While the laws that emerged did not always reflect only on Jews, and Muslims (predominantly Ottoman Turks) eventually came to be separated through the mechanism of the Ghetto (which was created for Jews), for historic and religious reasons, Jews were an early group that experiences this control by Christian rulers. Geraldine Heng has compellingly argued for “inserting premodernity into the conversations on race” and considering how Jews, among many others, were racialized much earlier than modernity. She considers how as early as the thirteenth century, the Church, closely followed by the English state, as an example, monitored and ruled over the Jews with an ever-​growing apparatus of statutes, ordinances and degrees, including licenses and permissions allowing the Jews to live and reside in particular regions.40 In answer to the question of why call something race rather than “difference” or “other” Heng responds: The short answer is that the use of the term race continues to bear witness to important strategic, epistemological, and political commitments not adequately served by the

36 Katz, The Jew in the Art, 5.

37 See Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange” and also Commedia dell’arte and the Mediterranean: Charting Journeys and Mapping ‘Others’ (Farnham: Ashgate), 121–​44. 38 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 526. 39 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 526.

40 Geraldine Heng, The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 29.

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Introduction

17

invocation of categories of greater generality (such as otherness or difference) or greater benignity in our understanding of human culture and society.41

Heng’s ideas about racializing the Jews are applicable to the steps taken by the Papacy and enacted throughout Europe. In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council (convened by Pope Innocent III) set out to regulate the terms under which Jews could live in Catholic Europe, stipulating that Jews were to be “distinguishable from the rest of the populations by the nature of their clothes.”42 Separation was deemed necessary because Jews and Christians were often physically similar in appearance; if Jews were not branded as different, there was the fear that Jews would consort with Christians. Diane Owen Hughes has studied the ways in which the distinguishing marks of jewelry, especially the earrings worn by Jewish women, gave way to clothing as a good way for marking Jews.43 Benjamin Ravid has charted the changes in the clothing that evolved in Venice, from a Jewish badge or an “O” to more visible hats in yellow or red. [T]‌he Senate legislation of 1394 required all Jews in Venice after 1397 to wear on their exterior clothing over their chest “a clearly visible yellow circle the size of a loaf (or roll) of bread costing four denarii (unum O zallum quantitates unius panis quttuor denariorum quod sit bene apparens), subject to a penalty of twenty-​five lire for every violation.”44

As elsewhere during the Middle Ages, in Venice, this color was to be yellow, the same color used to mark prostitutes. By the first half of the fifteenth century, the Italian states had adopted the yellow O, known in Italian as “lo O.”45 Wearing the sign was likened to a branding and a near-​invitation to commit acts of violence on its wearer. Therefore, Jews tried to shirk wearing it or to make it less visible, by changing the materials, size, or placement of the sign. Regulators soon realized this and imposed stricter laws about the size or composition of the sign, such as requiring them to be made of “yellow braided rope a finger in width” (de una cordella zalla lata un digito). Eventually, they determined that a more visible marking would be a yellow head covering, such as a hat (baretta) that would be immediately visible on the wearer.46 If Jews did not obey, they would be fined and possibly jailed. Outside of the parameters of a given state, the Jews were sometimes allowed not to wear the sign, but only with the express permission of the authorities, be they the Venetian Council of Ten or the Dukes and rulers of the various states and principalities of 41 Heng, The Invention of Race, 4.

42 Benjamin Ravid, “From Yellow to Red: On the Distinguishing Head-​Covering of the Jews of Venice,” in Studies on the Jews of Venice, 1382–​1797, ed. Benjamin Ravid (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), 179. 43 Hughes, “Distinguishing Signs.”

44 Ravid, “From Yellow to Red,” 182.

45 Flora Cassen. Marking the Jews in Renaissance Italy: Politics, Religion, and the Power of Symbols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 36. 46 Ravid, “From Yellow to Red,” 182–​83.

18

18 Introduction Northern Italy.47 This was done for the Jews’ own safety because they would be especially vulnerable if they were identified as Jews. In such cases, they would be harassed and sometimes harmed or even killed. It was therefore considered a great relief for Jews to be permitted not to wear the sign outside of their city-​states. This type of permission could only be granted by rulers, and was especially important for merchants and doctors, who often had to travel from state to state for their work. Jewish movements were similarly restricted and surveilled, and Jews were required to have permission papers that functioned similarly to early modern travel documents or passports, permitting them to travel from one state to another. Interestingly, this is similar to the terms under which professional actors were monitored and controlled in their travels. These developments became even more regulated with the development of print. In the early modern period, “passports” were among many other mechanisms (including the badge, and eventually the spatial segmentation of populations in the Ghetto) that identified Jews as “others.” This may now seem self-​evident, but individual identification has not always been a prerequisite to the existence or efficacy of bureaucratic activities. Taxation and conscription can be imposed on a community as collective obligations, for example, and even judicial processes that may seem to depend crucially on identifying a particular individual have in the past been resolved by communal procedures such as compurgation (group oath) or collective fines.48

Scholars point to the fact that impositions of taxation and conscription are facilitated in a culture in which everything can be written down. And, in the European context, this process begins in the Middle Ages. “In Europe, the proximate origins of this culture of written records lie in the early medieval transition from oral to written procedures, prompted initially by royal interest in the reliable documentation of property ownership and legal processes.”49 Eventually, the development of the modern state meant that individuals were increasingly encoded into registrar books, as part of the transition from oral to written surveillance.50 We can see this in the case of Mantua, where the volume of documentation of the movements of all peoples, including the Jews, increases after 1510.51 Nomadic populations, such as the Roma and the Jews, who were often compelled to move from place to place, experienced special difficulty during this time 47 Ravid, “From Yellow to Red,” 183.

48 Jane Caplan and John Torpey (ed.), “Introduction,” in Documenting Individual Identity: The Development of State Practices in the Modern World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 1. 49 Caplan and Torpey, “Introduction,” 2.

50 Valentin Groebner, “Describing the Person,” in Reading the Signs in Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe: Identity Papers, Vested Figures, and the Limits of Identification, 1400–​1600, ed. Jane Caplan and John Torpey (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 15–​16. 51 Valentin Groebner, “Describing the Person,” 20. Groebner also discusses the increased number of “passports” or “Laissez-​passer” travel documents in Northern Italy, Spain and France from the second half of the 1400s to the 1500s.

19

Introduction

19

because of these documents, and were especially vulnerable to this type of surveillance by the state.52 Spatial separation of Jews and the Christians was another component of the surveilling and monitoring of minority communities. While ghettoization took place at various times, even before ghettoization was mandated, Jews tended to live in a concentrated area, near other Jewish people, often in proximity to their synagogue.53 In 1516 the Venetian state created the first Ghetto, with gates and guards and a very explicit mechanism of surveilling the Jews, who were to remain inside from the ringing of the Marangona bells in the morning, announcing the beginning of the work day, to the evening bells, which were rung at sundown at night. In darkness, Jews had to be confined to the Ghetto, thereby making it less likely that women and men from the different groups would share intimacy. In Mantua ghettoization happened a century later, in 1612. However, even ghettoization was not insulating, as Dana Katz, Lynn Westwater, and others have shown.54 During the day, Jews were free to leave the Ghetto, and Christians could come in to do commerce and even participate in cultural exchanges, as was the case with Christian Hebraists who frequented the Ghetto in order to come into contact with Jewish books, publishers, and, in one instance, a literary salon. Furthermore, the soundscape of prayer, rejoicing during festivals, and speech could not be hermetically sealed in. Ghetto walls could not filter out Jewish soundscapes any more than they could prevent the Christian sounds of church bells, processions, and festivities from pouring into the Ghetto. In studies centered on different cultural contexts, scholars Elissa Weaver, Emily Wilbourne, and Claire Sponsler make the point about the impossibility of culturally insolating soundscapes. Wilbourne bears this out in her study of the Baroque plays of Giovanni Andreini, which reflected so much on Jewish culture. As Wilbourne puts it with reference to Andreini’s play, “Lo Schiavetto evinces a familiarity with Jewish culture even as it mocks unflattering ‘Jewish’ stereotypes.”55 Weaver emphasizes the permeability even of convent walls, and Sponsler studies the ways walking processions and parading in the public space create thresholds of inclusion and exclusion for the intended audience as well as for those who happen to be present during the parades.56 52 Groebner, “Describing the Person,” 19. Also, see John Torpey, The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship and the State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). 53 Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (Cleveland: Meridian, 1958. Rpt. 1961), 62.

54 Dana E. Katz, The Jewish Ghetto and the Visual Imagination of Early Modern Venice (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017) and also Lynn Lara Westwater, Sarra Copia Sulam: A Jewish Salloniere and the Press in Counter-​Reformation Venice (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020), 5–​7. 55 Wilbourne, “Lo Schiavetto,” 12.

56 See Wilbourne, “Lo Schiavetto”; Elissa Weaver, Convent Theatre in Early Modern Italy: Spiritual Fun and Learning for Women (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); Claire Sponsler, “Circulation: A Peripatetic Theatre,” in A Cultural History of Theatre in the Middle Ages, ed. Jody Enders (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), 105–​22, especially 108. Also, Claire Sponsler’s “The Culture of the Spectator: Conformity and Resistance to Medieval Performances,” Theatre Journal 44.1 (1992): 15–​29.

20

20 Introduction

Derisive Representation of Jews in Carnival Performance While this book focuses on the generally positive self-​representations of the Jews in theatre, elsewhere I have explored the ways in which a more sinister representation took hold “after the laughter dies down.”57 There were other ways in which Jews were forced to “perform,” and these were not only negative but also dangerous. Salient among these was the giudiata (play of the Jews) performed during the period of Carnival and developed in Rome. The giudiata represented the very derisive and violent end of the spectrum of representation.58 The giudiata often imitated Jewish wedding and funeral rituals.59 “[A]‌t times these giudìate went well beyond mere comic intent and were used to mock the Jews and, sometimes, to provoke the populace against them.”60 Still more horrific, in Rome, up until 1443, it was customary to roll one of the older members of the Jewish community down from the hills surrounding Rome in a barrel full of sharp nails. The man would generally be dead or dying by the time his body arrived at the city. This ritual was replaced with forced payments toward Carnival celebrations that the Jewish community would have to provide.61 In 1466 Pope Paul II created a footrace as part of the Roman Carnival celebrations. Jews had to wear red clothes and run in competition.62 In later years, the races would be more dangerous and degrading, and the Jews would be forced to run naked or to run with animals.63 While these were extreme types of performance that also served as punishment and torture, they did exist in the years under consideration in this book. They make the tradition in Mantua all the more astonishing and distinctive. Slightly less extreme but no less derisive were the religious dramas (sacre rappresentazioni) in which Jewish pawnbrokers and moneylenders were often depicted in negative ways. Pietro Decorno has recently shown how five different Florentine sacre rappresentazioni negatively depicted Jews and conversos in ways meant to encourage reformed behavior within Christian society.64 These highly negative performances 57 See Jaffe-​Berg, Commedia dell’arte and the Mediterranean, 97–​119.

58 For more on the giudiate, see Cecil Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1959) and Kenneth Stow, Theater of Acculturation: The Roman Ghetto in the Sixteenth Century (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001), 94–​95. 59 The Jews did not necessarily perform in the giudiate.

60 Lynn M. Gunzberg, Strangers at Home: Jews in the Italian Literary Imagination (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 94.

61 Elio Toaff, “Il Carnevale di Roma e gli Ebrei,” in Scritti in Memoria di Sally Mayer (1975–​ 1953): Saggi sull’ Ebraismo Italiano (Sepher Zikaron le shlomo S. Mayer: Kovetz le Toledot Yehudei Italia) (bilingual edition) (Jerusalem and Milan: Fondazione Sally Mayer, 1956), 325–​44. 62 Laurie Nussdorfer, “The Politics of Space in Early Modern Rome,” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 42 (1997): 161–​86, at 171.

63 Toaf, “Il Carnevale di Roma,” 231; “Carnival,” Jewish Encyclopedia, www.jew​ishe​ncyc​lope​dia. com/​artic​les/​4057-​carni​val. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 656.

64 Pietro Delcorno, “ ‘E i miei denari che prestai a usura’ Banchi di pegno ed etica economica nel teatro Fiorentino del secondo Quattrocento” (‘And the Money That I Have Lent in Usury?’ Banks,

21

Introduction

21

in parts of the Italian Peninsula happened at the same time as the Jewish community experienced a period of flourishing in other areas. Print culture, for example, was rapidly developing within the Jewish communities, and in some cases, Italian cities lead the way in important publications of Jewish works.

Literary and Textual Presentations of and by the Jews

Mantua has an important place in the world of Jewish printing. The Zohar, a chief kabbalist text, was first printed in Mantua (1558–​1560) and later in Cremona (1559–​ 1560), where as many as 800 copies were printed, and Bonfil infers that a similar number were printed in Mantua.65 In the developing new print media, as with performance, the depiction of Jews and Jewish self-​representation were high. Literary tradition had depicted the Jew as an “object of derision” as far back as Franco Sacchetti’s fourteenth century novella, and in the work of Aretino, principally La Cortigiana (the courtesan) and Il Marescalco (The Smith).66 Pietro Bertelli’s Diversarum nationum habitus (Padua 1594–​1596) has an engraving of Jewish masks, either those to be worn by Christians during Carnival or those of Jews performing in masks. These are examples of very stereotypically exaggerated and derisive views of Jews. They stand in contrast to the ways in which Jews depicted themselves in dramatic works and on stage. Pietro Aretino’s Il Marescalco (1533) presents a Jewish peddler in Act III. Aretino capitalizes on the Jew as a stock character who, like the Gypsy, was a street seller or peddler, a common occupation that both Jews and the Roma people took on. Aretino’s characterizations “drew on common assumptions that street sellers such as Jews and Gypsies were dangerous outsiders who used their charms and the enticements of their calls to gain entry into the home.”67 Once in the Christian home, the suggestion was that all bets were off in terms of the danger that the Jew posed to the Christian. As opposed to these depictions of Jews by Christians, Jewish self-​representation was markedly different. Jewish writing of plays became more prevalent in the early modern period and resulted in Jewish contribution to the larger corpus of dramatic texts; it begins quite early. “Jewish culture assumed a complex and nonlinear relationship Pawnshops and Economic Ethics in the Florentine Theatre of the Late Fifteenth Century’), Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia 1 (2018): 51–​94. 65 Bonfil, “A Cultural Profile,” 181–​82.

66 Gunzberg, Strangers at Home, 93. The stories of Sacchetti’s Novelle themselves can be accessed online through Tales from Sacchetti, which holds the tale about a Jew who makes a deceptive amulet, Franco Sacchetti, Novelle (Tales from Sacchetti), trans. from the Italian by Mary F. Steegman (London: Dent, 1908), 276. 67 Evelyn S. Welch, Shopping in the Renaissance: Consumer Cultures in Italy 1400–​1600 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), 41.

22

22 Introduction with the surrounding non-​Jewish environment, one that exercised a steering force and mirroring function upon the definition of Jewish self-​perception.”68 Joseph ben Samuele Tsarfati (who died in Rome around 1527) translated Fernando de Rojas’ Spanish Tragicomedy La Celestina (published 1499) into Hebrew in 1507.69 De Rojas was a descendent of conversos, and La Celestina, written in dialogue, is considered both a novel and a drama. While the Hebrew translation no longer exists, we do retain the opening poem. Historically, Tsarfati’s translation marks the first publication of a play in Hebrew in the early modern period.70 Taken together with a few known performances that took place in Pesaro, and to which I devote the opening of the next chapter, we can surmise that Tsarfati’s translation reflects a growing interest among Jewish communities in theatre-​ and performance-​making by the end of the fifteenth century. We do not know if Tsarfati’s translation of Celestina meant that the Jews performed the play, but it is possible that they did. For a long time, it was wrongly thought that the first known play in Hebrew was written by Mošèh Zacuto. In fact, Zacuto had been considered the “father of theatre in Hebrew.”71 However, Zacuto was working in the seventeenth century. Nearly a decade before him, Leone de’ Sommi had been writing plays, including a play in Hebrew titled Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin (a comedy about marriage). The third chapter will be dedicated in its entirely to a consideration of De’ Sommi’s many works, including this one.

Jewish Cultural Institutions

The majority of Jews in Mantua were either Ashkenazi or Italiani, and there were few Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. This impacted the cohesiveness of the community as a whole as well as internal allegiances within it. Since Mantua’s trade was mostly oriented toward the Empire and the Italian mainland, rather than toward the Mediterranean harbors, the city attracted fewer Levantine and Ponentine (Spanish or Portuguese) settlers. The Jewish majority, consisting of Ashkenazi Jews, may also have had less sympathy for the New Christians, who were new immigrants and whose orthodoxy and 68 Bonfil, “A Cultural Profile,” 171.

69 See the dissertation on Tsarfati and Rojas in Shon David Hopkin, Joseph ben Samuel Tsarfati and Fernando de Rojas: Celestina and the World of the Go-​Between (PhD Dissertation presented to the University of Texas at Austin in 2011).

70 Jeffim Schirmann, Studies in the History of Hebrew Poetry and Drama Poetry and Drama Jerusalem (Le-​toledot hashirah ve ahdrama haivrit: mechkarim ve masot.) vol. 2 (Mossad Bialk, 1946, republished, 1979), 48.

71 “Before the discover of Sahùt bedihutà de-​qiddušìn (a brilliant farce about betrothals) by the Mantuan writer Leone de’ Sommi (ca. 1525–​1592), Zacuto was long considered the father of theatre in Hebrew.” (Fina alla scoperta della Sahùt bedihutà de-​qiddušìn (Farsa brillante sulle nozze) del mantovano Leone de’ Sommi (ca. 1525–​1592), Zacuto fu a lungo considerate il padre del teatro in lingua ebraica.” Mošèh Zacuto, L’Inferno allestito: Poema di un rabbino del Seicento sull’oltretomba dei malvagi, trans. Michela Andreatta (Milan: Bompiani, 2016), 21.

23

Introduction

23

rabbinic learning it held, not unjustifiably, in rather low esteem now, several generations after the Iberian expulsions.72 While the Holy See did maintain an office in the city from as early as the thirteenth century, there was relatively less difficulty for Jews in Mantua with the Inquisition.73 Part of that was due to the Gonzagas who, for a variety of reasons, protected the Jews from the Inquisitorial pressures they experienced elsewhere. Ercole Gonzaga had friendly relations with Jewish leaders during the period of the Council of Trent, and because of this, the printing of the Kabbalist text of the Zohar was allowed in 1558.74 For these reasons, Mantua was culturally a very safe place for Jews and one inclined toward Ashkenazi and Italiani culture. These factors were to influence the ways in which theatre-​making emerged and insulated Mantua, for a time, from criticism that Sephardic Rabbis leveled at theatre. This is a topic I will return to in the final chapter of this book. In addition to the Università organization under the leadership of the massari, there were other organizations in the Mantuan Jewish world. These included funds and charitable organizations, the oldest of which was the Gemiluth Hasadim (for the burial of the dead and maintenance of the cemetery) society, which evolved from the “Gemiluth Hasadim Fund” established in the beginning of the sixteenth century.75 These many organizations may have influenced the ways in which the Jews organized themselves into groups in order to produce plays and may even have served as models for theatrical companies. By the early seventeenth century, there were a number of charitable organizations or funds including the Hevrath Rahamim (literally, the compassionate society), which derived from Gemiluth Hasadim and shared some of its functions.76 Also in existence were Kupath Holim (for the sick), Talmud Torah (for the study of Torah and communal schools), Pidyon Shevuyim (for the ransoming of prisoners), Zedaka Umathan Basether (charity funds with anonymous giving), Aniye Eretz-​Israel (the poor of the Land of Israel), Lehassi Bethuloth (providing funds for marrying maidens who had no dowries), Parnasath Aniyim (maintenance of the poor) and Sechiruth Habatim (this appears to have been a fund instituted to help people in need to find and pay for a house to rent in the Ghetto, which was overcrowded).77 Clearly, the amount of groups and funds had grown by the 1600s, reflecting a mounting need among members of the community, and possibly the influx of the needy from elsewhere.78 72 Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews, 130.

73 Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews, 129–​30.

74 Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews, 130. 75 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 550.

76 In understanding how these societies and funds functioned, I thank Michela Andreatta with whom I consulted in addition to Simonsohn’s text.

77 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 551n132, 553. Simonsohn points out that some of these were societies and others were funds. 78 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 551.

24

24 Introduction By the mid-​seventeenth century, the War of Mantuan Succession (1628–​1621) as well as the Thirty Years’ War (1618–​1648) had exacerbated the needs of the community further, and the number of places in Europe where Jews could find themselves protection and secure living had diminished greatly. In the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, a new type of society (other than simply one focused on charity) emerged. This type of society would have had a more social and intellectual, spiritual and cultural nature, and not just one serving basic needs. As Michela Andreatta has emphasized, in the later seventeenth century a number of special devotional and penitential groups emerged in Mantua and other parts of Italy. These groups, known as confraternities, met in synagogues and other spaces, and hosted “special rites, like wakes dedicated to the study of traditional texts and to prayer” which included lamentations and prayers said aloud.79 Notable among this type of society was the “Shomrim Laboker” (Guardians of the Dawn), a penitential society dedicated to praying.80 It is interesting to consider the emergence of these spiritually-​based societies in relation to theatrical activities in Mantua. In some ways, the creative and expressive needs of the community, which had found an outlet in the dramatic and theatrical activities in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, found a different outlet in these spiritually-​oriented confraternities later in the seventeenth and in the early eighteenth centuries.

Communal Celebrations and Space

Jewish communal celebrations, including the marking of holy days and the celebrations of weddings, were common and often boisterous occasions. For the Ashkenazi component of the population of Mantuan Jews, cultural activities were based in traditions established in Germanic lands and in central Europe during the Middle Ages. Because private dwellings were small there, celebrations required the use of different spaces. For example, in the German context, weddings and other Jewish celebrations often involved a banqueting hall that served as a communal space where festivities could be celebrated by a large crowd.81 It may be that the German dance hall or tanzhaus (dance hall) that had been common in the Germanic lands provided a model for what later evolved, in the Italian Ashkenazi communities, into the space that could be used for performances.82 This model could have influenced the conceptualization of such a space 79 “Sinagoghe e oratori private cominciarono a ospitare speciali riti, come veglie dedicate allo studio tudio dei testi tradizionali e alla preghiera, generalmente per iniziativa di gruppi organizzati in forma di confraternite.” Michela Andreatta, “Introduzione,” L’Inferno allestito: Poema di un rabbino del Seicento sull’oltretomba dei malvagi, trans. and notes Michela Andreatta (Milan: Bompiani, 2016), 75. Also, Michela Andreatta, “Piety on Stage: Popular Drama and the Public Life of Early Modern Jewish Confraternities,” Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies 6.2 (2020): 31–​52. 80 See Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 553 and also Andreatta, “Introduzione,” 75. 81 Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, 74.

82 See “Dance,” in the Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion, 198. “In medieval Germany, the Tanzhaus or community house was built because of the need for the whole community to dance

25

Introduction

25

by Leone de’ Sommi. While use of such spaces was common among the Ashkenazim, that was not the case with the Italiani or Sepharadim, where the custom of having a tanzhaus was not in evidence. The tanzhaus became very popular, and soon spread throughout France and Germany where most of the ghettos had their dancing-​halls. In Spain and the Ottoman Empire, where Jewish homes were larger, entertainments could be held in private homes.83 In Mantua, with its large group of Ashkenazim and smaller Sepharadi presence, the need for a public space for entertainment must have been more palpable for the less wealthy community members. While the size of the celebrations was carefully regulated by the Pragmaticas issued by the Dukes, concessions were made for the mitzvetanz (blessing dance) that was danced by the Ashkenazi Jews at weddings, so long as the dancing was restricted to women and men dancing separately.84 The Jewish Community Archives still hold a copy of this ordinance of prohibitions. In it, the dance is referred to in Judeo-​Italian as ‫( פיסטה‬festa or party in Italian) and mentions that is often celebrated late in the evening, in Motz’ei Shabbat, or right after the Shabbat has ended (when the sky is dark and at least three stars are visible in the night’s sky).85 The mitzvetanz or mitzvah tanzes were a genre of wedding dances that became especially pronounced later in the Hasidic communities.86 It is not clear in Mantua if the performances by the Jews were held in a tanzhaus or if they were mainly held in the synagogue. Although the sanctified space of the synagogue may seem inappropriate for theatrical activities, since plays were prepared during the holiday of Purim, the exceptional holiday explains the usage of this space. If performances did take place in the synagogues, then there were ample possible performance spaces, since Mantua had various synagogues. In 1595, for example, there were at least four, two of which used the Italiani prayer rite and two the Ashkenazi rite.87 By the seventeenth century there were nine synagogues in the Jewish Ghetto, with one large Italiani synagogue known as the Great Synagogue and another was known as the Norsa Synagogue.88 In addition to the holiday of Purim, which was traditionally raucous and called for drinking and merrymaking, there were a number of other occasions that would have at weddings …. Later, the badhan or jokester led the mitzvah tanzes, a genre of wedding dances developed especially in the Hasidic communities.” 83 Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, 75–​76. 84 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 536.

85 Archivi della communita ebraica a Mantova (Jewish Community Archives; hereafter ADCEM), Mantua, Italy (not a digitized copy; please see note in the bibliography), from 1644, numbered 27 and found in Box 28 collecting materials from the years 1643–​1646. The document is noted as being by Yehoshua. 86 See “Dance,” in the Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion, 198.

87 Shifra Baruchson-​Arbib, La Culture Livresque des Juifs d’Italie à la Fin de la Renaissance, trans. from Hebrew by Gabriel Roth (Paris: CNRS, 2001), 225–​30. 88 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 27, 55, and 60.

26

26 Introduction required larger spaces.89 I have already mentioned weddings, and to that we should add the custom of the veglia (also written as viglia or vigilia) celebration on the night before a circumcision; it appears this could get very large in terms of the number of attendees and at one point had to be limited to only twelve attendees.90 The veglia emerged in the Middle Ages “as a night of largely profane festivity in which women, too, played a prominent (and in some cases dominant) role. During the seventeenth century, the pre-​circumcision vigil began to take on a more sober and sacred character, and also became an increasingly masculine affair.”91 Added to these celebrations were the bar-​mitzvah feasts for boys who traditionally became men and read from the Torah beginning at age 13.92

The Role of Women93

The question of women and cultural production in the Mantuan world is relevant if we accept that along with the many documented “players” who were part of the theatre-​ making enterprise that the community undertook, there were some who were doubly “shadowed” and can be considered part of a shadow institution of theatre-​making. Women had multiple functions in Jewish businesses at the time throughout Italy. In some cases, women had permission to be members of the confraternities in Rome, Ferrara, and elsewhere.94 On the other hand, they were often explicitly forbidden from attending theatre events, as we shall see. Female butchers, book publishers, and even merchants were possible occupations for the wives and widows of men who had held these positions.95 But those roles could easily be contested and disputed in law courts. Indeed, even though De’ Sommi wrote that women should not be actors on the stage if they were not protected by the status of queen or princess, he nevertheless dedicated his poem Magen Nashim to a woman, Hannah Rieti, wife of the established publisher 89 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 536–​37. 90 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 537.

91 Elliott Horowitz, “The Eve of the Circumcision: A Chapter in the History of Jewish Nightlife,” in Essential Papers on Jewish Culture in Renaissance and Baroque Italy, ed. David B. Ruderman (New York: New York University Press, 1992), 46. 92 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 537.

93 The question of women and theatre-​making in Mantua is addressed in Jaffe-​Berg, “Jewish Women and Performance in Early Modern Mantua,” in Gender in the Premodern Mediterranean, ed. Megan Moore (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, 2019), 191–​202.

94 On this see Veltri and Ruderman’s publication on confraternities and the article by Elliot Horowitz, “Jewish Confraternal Piety in Sixteenth-​century Ferrara,” in The Politics of Ritual Kinship: Confraternities and Social Order in Early Modern Italy, ed. Nicola Terpstra (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 150–​71—​starting with the first Jewish confraternity formed by men and women in 1515 in Ferrara, Gemilut Hasadim (Good/​pious works).

95 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 585. Also see the permission granted to Abraham Mandolino’s widow Anna to sell meat to Jews and Christians. Simonsohn History of the Jews, 348n110.

27

Introduction

27

Reuven Sullam. In fact, Rieti appears to have been an important influence on De’ Sommi himself, encouraging him to publish his influential poem. He dedicates the poem “to the honorable Hannah from Rieti” (‫ )אל הכבודה חנה מריאיטי‬and, further, he writes that without her it would not have come to light, as he had written it but done nothing with it until Rieti confronted him, knowing that he had written the poem, and asked him to give it to bring it to light, as a form of honor or legacy to her, and she persisted in asking, and he could not refuse her. ‫ויהי היום הנה אשה למולי ותאמר אלי ״הגד הגד לי כי‬

‫ נא בלשון בקשה תננה לי‬.‫למגן נשים שרת שירה חדשה‬ ‫״ ותפצר בי עד כי נאלמתי ולסרב אל מעלתה‬.‫למורשה‬ ‫ ועתה כי שירתי זאת אשר חשבתי לאין היא‬.‫ניכלמתי‬

]…[ ‫מוצאת והיא שלוחה לבוא היום אל העין‬

And then one day, a woman came before me and said to me: “I was told that in defense of women you composed a new poem. Please as a favor give it to me as a possession.” And she coaxed me until I gave in, as to refuse her eminence I was not able. And now my poetry that I thought for nothing is being published and it is now made visible as something …96

In De’ Sommi’s poetic articulation, it is due to Rieti that the poem that would otherwise not have been seen, and would have remained nothing, has been brought to life and made into something. In his modern publication of the poem, Schirmann also emphasizes Rieti’s importance for the poem: “[a]‌nd so, we see again, that Jewish women had an active role in the development of the Hebrew poetry.”97 In fact, Rieti was one of the many women who helped men to run publishing houses, indicating that women played a role in this profession, as was the case with the wife of the first Jewish publisher in Mantua, who assisted her husband in printing the book Behinat Olam written by Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi ha-​Penimi.98 Widowed wives of publishers were also permitted to continue with their family’s enterprise. Alessandra Veronese’s recent essay on the Jewish archives of Mantua indicates a habitual pattern of women recording expenses which assumes a knowledge of the plays.99 This is important because it suggests that the performers, writers and directors were not the only ones who took part in the theatre-​making. Theatre-​making involved a much more expanded set of contributors, including the scribes recording the expenses for the performances, the bankers lending money for the 96 De’ Sommi, Magen Nashim in Jeffim Schirmann, The First Hebrew Play (Jerusalem: Tarshish, 1946), 149–​50. My translation in English does not do justice to the last two lines in which de’ Sommi puns the words for nothing (‫ אין‬ayn) and something visible that is brought to the eye (‫ אין‬ayn).

97 ‫״‬.‫ כי ליהודיות האיטלקיות היה חלק פעיל בהתפתחות השירה העברית‬,‫ ״וכן רואים אנו מחדש‬Schirmann, The First Hebrew Play (1946), 148. 98 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 585.

99 Veronese, “Le carte dell’archivio ebraico,” 53–​64.

28

28 Introduction performances, as well as the merchants and shopkeepers giving materials, props and services for the theatre. Natasha Korda has argued convincingly that in the context of English theatre, we must consider the place of women as laborers contributing to costume and prop making.100 The same should be applied in the case of Jewish theatre-​making in Mantua. Following Korda’s unearthing of women’s “labors lost” in the early modern English stage, we should consider the hidden female players who made performances by the Jews in Mantua possible. Among these are seamstresses, making and mending costumes, adding embellishments which are recorded as expenses in the receipt books.101 I return to this question in greater detail in Chapter 5, as I explore theatre-​making in the Counter-​ Reformation period.

Social Structures and Dynamics within the Jewish Community

The Jewish corporate identity was articulated by the idea of the Kehillah Kedoshah (holy community), for which the Jews themselves commonly used the acronym ‫ק ” ק‬. In the seventeenth century, Rabbi Aboab wrote about the Kehillah Kedoshah naming the Ghetto (‫ )המחנה הקדוש‬ha-​machaneh ha-​qadosh, but the term comes up as a general reference to the Jewish community in a much earlier period and regardless of ghettoization. As Kenneth Stowe puts it, “the single, all-​embracing Jewish body—​by default, not by active choice—​was the Kehillah Kedoshah or what one Latin text, referring first to eleven distinct synagogues as separate universitates, then revealingly named the communitas universalis or generalis universalis.”102 In addition to the overall corporate identity of the Jewish community as a Università or a Kehillah Kedoshah, there were sub-​communities within it. For example, there were the charitable confraternities and literary academies that were modeled on Christian groups that functioned similarly. As a member of the Academy of the Invaghiti (the lovesick), although with the status of a scrittore or scribe on account of being a Jew, and therefore not permitted to join as a fully-​fledged member, De’ Sommi was taking part in the culture of the Italian Academies that “backed secular powers,” as Simone Testa puts it in a book on the Italian Academies and their Networks, 1525–​1700.103 It is also important to keep in mind that Mantua, Ferrara, Venice, and other places saw the development of Jewish confraternities during the sixteenth century to a great extent 100 Natasha Korda, “Women’s Theatrical Properties,” in Staged Properties in Early Modern English Drama, ed. Jonathan Gil Harris and Natasha Korda (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 202–​29. 101 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 665n311.

102 Kenneth Stowe, “Corporate Double Talk: Kehillat Kodesh and Universities in the Roman Jewish Sixteenth Century Environment,” in Jewish Life in Early Modern Rome: Challenge, Conversion, and Private Life, ed. Kenneth Stowe (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), 289.

103 Simone Testa, Italian Academies and their Networks, 1525–​ 1700: From Local to Global (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 24.

29

Introduction

29

in reflection of the existent Christian confraternities.104 The predawn devotions of the confraternity of the Shomrim Laboker, first established in Venice in the late 1570s in the Italiani rite and by 1596 introduced to the Ashkenazic synagogue, was such an example.105 Christian confraternities differed from Jewish confraternities in one way, as pointed out by Ruderman regarding the Jewish confraternities of Ferrara, in that “Jewish ones were indiscriminate in who benefitted from their works. Charity went not to members alone but to all the needy, who received medical aid and decorous funerals as well.”106 Ferrarese Jewish confraternities also included women who signed the original charter for the Gemilut Hasadim (good works).107 This leads Stowe to conclude that A further weakness of the Jewish confraternity or gild was that corporate life was easily escapable or, alternately, it was broadly based. To be a Christian furrier or fuller, for example, one had to belong to a craft gild. Jewish artisans had few, if any, parallel obligations. On the other hand, the Roman Gemilut Hasadim embraced well over half the entire Jewish community, and it has been suggested that anybody who had the means to join did.108

Bonfil writes about “[t]‌he extraordinary vogue among both Christians and Jews in Venice for forming confraternities, which by their very nature constituted special alternatives to traditional communal organization.” In the case of the Jewish confraternities, Bonfil emphasizes that they blended Kabbalistic rituals with various profane activities, such as holding “coffee breaks” during midnight gatherings, solving intricate puzzles and enigmas in which both traditional Talmudic learning and various sorts of secular erudition were necessary to achieve prominence, staging theatrical performances, listening to music, and the like.109

The mixed sacred and profane elements in Jewish confraternities may have been one way in which this communal structure became a template for other group formations, including those use for theatrical ends. Jewish “contractors”—​who were both performers as well as economic mediators and agents—​made it possible for the emergent professional actors to tour, accumulate capital, and safeguard their growing status within the economy and society of Mantua. While Jewish contractual workers and the services they provided brought the Jewish community in greater touch with their Christian counterparts, increasing what Francesca Trivellato has termed their familiarity, that still meant that “commercial 104 See Horowitz, “Jewish Confraternal Piety.”

105 Robert C. Davis and Benjamin Ravid, eds, The Jews of Early Modern Venice (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001) and Joseph R. Hacker and Adam Shear, eds, The Hebrew Book in Early Modern Italy (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011). 106 Stowe, “Corporate Double Talk,” 288. 107 Stowe, “Corporate Double Talk,” 288. 108 Stowe, “Corporate Double Talk,” 288. 109 Bonfil, “A Cultural Profile.”

30

30 Introduction society was not harmonious and undifferentiated but was fully conscious of differences between Jews and non-​Jews.”110

Institutions for Regulating the Jewish Community

The Gonzaga Dukes allowed the Jews to monitor and regulate themselves to a great extent; however, they did require that the community pay a tax enabling them to live in the region. At times, as I and others have argued elsewhere, the Jews paid the tax in part by performance.111 Yet the fullness of the Jewish contribution to theatre-​making on the peninsula as a whole is, as of yet, unaccounted for; a point made compellingly by one of the leading Italian theatre historians of this period, Siro Ferrone: We are missing a study about the decisive role taken by the Jews in the sustaining of the professional theatre, either by operations of lending or through the management of props that were entrusted through the Monti dei Pegni (pawn shops). An interesting role in the hospitality sometimes offered to the companies of actors was taken by the Jewish inns: a kind of no man’s land in which the Christian could venture in since an actor was a marginal social being like the Jews, like them dedicated to an illicit trade or a dangerous one. While waiting for a study about the Jews and theatre, we need to attend to the movements of the receipt books and the registries of the Monti di Pieta (charities of borrowing and money lending) …112

In answer to Ferrone’s call, this book presents the ways Mantuan Jews contributed more fully to the theatre-​making enterprises in Northern Italy. I chart what Ferrone refers to as the “untold story” of the Jewish interaction with theatre in Italy. I take inspiration from other scholars who have made references to the interaction between commedia dell’arte companies and the Jews, and then I tell the fuller story behind that interaction. Michael Zampelli, for example, has referred to the fact that commedia dell’arte companies in in 1576 toured in Milan and “found refuge in the homes and businesses of the Milanese Jews who were immune from the religious prohibitions 110 Francesca Trivellato, The Familiarity of Strangers: The Sephardic Diaspora, Livorno, and Cross-​ Cultural Trade in the Early Modern Period (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 2. 111 See Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange: Taxation and Jewish Theatre in Early Modern Italy,” Theatre Survey 54.3 (2013): 389–​418; Jaffe-​Berg, Commedia dell’arte and the Mediterranean, 121–​44; Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction”; and Donald Beecher, “Leone de’ Sommi and Jewish Theatre,” especially 6. 112 “Manca uno studio sul ruolo decisivo svolto dagli ebrei nel sostentamento del teatro professionale, sia attraverso operazioni di prestito, che attraverso la gestione delle ‘robbe’ di cui furono affidatari nei Monti dei Pegni. Un ruolo interessante nell’ospitalità offerta talvolta alle compagnie dei comici fu svolto dalle locande ebraiche: una sorta di terra di nessuno in cui il cristiano poteva avventuarsi in quanto attore, soggetto sociale marginale come i giudei, come costoro dedito a una mercatura illecita o comunque pericolosa. In attesa di uno studio sugli ebrei e il teatro, che dovrebbe prendere le mosse da una ricognizione dei libri di conti e dei registri dei Monti di Pietà …” Attori, Mercanti Corsari, 49n114.

31

Introduction

31

of the cardinal archbishop.”113 Furthermore, Ferrone’s book on the Matinelli brothers mentions that the comico Tristano Martinelli left a Jew in charge of his belongings when he had to leave Mantua to go touring for his livelihood.114 This book explains how the Jews provided many of the material needs and also services that bolstered the productivity of the comici.

The Idea of Exchange

In considering the Jewish contribution to theatre-​making, an examination of the idea of “exchange” in relation to performances of the Jewish Community of Mantua and the broader Christian community is in order. Between the late fifteenth century and the middle of the seventeenth century, the Jews of Mantua and the ruling Gonzaga Dukes evolved a unique relationship punctuated by years of tremendous trust and sharing, and also by an unusual form of taxation—​the presentation of plays, written and performed by Jews, in exchange for reduced tax and for protection by Dukes from the broader Catholic population and, in some instances, from the Inquisition. David Ruderman poses a related series of questions in his Introduction to the collection Cultural Intermediaries: Jewish Intellectuals in Early Modern Italy.115 Comparing Jewish cultural producers to Christian ones, he asks if there is something distinctive about the Italian and other contexts, if the challenges of patronage are different for Jewish art-​makers as compared with Christian art-​makers, and finally, if the specifics of a cultural context such as Mantua make the experiences of Jews there distinctive from that of other places. Mantua is such an important case for viewing exchange precisely because it was a living, functioning city in which cultures commingled and collided. It was not an ideal city such as Sabbioneta, which was intentionally built to fit a manufactured, Renaissance ideal complete with a church, synagogue, and theatre. Instead, Mantua exemplified the challenges of dealing with otherness and Minoritarian religions (by which I mean ethnically and religiously non-​dominant) within a Catholic state, before, during, and following the Counter-​Reformation period, reflecting an overriding sense of pragmatism 113 Michael A. Zampelli, “Trent Revisited: A Reappraisal of Early Modern Catholicism’s Relationship with the Commedia Italiana,” The Journal of Religion and Theatre 1.1 (Fall 2002): 120–​34n24.

114 Ferrone’ s Arlecchino: Vita e avventure di Tristano Martinelli attore (Rome and Bari: GLF Editori Laterza, 2006), has a reference to Rapondi and Gallicani, two Italian merchants who helped Drusiano and Tristano Martinelli while they were in Anvers trying to travel to France to showcase their work. Ferrone, Arlecchino: Vita e avventure, 12, 21, and 261. Also see: W. Schricks, “Commedia dell’arte. Players in Antwerp in 1576: Drusiano and TristanoMartinelli,” Theatre Research International 1.2 (February 1976), 79–​80.

115 David B. Ruderman, “Introduction,” in Cultural Intermediaries: Jewish Intellectuals in Early Modern Italy, ed. David B. Ruderman and Giuseppe Veltri (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 5–​6.

32

32 Introduction about cultural inclusion at a time in which this was relatively rare in the Christian world. In Mantua, Jews responded to the opportunity theatre provided for professionalization by capitalizing on a niche that was both economic and cultural. In the spectrum which evolved between taxation and exchange, the Jews of Mantua evolved distinctive theatre productions, some in Hebrew, many in Italian, some forced upon them and others willingly offered. They also contributed to theatre-​making writ large in a city-​state that was leading the development of commedia dell’arte and opera, as well as commedia erudita, pastoral drama, dance, and musical performances.

33

Chapter 2

BEGINNINGS: JEWS AND THE EARLY MODERN ITALIAN STAGE 1475–​1540

When Jews began

producing theatre, they were doing more than just taking a hand in a Christian art form. Because Jews were not part of the guild system that created the materials—​cloths, costumes, shoes, props, sets—​of the performances, they had to take part in a performance tradition that had become an enterprise in which they had limited experience. In doing so, as we will see in this chapter, the Jews evolved their own way of thinking of theatre, as an industry, and of themselves as “contractors” of performances—​increasingly professional laborers with self-​developed skills and their own means of funding their training. Because the Jewish “contractors” predated the emergence of the professional, contracted Christian performers: the actors of the commedia dell’arte (whose work emerges in the 1540s), the Jewish theatre-​makers of the late fifteenth century provided an early model for what professional theatrical performers might look like. One figure stands out in the formulation of contractual work: a Jewish dance master who shouldered the responsibility not only of teaching dance at the highest courts of Northern Europe, but also of planning and producing some of the grandest celebrations, wedding dances, and performances of the period. Guglielmo Ebreo (William the Jew) was the genius who shined light and attention on the possibility that Jews could have a hand in performance-​making. However, Guglielmo Ebreo alone cannot take credit for the impressive output that the Jews of Pesaro and other Northern Italian principalities created. After all, the productions this chapter will describe involved many participants and many performances. It would not be possible to attribute all this productivity to one man. Nor would it explain how the Jews, outside of the normal institutional structures of production (such as guilds), could organize themselves and gain the skills necessary to produce a performance. Starting in the late fifteenth century, a spark was lit in Jewish communities in Northern Italy, which set into motion a series of well-​produced, high-​ level performances staged by the Jews that were to firmly establish Jewish theatre-​ making in Northern Italy for several generations to come. The initial impetus for performance was begun in Pesaro, but as performance-​ making by Jews was taken up in Mantua, it became an increasingly communal enterprise with an ever-​more systematic and sophisticated contractual apparatus. In fact, in Mantua, rather than one theatre-​maker putting his stamp on productions and involving the community, multiple theatre-​making were involved, and it would take nearly thirty years of theatre production to lead to the emergence of a single, dominant theatre producer equal to Pesaro’s Guglielmo Ebreo: Leone de’ Sommi, the subject of our next chapter. Chapter 2 charts the foundational steps taken by Jewish communities in Northern Italy to create a path that would eventually lead to a sustained theatrical tradition among the Jews of Mantua.

34

34 Beginnings

The Backdrop: Theatre Experiments in Northern Italy In the late fourteenth century, exciting theatrical experiments were made in the Northern Italian principalities. Planted in these early performances were two important elements that created a precedent in later ones: the use of Jewish dance masters’ talent and a reliance on an ability to create impressive scenographic elements. The presence of dance within Jewish culture dates as far back as the Bible, which contains references to dance that range from Miriam leading the children of Israel in dance after crossing the Red Sea to the cultivation of music and dance in the courts of King David and King Solomon. The cultivation of music and dance among the Jews continued in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, and these arts were refined in the Northern Italian courts, where exiles from other parts of Europe gathered and shared their know-​how with their Christian hosts. Eventually, as Jewish dance-​making expanded to public spectacles, Jews were increasingly included as performers. Jews were used symbolically in these late fifteenth-​century performances to hearken back to their biblical ancestors; in other words, Christian audience members saw the Jewish performers as inextricably linked to the characters from the Bible that they portrayed. It was, at best, a lopsided form of exchange, but one that allowed the Jews to begin to develop an area of performative expertise that would carry them over the next centuries. The early performances of Jews in Northern Italy took place in three principalities: Pesaro, Ferrara, and Mantua. These three states were also connected by the ruling families of Sforza, Este, and Gonzaga, respectively. All three families had marital and familial alliances with one and other, and these interconnections encouraged communication and competition among them. Even if princes from one region were not present in the others’ productions, the circulation of wedding book manuscripts ensured that the events were noticed in these elite circles. Social politics and performance were always intertwined for the princes themselves, and that was also true for the Jewish participants. Very quickly, the states’ Jewish residents learned to use the performances to their own benefit, as a public, though intimate, means of communicating their wishes to the princes, all in the guise of performance. In the process, Jews honed their talents and created mechanisms to pass down their knowledge generationally, all while improving the production values of their work. In so doing, the Jews began to professionalize themselves as “contracted” laborers—​choreographers and dance teachers, makers of scenic elements, and actors and musicians who became indispensable to the rulers.1 Theatre-​making served as a basis for Jewish professionalization, a development that ran parallel to the professionalization of actors in the non-​Jewish world, as was the case with the commedia dell’arte, the professional and contracted theatre performers who, by the 1 For more on the idea of the Jews as “contractors” see Jaffe-​Berg, “Towards an Expansive Historiography of Jews.”

35

Beginnings

35

1540s, organized themselves contractually into troupes, touring all over Northern Italy and beyond.2

The First Theatrical Performances by the Jews of Pesaro

Pesaro, a town on the Adriatic Coast of the peninsula, saw the first Jewish theatrical performances. The town was under Sforza rule, with strong cultural influences from the Court of Urbino, which in turn influenced the sophisticated cultural production in Pesaro. Jewish dance masters had been living and teaching in Pesaro since the middle of the fifteenth century, if not earlier. One of these dance masters, Moses of Sicily, immigrated from Sicily and taught in Pesaro with his sons Guglielmo and Giuseppe.3 Remarkably, Giuseppe lived and worked with another Christian dance master in Florence, where they taught the art of dancing interchangeably to Jewish and Christian boys and girls.4 Guglielmo proved especially remarkable in his artistry. Known as Guglielmo Ebreo (William the Jew), he not only taught the nobility court dancing but also prepared entertaining and impressive performances and published a landmark dance treatise, De pratica seu arte tripudii (On the Practice or Art of Dancing). Guglielmo’s name is often associated with a lavish set of entertainments created in 1475 to celebrate the marriage of Costanzo Sforza and Camilla of Aragon, and the occasion marks the first historic reference to Jewish participation in theatrical productions.5 However, other scholars have been careful in noting that, while it is likely that Guglielmo da Pesaro (who had by then converted to Christianity and taken the Christian name of Giovanni Ambrosio) was the mastermind behind the theatrical performance, we lack historical evidence that he was in Pesaro at the time and cannot be certain that he orchestrated the performances.6 2 I am referring to the famous 1545 contract signed by Ser Maphio and others in Padua of eight performers who agreed to travel, perform and share their earnings. Another interesting detail is that the group agrees to buy a horse from the joint fund for the purposes of transporting their belongings. Kenneth Richards and Laura Richards, The Commedia dell’Arte: A Documentary History (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990), 44–​48. Ferdinando Taviani and Mirella Schino delve into the contracts in the fourth section of Il segreto della Commedia dell’arte (1st ed., 1982; Florence: La casa Usher, 4th ed., 2007). 3 William A. Smith, trans. Fifteenth-​Century Dance and Music: Twelve Transcribed Italian Treatises and Collections in the Tradition of Domenico da Piacenza (Stuyvesant: Pendragon, 1995), 109. 4 Veronese, “Interazioni economiche e sociali,” 242.

5 At Pesaro in 1475 he (Guglielmo Ebreo or Giovanni Ambrosio) organized a lavish spectacle for the marriage of Costanzo Sforza and Camilla of Aragon, at which Jews in oriental costume performed dances, the Queen of Sheba riding on an artificial elephant, and King Rehoboam on a “Monte degli Ebrei” (Mountain of the Jews) gave orations in Hebrew to the couple requesting tolerance for their Jewish subjects. Stephen Campbell, Cosmè Tura of Ferrara: Style, Politics, and the Renaissance City, 1450–​1495 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 126.

6 As Patrizia Castelli puts it, while it is clear that the events were thought up by a single person, Guglielmo Ebreo (Ambrosio) was not among those present at the event, nor does he include this

36

36 Beginnings What we can be sure of is that whether directly, as the choreographer of the dances and the stager of the events, or indirectly, as someone who trained many of the dancers, Guglielmo Ebreo influenced the production of 1475. The inclusion of Jews reflected the Christians’ tendency to associate contemporary Jewish residents of Pesaro with their earlier, biblical counterparts who were fictionalized in the Renaissance celebrations. In The Invention of Race, Heng points to the thirteenth century when the Fourth Lateran established Canon 68, which mandated that Jews be publically marked and visually branded as separate. Functioning like a state without borders, a Church with universalist ambitions paradoxically also saw a swirl of contrapuntal forces in motion in the historical moment: a concomitant fractionalizing of collective identity in the form of emergent medieval-​style nations characterized by intensive state formation and imagined local unitities, as territorial nationalisms coalesced within Christendom.7

These “nascent nationalisms,” Heng argues, made use of laws and also of rituals and created “affective communities mobilized by telling and retelling key stories of cultural power.”8 If we follow Heng’s claim, what was the story being told at this political wedding celebration? On the one hand, by their very presence, the Jews instantiated their difference from the Sforza. The marrying couple, and by extension, their families and territories were symbolically unified not only by the act of marriage but by the presence of a separate community (or, in Heng’s terms, race) of Jews.9 At the same time, recognizing, as this book argues, that performance is a form of exchange, the question must also be posed: what story were the Jews telling? To better answer this question, we turn to a book that is preserved and housed in the Vatican Library, enhanced by beautiful, accompanying illustrations that provide additional details about the costuming and staging elements.10 The section describing in the list of events he himself provides in the treatise he dedicated to Galeazzo Maria. However, that treaties ended in 1474. P. Castelli, “ ‘La Kermesse degli Sforza Pesaresi’. Mesura et arte del danzare: Gugliemo Ebreo da Pesaro e la danza nelle corti italiane del XV secolo,” catalogue of the Exhibition, Pesaro July 16–​September 6, 1987, ed. P. Castelli, M. Mingardi, and M. Padovan (Pesaro, 1987), 13–​33. 7 Heng, The Invention of Race, 32. 8 Heng, The Invention of Race, 32.

9 Heng, The Invention of Race, 32. Heng offers an interpretation of the Queen of Sheba in another cultural artifact, an enamelled plaque by Nicholas of Verdun (1181) which superimposes European features on a black skinned Queen. Heng, The Invention of Race, 186.

10 The book is titled: Ordine delle nozze dello illustrissimo messer Costanzo Sforza e Camilla d’Argona (Wedding order of the illustrious Sir Costanzo Sforza and Camilla of Aragone). The manuscript is dated 1480. The shelfmark is: Urb.Lat.899. (ID 217947). The book is accessible digitally under the manuscripts section at: digi.vattib.it using the same shelfmark. The Vatican ascribes the handwriting in the book to Lionardo da Colle or Ser Leonardo di Giovanni Tolosani (1430–​1497), a notary and lawyer from Colle Val d’Elsa, and a collaborator di Vespesiano da Bisticci. I translate the entire section describing the Jewish performance in my appendix at the end of this book.

37

Beginnings

37

the Jewish performance follows a descriptive passage detailing the gifts the couple received. One-​upmanship seemed to be the undergirding principle for the gift-​giving, and the lavish presents bestowed by the Duke of Urbino were followed by equally lavish offerings from various representatives of the town of Pesaro.11 The Università of the Jews of Pesaro deliberately staged their appearance before the new couple with a reference to the biblical passage in I Kings in which the Queen of Sheba comes to Jerusalem bearing exotic gifts from her home country (probably in Southern Arabia or Yemen) for the wise King Solomon.12 (I translate the entire section in my appendix.) The ceremonious gift-​giving strategically drew attention to the ornate Queen while also emphasizing the magnanimity of King Solomon, whose wisdom as a ruler was referenced within the frame of the performances.13 In the biblical story, the wealthy and powerful South Arabian Queen makes her way to Jerusalem curious about the purported wisdom of Solomon. Upon her arrival on a caravan of camels, she presents lavish gifts to the Jewish King. The exact wording in the Bible is cryptic and provoking: ‫​שמע‬-‫​שבא שומעת את‬-‫ומלכת‬

‫שלמה לשם יהוה ותבוא לנסתו‬

U-​malkat Sheba shoma’at et shemah

…‫בחידות‬

Shlomo le-​shem Adonay wa-​tavo le-​nasoto Be-​chidot …

(The Queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame on the account of the Lord, and she came to test him with hard questions) I Kings 10:1.14 The alliteration in the Hebrew, stemming from the words: shoma’at (hears) et-​ shemah (the name of) and shem (the word), as well as in Sheba and Shelomoh, extend the first part of the line thanks to the repeating sound shin. As much as the Queen is coming to test the King with hard questions, the interpreter of the Bible is similarly presented with a riddle of sorts here, open to interpretation. The suggestion is that Queen Sheba was motivated by God: “Queen Sheba heard of Solomon’s name [meaning 11 “After him [The Duke of Urbino] many other gentlemen and other subjects of the gentlemen [presented]: among them the community of Pesaro gave him two silver mugs …” (da poi lui molti /​ altri signori & altri subditi del Si/​gnore: tra e quali la Commnita di/​ Pesaro gli dono dui boccali d’arge(n)/​to …) 85v–​86r.

12 Another detailed study of the performances is conveyed by Smith in Fifteenth-​Century Dance and Music. 13 “La seconda parte della festa è una frenetica apoteosi, della allegoria della Ragione interpretata dalla vittoria dell’uomo selvatico sulle fiere, dall’omaggio della Sapienza rappresentata da Salomone e dalla regina di Saba.” (The second part of the celebrations was a frenetic apotheosis, of the allegory of reason, interpreted as the victory over man’s wild passion, homage to the wisdom represented by Salomon and by the Queen of Sheba.) Castelli, “La Kermesse degli Sforza pesaresi,” 25. 14 Hebrew-​English Tanakh ‫( תנ״ך‬Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2003).

38

38 Beginnings his fame] through the name of the Lord.” While God disapproves Solomon’s interest in multiple foreign women in I Kings:14, in this earlier story, he appears to have ordained this meeting. Upon her arrival, the Queen confirms that she did not believe Solomon’s wisdom when back in her own country, but now she sees how wise and good he is. She praises and blesses Solomon’s God, whose will it was that he be king. In addition to her own blessings, the Queen presents him with gold, precious stones, and wood that he can use to decorate his house and make musical instruments such as harps and lyres. He returns her generosity with gifts of his own, and then she sets off for her own land. This is not just a story of friendship and even desire, but of cultural meeting and exchange that is symmetric and balanced: trade and mercantilism are front and center in the story, and the exchange of goods is mutual. The wooden goods that Queen Sheba brings to Jerusalem are transformed into musical instruments to be purposed by musicians, a detail that embeds into this story. The biblical tale highlights music as a worthy product of intercultural encounter, much like musical performance was a prized element in the Sforza matrimonial celebration. Branded and separated, the Jews of Pesaro were, nonetheless, making performance a means of exchange between themselves and their Christian rulers. In their performance, the Jews added their own interpretative panache in staging the arrival of the queen on an elephant rather than on camels, as originally described in the Bible. They also had a representative of the Jewish community appear as the Arabian Queen of Sheba, an interesting cultural displacement in which they enacted both the Jewish and non-​Jewish characters in the story. Nevertheless, for all their attempts at using performance as a means of receiving understanding from their overlord, there is a revealing blurring of identities in the wedding book commemorating the events. The description of the arrival of the Queen of Saba (Sheba) is followed with an image whose caption reads: la Regina Ebrea (the Jewish Queen), a reference usually associated with the Jewish Queen Esther rather than the Arabian Queen of Sheba (see Figure 4). In the illustrator’s imagination, the performer’s cultural and religious identity was superimposed on the character whom she (or he) enacted in this production. In some ways, this is a signal example of Heng’s explanation of the racializing of the Jews. The racial identity of the actor performing the part of the Queen of Sheba supersedes the character that they portray; and, the historic record left to posterity uncovers the way the performer was viewed all along: a Jew. The image of the wrongly named Queen of Sheba is of a fair-​skinned woman with blond hair rather than dark skin and dark hair. We cannot know for certain if the depiction reflected the way that the character came across in the performance itself, but the descriptor in the commemoration book, contributes to a sense that the identity of the Queen of Sheba was more than skin deep. Despite looking like a European Christian, the performer was a Jew, an identity that set him or her apart and outranked their characterological identity. In addition to creating a dramatic effect with the Queen of Sheba’s entrance, the Jewish community had to add other performative elements to the ceremonies to make them worthwhile. They created dances, wrote texts which had to be memorized, fabricated sumptuous costumes and made the key prop: the elephant. The process

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Figure 4. Image of “Regina Ebrea” (Queen of the Jews) © (2019) Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Shelfmark Urb.Lat.899. The image is reproduced by permission of Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, with all rights reserved.

40

40 Beginnings of creating so many costumes and scenic elements meant that the participants were honing skills that they already had, given the different professions they held; but in some cases, they must have been learning new skills that were essential to the fabrication of theatrical items. Since this was not the only time Jews put on a production, the same abilities were to be even more developed in subsequent productions, an important mark of growing professionalization among the Jewish performance-​makers. Through this spectacle, the Jews learned the power of performance, which could be used to advance their own social and political rights. For example, the Pesaro Jews had the character of King Rehoboam (one of the early Kings of Israel) give an oration that called for protection and rights for Renaissance Jewish residents of Pesaro. The self-​ reflexiveness of the Jews within the performance specifically and the use of creative expression as a way to ask for their Christian patrons’ toleration were hallmarks of this early performance, and they would carry over to what eventually emerged as a sustained tradition of Jewish theatre-​making in Mantua. Furthermore, since the audience included members of the Gonzaga and Este families, they, too, were learning that performance could become a vehicle for communication with the minority group living in their domains. In another component of the performances, [i]‌n the midst of allegorical processions from the Jewish community at Pesaro, the bride and groom danced together. A second group of twelve young men emerged from the Mountain of the Jews and performed “a joyful dance in the form of a moresca” (uno alegro ballo in forma di moresca).15 This dance was a pantomime of agricultural pursuits: digging the ground, sowing seeds (scattering flowers, throughout the hall), all with implements of silver and gold.16

It is interesting that the Jews were asked to dance a moresca, which was associated with the Moors who initially introduced the dance within the Iberian Peninsula.17 During the moresca, dancers often wore masks or had their faces blackened to personify Moors; therefore, the fact that Jews were asked to take on black identities beckons the question of whether the dance interposed one identity onto another? Did this function similarly to the interposing of a Jewish Queen onto the Queen of Sheba?18 The performances suggest the Sforza found the Jews an interesting subject; however, we should not take that for a wholesale acceptance or inclusion of the Jews. Instead, 15 Quoted in Jennifer Nevile, The Eloquent Body: Dance and Humanist Culture in Fifteenth-​Century Italy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004), 37. Nevile is quoting from De Marinis, ed. Le nozze di Costanzo Sforza e Camilla d’Aragona celebrate a Pesaro nel Maggio 1475 (Florence: Vallecchi, 1946), 38. 16 Nevile, The Eloquent Body.

17 “Moresca. Antica danza, introdotta dapprima in Spagna dai Mori e divenuta popolare in Europa nel 15 e 16 secolo.” (Moresca. An ancient dance, first introduced in Spain by the Moors and popular in Europe of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.) See “Moresca,” in Enciclopedia Treccani, online www.treca​nni.it/​encic​lope​dia/​more​sca/​. 18 Nevil, The Eloquent Body, 34.

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the popularity of Jewish culture in the late fifteenth century “may testify to a more thoroughgoing concern with its control and surveillance by secular and ecclesiastical authority.”19 Seen in this light, the Jews were made “to play the role of living antiquities, to perform and make visibly manifest their ethnic difference, their anachronistic status under Christendom.”20 Rather than constituting an embrace of Jewish culture, these late fifteenth-​century representations of Jews articulated a cultural ambivalence on the part of their Christian rulers. Included but designated as “other,” the Jews performed themselves as biblical objects for view rather than being contemporary subjects. Performance was an expression of the ambivalence with which the Christians regarded the Jews, as well as a vehicle to designate difference through a frame of toleration. Fifteen years after the performances of 1475, another performance in Pesaro reflected the growing expertise of the Jewish community in productions. As Claudia Burattelli has put it, a performance in 1489 could be seen as an antecedent to the subsequent Mantuan Jewish theatrical enterprise because it served as a model for how the Christian lords could rely on Jewish production support in the form of costumes and splendid props.21 This performance was much more theatrical, and it involved an even more risky and provocative topic than the Queen of Sheba. The occasion for the performance was the marriage of Maddalena Gonzaga (1472–​ 1490) to Duke Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. Details about the wedding were recorded by two people who attended the wedding: Giovanni Gonzaga, brother of Francesco II Gonzaga, Marques of Mantua, and Maddalena herself, sister of Francesco II and Giovanni, who was very close to Isabella d’Este, Francesco II’s wife.22 Both Giovanni’s 19 Campbell, Cosmè Tura of Ferrara, 126. More information on the Sforza wedding is found in: Castelli, “La Kermesse degli Sforza pesaresi,” 24–​27. 20 Campbell, Cosmè Tura of Ferrara, 126.

21 Burattelli sees the 1489 as a possible antecedent to the subsequent works produced by the Jews of Mantua: “forse potrebbe esserne considerate un effettivo antecedente diretto, considerate che la rappresentazione israelitica era avvenuta per nozze gonzaghesche, e che quindi I signori di Mantova abrebbero potuto trarre proprio da questa circostanza il modello per l’organizzazione della vita teatrale della loro corte.” (It could be effectively considered as a direct antecedent, considering that the Jewish representation was made for the Gonzaga wedding, and that therefore the lords of Mantua could have drawn their own model from this one for the organization of the theatrical life of their court.) Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte a Mantova, 169n9.

22 Housed in the Archivio Gonzaga in the Mantuan State Archives, the information was published by Guido Mondavì in Mantua in honor of the wedding of Rimini Todesco Assagioli in Mantua in 1883. These findings were recorded in a nineteenth-​century publication by Alessandro Luzio and Rodolfo Renier, Mantova e Urbino: Isabella d’Este e Elisabetta Gonzaga (Turin: Roma, L. Roux, 1893; rpt. Bologna: Forni, 1976), 48–​49. Following Fenlon, Beecher, and Ciavolella, in my previous book I suggest that the wedding was between Maddalena and the Duke Francesco Maria of Urbino. Jaffe-​ Berg, Commedia dell’arte and the Mediterranean, 125; Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 13–​14; Fenlon, Music and Patronage, 40. However, it is clear that Duke Francesco Maria of Urbino was a guest, not the bridegroom on the occasion. The wedding took place on October 28, 1489. Luzio and Renier, Mantova e Urbino, 48n2. As Roth puts it, according to the letters: “The pièce de resistance of the resplendent wedding celebrations

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42 Beginnings and Maddalena’s letters regarding the performance detail the events and make specific references to the theatrical stagings that the Jews and others put on.23 While this performance did not take place in Mantua, Maddalena was the daughter of Federico I Gonzaga and Margaret of Bavaria, then Marqueses of Mantua, and sister to Francesco Gonzaga, as well as sister-​in-​law to Isabella d’Este, with whom she was very close. The familial connections among the Gonzaga in Pesaro and Mantua meant that there was constant contact among the family members living in different cities; and it is likely that the performance traditions held by one branch of the family influenced and inspired performances in the other branch. Just as with the first performance in Pesaro, the Jews bore the cost of the wedding performance that they themselves staged.24 Thereby, the enactment was a tribute to the Gonzaga but one that required a significant effort from the Jewish community. A nineteenth-​century transcription describing the wedding and the performance follows: After the nuptial ceremony and the sermon, the lunch took place. Then, they danced, until the time came for the theatrical representation, on which Maddalena reports with much imprecision (apparently, she did not understand it well), but in a way of giving the impression of it. Giovanni [her brother] explained to us that it was a representation of the story of Judith and Holofernes, “made by the Jews from this region at their creation and expense.”25

The choice of subject—​the story of the brave Judith, who stood up to the men of her town of Bethulia and, alone, defeated the invading army by decapitating Holofernes—​ appears at first to have been a curious choice. After all, this is a bloody story of a woman standing up to an oppressive man and beheading him—​not really the kind of topic one expects for a wedding celebration. Furthermore, the Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical work, not included in the Hebrew Bible, and therefore a bit suspect for the Jewish community to have used. One possible reason this subject was selected is the story’s popularity with both Jews and Christians. The Book of Judith is thought to have been composed originally in Hebrew, and is accepted by Catholics (if not by Protestants, who consider the Book of Judith to be apocryphal). The Jews in the Middle Ages probably was a dramatic performance based on the story of Judith and Holophernes, which according to a report sent home by the bride’s brother was staged by and at the expense of the local Jewish community.” Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance, 246. 23 Luzio and Renier, Mantova e Urbino, 48.

24 “The pièce de resistance of the resplendent wedding celebrations was a dramatic performance based on the story of Judith and Holofernes, which according to a report sent home by the bride’s brother was staged by and at the expense of the local Jewish community.” Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance, 246. See also Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange,” 397. 25 “Dopo la cerimonia nuziale ed il sermone, ebbe luogo il pranzo. Poi si ballò, finchè giunse l’ora della rappresentazione, che Maddalena riferisce molto confusamente (pare non l’abbia intesa bene), ma in modo da ridare l’impressione che se ne doveva ritrarre. Giovanni ci spiega che fu la rappresentazione di Giuditta ed Oloferne, fatta ‘cum spese et operatione de li Hebrei de questa terra.” Luzio and Renier, Mantova e Urbino, 48–​49.

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knew the story because of the influence of the Vulgate translation of the late fourth century.26 The story of Judith was popular among Christians and Jews, and a number of versions of the story were written, including one in Yiddish.27 Jews may also have become familiar with it because the story appears prominently in the work of Rabbi Nissim ben Jacob ibn Shahim (990–​1062) in An Elegant Compilation Concerning Relief After Adversity (Sefer Ma’asiyyot ha-​Hakhamim wehu Yafeh meha-​Yeshu’ah, [‫)]ספר מעשיות החכמים והוא חבור יפה מהישועה‬, which culls together sixty tales from both Jewish and other sources.28 Rabbi Nissim, who was from Kairouan in Tunisia, was a close acquaintance of Rabbi Shmuel Hanagid (b. Còrdoba, 993–​ d. Granada, 1056), an influential Rabbi who lived in Grenada, Spain. Rabbi Nissim’s acquaintance and communication with Rabbi Shmuel Hanagid provides an explanation for how the story might have been read and spread throughout the Mediterranean among various Jewish communities, including those residing in the Italian Peninsula. The Jewish Italian community’s interest in this collection of stories is further indicated by two important publications of the text: one in Venice (1544) and one in Ferrara (1557).29 The relevance of the Judith story for both Jews and Christians is clear, and this production blended in well with other theatrical performances about more generally love-​themed stories. The next day, on October 29, there was a grand banquet, with 15 courses, according to Giovanni, 13 according to Maddalena, who describes them. Another theatrical representation followed, this time of Phoebus and Daphne, transformed into a laurel, then came out Petrarch and Laura who together with Diana seized Cupid and plucked him, thus making for a beautiful show.30

It is not clear who the presenters of this second performance were, but since Jews were not mentioned in conjunction with this performance, it is likely that the performers were not Jewish. The topic is appropriate for a marital celebration, and the humorous choices drawn from mythology and the reference to the Petrarch and his Laura make sense. By 1489, fifteen years after the staging of the Queen of Sheba, 26 See Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, 151n4.

27 On the popularity of the story in the Jewish and Christian literary and visual contexts, see Kevin R. Brine, Elena Ciletti, and Henrike Lähnemann, ed. The Sword of Judith, Judith Studies Across the Disciplines (Cambridge: Open Book, 2010).

28 The work in Hebrew is “Sefer Ma’asiyyot ha-​Hakhamim wehu Yafeh meha-​Yeshu’ah” trans. William M. Brinner as An Elegant Compilation Concerning Relief After Adversity, Yale Judaica 20 (New Haven: Yale University, 1977). See the Hebrew version translated from the Arabic by Haim Ze’ev Hirschberg, ‫( מהישועה יפה חיבור‬Hibur Yafeh meha yeshua) Jerusalem: Siphriat mekorot, hotza’at mossad Harav Kouk, 1953. For the reference to Judith, see page 60.

29 See “Nissim ben Yaacov me Kiroan” (‫ )נסים בן יעקב מקירואן‬in the Jewish Encyclopedia (‫יהודית‬ ‫ )אנציקלופדיה‬www.daat.ac.il/​encyc​lope​dia/​value.asp?id1=​1059.

30 “Il di successive (29 ottobre) si tenne il grande convito, con 15 portate, secondo Giovanni, 13 secondo Maddalene, che le specifica. Succedette un’altra rappresentazione, de Phebo et Daphne conversa in lauro, poi vene fuori il Petrarcha et Laura che inseme cum Diana prese Cupido et lo spenachorno che fue bel spectaculo.” Luzio and Renier, Mantova e Urbino, 49.

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44 Beginnings the Jews of Pesaro had grown into experienced spectacle creators, trusting of their own abilities to pull off such performances. For them, the best choice may have been to create a splash with the performance and to be memorable because that would cement their indispensability for their rulers in Pesaro. A tamer performance might have ruffled no feathers, but also might have proven the Jews to be irrelevant. Judith and Holofornes had a different effect, and the subject’s popularity reverberates in the initial letters and echoes historiographically in the scholarship of theatre historians writing centuries later.31 In this light, the choice of Judith and Holofornes was a wise one for the Jews of Pesaro to have made. It cemented the symbolic, tributary, and economic benefits of having the Jewish community participate in the context of other performances. It also confirmed that the Jewish theatre-​makers were relevant and fearless, able to take on popular and somewhat provocative subject matter. This was the hallmark of the Jews of Pesaro: a mixed pragmatism and theatrical opportunism that they exemplified and that would soon be taken up by the Jews of Mantua. In referencing the 1489 performance of the Jews of Pesaro, Burattelli articulates its importance for the theatre-​making enterprise that would soon take hold among the Jews of Mantua. Despite its apparent uniqueness, the Pesaro episode presents the greatest points of contact with the subsequent Jewish theatrical practices in Mantua, and perhaps it could be considered an actual, direct antecedent, considering that the Jewish representation had taken place in a Gonzaga wedding, and therefore, the lords of Mantua could have drawn from this occurrence a model for the organization of theatrical life in their court.32

Theatre-​Making in Ferrara While the early theatre-​making in Pesaro established a precedent for subsequent productions, theatre-​making among the Jews incubated for some time after 1489 until it made its presence known in Mantua in marked ways by the mid-​1500s. What was happening in this interim period? How did the Jews of Mantua gain such knowledge of stagecraft and hone this knowledge enough that their Gonzaga patrons would repeatedly request their participation in important state affairs? A definitive answer is elusive, but a sidelong glance at another important Renaissance state, that of Ferrara, itself a showcase for Renaissance stagecraft, provides a possible answer. 31 On the popularity of the story of Judith, see Brine, Ciletti, and Lähnemann, The Sword of Judith. My thanks to Michela Andreatta for her advice and her suggestion of this book as a reference.

32 “Pur nella sua apparente unicità l’episodio pesarese è quello che presenta maggiori punti di contatto con la successiva pratica teatrale ebraica mantovana, e forse potrebbe esserne considerato un effettivo antecedente diretto, considerato che la rappresentazione israelitica era avvenuta per nozze gonzaghesche, e che quindi i signori di Mantova avrebbero potuto trarre proprio da questa circostanza il modello per l’organizzazione della vita teatrale della loro corte.” Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 169n9.

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There was a Jewish community in Ferrara dating back to the Middle Ages, and in the fifteenth century, there was a significant enough population there to merit representation at the rabbinical congresses in Bologna (1416) and Forli (1418).33 Jews had found in Ferrara a safe haven, especially following the expulsions from the Iberian Peninsula.34 By the early 1500s Ferrara was well known as a place where Jews integrated with Christian society to a relatively high degree. The Ponentine population had arrived with a large degree of money and a high level of education, and Jewish doctors such as Amato Lusitano (1511–​1568) were integrated in the scientific community.35 A rabbinical academy was founded in Ferrara under Ercole II d’Este in 1556.36 Like Mantua, Ferrara was a welcoming place in the period of theatrical production, as well as a culturally thriving city. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were exciting times in Ferrara thanks to the rediscovery of Vitruvius’ De Architectura (ca. 15 BC) in 1414, which was elaborated on by Leon Battista Alberti in Della Pittura (1435), a work that gave practical instruction on how to create a perspective drawing.37 These texts enticed their readers with the prospect of “recreating” classical theatre and led to various experiments using the books as blueprints for productions. The Roman Academy and the Ferrarese court devoted themselves to experimenting with Vitruvius’ description of classical staging by producing Roman comedies, especially those of Plautus and Terence. Duke Ercole d’Este I of Ferrara (1471–​1505) personally dedicated himself to these theatre productions.38 The Duke commissioned translations of classical comedies for the purposes of production, beginning with the 1486 production of the Menaechmi by Plautus.39 In addition to the excavation of classical texts, there was a great deal of experimentation with the creation of perspective on flat surfaces used in stage settings, eventually leading to innovations 33 Ismar Elbogen, Joseph Jacobs, and M. Seligsohn, ed., “Ferrara,” Jewish Encyclopedia.com (www. jew​ishe​ncyc​lope​dia.com/​artic​les/​6090-​ferr​ara. Accessed April 24, 2002).

34 Burattelli notes the positive conditions afforded to Jews by the Este rulers “che lungo tutto l’arco del dominio estense garantì agli ebrei condizioni di vita tra le più sicure” (who, for the duration of the Estense rule guaranteed to the Jews among the most secure living conditions). Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 168n9. 35 Stefano Arieti, “Etica e pratica clinica fra XVI e XVII secolo: Amato Lusitano e Jacob Zahalon,” in Ebrei a Ferrara Ebrei di Ferrara: Aspetti culturali, economici e sociali della presenza ebraica a Ferrara (secc. XIII–​XX), ed. Laura Graziani Secchieri (Florence: Giuntina. 2014), 89.

36 Gianfranco Miletto, “David ben Abraham and Abraham Provenzali,” in Cultural Intermediaries: Jewish Intellectuals in Early Modern Italy, ed. David B. Ruderman and Giuseppe Veltri (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 131. 37 Vitruvius’ work was itself published in 1486.

38 See Giulia Torello-​Hill, “The Exegesis of Vitruvius and the Creation of Theatrical Spaces in Renaissance Ferrara,” Renaissance Studies 29.2 (2014): 227–​46. 39 Donald Beecher ed., “Introduction: ‘Erudite’ Comedy in Renaissance Italy,” in Renaissance Comedy: The Italian Masters, vol. 1 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), 8.

46

46 Beginnings in theatre scenography—​for example, the inclusion of set wings to amplify the illusion of depth and distance.40 This interest in theatre staging that captured the Este court anticipated the creative flurry that emerged in Ferrara, Pesaro, and Mantua and affected the Jewish communities there as well. The ability to provide compelling scenic images in staging would prove to be especially relevant for the Jewish practice of staging theatre. Jewish theatre-​makers like Leone de’ Sommi excelled in fusing the perspectival settings with lighting schemes that were used to amplify the effects of the painted surfaces. In their enthusiastic adoption of classical drama, Christian patrons became interested in using contemporary Jews to recreate their earlier Jewish counterparts in stage productions. In these patrons’ minds, there must have been a natural connection between the Greeks, Romans, and Jews that lent itself to a perception that the Jews had an atavistic ability to recreate the stagecraft of another ancient people. The spirit of competition among the families likely led to a desire on the part of the Mantuan rulers to have their own Jewish community stage and perform theatre, much as their relatives to the East had. That would make sense given that patronage of the arts in Mantua was especially associated with Isabella d’Este (1474–​1539), whose cultivation of theatre stood out even given that several generations of Gonzaga had expressed an interest in cultivating the arts in their domain long before her.41 Isabella exemplified the use of performance and politics, with an eye to the inclusion of Jews in Mantua, and laid the foundation for what was to flourish a generation or two after her, when her grandson Guglielmo and great-​grandson Vincenzo would see the apex of theatrical production in Mantua in the later sixteenth century. For that to happen, a deep appreciation for the arts must have been cultivated for some time. To this end, Isabella d’Este proved a formidable figure not only as a mother and astute leader during periods of her husband’s absence, but also as a patron.42 The refinement of Isabella’s tastes began early, under the guidance of her father, Ercole I d’Este (1431–​1505), Duke of Ferrara, whose interest in theatre has already been 40 Oscar G. Brockett and Franklin J. Hildy, History of the Theatre (New York: Pearson, 2007), 157–​58.

41 Gianfrancesco Gonzaga (1446–​1496), though a condottiere, was equally a man of culture and letters. In his creation of the Sala del Pisanello he had himself depicted as a man of arms and culture. Molly Bourne “The Art of Diplomacy: Mantua and the Gonzaga, 1328–​1630,” in The Court Cities of Northern Italy: Milan, Parma, Piacenza, Mantua, Ferrara, Bologna, Urbino, Pesaro, and Rimini, ed. Charles M. Rosenberg (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 152. Other Gonzaga, notably Ludovico (1412–​1478), who patronized the artist Andrea Mantegna; Federico (1441–​1484) and eventually Francesco (1444–​1483) were all invested in supporting the arts and being seen as Renaissance men of culture. Bourne, “The Art of Diplomacy,” 158–​60. 42 There is a tendency to idealize Isabella while painting Francesco to be swashbuckling ruffian. For a reworking of this binarism, see Molly Bourne’s “Mail Humour and Male Sociability: Sexual Innuendo in the Epistolary Domain of Francesco II Gonzaga,” in Erotic Cultures of Renaissance Italy, ed. Sara F. Matthews-​Grieco (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010).

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noted. Ercole I brought his city to prominence as an arts capital by supporting music and theatre productions and hosting luminaries such as the writer Ludovico Ariosto. Since at least 1486, the Este court at Ferrara had been entertained by festival performances of classical comedies translated into Italian—​Plautus’ Menaechmi, Amphitryon, Asinara, Casina, and others, Terence’s Andria, Eunuchus, and Phormio—​but never before had the courtiers followed a new plot composed in Italian specifically for the occasion (before Ariosto’s La Cassaria during the 1508 Carnival).43 Audiences came to see the dramatic text come alive, but, even more so, they came for the ravishing costumes, and for the perspectival and lavish sets. This was something that Duke Ercole had cultivated by training actors “while adding professional scenographers, dancers and singers.”44 The writer Ludovico Ariosto, for one, benefited from having his dramatic texts enhanced by such elaborate staging. For example, the setting of Ariosto’s La Cassaria was Ferrara; in production, Ariosto’s text was amplified by a “mise en scène [that] included a wonderful backdrop depicting the city of Ferrara, the painter having been chosen by competition.”45 This was a fantastic opportunity for the creation of a perspectival scene, and the illusions must have been talked about in Ferrara by audience members and people who serviced the stagecraft alike. As another example, here is a letter from Bernardino Prosperi to Isabella D’Este in which he reports: But the best thing in all these festivals and shows has been the scenery in which they have been performed, which was made by one master Peregrino [Pellegrino da Udine], painter, employed by his Lordship, which was a contraction [or contrada, meaning a small neighborhood] and view of land with houses, churches, towers, belfries and gardens.46

It was a combination of the realism and detail and the “contraction,” or framing of the view, that captured the audience’s attention. Clearly, stagecraft, including the development of splendid scenery and the use of sophisticated costuming, was emphasized in the court of Ferrara, and this inclination would migrate to Mantua with the arrival of Isabella d’Este. Jewish residents of Ferrara, like other city dwellers, must have heard about the spectacles that were being staged in their city. We cannot know the degree to which they had first-​hand knowledge of the actual stage craft. It is possible also that they hear about the staging through hearsay, but it is also possible that indirectly—​in offering help 43 Lorna Hutson, “ ‘Che indizio, che prova …?’ Ariosto’s Legal Conjectures and the English Renaissance Stage,” in Renaissance Drama, n.s. 36/​37 Italy in the Drama of Europe, ed. Albert Russell Ascoli and William N. Next (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2010), 179–​206. 44 Beecher, “Introduction: ‘Erudite’ Comedy in Renaissance Italy,” 9.

45 Beecher, “Introduction: ‘Erudite’ Comedy in Renaissance Italy,” 11.

46 “Ma quello che è stato il meglio in tutte queste feste e representatione, è stato la scena dove se sono representate, quale ha facto uno M.ro Peregrino depinctore, che sta col S.re, che’è una contracta et prospective da una terra cum case, chiese, torre, campanili e zardini.” Bernardino Prosperi to Isabella D’Este quoted by Lorna Hutson in “Che indizio, che prova …?” 179. Hutson translates the word contacta to contraction, but it is possible that the word was actually contrada, which means a small neighborhood. I am grateful to Nicoletta da’Ros for this helpful suggestion.

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48 Beginnings with the scenography, for example—​they may have actually seen some of the effects and settings in Ferrara. There is evidence to suggest that the Jews also took part in theatre-​making in Ferrara. An altarpiece painted in late fifteenth-​century Ferrara holds an important trace of this activity. Originally installed in the Ferrarese Church of San Domenico, the altar piece was painted by Ercole de’ Roberti. One of its panels, called the “Gathering of Manna,” is said to record an actual theatrical enactment of the biblical story of the Jews receiving Manna from God while on their exodus from Egypt.47 The arrangement in the painting recalls a theatre set and raises the possibility that the painting documented an actual performance. As one art historian comments: “The composition of the Gathering of Manna, which in its deep and open space is unusual for Roberti, forcibly recalls theatre sets as they appeared in Ferrara at the time.”48 In other words, the subject of the painting was a theatrical production rather than the artist’s imagination of the biblical story. In the painting as in the theatrical records, the sets included five or six small painted houses placed in a row across the back, forming the scena, and the actors moved in the front on a narrow proscenium. Each of these free-​standing huts had one window and one door, from which the actors entered the proscenium. (Over the years the stages were designed with such uniformity that in 1502 Isabella d’Este referred to this as the “usual arrangement.”)49 As further evidence that the visual depiction depicted a staged production, Manca provides evidence that de’ Roberti’s Gathering of Manna was a representation of a theatrical work because it duplicated the ways in which the setting would have been arranged. For example, the number of the huts and their position behind the actors recalled how the Ferrarese theatre sets functioned. Also, there was a space between the figures and the setting, giving the background the passive, decorative appearance that is characteristic of scenic stage architecture. In other words, rather than reflecting a real or imagined vision of huts, the painting recalls the stage configuration. Finally, Roberti arranged the huts in a perspectival arrangement, rather than facing the central piazza in concentric circles. This arrangement was apparently the same as that of the Ferrarese theatrical huts, in which a single door in each hut faced the audience.50 It is not clear whether it was the Jews of the city who represented themselves in this particular enactment, but it is possible. More directly, we know of two actors named Solomone and Jacopo from Ferrara who were mentioned in a letter by the Gonazaga secretary Mario Equicola to Duke Alfonso 47 Joseph Manca, “Renaissance Theater and Hebraic Ritual,” in Ercole de’ Roberti’s “Gathering of Manna,” Artibus et Historiae 9.17 (1988): 137–​47.

48 “During the 1480s and 1490s the first regular, fully-​staged performances of secular drama since antiquity appeared in Ferrara, beginning with the Menaechmi of Plautus in January, 1486, and continuing with plays by Plautus, Terence, and Ferrarese contemporaries of Roberti, such as the humanist Niccolò da Correggio.” Manca, “Renaissance Theater and Hebraic Ritual,” 137. 49 Manca, “Renaissance Theater and Hebraic Ritual,” 140. 50 Manca, “Renaissance Theater and Hebraic Ritual,” 140.

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d’Este, son of Ercole, dated 1520.51 We don’t know anything about these two men except that they were Jews, as specified when they were referred to as Salamone e Jacopo, ebrei. However, the Duke of Mantua had heard of them or seen them perform, and he requested that they be allowed to travel to Mantua to act there. This indication suggests that by the time they were mentioned in the letter, they were already famous enough based on their participation in previous stagings. Interestingly, it was actors who were being requested, and they were presumably good enough to justify the considerable expense and trouble of bringing them from one state to another.

Isabella D’Este As a Conduit for Theatre-​making Influences Between Ferrara and Mantua

Growing up as the daughter of Ercole I and Eleanor of Naples, Isabella was exposed to dance and music through her father’s patronage of music and theatre, one aspect of which included the employment of a Jewish dancing master.52 This early education in dance, under the supervision of a Jewish dance teacher, proved vitally important for Isabella’s future. The courtly art of dance complemented her Humanist education—​she studied Latin beginning at age six—​paving the way for her development as an intelligent leader and a patron of the arts.53 Dance was seen not only as a marker of elegance but also as an intellectual endeavor, one that reflected on the ideas and philosophy of the court.54 Raised with this understanding, Isabella was well trained in dance, which was one of the relatively few means for a woman to gain access to a degree of power. She used the refined art of dance as a political tool, serving as a pretext to gain the attention of and proximity to influential people.55 Staging dance and theatre performances were an extension of the power women had. As one dance scholar has put it: “While men were the visibly active architects of the political and social order in this period, women were able, through patronage of the arts, directly to stage performances that had social and political impact.”56 Often that meant using dance as a tool in negotiations, allowing 51 See my “Performance as Exchange,” 397 and 411n36. See Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 169n9. 52 See Ludovico Zorzi, Il teatro e la Città: Saggi sulla scena italiana (Turin: Einaudi, 1977).

53 William F. Prizer, “Isabella d’Este and Lucrezia Borgia as Patrons of Music: The Frottola at Mantua and Ferrara,” American Musicological Society 38.1 (1985: Spring): 2. For more on Isabella d’Este as a creative force, see IDEA: Isabella D’Este Archive online created by Deanna Shemek, Anne MacNeil and Daniela Ferrari, and accessible at: idaart.web.unc.edu/​the-​virtual-​studiolo/​. 54 “The dance practice of the elite section of quattrocento Italian society had an intellectual and philosophical framework: it was not just a set of physical skills. The dance masters were fully aware that for dance to be included (through its association with music) in the liberal arts, it had to be understood both on a physical level and at an intellectual level.” Nevile, The Eloquent Body, 2–​3. 55 Nevile, The Eloquent Body, 37–​38.

56 Lynn Matluck Brooks, “Introduction. Women in Dance History, the Doubly Invisible,” in Women’s Work: Making Dance in Europe before 1800, ed. Lynn Matluck Brooks (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2007), 3–​18, 4.

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50 Beginnings women physical access to male leaders in the most literal of ways. This early training in combining art and politics became especially useful when Isabella married Francesco II Gonzaga in 1490 at the age of sixteen, becoming the Marchesa of Mantua. Since Francesco’s service as Captain General of the armies of the Republic of Venice meant that he was frequently in Venice for meetings and elsewhere for military engagements, in his absence, Isabella served as regent, making the day-​to-​day decisions necessary to run her region and bringing an astute sense of politics and diplomacy into her leadership.57 One thing Isabella needed to attend to was the terms on which Jews would be permitted within Mantua, and she combined politics and culture in a unique and lasting way in this regard. The seeds for this approach may have been laid long before, much earlier than her move to Mantua, in her childhood and youth in the cultured court of Ferrara, where Isabella was instructed in dancing by the same Guglielmo Ebreo of Pesaro (1420–​ca. 1484, later converted to Christianity, changing his name to Giovanni Ambrosio) whom I discussed in connection with the performances in Pesaro in 1475.58 As I have already mentioned, Guglielmo Ebreo had also taught dance to Isabella’s mother, Eleanora of Aragon and her sister Beatrice (future queen of Hungary).59 Guglielmo Ebreo’s connection to the first recorded performances of theatre by Jews in Italy has already been highlighted, but his influence on Isabella d’Este amplifies his importance in the story of the developing Jewish tradition of theatre-​making in Northern Italy. It is difficult to determine the extent this early life experience of being taught dance by a Jew in the intimacy of her own home may have positively predisposed Isabella to Jews. At the same time, it is hard to imagine that the interaction did not have a palpable impact. After all, this is a physical and artistic art form that requires attention to the body and that invites close proximity and contact between dancers. It is also an artistic form that Isabella wielded wisely, using it as a means of politics. One wonders if she learned that dual potential of dance from her own teacher. One example from 1496 reflects Isabella and her husband’s largely favorable attitudes towards Jews.60 On this occasion, there is even more to be learned from 57 Isabella served as regent in 1509–​1512 when Francesco was captured, and in 1519, when her son, Federico succeeded Francesco as Duke of Mantua, upon Francesco’s death. For a recent account of Isabella d’Este, see Dennis Looney and Deanna Shemek, ed. Phaethon’s Children: The Este Court and Its Culture in Early Modern Ferrara (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 2005); Barbara Sparti, “Isabella and the Dancing Este Brides, 1473–​1514,” in Women’s Work: Making Dance in Europe before 1800, ed. Lynn Matluck Brooks (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2007)”; Cartwright Ady and July Mary, Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua, Marchioness of Mantua, 1474–​1539: A Study of the Renaissance, vol. 1 (London: Murray, 1907). 58 George R. Marek, The Bed and the Throne: The Life of Isabella d’Este (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 16–​17. Ambrogio himself was a disciple of the dancing master Domenico of Piacenza. See Sparti, “Isabella and the Dancing Este Brides,” 21. 59 Sparti, “Isabella and the Dancing Este Brides,” 23.

60 While in no way always favorable to them, Francesco did protect the Jews in exchange for the considerable advantages of housing them in Mantua. See Bourne’s “The Art of Diplomacy,” 162 and “Mail Humour and Male Sociability,” 73.

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Isabella’s epistolary exchange with her husband, as it reveals much about her approach in communicating with him, her way of dealing with challenging pressures from the Church and, ultimately, her policy towards the Jews. The background of this letter was tumultuous, yet nowhere is there a sense of hysteria or even urgency. At the time, Isabella was serving as regent while Francesco was away. Mantua had just suffered another wave of the plague, and the population was understandably uneasy. At this vulnerable moment, Friar Dominico da Panzone Zenovese, of the Franciscan order, arrived from Venice and began preaching that the plague was a punishment for the state’s harboring of Jews and prostitutes. He called for their immediate expulsion from Mantua. The Friar had arrived fifteen days before Isabella wrote to Francesco. (This was interesting in itself, as it suggests that Isabella did not rush to alert Francesco but took her time assessing the situation before approaching him.) The Friar’s principal objection was to the relative fluidity with which Mantuan Jews lived, and he argued that in Mantua Jews were visually indistinguishable from Christians: “li Zudei non siano notabilmente distincti da li Christiani…  .”61 Grouping the Jews with the prostitutes, he called for the removal of both, as was the case in Venice from whence he had just arrived. In Venice at the time, the rules regulating Jews were more restrictive; Jews could stay in the city for no more than 15 days a year and were forced to wear le brette Zalde (yellow hats) rather than the customary Jewish yellow badge.62 The Venetian restrictions, and their mode of branding the Jews, satisfied this zealous Friar, and 61 Willelmo Braghirolli, “ Isabella d’Este e gli Israeliti a Mantova,” in Rivista Storica Mantovana, 1 (Mantova: Tipo-​Litografico Eredi Segna, 1885), 184. All translations, unless otherwise credited, are my own. Notice the use of the word for “Jews” is zudei (Venetian and northern Italian dialect) which, like giudei (used in other Italian dialects), carries a more pejorative sense when compared with ebrei. Giudei derived from Yehudah, or the tribe of Yehuda and “Yehudim” by which Jews were known around the time of the Christian era. But it also connotes Judah and the betrayal of Jesus. Ebrei more directly corresponds to the Hebrew word ‫( עברי‬Hebraic). So that today, the term Ebraica or Israelitica is preferred to giudei when designating Jewish origin or cultural affiliation.

62 Before 1516 this was the case. A Senate decree of 1516 stipulated that since there were already several decrees forbidding the Jews from staying in Venice for more than fifteen days a year, and given that there was a need for the Jews to be in Venice, they are ordered to live in the Geto [Ghetto] at San Hieronimo. See “The ‘Geto at San Hieronimo’, 1516 From a Senate decree of March 29, 1516” republished in David Chambers, ed. Brian Pullan with Jennifer Fletcher, Venice: A Documentary History 1450–​1630 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), 338.

In Italy, Jews wore a distinguishing mark on their clothing from as early as the thirteenth century. See A History of Jewish Costumes, Alfred Rubens (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1973, rpt. 1967, 85). Also on the Jews and the Venetian ghetto, see the works of Benjamin Ravid, for example “Curfew Time in the Ghetto of Venice,” in Medieval and Renaissance Venice, ed. Ellen E. Kittell and Thomas F. Madden (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999), 237–​75 and also Benjami Ravid, “From Yellow to Red: On the Distinguishing Head-​Coverings of the Jews of Venice,” Jewish History 6 (1992): 179–​210.

While Sumptuary laws, limiting dress and other forms of ostentatious consumption can be traced back to the seventh century BC in Greece, the visual branding of Jews and Christians traces later, to ninth-​century Muslim rule in Iraq, where Jews were compelled to wear a yellow badge. In this way, the tradition of banding Jews with a yellow “Judenhut” (yellow ring), which ultimately

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52 Beginnings he advocated that the same policy be adopted in Mantua, which appeared to him too lenient in its dealings with Jews. It was against this turbulent backdrop that Isabella wrote to her husband, but when she wrote, she did not seek his advice but rather suggested a solution. She explained to Francesco that the Friar was preaching that the plague came because in their city the Jews were undistinguishable from Christians (“et che li Zudei non siano notabilmente distincti da li Christiani… ”) since they were not wearing very visible signs on their clothing.63 For the Friar, the Jews’ branding was not visible enough. Since the Middle Ages, Jews had been required to wear a visual marker of their difference, often known as a “Jewish badge,” on their garments or in the form of a hat, but the sign they were wearing was apparently too subtle for the Friar. Rather than capitulating to these incitements, Isabella took matters into her own hands by suggesting a solution that took its cues from Venice but was more accommodating to the Jews. Isabella likely adopted this strategy because she knew of her husband’s familiarity with Venetian policy, given Francesco’s frequent residences there. Venice’s way of dealing with the issue resulted in forcing all but a few Jews to leave; those allowed to remain were permitted not to wear any distinguishing badges such as “le brette Zalde” (yellow hats). In Venice, these “allowed” Jews could stay in Venice for no more than fifteen days a year.64 For Mantua, Isabella suggested an alternative solution. (And, in fact, even in Venice, the policy changed in 1516 with the creation of the Ghetto.) Isabella proposed that the Jewish badge, which was in the shape of an “O,” be worn a bit higher than it had been before—​that is, not lower in the chest but along the shoulder. This small adjustment was considerably better for Jews who might otherwise have been forced to leave town or to wear a yellow hat. Isabella even suggested to Francesco that they not bother the “Giudei” (the Jews) who were already excused from wearing the badge by former policy and suggested that they notify only those Jews who were required to wear the badge. In other words, no new badges were mandated, no Jews were expelled, and the solution seems almost perfunctory, almost an insult to the demands of the Friar. The difference between Isabella’s handling of the Jews and her dealings with the meretrice (prostitutes) could not be more striking. With regards to the prostitutes, Isabella capitulated completely to the Friar’s demands: the prostitutes were expelled from Mantua. What accounts for this difference? Why was Isabella willing to take a different stance regarding the Jews than she took with the prostitutes? Why did she dare take a different tack than the great state of Venice? lead to the yellow star Nazi Germany imposed on Jews, was originally imported by Medieval Europe around 1215 from an Islamic state.

63 Letter by Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantova, in 1496 to her husband Francesco II Gonzaga, who was away from Mantua at war, forcing Isabella to serve as Regent in his absence. Braghirolli, “Isabella d’Este e gli Israeliti a Mantova,” 184. The essay is available online through google books (http://​books.goo​gle.com). More information on this letter can be found in Salo, A Social and Religious History, 332n34. 64 Salo, A Social and Religious History, 332n34.

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One possible answer is that while her husband’s dealings were often greatly influenced by Venetian policy, Isabella took her cues from another city-​state—​Ferrara. Hers was a politically strategic move, informed by Ferrara’s attitudes that were welcoming to Jews, especially Ponentine (Spanish and Portuguese) Jews, who potentially brought with them considerable wealth. In this atmosphere, visible demarcations of Jews and Christians were not prioritized. As one scholar puts it: “In the remarkably open atmosphere of the Este court, which offered these artists its patronage, the need to distinguish between Christians and Jews through outward signs did not seem pressing.”65 Another reflection of this cultural openness is found in artworks from the time. When Ferrarese Jews commissioned Christian artists such as those in the circles of Cosmè Tura and Ercole Roberti (to whom I shall return shortly) to depict themselves, the Jews appear no different from Christians in clothing, jewelry or hair styles.66 The Ferrarese model: pragmatic inclusion of Jews influenced Isabella’s later policy in Mantua. Furthermore, in a postscript to the letter, Isabella d’Este off-​handedly remarked to Francesco that she assumed she should not even bother the Giudei who were excused from wearing this sign in the first place. Isabella d’Este’s adroitness reflects an ability to both pragmatically safeguard the Jews and at the same time conduct power without appearing to reinforce it beyond her husband’s will. Her maneuver here is instructive regarding the approaches that would be taken by subsequent Gonzaga rulers who were, after all, Isabella’s heirs. Like her, their relatively pragmatic handling of the Jews stands out when compared with other leaders on the Italian Peninsula, especially given the unique economic regulations that stipulated Jewish artistic output as a form of payment to the Gonzaga.67

Early Theatre-​Making by the Jews of Mantua

Claudia Burattelli dedicates a full chapter to the story of Jewish theatre production in early modern Mantua, which she sees as exceptional within the Renaissance. As she compellingly puts it: Theater was therefore a very particular sciman [sign] which distinguished the Jews of Mantua in the Renaissance. Whether it had the value of a burden or a privilege, it was above all the sign of a specificity, of a sort of distinction of the Università of Mantua not so much from the surrounding Christian world, but from its own socio-​cultural horizon of belonging.68

65 Hughes, “Distinguishing Signs,” 16. 66 Hughes, “Distinguishing Signs,” 16.

67 It is furthermore interesting to note that in her youth in Ferrara, Isabella d’Este cultivated her love of dancing. Her dance master and teacher was a Jew named Ambrogio. Braghirolli, “Isabella d’Este e gli Israeliti a Mantova,” 183.

68 “Quello del teatro fu dunque uno sciman del tutto particolare che contraddistinse gli ebrei di Mantova nel Rinascimento. Che avesse il valore di un gravame o di un privilegio, fu innanzitutto il segno di una specificità, di una sorta di distinzione dell’ Università mantovana non tanto dal mondo

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54 Beginnings Using the Hebrew word sciman (sign), Burattelli signals the uniqueness of the Jewish community for whom theatre was such a distinctive part of negotiating their difference within a Christian world. As she makes clear, that specificity of experience that theatre afforded to the Jews of Mantua made them aware of their own uniqueness and distinctiveness from other Jewish communities in the Italian Peninsula in the Renaissance. The extent of participation in theatre for the Mantuan Jews was vast and really unequalled: playwriting, costuming, performing, producing, and funding. It was, indeed, both a burden and a privilege, a signal of their own uniqueness among a population (of Jews) who were already different from their Christian counterparts. In Mantua, productions in the early sixteenth century continued the Pesaro practice of having the Jews conveniently fund entertainment for the benefit of local rulers. The year 1520 provides the first extant evidence of Mantuan Jewish performance, when Jewish actors were requested in Mantua for a production in honor of Marchese Federico II Gonzaga’s accession. Federico’s secretary, Mario Equicola, contacted the Duke of Ferrara, asking that the Duke send Jewish actors, “Salamone e Jacopo ebrei,” to help with the Mantuan celebration.69 Interestingly, at this point, the Mantuan theatre scene was at least partly dependent on Ferrara. It is also telling that it was specifically actors who were requested from the Jews of Ferrara. It is hard to generalize from such few examples, but the evidence reflects that in these first decades of theatrical production the Jews of Pesaro were strong especially in scenographic and dance contributions and that the Jews of Ferrara’s strength lay in acting ability. Mantua benefited both from these cities and from the different areas of expertise. In the Mantua of 1525, Ferrarese actors were once again requested to perform at the Mantuan court, and this was to be done at their own expense and the Jewish Community of Mantua’s expense.70 These early performances by the Jewish community were both tributary and normative, and they reflected a growing reliance on Jewish talent, be it scenographic or performative.71 They also say something about the way in which Christians regarded Jews as part of a Northern Italian network of talent that could be interchangeably used within a single production. Increasingly, this talent was “contracted” in Mantua by the Mantuan Jewish community, which coordinated the theatrical events and had the ability to draw on local regional talent to enhance productions. Mantua was becoming a hub of Jewish theatrical activity. Up until this point, all of the performances I have documented took place in the courts. These were high-​stakes productions that were costly and that fulfilled a cristiano circostante, ma dal suo stesso orizzonte socio-​culturale di appartenenza.” Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 143. 69 Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange,” 397 and 411n36.

70 Iain Fenlon, Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-​ Century Mantua (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 40–​41. Roth records that for the celebration, the literary assistant, acting on Ercole’s behalf, wrote to his former patron the Duke of Ferrara asking him to send to Mantua the Jewish actors “Solomone and Jacopo ebrei.” Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance, 248. 71 Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance, 248.

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tributary function. Simultaneously, something very different began to happen in Mantua in the 1520s when Jews started to perform in private Christian homes, away from court. These performances were entertainments during Carnival season. For example, in 1525 Vincenzo de’ Preti, the Ducal secretary to Isabella d’Este, wrote to her from Mantua while she was away, in Rome. Fulfilling his reporting duties, he described a performance that was planned for the following day (February 25): Tomorrow there will be another comedy also in the house of the children of the late Sir Zoanne, that will be recited by the Jews, based on their own composition: and as such we will pass this bit of carnival.72

He mentions the same house in letters that are dated 20 and 27 of February, 1525. On some of these occasions, the performances were given by Jewish actors and on others they were by Christians. For example, on February 27, he mentioned the performance of a comedy which was set to be performed in the same house (that of the late Sir Zoanne) by performers who were not identified as either Jewish or non-​Jewish.73 On yet another night, de’ Preti described a comedy by the Roman playwright Plautus that pleased the audience.74 There does not seem to be anything particularly unusual about the combination of Jewish and Christian performers, nor is there anything especially distinguished about the location of Ser Zoanne’s house. In fact, de Preti’s remark about the space being not very big (“no fosse molto grande”) emphasizes the ordinariness of the private residence, which Ser Zoanne’s heirs made available to performers during Carnival. Taken together, the fact that the enactment was done during the Catholic Carnival season, as well as the fact that the children of the late Ser Zoanne were likely not Jews, makes clear that, in the 1520s, performances by Jews were done for Christian audiences outside of the Court. De’ Preti’s mention of many recurrent performances suggests that there was nothing too extraordinary about Jewish participation in these performances. The casualness of the setting, in a private home, made the Mantuan Jewish performances strikingly different from the Pesaro spectacles. In Mantua, at this early part of the century, Jewish performances were normalized within a framework that often included both Jews and Christians. The Jewish performances during Catholic Carnival echo performances that Jews held within their own community. There, Jews did not stage elaborate spectacles. They had 72 “Domani si farà una altra comedia pur a casa delli figlioli del q.m s.r Zoanne, quale recitaràno li Judei, per esser anche per loro composta: et cosi spassaremo questo poco Carnevale.” ASMn, AG, b. 2506, c. 267. The letter, dated February 24, 1525, is also published by Alessandro D’Ancona in Origini del Teatro Italiano, vol. 2 (Turin: Ermanno Loescher, 1891), 398. There is a slight variation in the spelling of some of the words, and I have used the original spelling from the document itself. Roth suggests the performance may have been based on a Purim spiel. The holiday of “Purim,” during the Hebrew month of Adar, being the one time during the Jewish calendar in which theatrical enactments were allowed. In contrast, Simonsohn suggests it was an original play in History of the Jews, 657. See also Fenlon, Music and Patronage, 41. 73 ASMn, AG, b. 2506, c. 269. 74 ASMn, AG, b. 2506, c. 266.

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56 Beginnings no reason to do so, as there were no Jewish lords or kings to pay tribute to. There were times in which it was appropriate and even necessary to create plays and performances, as entertainments for weddings and for the Jewish holiday of Purim, which is a winter holiday. For these occasions, the Jews would have relied on a single “badhan” or “letzin” (as mentioned in my previous chapter), if they included any theatrical entertainment at all. For the Jewish Community of Mantua, the Carnival enactments in Christian homes were more akin to what they would have provided within their own community. When they performed for the Gonzaga, they needed to rely on other traditions and on the examples of Pesaro and Ferrara. If Jewish acting skills were honed by Jews over decades and centuries of “badhan” or “letzin” work, which was cultivated since the Middle Ages for wedding performances, the mounting of full plays was certainly a new venture for them. Their doing so was limited to the Christian weddings and Carnival, with the exception of the Jewish holiday of Purim or the single-​performer model incorporated in the wedding dances and “letzin” performances. The theatre Jews in Ferrara and Mantua were developing a skill that relied on a limited aspect of their own tradition’s merrymaking. Whatever abilities they amassed in creating theatrical events had to have been cultivated in greater part from outside their own communal experience. It is plausible that Jews had seen theatre by attending Christian theatrical productions. Otherwise, how would they have known what a theatre production entailed? Therefore, it is likely that the very foundation of Jewish theatre-​making in Mantua (as well as Pesaro, Ferrara, and elsewhere at this early stage) is premised on Jews having participated in or at least seen theatre-​making within the secular or Christian context. This is important to how we consider Jews as possible spectators in late Medieval Theatre, something that is not often studied or mentioned but that deserves more scholarly work.75 It is not likely that Jews were present at court performances as guests. However, knowing something about the kinds of theatre made in these Northern Principalities in the early sixteenth century suggests productions that may have been talked about by the craftsmen, funders and service support that made them possible in the first place. Notably, in Ferrara in 1529, a court banquet attended by Crostoforo da Messisbugo featured Bergamasque and Venetian style comedy, featuring at least one female performer.76 Carnival performances in Christian homes were not the only way Jews in Mantua made theatre in the early sixteenth century. Jews also honored and paid tribute to the Gonzaga when they staged plays during marriage festivities. For example, the Jews performed in 1549 for the marriage of Duke Francesco and Caterina, niece of Emperor Charles V.77 In 1554, two community members, Jacob Sullam and Samuel Shalit, were 75 Guynn, Chaganti, and Jaffe-​Berg, “Institutional Frameworks.”

76 M. A. Katritzky, The Art of Commedia: A Study in the Commedia dell’arte 1560–​1620 with Special Reference to the Visual Records (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006), 36–​37n49. 77 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 657.

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charged with preparing another elaborate production.78 On this occasion, the Jewish production was notably costly because of the actors’ costumes.79 Both performances had a narrator explaining what was said in German for the benefit of the German guests.80 D’Ancona provides the following description of the performance on August 7, 1549, staged for the celebrations of the wedding of Francesco III Gonzaga and Catherine of Habsburg, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I (a marriage that was to last only four months because Francesco drowned): The entertainment seems to have been of a pair of comedies, as there is not a more appropriate location than the Palazzo della Raggione, which is lower. Of the two performances, one was designated to be performed by our actor group from Mantua, and the other by the Jews. Therefore, in order to make sure that for the German gentlemen things would not be too boring, or too wordy, having to sit through a long performance without understanding the language, it was thought to add other elements such as intermedes with music, morescas, and other similar pastimes, that could act by act make use of a person who would explain and summarize in their language [German] that which is being said and done in each act. Knowing that, it will be less difficult to understand with the help of gestures and movements, what is said, even if the language is not understood in full.81

From this description, it is clear that the Jewish company (as well as the other Mantuan group) needed to use what has been termed “eloquent action” in its embodied use of gestures and movements in order to be make itself understood by audience members who did not speak Italian.82 Furthermore, in order to support being entertaining and understood, the performances made use of intermedi and moresche, both of which relied on music and dance, arguably universal in their expressiveness and easy to understand. These were also performance elements that had long been cultivated by the Jews in 78 Simonsohn notes that for the 1554 production Jacob Sullam and Samuel Shalit directed and were heads of community. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 657. 79 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 657n274.

80 See Herla, Segnatura C-​2705, ASMn, AG, b. 199 cc. 105–​14. The Castellano (keeper of the castle) wrote to Annibale Litolfi describing the productions scheduled for the Palazzo della Ragione.

81 L’inertenimento pare che possa essere di un paro di Comedie, nel che non vi è luogo al proposito più di quel Palazzo della Ragione, essendo basso. Di queste due, si è dissegnato di farne recitare una a’nostri recitanti di Mantova, e l’altra a gli Hebrei. Nel che, per fare che a quei signori tedeschi la cosa non venga in fastidio, dovendo stare ad una dicerìa così longa, senza intenderne parola, s’è pensato oltre gli intermedj di musiche, moresche et altri simili passatempi, che si potrà, d’atto in atto far venire una persona che in lingua loro dichiari sommariamente quel che si avrà da dire et da fare in quell’atto. Il che sapendosi, è poi manco difficile comprendere da gesti et movimenti quel che si dica, se ben la lingua non s’intenda cosi a pieno (D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, 2:401–​2).

82 I am making use of the terms “eloquent action” which Matthew Buckley applies to the physical performances of the early commedia dell’arte performers. Buckley emphasizes that gestures in this context were “almost hieroglyphic” in their capacity to serve as instruments of expression. Matthew Buckley, “Eloquent Actions: The Body and Meaning in Early Commedia dell’arte,” Theatre Survey 50.2 (November 2009): 251.

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58 Beginnings Pesaro, Ferrara, and Mantua. These mid-​century performances, however, added another element to the Mantuan Jewish performances. This marked the first time in Mantua that the Jews incorporated as lavish a spectacle as Jews in Pesaro had relied on nearly a century earlier. The moresche were not just dances; they were part of spectacles in and of themselves. “[M]‌oresche were more than private entertainments. They were elaborate stage shows with sumptuous costumes and opportunities for display.”83 That meant that they often included elaborate makeup and costumes, which made use of expensive fabrics such as silk.84 The performances collectively made use of elaborate costuming, which was clearly one of the main sources of appeal to the viewing audiences. This, too, was a new element in the performance of the Jews of Mantua that had less to do with acting ability (as had been the hallmark of the Jewish actors imported from Ferrara) and relied instead on stagecraft.

Mantuan Performances by the Jews and Scenic Innovations

As the Jewish Mantuan theatre-​makers developed their craft increasingly in the sixteenth century, they added costuming and dance to their work. By the middle of the sixteenth century, another element was added—​scenic design. When the Jews were asked by the Gonzaga to perform during state visits by important guests—​for example, for the arrival of the Austrian Archdukes Rodolfo and Ernest in 1563—​it was stage designs that made the theatre performances memorable to eyewitnesses. On this occasion, the Jewish Università produced Ariosto’s I Suppositi (The Pretenders) for the Austrian guests. Evidently, “it was recited very well, and the musical intermedi that were heard were excellent, and above all they viewed a very beautiful set with admirable perspective and lighting.”85 The scenic elements (prospettive mirabili) of the performance were singled out.86 For one, the many lights (molti lumi) incorporated in the performance were noticed with approbation. As the selection of I suppositi by the Università demonstrates, the plays performed by the Jews were not in any way derogatory towards Jews, nor were there necessarily “Jewish.” What began to be associated with the Jews was the ability to create elaborate visual spectacles, drawing on magnificent costumes and elaborate settings. While Leone de’ Sommi’s name is not specifically mentioned in connection with this performance, it is likely that he had a hand in its production. The singling out of the use of lights is one indication of this. In his Dialoghi, which I will examine in greater detail in the next chapter, De’ Sommi takes great care to discuss the importance of lighting and 83 Nevile, The Eloquent Body, 33.

84 Nevile, The Eloquent Body, 33–​34.

85 “E fu dita molto bene, e si sentirona concerti per intermedj eccellentissimi, e sopra tutto si vide una molto bella scena con prospettive mirabili, e carica di lumi.” D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, 2:402. D’Ancona is quoting from Relazione di un viaggio da Trento a Milano fatto nel 1563 dagli Arciduchi d’Austria ecc. nell’Archivio Trentino (Trento: Mariotti, 1889, year 8, p. 83). 86 Herla, Segnatura L-​266, Trento Biblioteca Comunale Ms. 2297, doc. 74, c. 96r. The letter was written on December 18, 1563.

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strategies for cost-​effective use of lighting on stage. In 1563 De’ Sommi would have been a 36-​year-​old man, in many ways in his prime, both in terms of experience and in having high energy. In 1567 De’ Sommi petitioned the Duke for permission to manage a room dedicated to performances, indicating his engagement in theatre-​making during in these years, another suggestion that he would have taken part in the important staging a year earlier. By 1568 the Jews of Mantua were requested to learn lines for another play, le due fulvie by Faroni with the involvement of Tasso, to be recited during Carnival evening.87 The fact that the annual performances by the Jews were a recurrent event, together with the fact that they had high production values, has led scholars such as Iain Fenlon to conclude: [T]‌here is an impressive series of documents suggesting that the Jewish Università (the name bestowed on the community when it was reconstituted in 1511) maintained a permanent troupe of actors whose principal function was to present plays at court, particularly during the carnival season and at special festivities.88

Burattelli reaffirms this, suggesting that the Jewish community contained a stable theatre group “una ‘équipe’ teatrale relativamente stabile.”89 I would add that in addition to the theatre troupe of performers, evidence suggests that the Jews functioned as a unit of professional theatre-​makers or contractors by the 1560s in that they were developing not only a cadre of actors but also of writers, directors, and scenographers (costume makers, set makers and lighting experts) to help in the overall staging praxis. The frequency of performances up to the 1560s, along with the fact that the Jews performed in a variety of venues, including private Christian homes where non-​Jewish troupes also performed, reflects an ongoing collaborative artistic exchange between the Jewish and Christian theatre-​makers of Mantua. While the performances were always provided as a tribute to the Gonzaga, the range of settings, as well as their mixed, Christian-​Jewish nature, contrasts with what emerged later, as the performances became more carefully administrated by the Gonzaga and as the practice of performance as payment became more central. What accounts for this relative fluidity in theatre-​making among the Jews and Christians in this early part of the sixteenth century? On some level, it was due to the leadership at this point, which was Federico II Gonzaga (1500–​1540), ruling first as Marquis (1500–​1519) and then as Duke (1519–​1540). Federico II was the son of Francesco II Gonzaga and Isabella d’Este, and husband to Margaret Palaeologina (whom he married in 1531), with whom they had several children, including Guglielmo. His mother, Isabella, served as regent from 1519 until he came of age, with Sigismondo and Giovanni Gonzaga aiding her, and Federico II received the imperial investiture from Charles V on April 7, 1521. One of the reasons this period is marked by a permissive attitude to Jews is connected to the usefulness of Jews to Federico II as a ruler. In 1522, 87 D’Ancona, Origini del Teatro, 2:402. 88 Fenlon, Music and Patronage, 41.

89 Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 156.

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60 Beginnings during the Battle of Bicocca, in part of what was known as the Italian war of 1521–​1526, Federico II led Papal forces together with a Spanish Neapolitan army in a war for control over Milan, which was in the hands of France.90 This venture was funded in part by the Jews.91 Here, we see a legacy of Isabella’s own pragmatic and opportunistic attitude towards the Jews, with mutual benefits ensuing from the arrangement. Thereafter, Federico conceded many additional rights to the Jews, including letting the bankers have more expansive lending and pawning abilities, allowing the Jews in the region not to wear the Jewish badge, and permitting tax concessions to the cloth merchants. Even the fines for intercourse between Jews and Christians (set at 25 ducats) were relatively relaxed considering the Church’s prohibition.92 Federico II was also noted for his vast artistic patronage, salient among which was the initiation of building on the Palazzo Te in 1527. “The Te,” as it is known, had a lasting importance both for the visual arts and for theatre, as performances were often staged there. Federico II’s own proclivities for such patronage were no doubt stoked by his mother and by his own experiences as an audience member. Notably, on a visit to Venice in 1520 he was privy to a performance by one of the Compagnie della Calza (Companies of the Hose). These were Patrician, festive brotherhoods known for using colorful hose with which the famous writer and performer Angelo Beolco, known by his stage persona of Ruzante, performed.93 It is tempting to leave the history of Jews and theatre-​making at this early period to a few paragraphs and move on to the heights reached in the 1560s and subsequent periods. But the 1540s were actually very important in laying the foundation for what would flower in the 1560s and 1580s with Leone de’ Sommi. Ercole Gonzaga is an indispensable figure for this period, and he did indeed play a leading role in cultivating the possibility of creating an island of calm amidst a brewing storm. The Council of Trent, whose meetings began in 1540 and would last until 1563, would wreak havoc on Jewish life, leading to the banning of books and the disruption of many routines. The Mantuan safe haven, where books were not banned, indexed, or burned but where publishing flourished, stood in contrast to what was happening elsewhere on the peninsula. Even the textual expurgations of the Talmud and other Jewish texts would not occur until much later in the century, and still meant that the texts were not burned but could remain in the hands of Jews.94 The 1540s are also the period of Serlio’s attention to scenography, and this has an impact, too, on the ways in which Jews used theatre as a basis for interaction with the 90 Thomas James Dandelet, The Renaissance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 43.

of

91 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 112.

92 See Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 112.

Empire

in

Early

Modern

Europe

93 On this, see Linda L. Carroll, Commerce, Peace and the Arts in Renaissance Venice: Ruzante and the Empire at Center Stage (London: Routledge, 2016), 8, 63. 94 Baruchson-​Arbib, La Culture Livresque des Juifs d’Italie.

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ruling Christian leaders. The fact that Jewish dancing masters were also musicians, and that they worked often in the home of Christians, may account for the relative fluidity with which the tradition of theatre-​making adopted the similar habit of having performers in the private homes of Christians during Carnival time.95 Don Harrán gives evidence of a Jewish harpist performing in a private home in Mantua in February of 1542.96 Abramo dall’arpa, Abramo Levi, was known as ha-​menagen mi-​Mantova (the musician of Mantua), and he also taught dancing.97 Upon Abramo’s death, the Italian playwright Luigi Groto was commissioned to write a lamentation poem by a woman named Rosa Levi, whom Groto suggests is Abramo’s sister but Harrán contends could not have been. Rosa, too, took a hand in the arts, only in her case it was in poetry.98 In this instance, the fact that the dancers of the moresca were well-​costumed and masked—​the performance was noted “per gli habiti” (for the costumes)—​reflects on the moment as transitional, in that Jews in the middle of the sixteenth century were relying more on the costumes and spectacle of performance.99 It may be that the Jews were influenced by what they saw as a notable aspect of the performances, the costuming. At this point, as we shall see, the focus for the Jews in their own performances changed and the performances were noted for their scenography and costuming (their mise en scène), revealing that the Jewish community was developing hallmarks that made it uniquely desirable and distinguished within the vast array of theatre-​and performance-​ making in Mantua at the time. Abramo’s son, Daniel Levi dall’ Arpa (or Daniele) was also a musician and a dance master.100 His story illustrates how much of an advantage there could be for a Jewish performer. Apparently, he had forged monetary notes and was incarcerated for it. However, because his services as an actor were needed for a performance, he was released.101 This anecdote reflects the tremendous reliance that the Dukes had on the Jewish performers. Indeed, Daniele’s son, Abramino continued the tradition of performing, and thereby was the third generation of performer in this family. Harrán notes that Abramino was a creative partner in many a performance, for which he was well-​paid.102 This cross-​generational performance tradition is interesting and marks the evolution and continuity of Jewish performance-​makers in theatre, music, and dance. 95 For this fluidity in Venice, see Don Harrán, “Madonna Bellina, ‘astounding’ Jewish Musician in mid-​Sixteenth-​Century Venice,” Renaissance Studies 22:1 (February 2008): 16–​40. 96 Don Harrán, “The Levi Dynasty: Three Generations of Jewish Musicians in Sixteenth-​Century Mantua,” in Rabbi Judah Moscato and the Jewish Intellectual World of Mantua in the 16th–​17th Centuries, ed. Giuseppe Veltri and Gianfranco Miletto (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 162–​63. 97 He taught the sons of Charles the V’s brother Ferdinand. Harrán, “The Levi Dynasty,” 165. 98 Harrán, “The Levi Dynasty,” 167. She converted in 1565. 99 Quoted in Harrán, “The Levi Dynasty,” 163. 100 Harrán, “The Levi Dynasty,” 170. 101 Harrán, “The Levi Dynasty,” 171.

102 Harrán, “The Levi Dynasty,” 172–​74.

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62 Beginnings The multi-​generational performance tradition that was already established by the middle of the sixteenth century within the Jewish community was one of the ways that the Pesaro beginnings had drifted north-​westward and had influenced Mantua. What had started out as a tributary performance had ripened into a well-​established tradition that had financial implications. It also meant that, increasingly, in Mantua, theatre was being used as a form of cultural exchange between the Jewish and Christian communities. The stage was now set for the arrival of a figure who would in many ways embody possibilities of interchange and reciprocity at a level that could not have been foreseen by the early Jewish performers in Pesaro.

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Chapter 3

A CANNY THEATRICAL INTERMEDIARY

In the summer of 1588, Leone de’ Sommi set off from his home in Mantua to Piedmont. The distance, which covers over 280 kilometers, was not simple to traverse, even in summer, due to the hilly, rugged terrain. The journey was less than comfortable, given the number of mosquitos that multiplied during spring and summer in the often-​ flooded agricultural lands between Lombardy and Piedmont. When he left his home, he did not know how long it would be until he would return to it. In fact, he would be gone for several weeks, and, while his journey ended in his safe return, it was not without its price. The circumstances of De’ Sommi’s departure suggest the immense pressures that undergirded his extraordinary success, and so I begin the story of De’ Sommi near the end of his life, in June of 1588, as he made his way to Piedmont. Early summer of 1588 was a tense time for the Jews of Mantua. They had been asked to recite a play for the new Duke, Vincenzo, in honor of his birthday. Duke Vincenzo’s father, Guglielmo, had died the year before, and his son was a new ruler and very much an unknown quotient. For the Jewish community, much would be riding on their first production. Theatre functioned as an opportunity to impress the new Duke and secure his protection, a key to cementing a relationship between the Gonzaga and the Jewish population in general. Therefore, the Jewish community understandably approached preparations for the requested play with utmost seriousness, relying on the talents and organizational abilities of De’ Sommi. With that in mind, De’ Sommi’s departure from Mantua in early summer is all the more surprising. Why would he ever want to leave Mantua at such a critical moment? The answer lies in the Turin state archives, in documents from a few years later, just after De’ Sommi had died, in 1592. These documents reveal De’ Sommi’s connection to a Piedmont Jewish resident called Moyse Melli (sometimes spelled Moisé Melli), an agento eletto (elected agent, otherwise known as a massaro) in the Piedmont Jewish community.1 Melli owned at least one book written by De’ Sommi, a fact that doesn’t tell us much about their relationship—​how close they were or if they even knew each other. But in these years, owning a book could be dangerous, and that was exactly the case for Melli and De’ Sommi’s piece of writing. The political context of Piedmont is important for understanding the circumstances of De’ Sommi’s arrival there. Within Piedmont was the region of Casale Monferrato (found 60 or so kilometers east of Turin). Casale Monferrato was independent from the 1 See letter of December 4, 1582, from Turin. AST Patenti Controllo Finance, vol. 40, fols. 58r–​59v; Privileggi et capitoli, 46–​52. Published as Document # 1334, 631 in Segre, The Jews in Piedmont, 2: 1582–​1723 (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and Tel Aviv University, 1988). Piedmont/​Savoy included the town of Casale Monferrato, which had a large Jewish community and was also under Gonzaga control (in 1536) for part of its history.

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64 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary Piedmont Dukes, a marquisate controlled by Guglielmo Gonzaga, who was made Duke of Mantua and Monferrato in 1575 by Emperor Rudolph II.2 Due to its Gonzaga control and its strategic placement as a crossroads between Piedmont and the remainder of the Italian Peninsula, Casale Monferrato was a problem for the expansionist desires of the Duke of Savoy. It also had a Jewish community with roots reaching back to the early fourteenth century, when Jews who had been expelled from France settled there and in other parts of Piedmont. This meant that the Duke of Savoy’s designs on Casale Monferrato influenced his treatment of and attitude towards Jews. While the Duke tolerated the Jews, providing them charters that enabled them to have a livelihood in the region, in other ways he was less permissive. Notably, just before his marriage in 1585 to the Infanta Caterina (Catherine Michelle of Spain), second daughter of King Philip II of Spain, the Duke pursued a policy of stringent Jewish surveillance, perhaps to appeal to the King of Spain. In a letter dated October 10, 1584, the Duke promised to reform his actions, especially with regard to his tolerance of the Jews (specialmente nella cosa degli hebrei).3 A few weeks later, on October 25, 1584, the Duke mandated that Jews wear the yellow badge and that they limit the interest they charge.4 In this atmosphere of increased surveillance, it is not surprising that various Jewish residents, including Melli, would have had their livelihood questioned and their households inspected if they were suspected of expressing anti-​Christian sentiments. Books were among the household objects that invited careful inquisitorial scrutiny, and it appears Melli had a collection of these expensive items, including the work by De’ Sommi. We have no evidence of which title was the pernicious one that led to an investigation on January 19, 1592. Melli came under scrutiny when the Infanta refused to confirm his privileges “because of the chapter and title of blasphemous and bad writing” (per il capo e titolo della scrittura maledicta et blansfema).5 The Infanta was a shrewd political player, and the inquiry may have been a pretext belying the economic motivations behind the harassment. It is likely that the investigation had more to do with the terms under which Melli’s business privileges were confirmed. He was an influential community leader and often took part in negotiations on behalf of the Jews. The matter of Melli’s wrongful blasphemy was not easily resolved, and a few days later, Melli was held for interrogation by the Inquisition because of “heretical work which was found in his home.” Ultimately, however, the Infanta freed him from harassment and future Inquisitorial investigations because the work was “allegedly not in his handwriting” but rather in De’ Sommi’s. Specifically, the document states: 2 Grendler, The University of Mantua, 10–​11.

3 Segre, The Jews in Piedmont, Document # 1358, 643. Segre takes the source from B. Ambr. M. F. 70 Inf., fol. 277v.

4 Segre, The Jews in Piedmont, Document # 1360, 644. The source is AST Editti stampati, mazzo 2; A. Seg. Vat., Nunziatura di Savoia, reg. 13, fol. 593r. I.R.V.T. Fondo Ghetto, cartella 2.

5 Archivio di Stato di Turino (AST), Protocolli Ducali. Serie di Corte, reg. 248, fols. 133r–​137r; Patenti Controllo Finanze, vol. 54, fols. 745–​75r. Published in Segre, The Jews in Piedmont, Document # 1519, 741–​42.

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For reason of having a piece of writing discovered in his house, among various compositions and writings, made by Leone Sommi the Jew, which the investigator assumed contained blasphemies, curses and errors, against which Melli defended himself saying he did neither see nor write it, alleging also that it do not contain any blasphemies or curses against our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and the blessed Virgin Mary his mother, but against a Jesus of ours [or, Nostri] who was living in the time of the Maccabies, many years before the arrival of Christ.6 Per causa d’una scrittura in casa sua fra diverse compositioni et scritti d’un fu Leone Sommi pure hebreo ritrovata, la quale il fisco presuponeva contenesse blasfemie, maleditioni et errori, contra la qual però si defendeva il Melli di non averla ne vista ne composta, allegando anco non contenersi in quella blasfemie alcune ne maleditioni contra il Salvator nostro Giesu Christo et la beatissima Vergine Maria sua madre, ma contra un Giesu Nostri stato al tempo de’ Macabei, molti anni Avanti l’avenimento di Christo.

By this point, De’ Sommi had already died, and Melli may have had fewer compunctions about blaming him and his writing in order to save himself, although it is notable that he explained, apparently in convincing enough terms, that the writings in question were not blasphemous because they mentioned a man named Giesu Nostri who lived many years before the coming of Christ during the time of the Macabees.7 With this defense, it appears, Melli was eventually freed, following De’ Sommi’s appearance before the Inquisition and aided by Melli’s payment of 1,000 crosoni. These earlier circumstances made it necessary for De’ Sommi to leave his home in Mantua at the critical moment of the summer months of 1588 and travel to Piedmont.8 As of June 26, 1588, an archived letter details the Mantuan Jews’ state of limbo, as they were still awaiting Leone’s return.9 On the first of July, they wrote again, suggesting they were working on a comedy or pastoral; Leone was not yet back from Piedmont. Yet another letter written on the same day indicated he had not returned to Mantua.10 These copious communications from the Jewish community are echoed in the equally anxious anticipation among the secretarial staff of the Gonzaga courts. We sense a mounting distress in the Gonzaga court, expressed in a letter of Ottavio Lambertosco, 6 Archivio di Stato di Turino (AST), patenti Controllo Finanze, vol. 54, fol. 95r–​v. Published in Segre, The Jews in Piedmont, Document # 1525, 749. 7 It is possible that, as Melli argued, Giesu Nostri was a proper name. In the notes to the archives, Segre offers the suggestion that such was the case, and that “The defendant’s plea refers back to a contemporary of Joshua ben Perahia in the first century before Christ.” See Segre, The Jews in Piedmont, 749. I want to thank Nicoletta da’Ros for sharing her thoughts on the name and translation.

8 While the Infanta finally freed Melli from the investigation on the January 22, 1592 (based on Document # 1524, Segre, The Jews in Piedmont, 749), Melli’s harassment had begun much before, and as early as May 30, 1590 there is an indication in the Jews had appealed to the Infanta to intervene with the lay authorities harassing Jews about forbidden books. Segre, The Jews in Piedmont, Document # 1476, 710. 9 ASMn, AG, letter by the Jewish community to the Duke, 26.6.1588, Herla, Segnatura C-​521. 10 ASMn, AG, 1.7.1588, Herla, Segnatura C-​20 and C-​19.

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66 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary scalco di corte, who writes to a Marcello Donato, with the phrase “non è ancor comparso messer Leone’ da Sommo” (he has not yet appeared, emphasis my own, see Figure 5).11 The exasperation is apparent in the use of the words non è ancor comparso in this letter. The suspense was finally over in late summer and by August 12, 1588 Leone was definitely back and apologising, explaining that he had left by necessity. But in the intervening months we register both the Jewish and Christian communities’ great distress over his absence. Clearly, De’ Sommi’s absence from Mantua caused the Jews and the Ducal secretaries in Mantua a great deal of concern, not because they were worried about his personal well-​being, but because they needed his talents for the production in honor of the new Duke. De’ Sommi’s theatrical abilities were well-​recognized. In fact, even today, he is the most commonly cited Jewish theatre practitioner in the early modern period and certainly the most famous Renaissance Jewish playwright, having authored the first Hebrew play, Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin (A Comedy of Betrothal), ca. 1550.12 It would not be hyperbolic to suggest that De’ Sommi personified Jewish theatre-​making in Mantua as an artistic and communal endeavor, for he was equally invested in his own Jewish community and in making performance a currency of exchange with the broader, Christian world around him. De’ Sommi’s prolific career is marked by many achievements: authoring at least fourteen plays that we know of, creating several intermedi, and writing the first treatise on directing, Quattro dialoghi in materia di rappresentazioni sceniche (Four Dialogues on Scenic Representations).13 More than anything, this rich panoply of works reveals De’ Sommi was driven by a creative impulse that found its outlet in a number of diverse literary and performative ways reflective of both the Christian and Jewish cultures from which he took inspiration. The Jewish man wanted by the Inquisition for blasphemy was one and the same as the popular theatre-​maker who entertained hundreds of Christians, including some of the most important leaders of the day. Once the student of a conservative Rabbi whose pedagogy discouraged exposure to theatre, De’ Sommi evolved into a ubiquitous presence on the most elite Renaissance stages. In so doing, he embodied the possibilities of cultural exchange. Where others were stymied by the challenges of being non-​ Christians in a Christian-​dominated society, De’ Sommi found ways to skirt limitations, 11 ASMn, AG, b. 2642 fasc. 8 cc. 170–​173 (1.7.1588). Herla, Sengatura C-​19. 12 On the date of the play, see Golding, “Introduction,” 20.

13 On De’ Sommi, see Jeffim Schirmann, “Yehudah Somo” in Pargod, Theatre Art and Literature (June 1963), 9–​17; Beecher, “Leone de’ Sommi and Jewish Theatre”; and Belkin, Leone de’ Sommi and the Performing Arts. Also: Anna Levenstein, Songs for the First Hebrew Play Tsahut bedihuta dekidushin by Leone de’ Sommi (1527–​1592) (PhD thesis for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts at the Department of Music at Case Western Reserve University, January 2006); and Jaffe-​Berg, “Leone De’ Sommi: ‘Magen Nashim. In difesa delle donne’,” in Testuale: critica della poesia contemporanea, 2007, 40–​50n42. De’ Sommi’s works in Italian include a secular work of theory (quattro dialoghi) as well as a pastoral (Hirifile) and a comic piece in the tradition of the comedia erudita (Le tre sorelle: The Three Sisters).

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A Canny Theatrical Intermediary

Figure 5. Letter on behalf of De’ Sommi. Archivio di Stato di Mantova, Archivio Gonzaga, b 2642 c 171 r.

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68 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary redefining literary styles and advocating—​sometimes dangerously—​for his own vision of what entertainment in the early modern period could be. Just as his audience was diverse, his creative expression was as well. He was a theatrical maverick, poetic innovator, community spokesman, and savvy cultivator of patrons; in short, a canny cultural intermediary.

Early Years

De’ Sommi’s early years suggested none of this great promise. In fact, he had a relatively conservative Jewish upbringing and his education was decidedly discouraging of any mixing between Christians and Jews. He was born in 1527 to the well-​to-​do Portaleone family. His ancestors included a number of noted doctors.14 The name Portaleone literally translates to “lion’s gate” and may be a reference to Jerusalem’s wall that leads to the Old City, where one of the seven open gates is, in fact, known as “Lion’s gate” (Sha’ar Ha’Arayot or ‫)שער האריות‬.15 The lion, in Hebrew, is also the symbol of Jerusalem from biblical times, and Leone’s Hebrew name was Yehudah, which was intentionally not Latinized into Judah (with its negative connotation of Judas Iscariot) but into Leone, the Italian word for lion. De’ Sommi received a good education that included both Jewish and general subjects to help him with a future career, likely in medicine. His main teacher was Rabbi David Provenzali, who encouraged his students to pursue not only the Jewish studies of the Talmud and Hebrew calligraphy but also Latin, Italian, rhetoric, astronomy, math, logic and medicine.16 This expansive approach to learning had its limits, and Rabbi Provenzali was ideologically opposed to theatre.17 Interestingly, that did not mean that De’ Sommi himself followed his teacher’s inclination, and from very early on, we see his interest in theatre awakened. In fact, De’ Sommi’s earliest attempts show him fully embracing theatrical elements, such as dialogues and even dramatic texts. The impetus to forge a different path and pursue his interest in theatre had to have derived from influences outside of his early education by Provenzali. Jewish theatre-​making in Mantua was already well-​established by the 1530s and 1540s, when De’ Sommi came of age. De’ Sommi would have been well experienced in the communal effort of putting on the annual plays, and, as a boy, he may have even had a hand in contributing to them. While aspects of De’ Sommi’s personal life, especially his early years and his initial development as a playwright, are less well-​known, he left an ample record of 14 Simon Schama, “The Entertainer,” in The Story of the Jews: Volume 2: Belonging, 1492–​1900 (New York: Harper Collins, 2017), 67.

15 Known also as St. Stephen’s Gate or Sheep gate, because of the carved leopards (mistaken for lions) on the gate’s crest, which were placed there in 1517 by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. 16 Schama, “The Entertainer,” 71.

17 Daniel Leisawitz, “Beyond Praxis: Leone de’ Sommi’s Apology of Theater and Judaism in his ‘Quattro dialoghi in materia di rappresentazioni sceniche’,” Italica 92.2 (summer 2015): 330n7.

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publications and epistolary exchanges, most of which can be found in either the State Archives of Mantua or the Biblioteca Teresiana in Mantua.18 Unfortunately, the vast creative output of this man did not stand the test of time, as multiple volumes of his plays, intermedi (musical interludes), pastorals, and other writing were destroyed in a fire in the Turin Library in 1904.19 Still, beginning in the nineteenth century, De’ Sommi caught the attention of a number of important historians, beginning with d’Ancona and later with Abd-​el-​Kader Salza and Bernardino Peyron, the latter of whom was able to study De’ Sommi’s dramatic works before their destruction.20 Interest in De’ Sommi was reignited following the work of Schirmann and Simonsohn, and recent scholarly attention to De’ Sommi has expanded to the fields of theatre history and musicology, with the works of Lydia Pegna and Don Harrán.21 Jewish studies scholar David B. Ruderman highlights De’ Sommi as one of the Jewish intellectuals of the late fifteenth to the early seventeenth century living in Renaissance centers such as Florence, Mantua, and Ferrara, places “where books were readily available and social contacts with non-​Jewish intellectuals were not uncommon.”22 Simon Schama dedicates a full chapter to De’ Sommi, whom he calls “The Entertainer,” in his recent book of Jewish history.23 From all of these accounts, De’ Sommi emerges as an influential figure not only for Jewish theatre but also for the development of theatre in Italy in the early modern period more generally.24 Sometime around 1550, when he was twenty-​three or younger, De’ Sommi wrote two dialogues that are seldom mentioned in studies about him, but which are remarkable and important both in terms of their innovation and in revealing much about De’ Sommi’s interests. Their originality stems from providing scenes, in Hebrew, of young peoples’ lives. In fact, Hayyim Schirmann speculates that these are among the first examples of young 18 Simonsohn relays that “Judah Portaleone received, on the occasion of his marriage (the woman’s name is not stated) 2,350 scudi in cash, and 650 scudi in goods” for her dowry. This is a relatively expensive dowry. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 533n83.

19 The manuscripts had been moved from Mantua to Turin centuries earlier, when they were sold by the Gonzaga to the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel I (the same person who had made it necessary for De’ Sommi to travel to Piedmont in the fateful summer months of 1588) as part of an effort for financing the War of Mantuan Succession. See Ariane Helou, “Embodied Voice and the Body Politic: The Dialoghi of Lene de’ Sommi,” California Italian Studies 8.2 (2018): 2. 20 Abd-​el-​Kader Salza, “Un dramma pastorale inedito del Cinquecento (L’Irifile di Leone De’ Sommi),” Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 54 (1909): 103–​19, 104n1 and 105. Peyron published a codex of the Hebrew manuscripts in the Turin library, featuring many of De’ Sommi’s works. Bernardiunus Peyron, Codices Hebraici Manu Exarati Regiae Bibliothecae Quae in Taurinense Athenaeo Asservatur (Rome: Fratres Bocca, 1880).

21 Pegna, “Alcune lettere inedite di Leone de’ Sommi.” La Rassegna Mensile di Israel, seconda serie 7.12 (April 1933) and Levenstein, Songs for the First Hebrew Play. 22 Ruderman, “Introduction,” 1.

23 Schama, The Story of the Jews.

24 A dissertation on de’ Sommi by Ana Migliarisi (for the University of Toronto) presents the fact that De’ Sommi is in many ways the first stage director in the modern sense of the term.

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70 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary adult literature in Hebrew, and for this reason alone, they are remarkable.25 The two dialogues include one between a woman and a baby and a second between a father and his son. Schirmann speculates they could have been written for the purposes of teaching Hebrew; this may be a clue to an early vocation for De’ Sommi, who may have taught in his young adulthood, creating this reading exercise for his pupils. However, there is no other evidence that supports this fact, and we simply do not know if that was the case. It is true that the life of young students figures in his Hebrew play Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin. There, De’ Sommi writes a scene between young students speaking about their education; thus, it is likely that this recurrent scenario in his works was inspired by his own life as a young student and/​or young teacher. The first dialogue is titled: “‫“( ”דיאלוגו בלשון עברי ממרים עם תינוק‬Eshet hatinok ve haisha, dialogo be leshon Ivri me Miriam im tinok” or “A dialogue in Hebrew between Miriam and a Baby”).26 The word dialogue is written as ‫( דיאלוגו‬dialogo, or dialogue) rather than the Hebrew word ‫( שיח‬sicha, meaning dialogue in conversation), reflecting on the reality that he is living between two languages and resorting to a commonly used Italian word when the Hebrew word either eludes or the Italian word seems more precise. The word “baby” is deceptive because the child is clearly more of a young man than an infant. The nursemaid is named Miriam, a reference to Moses’ caregiver sister, who is as doting and attentive in De’ Sommi’s work as is her namesake in the biblical narrative. In the dialogue, the nanny addresses herself to a young boy, referred to as a ‫( תינוק‬tinok, a baby), encouraging him to wake up early so that he may get ready for prayer. The style of the dialogue recalls the Italian Renaissance genre of dialoghi, or Dialogues (as in the works of Aretino, Machiavelli, and Tasso, to name a few), but also the commedia dell’arte’s genre of contrasti, in which men and women engage in exchanges that are like gentle verbal blows.27 Cultural historian Peter Burke explains the rise of the dialogue in the Renaissance by connecting the printed dialogues to residual orality.28 In this dialogue De’ Sommi resorted to a well-​established Italian genre when he was creating his version in Hebrew. His brand of Hebrew is inventive and reflects on his imagination of what a dialogue, in Hebrew, between two people would sound like without having many real-​life references around him. Just as Italian dialogue preserves in written form an oral cultural richness 25 De’ Sommi, Tsahouth Bedihuta de Kiddushin.‫קומדיה בחמש מערכות מאת יהודה סומו איש מאנטובה‬ ‫[ המחזה העברי הראשון צחות בדיחותא דקידושין‬1527–​1592] (The First Hebrew Play: The Comedy of Betrothal by Yehuda Sommo (1527–​1592)), ed with introduction, notes and appendices by Hayyim (Jeffim) Schirmann, 2nd ed. (Jerusalem: Goldberg, 1965), 127. The dialogues are collected by Schirmann in his Appendix A.

26 “Dialogo be-​leshon ‘Ivri me-​Miriam Im Tinok,” in Schirmann, Hamachazeh ha-​‘Ivri Ha-​ Rishon: Tsahouth Bedihutah de’ Kiddushin, 129. In the 1965 republication, Schirmann changes the title slightly to: “‫( דיאלוגו בלשון עברי עם תינוק‬Dialogo be-​Lashon ‘Ivri ‘Im Tinok), “A Dialogue in Hebrew with a Baby,” omitting the word Miriam. See Schirman, Hamachazeh ha-​‘Ivri Ha-​Rishon, 105. 27 On Renaissance dialogues as a genre, see Peter Burke, “The Renaissance Dialogue,” Renaissance Studies 3.1 (March 1989): 1–​12.

28 Burke, “The Renaissance Dialogue,” 7.

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that was still very much alive and present in the commedia dell’arte performances, that model influenced De’ Sommi’s writer’s mind. In the 1560s he would return to this genre as a ripened theatre practitioner and produce one of the most important Renaissance texts on theatre, Quattro dialoghi sull’arte del rappresentazioni sceniche (ca. 1565). In De’ Sommi’s young adult dialogues, each character taunts the other in a mock verbal attack. Miriam gently berates the baby for being preoccupied with going out and playing dice (De’ Sommi, Shtei sichot, 130–​131).29 He teases her and commands her to help him tie his shoes and clean his body (131–​32). Rather than being insulted, she insists that he kiss her (133). It is clear that underneath all the jibes, they love each other dearly. This physical and intimate dialogue is unique in Hebrew literature from Italy. There were popular narratives of romantic adventure in Yiddish circulating within the Jewish community, such as the often-​reprinted Bovo Buch by Elia Levita (written in 1507 and revised and published in 1541).30 But that was a long narrative in Yiddish. The Hebrew dialogues by De’ Sommi were different, borrowing from the dialogues of Machiavelli, Tasso, and even Aretino and recalling the ways characters in commedia dell’arte needle each other. The dialogue between nursemaid and child is followed by one between a father and son (De’ Sommi, Shtei sichot, 134–​35). In this dialogue, the tone is less warm and the conflict between the stern father and the disobedient son is less playful. The father makes the message clear: the boy should not surrender to his baser impulses and should instead dedicate himself to study. In another collection of proverbs, De’ Sommi emphasizes that pleasure, even if it is derived from learning, is dangerous, as it can set one back. Instead, only hard work should be embraced: ,‫זכרו תורת חכמי לב אשר הזהירו אותנו על שקידת הלימוד בטרם הכל‬

,‫ויהי להם למשל כי הלומד בעינוג בלי עמל וטורח יהיה לאחור ולא לפנים‬ .‫גם כי ירבה עבודתו ולימודו ימים ושנים‬

Remember the teaching of the wise at heart who urged us to put assiduous study before all else, and taught us that he who studies with pleasure but without hard work will be at the back of the pack rather than ahead, even if he studies much and for many days and years.31 29 Schirmann first published both of De’ Sommi’s dialogues as ‫שתי שיחות בין תינוק מטפלת והורים‬, “Shtei sichot bein tinok, Metapelet ve-​horim” (two conversations between a baby, nursemaid and parents) in Appendix A in his publication of the play Tsahut bedihuta de’Kiddushin, 127–​37.

30 I consulted the version of ‫( בבא בוך‬Bove Buch) printed in Amsterdam 1661. This is a Yiddish or Judaeo-​German adaptation and translation by Elijah Levita of the Italian version (Buovo d’Antona) of the English Romance Sir Bevis of Hamton. Levita first published it at Isny (Southern Germany) ca. 1541, and it was republished in Prague in 1660 and numerous times after that (Richard Gottheil and Joseph Jacobs, in the Jewish Encyclopedia, Jewishencyclopedia.com, “Baba Buch”). Claudia Rosenzweig, Bovo d’Antona by Elye Bokher. A Yiddish Romance. A Critical Edition with Commentary (Leiden: Brill, 2016).

31 De’ Sommi, ‫“( ׳מראות הצובעות׳‬Mar’ot ha-​Tzova’ut”) in Leone De’ Sommi, Tsahouth Bedihuta de Kiddushin​–1527[ ‫המחזה העברי הראשון צחות בדיחותא דקידושין קומדיה בחמש מערכות מאת יהודה סומו איש מאנטובה‬ 1592] (The First Hebrew Play Tsahouth Bediuta de Kiddushin, a Five Act Comedy by Yehudah Somo of Mantua (1527–​1592)), ed. Hayyim Schirmann, 2nd ed. (Jerusalem: Goldberg, 1965), 142.

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72 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary The dialogue echoes the ways male innamorati (Lover characters) in the commedia dell’arte shrug off their fathers and their arcane advice. Shakespeare’s Polonius exemplifies this reaction to advice-​giving in Hamlet when he would insist to Laertes: Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel. (Hamlet, I.3.60–​63)

Just as Laertes and Ophelia might stifle their own laughter at Polonius, who drones on and on with the advice, so De’ Sommi’s disobedient son views his father with irony. It may be that this literary gesture suggests De’ Sommi’s own experience as a rebellious student with an admonishing father. More radically, these dialogues tell us something profound about De’ Sommi’s attitude to the establishment’s segregating him as a Jew. His own knowledge of rules—​who can write what and for whom—​was cast aside by his impulse and self-​permission to flaunt the rules, be they those of the conservative Jewish community or of the surveilling Christian overlords. As we shall see, De’ Sommi was knowledgeable about the rules in his day: the importance of Jewish learning, the interdictions on mixing Hebrew with Italian, and the dangers of pleasures taken at the theatre. At the same time, he was eager to partake in all of these, and was guided by his own curiosity to explore new modes. As much as he was a law-​abiding and generous resident of Mantua, he was also expansive in his imagination and pushed the boundaries of what was possible for a Jew to achieve at the time. He was a canny intermediary, both aware of his marginal position as “separate, not equal” and rebellious towards these limitations precisely because he was cognizant of the fact that special status could be capitalized on in order to benefit himself and his community.

Other Cities of Temptation and Learning

Mantua was a nurturing place for a young Jewish man, but it was not the only place where a young man, even a Jew, would be inspired. Ferrara and Bologna, both in the Emilia-​Romagna region, were important population centers for Jewish communities, and both left a significant trace of presence in De’ Sommi’s archival record. It is likely that in his earlier years De’ Sommi spent time in Ferrara, whose Court commissioned many spectacles and whose streets played host to a variety of foreigners, including commedia dell’arte performers. Ferrara housed a diverse community of Jewish exiles, including the Sepharadim who had left the Iberian Peninsula following its waves of expulsion in 1492 (Spain) and 1497 (Portugal).32 First welcomed to Calabria and Sicily, Jews were 32 More on this in Renata Segre, “Sephardic Refugees in Ferrara: Two Notable Families,” in Crisis and Creativity in the Sephardic World 1391–​1648, ed. Benjamin R. Gampel (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), and Laura Secchieri, ed., Ebrei a Ferrara. Ebrei dI Ferrara: Aspetti culturali, economici e sociali ella presenza a Ferrara (Secc. XIII–​XX) (Florence: Giuntina, 2014).

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then expelled in 1540, finding a home in Florence, Naples, Ferrara, and elsewhere in the Northern regions.33 Forced out of the Iberian Penninsula, the Sepharadim were welcomed to Naples by King Ferdinand I and his successor, Alfonso I, and to Ferrarra by Ercole d’Este. In Ferrara, they found safe haven for the duration of the sixteenth century. The Jews were not the only ostracized population to find shelter in Ferrara, and the city also overflowed with travelling performers selling wares (medicines, soaps, etc.) and helping to disseminate pamphlets, publications and even works of literature by Ariosto and Aretino.34 These performers included not only men but also women, who played their part in creating a civic marketplace of goods and self-​promotion.35 These varied performances must have left a mark on De’ Sommi, who habitually made reference to performances he witnessed in his earlier days. For example, we can surmise from De’ Sommi’s writing that he had traveled to Bologna in his youth. He mentions the city twice within his writing—​once in his bilingual poem, Magen Nashim, when the speaker references a beloved who resides in Bologna, and another time, in Quattro Dialoghi, when the character Massimiano mentions seeing performances in Bologna that included an intermedio. The description in the Quattro Dialoghi is very specific—​a memory from “some years ago,” according to De’ Sommi’s fictional interlocutor. It is also possible that the description referred to intermedi that De’ Sommi himself created, as he was often given to self-​referentiality in his work. It is worth quoting the section here because it is so telling of the visual elements that struck De’ Sommi’s imagination: For instance, at Bologna I saw some years ago an intermedio which brought on an Amphion; at the sound of his music the rocks began to pile up one on top of the other, and thus were reared the walls of Thebes. In the second intermedio an eagle appeared to seize a Ganymede. During the interval of the third act Deucalion and Pyrrha came on and threw stones over their shoulders, whence arose little by little tiny nude children. The fourth intermedio introduced a giant, who brought on an enormous globe and placed it in the middle of the stage; after he had given it some blows with a club the ball opened, and out stepped four satyrs, who executed a delightful morris dance.36

In Massimiano’s recollection of the intermedio, Amphion, the son of Zeus and Antiope (and the twin brother of Zethus), plays his lyre and the rocks arrange themselves magically, creating the walls of Thebes. What Massimiano remembers is the power 33 Jewish fortunes in Ferrara remained good until the death of Alfonso II D’Este (r. 1559–​1597). When Ferrara came under Papal rule, the Jews were exiled. On the Sephardic Jews of Ferrara, see Segre, “Sephardic Refugees in Ferrara.” 34 Salzberg, “In the Mouths of Charlatans: Street Performers and the Dissemination of Pamphlets in Renaissance Italy,” Renaissance Studies 24.5 (November 2010): 641.

35 Rosalind Kerr, The Rise of the Diva on the Sixteenth-​ Century Commedia dell’Arte Stage (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015).

36 Nicoll adopts the term Morris dance for the moresca. De’ Sommi in Leone de’ Sommi. Quattro Dialoghi or The Dialogues of Leone di Sommi, trans. Allardyce Nicoll, in The Development of the Theatre (1958). Appendix B: 238–​62.

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74 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary of music, but it is also the stage effect of the stones building themselves. If this was a recollection De’ Sommi had of a performance he saw, it was etched in his memory. Alternatively, if this was something that De’ Sommi was able to pull off himself, it was a feat of organizational and technical skill. Either way, the anecdote reveals much about what De’ Sommi found to be important in theatre-​making. It would be easy to connect this early experience of an intermedio, recalled in the Dialoghi (1565), with De’ Sommi’s intermedi and plays that are full of stage effects. The narrative would unfold fluidly as the story of an ingenious theatre-​maker whose initial inspirations came from the world of court drama and from experiencing the touring commedia dell’arte troupes that came and went in his hometown of Mantua. That narrative could leave aside almost entirely the remarkable fact that De’ Sommi was a Jew for whom entrance into the courtly theatre at the early stages of his life was unlikely. It is tempting to present a portrait of De’ Sommi as living in two separate worlds and leave it at that. But something much more radical seems to have motivated De’ Sommi’s creative output. Of his many works, one serves as a key, helping to decode the ways cultures interwove in his works.

Interculturalism and Bilingual Art

In his twenties, De’ Sommi began experimenting with the poetic synthesis of Hebrew and Italian, explorations that eventually led him to write “Magen Nashim” (‫מגן נשים‬, Defender of Women), a long-​form poem interlacing Italian and Hebrew. With this poem, De’ Sommi entered one of the great Renaissance debates about the valor of women, and, in doing so bilingually, he also engaged two separate worldviews.37 The poem’s experimental form makes use of alternating lines in Hebrew and Italian, a perfect example of an intercultural creative approach: ‫שמעו נא את דיברתי‬

Hear my words (Shim’u na et divrati)

Donne sagge belle ed honeste

Wise, beautiful and honest women

These are the opening lines of the poem, and they call on the reader to hear the poet’s words while, at the same time, they invite the reader’s eye to take in the harmonious blending of two different languages. Here, a line of poetry in Hebrew is followed by a line in Italian, the languages working together beautifully to ensnare the reader’s eye, avoiding the margins, since Hebrew is read from right to left and Italian from left to 37 Schirmann, The First Hebrew Play (1946), 145–201. Also, see Giorgio Pavesi, Man-​Tovà l’interculturalità in scena: Danza, teatro e musica nel XVI secolo (Mantua: Lorella Salvagni, 2019), 167–​71. See Jaffe-​Berg, “Leone De’ Sommi, ‘Magen Nashim.’ ” Also: Abraham Neubauer and Moritz Steinschneider, Zur Frauenliteratur, ‫שבח נשים וגנותן בספרות העברית של ימי הבינים‬. (facsimile edition by A. M. Haberman. Jerusalem: Ben-​Ori, 1967), 12–​15.

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right. By avoiding the margins, the bilingual poem does something a monolingual poem cannot do. Metaphorically, bilingualism and interculturalism become marks of privilege rather than indications of marginalization.38 Furthermore, this movement from right to left, then left to right is also a wonderful visual and textual counterpart to the Renaissance concept of chiasmus, a literary device in which words are repeated in reverse order in emulation of a mirror image. De’ Sommi’s poem creates a multingual chiasmus and invites the reader to consider Hebrew and Italian as mirror images of each other—​equal in their poetic potential to evoke meaning and emotion. The same device is taken up today in Mantua with the Association of Jewish culture (Associazione di cultura ebraica), whose members are primarily non-​Jewish residents of Mantua who are interested in exploring the Jewish heritage in the region. The logo they created as the group emblem is a chiasmus that fuses Hebrew and Italian: “Man Tovà” ‫מן טובה‬. The name of the city of Mantua (Mantova in Italian) is played on several times in this emblem. First, the name is written in Hebrew and in Italian, which are each reflected back to one another. Second, the notion of mirroring is played on with the reflection of the words in the water (creating a second chiasmus), a gesture to the geography of Mantua, which is surrounded by several lakes and waterways. Finally, the symbolically relevant word manna (in Hebrew: ‫ מן‬or man) is syllabically singled out within the word Mantova to suggest the town is a place of God-​given spiritual and cultural nourishment. In these ways, the contemporary community of Mantua, which still includes several Jewish families, as well as the entire city, reflects on its multicultural and multireligious heritage and nods to De’ Sommi’s own bilingual poesis. In fact, the play on the name of the town in connection with the idea of manna was created as early as the fifteenth century, as pointed out, appropriately, by the editor of a volume, Una Manna Buona Per Mantova: Man tov le-​Man Tovah. As Mauro Perani, the editor of the collection reveals, he got the idea from early modern scribes who used the expression “man tova” playfully when referring to the town of Mantua.39 Magen Nashim is a highly original example within the long Querelle des Femmes, in which De’ Sommi interlaces Hebrew and Italian in a unique linguistic blending of the stanzas of the poem. In his poem, De’ Sommi creates an imagined poetic space between the two languages that reflects both on the Jew’s existence within each community and on the intermediary role often taken by the Jews. The poem champions women by 38 Robert Bonfil notes that: “from the later sixteenth century, bilingual literary competence ceased to be a mere curiosity and became a common vehicle for literary expression.” Robert Bonfil, “Change in the Cultural Patterns of a Jewish Society in Crisis: Italian Jewry at the Close of the Sixteenth Century,” Jewish History 3.2 (Fall 1988): 11–​30.

39 “First of all, I wanted to play on the assonance between the Italian name of Mantua and the Hebrew expression man tov which means ‘good manna’ by following some Jewish scribes who, in the first half of the fifteenth century, copied Hebrew manuscripts in the city surrounded by three lakes and who used this formulation in their colophons.” Mauro Perani, “Premessa del curator,” in Una manna buona per Mantova: Man Tov le-​Man Tovah. Studi in onore di Vittore Colorni per il suo 92° compleanno, ed. Perani (Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana di Scienze Lettere e Arti, vol. 14) (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 13.

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76 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary extolling the virtues of famous biblical, Jewish, and pagan women. At the opening of the poem, quoted above, De’ Sommi invokes his reader’s “listening ear,” a signal that, though published in print, the text is inherently performative: ‫שמעו נא את דברתי‬ Donne sagge honeste e belle ‫כי אחודה חידתי‬ Contra queste chiurme felle Degli vecchi che a le stelle ‫העלו את חרפתכן‬ ‫ואני מגן לכן‬ Per diffendervi a ogni via. Shim’u na et divrati Donne sagge honeste e belle Ki Aḥudah ḥidati Contra queste chiurme felle Degli vecchi che a le stelle He’elu et ḥerbatḥem Ve’ani magen laḥen Per diffendervi a ogni via. Hear my words Wise, honest and beautiful women As I set forth my riddle Against these vicious voices of the elderly Who raised their voices to the heavens And spoke of your shame And therefore, I defend you in every way.40

The poem was a doubly creative retort against those within the Jewish community who objected to using Italian and Hebrew side by side, and, also to those espousing negative views of women. Magen Nashim (1552–​1556) was originally written in answer to a misogynist text that was also bilingual: ‫( דבר בעיתו‬Davar be Ito, meaning “A thing in its Time”).41 When De’ Sommi wrote his bilingual poem, he was being provocative in his content (defending women) and in form (fusing the holy tongue of the Bible with the profane Italian).42 This incurred the ire of many members of the Jewish community who argued against using the holy and the profane, not to mention the fact that Hebrew was being used in service of a defense of women. But De’ Sommi’s work was so witty and clever that it was hard to discount, and Schirmann refers to a later writer who 40 Leone De’ Sommi, Tsahouth Bedihuta de Kiddushin.‫קומדיה בחמש מערכות מאת יהודה סומו איש מאנטובה‬ ‫[ המחזה העברי הראשון צחות בדיחותא דקידושין‬1527–​1592] (The First Hebrew Play Tsahouth Bediuta de Kiddushin, a Five Act Comedy by Yehudah Somo of Mantua (1527–​1592)), ed. Hayyim Schirmann (Jerusalem: Tarshish, 1946), 151. 41 I am using Schirmann’s dating of the poem. The information about the poem De’ Sommi wrote against is found in Schirmann’s edited and annotated publication of De’ Sommi. See De’ Sommi, Leone (Tsahouth Bedihuta de Kiddushin, 1946), 147. 42 Lipshitz, “Performance as Profanation.”

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pronounced De’ Sommi the winner in the debate.43 Arguably, De’ Sommi’s bilingual poem became the gold standard for this form, and it led to a number of imitations.44 De’ Sommi brought Magen Nashim to light in manuscript and (possibly) published versions but presented his plays (both in Hebrew and Italian) in manuscript form only.45 It was common practice for playwrights to dedicate a manuscript play version to the patrons for whom the performed version was created. In that sense, the manuscript version created an intimate and personalized relation between the writer and the reader/​receiver. Backed by his friendship with the printer Reuven Sullam—​the husband of Hana Rieti, to whom De’ Sommi dedicated the poem—​De’ Sommi explains that Rieti urged him to publish the poem. Published or not, in the poem De’ Sommi “performs” for his own Jewish community, and very clearly rather than kowtowing to his teachers, he is rewriting the rules and making himself the one to follow. Nowhere is this rebelliousness more evident than in his creation of the first-​ever play in Hebrew.

A Comedy of Betrothal (Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin):46 the First Hebrew Play

What made De’ Sommi write an original play in Hebrew? The last time anyone had attempted this was Ezekiel with the Greek-​styled play Exagoge, and that was as far back as the second century BCE. True, Joseph ben Samuel Sarfati did translate the Spanish Converso Fernando de Rojas’ La Celestina into Hebrew (although only the introductory poem survives to this day).47 However, it was unheard of to write an original play in Hebrew, tailored to a Jewish audience (or reader), reflective of Jewish customs. The audacity of writing an original play in Hebrew is, in itself, reason enough that De’ Sommi 43 Lipshitz, “Performance as Profanation,” 148.

44 The poem is stored at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. It is published in full, with extensive notes in Schirmann’s edition of De’ Sommi’s Tsahouth Bedihuta de Kiddushin, both the 1946 and 1965 editions. Appendix C, 121–​45. The habit among the Jews of Italy of combining Hebrew and Italian is also beautifully evident in a poem called ‫ שיר נאה‬Shir na’è (a Nice Poem) from 1618/​1619. Which has been republished recently in a book about Mantuan Jewish culinary customs. Patuzzi, Una Tavola Apparecchiata: Il ‘mangiare degli ebrei’ e il caso di Mantova (Mantua: Distretto Culturale Associazione Le Regge dei Gonzaga, 2013), 102–​14, 1–​8.

45 Golding notes that some plays, including a version of A Comedy of Betrothal was published. Golding, “Introduction,” 21. Schirmann states that we do not know if the poem was published, although De’ Sommi explains that Hanna Rieti did encourage him to do so. Schirmann, The First Hebrew Play, 1946, 148. 46 The spelling of the transliterated title of the play varies quite a bit. I am guided by the spelling used in Belkin’s collection on Leone de’ Sommi (Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin), which follow the guidelines of the Encyclopedia Judaica.

47 The first extant play written by a Jew (that is written in Greek, not in Hebrew) is the Tragedy of Exogoge by the second century BCE Jewish tragedian Ezekiel. Cofman-​Simhon, “From Alexandria to Berlin: The Hellenistic Play Exogoge Joins the Jewish Canon,” in Jews and Theatre in an Intercultural Context, ed. Edna Nahshon (Leiden: Brill, 2012) and Howard Jacobson, The Exogoge of Ezekiel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).

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78 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary is famous. His play, A Comedy of Betrothal (Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin), exists in several manuscript versions, which Hayyim Schirmann was the first to rediscover and persuasively attribute to Leone de’ Sommi.48 Schirmann argued for its having been performed; however, there is no actual archival evidence indicating that the play was definitely staged at Purim or any other time. Nor do we know exactly when to date it, but we may refer to Schirmann’s dating of some time after 1550.49 Possibly De’ Sommi titled the play with an homage to the work Zahot by Abraham Ibn Ezra, an earlier resident of Mantua: Ibn Ezra’s oft-​consulted grammatical work was completed in Mantua in 1145. Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin (‫ )צחות בדיחותא דקידושין‬is a comedy of betrothal written in Hebrew, combining both Renaissance literary ideals with thematic elements drawn from the Jewish experience. Even the title is a lovely amalgamation of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Italian. De’ Sommi’s play is audacious in other ways too. In the tradition of Machiavelli (in a play such as Mandragola, ca.1518–​1524) and other commedia erudita playwrights, De’ Sommi offers a scathing critique of religious malpractice. Writing in Hebrew, “under the radar,” De’ Sommi escaped rebuke or attention from the Christian Dukes or the Inquisition (at least at this early date), and the play was not censored but reproduced in several manuscript versions. The pivot to the dramatic would define De’ Sommi’s entire career, and it was through this remarkable yet marginal play that De’ Sommi laid the foundations for a career as the ultimate, and still—​500 years later—​most famous Renaissance Jewish theatre-​maker. As with so many Renaissance works, the play begins with an allegorical figure, who, in this case, is personified as a woman and named Wisdom (‫ חוכמה‬ḥochmah). In her See Schirmann, Le-​ Toldot Ha-​ Shirah ve ha-​ Drama ha-​ Ivrit Mechkarim ve-​ Masot, vol. 2 (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1979), 119. Ciavolella and Beecher suggest: “A printed version of the play was the work of the Mantuan printer Meshullam Sullam, a member of a family with which De’ Sommi was intimately acquainted.” Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 7. However, this may be a misinterpretation of Schirmann’s statement in Hebrew regarding manuscript (ketav-​ yad in Hebrew) held by Rabbi Meshulam Sullam. Schirmann, Le-​Toldot, 119. Schirmann indicates instead that there are five extant manuscript copies of the play. Leone de’ Sommi’s patron was Cesare Gonzaga of Guastalla (Count of Guastalla from 1557–​1575), 660.

On Sarfati, see Michelle M. Hamilton, “Joseph ben Samuel Sarfati’s ‘Tratado de Melibea y Calisto’: A Sephardic Jew’s Reading of the Celestina in Light of the Medieval Judeo-​Spanish Go-​ between Tradition,” Sefarad 62 (2002): 329–​47.

48 Schirmann, Le-​Toldot Ha-​Shirah ve ha-​Drama ha-​Ivrit, 119. Beecher and Ciavolella suggest that there is a printed version by Sullam: “(a) printed version of the play was the work of the Mantuan printer Meshullam Sullam, a member of a family with which De’ Sommi was intimately acquainted,” “Introduction,” 7. However, this may be a misinterpretation of Schirmann’s statement in Hebrew regarding there being a manuscript (ketav-​yad in Hebrew) held by Rabbi Meshulam Sullam. Schirmann indicates, there are five extant manuscript copies of the play. Schirmann, Le-​Toldot, 119.

Leone de’ Sommi’s patron was Cesare Gonzaga of Guastalla (Count of Guastalla from 1557–​1575).

49 Alfred S. Golding, “A Comedy of Betrothal: Some Suggestions for a Reconstruction of its Premiere Performance,” in Leone de’ Sommi and the Performing Arts, ed. Ahuva Belkin (Tel Aviv: Assaph Book Series, 1997), 133.

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initial appearance, which opens the play, she states: “I am aware that hardly a man truly takes to heart, who I am and what is my work.”50 Through Wisdom, De’ Sommi argues that the holy tongue of Hebrew is appropriate for non-​religious purposes, and, four centuries ahead of Eliezer Ben-​Yehudah, the architect of modern Hebrew, De’ Sommi argues for the viability of Hebrew in addressing and capturing the quotidian. As Lipshitz puts it, this is a daring venture “in relocating Hebrew from the field of Jewish textual culture to the one of Renaissance Italian theater.”51 Wisdom’s direct address to her “dear listeners” goes to the heart of the question of whether or not this play was meant to be performed.52 Stage directions embedded in the text that specify when characters appear and locate their appearance behind doorways, for example, are other textual gestures towards staging of the work, as is the mention of the holiday of Purim in the first few lines of the play, which would have been appropriate if the play were staged for the holiday (since this was a holiday that encouraged the enactment of stories).53 We could also argue that the imaginative setting of the play, in the Levant, invites a range of costuming and stage-​setting options that would have appealed to De’ Sommi and his proclivity, displayed later in the Dialoghi, for detailed attention to staging plays.

Mapping the Levant Through Performance One of the appeals of commedia dell’arte performances was that they reenacted cross-​ Mediterranean travel for an audience that would have otherwise had limited access to maps, at precisely the time when a cartographic frenzy was capturing people’s imagination. Actors imaginatively charted the journeys of lovers and fathers who traveled for mercantile reasons, or because they were soldiers, and who were often captured, enslaved, or marooned in various locations, sometimes losing their lives at sea.54 In Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin, the setting captures not only the Mediterranean seascape, but also the imagined Holy Land that encompassed biblical scenes and pilgrimage. Since De’ Sommi himself had never been to the Holy Land, this construction of the Levant is highly speculative; however, it offers what must have been an early modern Jew’s notion of what that landscape and world would be like. Despite this literary freehand, it is true that many Italian Jews, including residents of Mantua, traveled to the Holy Land for 50 “ki ein ish sam al lev, me anochi ve-​ma mal’achti” “‫ מה אנכי ומה מלאכתי‬, ‫ ”כי אין איש שם על לב‬De’ Sommi. 1946. Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin, 21. 51 Lipshitz, “Performance as Profanation,” 128.

52 Cristina Dal Molin, Massimo Ciavolella, and Yair Lipshitz have noted the performability of the play and the likelihood it was meant for the stage, not just a reading. See: Lipshitz, “Performance as Profanation,” 130. 53 De’ Sommi in Schirmann, 1946 Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin, 24.

54 See Jaffe-​Berg, Commedia dell’arte and the Mediterranean, 37–​64.

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80 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary pilgrimages, writing about their experiences upon their return.55 Around 1561, perhaps as a response to the frenzied reaction to David ha-​Reuveni, a messianic Jew who called for the Jews to prepare to return to the Holy Land, Holy Land map-​making activities in Mantua ramped up.56 A guidebook to the tombs of the righteous in the Holy Land, as well as a map of the Holy Land, were both published in Mantua in 1561.57 It is highly likely that the play was composed for Purim, a Jewish counterpart to the Catholic Carnival in which many things that are normally forbidden (excessive drinking, wearing costumes, play-​acting) are allowed. In the preface to the play published by Schirmann, Purim is explicitly mentioned: ‫צחות בדיחותא דקידושין הוא ספר חדש אשר בדה מלבו פ׳ בימי בחורתו‬

‫… לצחק בו בימי הפורים ובשעת חדוה‬

(Tsahouth Bedihutah de’Kiddushin is a new book that is spoken eloquently and created by a certain one in his youth to entertain with during the Purim days and in joyous occasions …)58

Like Carnival, Purim is an especially appropriate period in the Jewish calendar for the staging of plays. The holiday celebrates the whims of fortune, a theme more usually associated with the Roman goddess Fortuna than with Judaism. The obvious salient exception is the Scroll of Esther, which is traditionally recited in the synagogue during the holiday of Purim and which recounts the story of the near-​destruction of the Jewish people by Haman, an advisor to the Persian King Ahashueres. The looming threat to the Jews is averted by the clever actions of the Jew Mordechai and his niece, the sacrificial beauty Esther, who is married to the King and supplicates on behalf of her community, ultimately winning his pardon for her people. De’ Sommi’s play presents a comic version of impending doom for a young man, whose fate is salvaged by clever action and the wisdom of a trusted Rabbi. As with the story of Esther, in Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin a young couple’s fortune is toyed with, but, as with most Renaissance comedies, the ultimate outcome is a happy ending: marriage.59 The plot follows the betrothal and intended marriage of Yedidiah (whose word in Hebrew means friend) to Beruriah (meaning choosy one), daughter of Amon (Believer) and Deborah (a play on the Hebrew for a bee with a sting, but also a nod to the great Israelite prophet). As an inciting incident, news arrives that Yedidiah’s father, Sholom (whose name in Hebrew is like shalom, or peace), who has journeyed from Sidon to 55 Rehav Rubin, “A Sixteenth-​Century Hebrew Map from Mantua,” Imago Mundi: The International Journal for the History of Cartography 62.1 (2009): 41.

56 On David ha-​Reuveni, see Benmelech, “History, Politics, and Messianism David Ha-​Reuveni’s Origin and Mission,” AJS Review 35.1 (April 2011). 57 See Rubin, “A Sixteenth-​Century Hebrew Map from Mantua,” 41.

58 De Sommi, Tsahouth Bedihuta de Kiddushin, ed. Schirmann (1946), 17.

59 Pavesi notes that De’ Sommi thereby tried to make the erudite comedy into a Jewish one (“cercò di guidaizzare la forma della commedia erudite”). Pavesi, Leone De’ Sommi Hebreo, 65.

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Damascus on business, is dead, and he has bequeathed all his property to his slave, Shoval. Shoval resonates with the Hebrew word ‫( שובל‬shovel or Shoval), which means a train (as in an article of clothing) or a tail. In that sense, Shovel or Shoval may be seen as a counterpart to the parasitic characters who frequently appear in Humanistic comedies. In the play, the voice of reason and truth is personified by Rabbi Amitai (Amitai is a play on the word emet in Hebrew, which means truth). In many ways, Amitai is a stand-​in for De’ Sommi, and a Hebrew/​Jewish counterpart to the main interlocutor in De’ Sommi’s Dialoghi is named Veridico (whose name also means truth in Italian). The play’s central plot is likely a reference to the Rabbinic Midrash Tanchuma on the Torah portion or Parasha of Lech Lecha (Go On Your Way) about a man departing on a long trip and his virtuous, studious son.60 In order to secure his property, his father wills it to a servant who was with him on his journey. In a plot twist, the father allows his son the choice of one of his possessions. A wise Rabbi whom the son consults advises that he choose the servant and, in so doing, acquire all that the servant has inherited from the young man’s father. The play allows De’ Sommi to blend Judaic and secular elements and reveal himself to be a cultural intermediary when he makes use of techniques connected with the performance style of the commedia dell’arte as well as Humanist dramas of the commedia erudita. We have stock characters, such as the parents, young lovers, servants who help or foil plans, and even the Jewish counterparts to the “Dottore” figure, a Rabbi. The language, too, recalls commedia dell’arte’s playfulness with dialects and language. The women’s language, for both the mother (Deborah) and the servant girl (Yekarah), for instance, is simpler than that of the men.61 While there are commedia dell’arte influences, the plot, as Schirmann suggests, finds its inspiration in Ariosto’s La Lena (1529). At the same time, Schirmann underscores the fact that because the source of this plot twist is the Tanchumah Midrash, this play speaks specifically to a Jewish audience.62 De’ Sommi was a canny intermediary and a canny self-​promoter in equal measure. In fact, the play provided De’ Sommi with an opportunity to allude to his other publications, another clue as to the growing readership he was cultivating among his Jewish community members. For example, one of the characters, Asael, mentions that he is trying to find “a small piece of writing, published again, in the glory of women” that his beloved would like to see.63 Here we see a clear self-​reference to De’ Sommi’s own bilingual poem “Magen Nashim” (In Defense of Women). 60 For the reference to Midrash Tanchuma, “Lech Lecha 8” see: (www.sefa​ria.org/​Midra​sh_​T​anch​ uma,_​Lec​h_​Le​cha.8). On this, see also Ahroni, “The Play and Its Poetics,” in A Comedy of Betrothal (Tsahoth B’dihutha D’Kiddushin), ed. Leone de’ Sommi, Ebreo, trans. and ed. Alfred S. Golding (Ottawa: Dovehouse, 1988), 54. 61 See for example de’ Sommi, Tsahouth Bedihuta de Kiddushin (1965), 33. 62 Schirmann, Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin (1946), 12.

63 “ve-​az eshtadel limtzoh et ha-​ḥibur ha-​kattan, ha-​nidpas me-​ḥadash le-​tiferet ha-​nashim …” “‫ נדפס מחדש לתפארת הנשים‬, ‫ ”ואז אשתדל למצא את החיבור הקטן‬De’ Sommi in Schirmann, Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin (1946), 44.

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82 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary Another similarity with commedia dell’arte occurs when De’ Sommi’s play makes use of elderly male figures. De’ Sommi offers an opposition between two elder figures—​the trustworthy Rabbi Amitai (emeth in Hebrew being truth), head of a law academy and Jedidiah’s mentor, and Rav (Sir) Hamdan (in Hebrew the root hamad is related to the word greed). Rav Hamdan is a questionable lawyer who pockets alms for the poor, entrusted to him for safe keeping, and who contrives to swindle various Jewish and non-​Jewish clients who fall into his path. Rav Hamdan enables De’ Sommi to level a critique at the idea of greed and at the mis-​handling of mammon, the Hebrew word for fortune/​property/​ money. Like the uncouth servant, Rav Hamdan is only after mammon, not truth or tzedek (righteousness) or knowledge. In some ways Rav Hamdan is the embodiment of a recurrent anti-​Semitic trope. De’ Sommi is not afraid to present this stereotype on stage, and while the plot ultimately punishes Rav Hamdan and champions Rabbi Amitai, the reproduction of the negative stereotype on stage in Hebrew must have been a provocative image for the Jewish community. De’ Sommi’s play has bite in another critique leveled at the community: the plight of women thrown into marriage against their will. This was a common ordeal for Jewish and Christian women alike, whose fates were often decided based on their financial standing or mammon. De’ Sommi would later confront this issue in his works in Italian. In his play The Three Sisters, as Beecher has shown, De’ Sommi did not shy from objecting to principles such as the imposition of forced marriage by Christians on Jews, as could happen at the time.64 De’ Sommi’s Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin, his dialogues in Hebrew, and his bilingual poem comprise a rich corpus of experimentations in Hebrew and in intercultural mixing on their own. But these are only a small selection of works and represent an early phase in De’ Sommi’s creative production up to the 1550s. Nothing could prepare him or his fellow residents of Mantua for the explosion of theatre, and especially the prominent appearance of women actors on the stages of 1560s Mantua. And this vibrant period of theatrical history would find immediate reflection in the turn his works took in the 1560s.

De’ Sommi, 1560s Mantua, and the Birth of an Intercultural Theatre-​Maker

De’ Sommi’s early penchant for cultural mixing found an outlet in the 1560s, when the deep influence of commedia dell’arte on him became apparent. In this period of time, De’ Sommi would produce the first treatise on directing, known as Quattro Dialoghi, and he would join Cesare Gonzaga and the Accademia degli Invaghiti (Academy of the Lovesick). What was it that catapulted De’ Sommi out of a mainly Judaic context into the main, hegemonic, Christian spaces where he began to shine in the 1560s? What made him pivot from creative writing in Hebrew to Italian? In this section I view De’ 64 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 13.

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Sommi from a new perspective that takes greater account of the important events that occurred in a very special decade in Mantua in order to connect the dots between 1560s Mantua and the emergence of the famous theatre-​maker. It is impossible to consider the turn De’ Sommi’s work took in the 1560s without discussing the explosion of creative activity from commedia dell’arte troupes in Mantua of the 1560s and the prominence of two women actors at this time: Barbara Flaminia (also known as Flaminia Romana) and Vincenza Armani, both commedia dell’arte actresses who deliberately staged competitive performances in the city.65 The warring commedia dell’arte actresses’ companies that performed in Mantua in 1567–​1569 left an impression on De’ Sommi that is immediately evident in his own work. He exhibits a growing confidence in terms of his contribution as a producer, organizer, and impresario: a great eye for talent and the cultivation of it, and a tremendous ability to pull resources from the Jewish community and connect a project to the necessary talent, costuming, and props. De’ Sommi helped the community lay the foundations for what became, in the Counter-​Reformation years, and especially during and after the 1560s, a period of costly, lavish production that relied increasingly on the contractual work of the Jews as theatre-​makers. If we were to look for a seminal moment in this transition for De’ Sommi and for the Jewish theatre-​makers of Mantua, it might be 1562, the year in which a commedia dell’arte actress from Rome known as Barbara Flaminia toured throughout the region and arrived in Mantua. Her presence in Mantua would introduce her craft to the keen Jewish theatre-​maker and would open the door to her returning to Mantua later in the decade to partake in what became a theatricalized competition between two leading actresses and company leaders of commedia dell’arte. Flaminia herself exemplified the ways theatre provided opportunities for “transnational exchanges” in her life, and in her partnership with Zan Ganassa.66 Her marriage to Giovanni Alberto Naselli, known as his stage name of Zan Ganassa, meant that her life encompassed much travel and touring in Spain.67 Naselli’s troupe was important in “pioneering the introduction of women on to the Spanish stage during the period 1574–​84.”68 Naselli and the troupe remained in Madrid, Seville, Valladolid, among other parts of Spain for a decade, influencing the emerging corrales theatres of Spain.69 65 On these two actresses and events of 1560s, see Katritzky, The Art of Commedia, 86. Barbara Flaminia was also known as Flaminia of Rome (Flaminia Romana), as Katritzky notes in her Index, 314.

66 In using this phrase, I am making reference to the important articulation introduced by members of the working group on Theatre Without Borders. See, for example, Nicholson and Henke, Transnational Exchange in Early Modern Theater (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008).

67 Katritzky, The Art of Commedia, 201. See also Pamela Allen Brown, “The Traveling Diva and Generic Innovation,” Renaissance Drama (Fall 2016): 262.

68 Katritzky, The Art of Commedia, 201n582.

69 See: Brittanica.com/​biography/​zan-​Ganassa.

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84 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary Little did Flaminia know that her arrival in Mantua would be historicized by De’ Sommi, then a young Jewish theatre-​maker who would extol her virtues and abilities as a performer and publish his description in an influential treatise on the art of theatre. In the third dialogue of Quattro Dialoghi, De’ Sommi (through his fictional counterpart, Veridico) sings Flaminia’s praises for posterity: I have always thought and still think that the acting of a young Roman girl named Flaminia is the most extraordinary. Besides being gifted with many beauteous qualities, she is so rare a performer in this profession, that I do not believe the Ancients saw, nor can one find better among the contemporaries.

When she is on the stage, the audience gets the impression not of something contrived or faked, but rather of something real occurring in front of them. She so varies her gestures, voice and tones, matching these to the events, so that those who hear her are moved to marvel and delight.70 mirabile mi è sempre paruto et pare il recitare d’una

giovane donna romana, nominate Flaminia, la quale, oltre all’essere di molte bella qualità ornate, talmente è giudicata rara in questa professione, che non credo che gli antichi vedessero, né si possi fra’ moderni veder meglio; perché infatti ella è tale su per la scena, che non par già a gli uditori di veder rappresentare cosa concertata né finta, ma sí bene di veder succedere cosa vera et improvisamente occorsa, talmente cangia ella i gesti, le voci et i colori, conforme a le varietà delle occorenze, che commove mirabilmente chiunque l’ascolta non meno a maraviglia che a diletto gradissimo.71

De’ Sommi was not the only member of the Jewish community to be entranced by Flaminia. Documents make it clear that, given the opportunity, Jewish community members flocked to see the comici when they could. For example, the court chronicler Luigi Rogna, reports in a letter to Pier Martire Cornacchia that: “even the artists and the Jews suspended their work even though they had to pay a half royal for the entrance” 70 My translation is somewhat different from that offered by Allardyce Nicoll in Quattro Dialoghi or The Dialogues of Leone di Sommi, trans. Allardyce Nicoll, in The Development of the Theatre (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1958). Appendix B: 238–​62. Brown’s translation in “The Traveling Diva” also offers a slightly different translation: “ ‘[Flaminia does not seem to her auditors that she playacts something rehearsed and pretended, but as if they clearly see things that are true and happening spontaneously …’ ” 262. 71 De’ Sommi in Ferruccio Marotti, ed. Quattro dialoghi in materia di rappresentazioni sceniche (Milan: Edizioni Il Polifilo, 1968), 43–​45.

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(persino gli ‘artisti et gli hebrei’ sospendevano il lavoro, nonostante si dovesse versare un mezzo reale per l’ingresso).72 Clearly, at this date, there were no limitations imposed on the Jews in terms of seeing what other residents of Mantua would have seen. There is also no indication that they were separated physically from the other Christian viewers once they had paid their mezzo reale for the entrance. Flaminia’s artistic impact on De’ Sommi is more apparent in the fact that he worked with her on the intermedi staged in 1568. That year, Flaminia was invited to the court of Count Alfonso Gonzaga in nearby Novellara, where she took part in the festivities for the Count’s marriage to Vittoria di Capua. Flaminia performed in the comedy Calandrino e Burlamacchia with intermedi (musical interludes often including elaborate dance and visual schemes) by De’ Sommi.73 Giaches de Wert, who was composing music for the intermedi for this event, wrote a note in which he asks De’ Sommi for certain specifications about what Flaminia is to sing, indicating not only the collaboration among the noted Christian performer and composer and the Jewish playwright and producer/​director, but also the fluid ways in which commedia dell’arte performance, proto-​operatic music, and stagecraft were mutually influential in this period.74 72 Preserved in letters of 6.7.1567 (Herla, Segnatura C-​548 and C-​549). Also published in D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, 447. And found in Schindler, “Viaggi Teatrali Tra l’Inquisizione e il Sacco,” in I Gonzaga e l’Impero Itinerari dello Spettacolo, ed. Umberto Artioli and Cristina Gazioli (Florence: Casa Editrice Le Lettere, 2005), 110. Rogna goes on to detail the degree to which these performances and the work of Flaminia was popular. So much so that the prelates there had to prohibit others from going.

73 “In January of the following year, 1568, we find Flaminia in Novellara at the court of Count Alfonso Gonzaga, where she participated in the celebrations following his marriage to Vittoria di Capua, in a comedy with intermedi by Leone de’ Sommi, Calandrino e Burlamacchia. Giaches de Wert, [the Franco-​Flemish composer and major influence on Monteverdi and the nascent opera] Master of the Chapel of Santa Barbara in Mantua, wrote some musical compositions for Flaminia. Her company was defined contemporaneously by De’ Sommi as ‘Comici Desiosi,’ a denomination that (as we will see) a little later was used also by the imperial antiquarian Jacopo Strada, referring this time to the company of Alberto Naselli, known as his stage name Ganassa, the famous Zanni actor.” (Nel gennaio dell’anno seguente, il 1568, incontriamo Flaminia a Novellara alla corte del Conte Alfonso Gonzaga, dove partecipa alle feste sequite al suo matrimonio con Vittoria di Capua, in una commedia con intermedi di Leone de’ Sommi, Calandrino e Burlamacchia. Giaches de Wert, allora Maestra di Capella presso Santa Barbara a Mantova, scrive per lei alcune composizioni musicali. La sua compagnia viene contemporaneamente definita da de’ Sommi come ‘comici Desiosi,’ una denominazione che (come vedremo) poco tempo dopo utilizzerà anche l’Antiquario imperiale Jacopo Strada, riferendosi però questa volta alla compagnia di Alberto Naselli, in arte Ganassa, allora famoso interprete di Zanni.) In Schindler, “Viaggi Teatrali Tra l’Inquisizione e il Sacco,” 110.

74 The letter by Giaches de Wert is found in Herla, Segnatura C-​3858. Novellara, Archivio Storico Comunale, AG, Autugrafi, b.73, cc. n.n. Giaches de Wert was writing to the Conte Alfonso Gonzaga on September 29, 1567. Schindler, “Viaggi Teatrali Tra l’Inquisizione e il Sacco,” 110, 145. For more on all of this, Schindler references the following sources: Burattelli’s Spettacoli a Mantova, 181; M. del Valle Ojeda Calvo, “Barbara Flaminia: una actriz italiana en España,” in Las mujeres en la sociedad

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86 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary Creative synergy is hard to explain, but the fact is that Mantua of the 1560s attracted the best of the best in musical, dance, and theatre performers, and the artists engaged one another in a way that seems to have transcended religious or cultural differences. The Flemish Jacques de Wert worked seamlessly with the Jewish De’ Sommi and the Christian Italian Flaminia. It is almost astonishing, from a twenty-​first-​century perspective, to look back and note such a degree of unencumbered artistic fluidity and exchange. To name but a few of these achievements, in 1563 De’ Sommi completed Quattro dialoghi in materia di rappresentazioni scheniche, which could be considered to be the first treatise on directing, and in the same year the Jews staged Ariosto’s I Suppositi in honor of Austrian Archdukes Rudolf and Ernest’s visit to Mantua.75 As the community accelerated its theatre production, De’ Sommi became increasingly innovative in encouraging Jewish professionalization in theatre-​making. This may have been inspired by his continued overlap with the commedia dell’arte and the model of contractual work it exemplified, which itself may have been influenced by the contractual work of Jewish communities (in Pesaro, Mantua, and Ferrara) that I discussed in previous chapters. In 1567 De’ Sommi submitted a petition to create and manage a public theatre space in Mantua.76 While his petition was rejected, neither his nor the Jewish community’s theatre-​making was stymied. For the Carnival of 1568, the Jews of Mantua presented Le due fulvie, by Mantuan playwright Bernardo Tasso (father of Torquato Tasso), and Massimo Faroni played a part in the preparations.77 In the midst of the busy decade, in 1567, De’ Sommi submitted a petition to build and manage a room (stanza) that would serve as a kind of public theatre in Mantua.78 De Sommi’s patron, Francesco Gonzaga, Count of Novellara, wrote to the Castellano of Mantua, intending for it to reach the Duke of Mantua. In the letter, Gonzaga supplicates on behalf of De’ Sommi, who wants to “accomodare una stanza, nella quale comodamente et honestamente potranno stare gentilhomini e gentildonne a vedere recitare”79 (see Figure 6). The letter, written in 1567, was reflective of the theatrical fervor already taking over Mantua. But it was De’ Sommi alone who was entrepreneurial at the time in identifying a need for a commercial space where the public could see theatre in a more stable and accessible way. This was, in effect, a vision for a permanent, commercial theatre that was ahead of española del Siglo de Oro, ed. J. A. Martínez Berbel (Granada: University of Granada, 1998) 375–​ 93; and Roberto Tessari, “Il teatro a Mantova tra 1563 e 1630: una mirabile galleria dell’effimero,” in Gonzaga: La Celeste Galeria. L’esercizio del collezionismo, ed. R. Morselli (Milan: Skira, 2002), 176–​83. 75 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 8. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 657 and D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano. 76 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 12.

77 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 657 and ASMn, AG, 13.2.1568. Also noted in Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 15.

78 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 11–​12 also see Beecher, “Leone de’ Sommi,” 11. 79 Herla, Segnatura, C-​17, ASMn AG, b. 1349 cc. n.n. The letter is dated April 17, 1567.

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Figure 6. Letter on behalf of De’ Sommi. Archivio di State di Mantova, Archivio Gonzaga, b 1349, verso copy, 17-​04-​1567.

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88 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary its time, at least for the Italian Peninsula.80 While this request was not successful, De’ Sommi’s crowning achievement of the 1560s, the Dialoghi, was to have a lasting impact on theatre-​making for decades to come.

De’ Sommi and the Dialoghi: Strengthening Jewish Theatre-​making in Mantua

In 1565 De’ Sommi completed the Dialoghi. It was the first of its kind: a treatise on directing that detailed, from De’ Sommi’s perspective, the most important elements of theatrical production.81 The Dialoghi serves as an important document of Renaissance stagecraft, and, furthermore, attests to the types of skills necessary to put on a production. It is possible that the Dialoghi is both prescriptive and descriptive in reflecting on examples of stagecraft that De’ Sommi had a hand in or saw. As a document written by a Jewish theatre-​maker at a key time in the history of the Jewish community’s theatre production, the Dialoghi also reveals the ways the community was developing skills that could be used in theatre production writ large within the Mantuan courtly sphere as well as in the Jewish community’s own theatrical productions for holidays such as Purim. The Dialoghi consists of four dialogues that take place between Veridico, a theatre director who also works as an “embroider,” and two noblemen, Santino and Massimiano. De’ Sommi stages the Dialoghi as a series of dialogues that unfolds among the men when Massimiano comes to pick up a cloak he has left with Veridico. The cloak is just a pretext for Massimiano and Santino to engage Veridico on his opinions about stagecraft because the men have just seen a play he directed during that past Tuesday’s Carnival.82 Veridico obliges them, even though he cannot call the actors to a rehearsal, as Massimiano wishes.83 Instead, they discuss topics related to staging plays, from the selection of materials to the actual staging of plays with intermedi, and the use of lighting and other theatre effects.84 When asked what a play is and how drama comes about, Veridico answers as De’ Sommi himself might have. In fact, in more ways than one, Veridico is De’ Sommi’s fictionalized alter ego: 80 The English public open-​air playhouses were built starting in 1567. Brockett and Hildy, History of the Theatre, 116–​17. However, in the Italian Peninsula, the Venetian Teatro San Cassiano, a permanent public theatre and the world’s first public opera house, was not opened until 1637, though plans for it were dated to 1581. There is an effort to reconstruct this theatre today: teatrosancassiano.it.

81 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 8; Anna Migliarisi, Theories of Directing in Late Renaissance and Early Baroque Italy (PhD thesis, submitted to the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, University of Toronto, 1996); and Helou, “Embodied Voice and the Body Politic.” Nicoll completed a full translation of the Dialogues and dates them to 1565, based on Flaminia Romana’s presence in Mantua in 1567. He suggests the copyist may have placed 1556 for 1565 in error (Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 238), a fact recently affirmed by Helou, 6 and Jaffe-​ Berg, “Performance as Exchange,” 398. 82 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 239. 83 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 239. 84 Migliarisi, Theories of Directing, 12.

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Drama, according to the best authorities, is simply an imitation or mirror of human life, wherein vices are attached and made odious and virtues praised in such a manner as to make people wish to follow them.85

Veridico also argues for a Judaic-​centric dramaturgy. As he puts it: “I believe that these Greeks might have learned the art of introducing diverse characters and of making them converse from the still more ancient sacred books of the Hebrews.”86 For example, “Veridico argues that Moses ‘chose’ a five-​fold division because the number five was a potent symbol of the divine; thus there was no better form for words meant to instruct the spectator in the pursuit of virtue.”87 This “quinary theory” was wholly original to De’ Sommi.88 As De’ Sommi puts it: “Drama is an imitation or mirror of human life, and I conceive it established by divine ordinance.”89 In this opinion, De’ Sommi echoes Cicero’s articulation of comedy as a mirror of human life, a vehicle for increased understanding and for learning.90 Beyond the introduction of this theory of drama’s origins, De’ Sommi promotes many a modern concept, including the idea of the fourth wall in theatre, the need to call on actors for a first read-​through, the use of their voices without shouting, and the importance of providing a plan for correct guidance of the actors’ voice and speech.91 In other ways, the Dialoghi is a reflection of its time, especially when it comes to the question of gender and performance. In the First Dialogue, Veridico also makes it clear that virgins should not take part in theatre-​making. The ancients, therefore, did well in accepting the law that a virgin should not be permitted to appear in comedies lest by such an example citizens’ daughters, who ought to be bashful and retiring, might be induced to gad abroad and engage in public gossip. On the other hand, a prince’s daughter might be allowed to appear in public, for the reason that few would be so bold as to dare attack the honour of such a woman—​where there is no hope love clearly can take no root.92

This interdiction that Veridico imposes on young maidens performing must have been especially important for De’ Sommi to make, considering that his readership included Christians and Jews and that the stage posed a double danger for Jewish women who would have been vulnerable to mistreatment by the public, as women and as a minority 85 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 241. 86 De’ Sommi Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 241. 87 Migliarisi, Theories of Directing, 29. 88 Migliarisi, Theories of Directing, 32.

89 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 241 and also see: Helou, “Embodied Voice and the Body Politic,” 6.

90 See David Wiles, Theatre and Citizenship: The History of a Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). “Donatus gave currency in the renaissance to the Ciceronian adage that comedy is an ‘imitation of life, a mirror of custom, an image of truth’,” 55. 91 Migliarisi, Theories of Directing, 43. For the reference to the fourth wall, see De’ Sommi in Nicoll, 260. 92 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, 243.

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90 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary group. As Veridico puts it: “She who values her honour must avoid the chance of scandal, even if that is purely baseless.”93 This puts his compliments to Flaminia, spelled out in Dialogue Three, in an interesting light—​clearly, he considers Barbara Flaminia less of a donna honesta (virtuous woman)! Nevertheless, despite De’ Sommi’s reservations about women on stage, Flaminia captivated him for her professional ability to make the audience believe they were seeing a real person on stage. While a sixteenth-​century sensibility of what is real or verisimilar differs from our view, it is still the believability and spontaneity of Flaminia’s performance that Sommi found important to acknowledge as a mark of a talented actress.94 After mentioning the acting abilities of Flaminia in the third dialogue, De’ Sommi turns his attention to how to costume a play, emphasizing how the use of costume coloring can help with plot development. “I try so far as possible to give the actors widely differing costumes,” says Veridico, “[t]‌his is of double service in that the variety adds to the beauty of the show and at the same time aids in making the plot clear.”95 Veridico’s words reveal the importance Jewish theatre-​makers placed on creating eye-​catching costumes: for example, the idea that joyful comedies call for the use of vibrant and bold colors to evoke the uplifting spirit of the play.96 Veridico also discusses repurposing clothing for different productions, which provides us with an important insight as to how the Jewish theatre-​makers functioned, having to create an annual play and at times supply other troupes with costumes, as we will see in the next chapter.97 In fact, Veridico makes a point about being resourceful in costuming a play. But lest you fall into the error of supposing that one needs a whole treasury to furnish out a tragedy, let me just say that no prince’s wardrobe is so poorly equipped as to lack materials for the dressing of a great tragedy so long as the producer is a clever man who can make use of what is given him and who has the skill to convert pieces of stuff, draperies, and the like into mantles, cloaks, and vestments, with girdles and knots after the antique fashion, without cutting or destroying them at all.98

It is difficult to overstate the importance of costumes in early modern performances. In addition to providing interest and delight, costumes were important in helping the audience decipher the meaning in a play, especially in performances that had few other visual cues or scenery, as in the case of the commedia dell’arte. Indeed, as Domenico Pietropaolo reminds us, “the stock characters of the Commedia dell’Arte tradition are clearly distinguished by the movement designs that typify them, as the gestural equivalents of their costumes.”99 Character and costume are thereby as connected as character and movement would be. 93 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, 243.

94 See Brown, “The Traveling Diva,” 262.

95 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 254. 96 Migliarisi, Theories of Directing, 55. 97 Migliarisi, Theories of Directing, 57. 98 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, 254.

99 Pietropaolo, “Commedia dell’Arte as Grotesque Dance,” in The Routledge Companion to Commedia dell’Arte, ed. Judith Chaffee and Olly Crick (London: Routledge, 2015), 343.

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As with costuming, Veridico’s discussion of stage-​setting offers insights as to how Jewish theatre-​makers produced the settings that observers so often remarked on. The most important set element was the perspectival scene, enhanced by the strategic use of lighting that made this more visible and visually appealing.100 Referencing Serlio’s ideas about lighting both illuminating and decorating, Veridico (De’ Sommi) suggests how available lighting—​torches, tallow candles, oil lamps, and candelabras—​can be used to illuminate the stage picture from above the stage.101 There is even a moment of self-​referentiality in the Fourth Dialogue, with an allusion to the settings the Duke had built in his courtyard for the wedding celebrations, as well as a compliment to “Cavalier Leone,” who created the settings.

masssimiano. In my opinion that was a magnificent setting which his Highness the Duke of Mantua caused to be erected in the courtyard of His castle for his wedding celebrations. Though it was not used for anything But the tourney held that evening, it would have served excellently for the Presentation both of comedies and of tragedies. veridico. Cavalier Leone, accomplished architect as he is, could not have Created anything but what was perfect; and that set, I agree, was perfect—​Enriched with so many reliefs, embellished by such admirable architecture With such a variety of lovely inventions.102

The scenic element to which De’ Sommi, through Veridico, pays special attention is the issue of lighting. Furthermore, he uses lighting with “transparent or coloured glasses” in front of them, so as to minimize the optical irritation for the audience.103 His sensitivity to smoke is especially interesting, and he writes at length about finding ways to illuminate the smoke which would otherwise compete with the visual effects by creating a “screen that before the second act be done the actors will seem to be not men but shadows, while the spectators, as if blinded, will, without realizing the cause, get the impression that they are losing their sight.”104 Veridico suggests that opening windows under the proscenium would air out the space, and that having holes in the roof behind the scenery would accomplish the same.105 Practicality, not opulence, rules De’ Sommi, who also notes the virtue of not using as many free-​standing candelabras within the audience’s space, and how that amplifies the effects of the lit areas, minimizes smoke, and reduces the overall costs.106 Even after his crowning achievement of the 1560s, De’ Sommi’s Jewish influences were ever-​present. As he matured as a theatre practitioner and a middle-​aged man, De’ 100 Migliarisi, Theories of Directing, 60.

101 Migliarisi, Theories of Directing, 65.

102 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 258. 103 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 259.

104 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 259. 105 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 259. 106 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 259.

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92 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary Sommi did not abandon his role in the Jewish community as a leader. On the contrary, as his fame solidified in the Christian theatre world, his work in the Jewish community only increased, resulting on their ability to put on increasingly lavish productions, as the Counter-​Reformation period demanded of them. In fact, as I have argued, the period during and after the 1570s in Mantua made the theatrical exchanges that were taking place between Christians and Jews more akin to taxation than to open, balanced exchange.107

Maturation and Sedimentation of De’ Sommi’s work in the 1570s and 1580s

As pressures mounted on the Jewish community, starting during the reign of Guglielmo Gonzaga (r. 1550–​1587) after the Councils of Trent (1545–​1563) and accelerating when Duke Vincenzo took power in 1587, the community was increasingly burdened by demands for more and more expensive productions, resulting in greater internal taxation.108 It is under this intense atmosphere that we see the full fruition of De’ Sommi as a canny intermediary, prolific and able to address different audiences—​the conservative audience and the more lascivious of plays such as his Tre sorelle or the imtermedio Amor e Psiche. Such versatility meant that De’ Sommi was constantly exercising his craft, and the list of plays that he had a hand in is truly staggering. To begin with, in the 1570s there are at least three original plays by De’ Sommi. The first of these is I doni (1574 or 1575, now lost), which was performed to commemorate the death of Cesare Gonzaga, his longtime supporter. This pastoral fable included musical interludes (intermedi).109 In 1575 De’ Sommi wrote Gli Sconosciuti, a comedy in prose which was performed before the Dukes of Mantua, Ferrara, and Parma.110 Connected with the play was music by the famous composer Giaches de Wert, as well as an intermedio created by De’ Sommi, Amor e Psiche.111 Both the pastorals and the intermedi, which incorporated music and spectacular visuals, go to the heart of some of De’ Sommi’s theorizing about staging techniques and help to answer the question of why the Christian Dukes would have repeatedly requested De’ Sommi’s help with staging some of their more professionally sophisticated productions. For example, in Amor e Psiche there is a built-​in plot line that invites the staging of surprise and discovery. The 107 Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange,” 398–​403. 108 Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange,” 401–​2.

109 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 15. Simonsohn, The Development of the Theatre, 658.

110 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 658, and in note 277 and 278, he refers to publication by Peyron and Pegna, among others in which the details of the margin notes were found.

111 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 15. For a description of the remaining partly burned texts, see Cristina dal Molin, “Recovery of Some Unedited Manuscripts by Leone de’ Sommi at the National Library of Turn,” in Leone de’ Sommi and the Performing Arts, ed. Ahuva Belkin (Tel Aviv: Assaph, 1997), 101–​18.

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story involves the love of Psiche and Cupid or Amor, who are both unified and doomed in marriage. Psiche is not supposed to look at the body of Amore, whom she assumes to be monstrous. Here is how De’ Sommi describes the staging of this dramatic revelation: Soon we discover in the upper part of Amore’s house a room, realistically furnished, with an ornamental bed on which we see Amore sleeping, half covered by a light veil and, accompanied by a sweet harmonic sound, we see Psyche entering through the door of that room with a light in hand and, as she lifts the veil, she discovers her Amore, and finds herself stupefied and shaking so that sparks fall on his shoulder [or back] and Amore awakens and sits up on the bed. Subito si scoperse nella parte superior della casa d’Amore una camera realmente aparata con un letto ornatissimo sopra il quale si vedea Amore dormendo mezzo coperto d’un leggiero zendale et al dolce sono d’una oculta harmonìa si vide entrar Psiche nell’uscio di quella camera co’ lume in mano et levando ella il zendale scoperse l’Amor suo, onde stupida et tremante gli spruzzò una scintilla sopra la spalia et Amore destandosi si levò sul letto.112

This scene is remarkable in so many ways. The description De’ Sommi offers is nearly cinematic in detailing frame by frame how he guides the audience to discover Amore through Psyche’s point of view. The panning from the room, to the bed, to the veil, then through the veil, to the body of the sleeping Amore is a moment-​by-​moment progression in which each discovery heightens the eroticism of the scene and parallels the emotional charge felt by Psyche. When the candlelight sparks literally spill over, De’ Sommi has created an almost literal counterpart to Psyche’s attraction and sexual desire for Amore. The charge is all the more aching, as it is clear that “[t]‌he spectators identify with Psyche and are kept aware of the tragic moment: the marvelous discovery turns into a Loss.”113 The question of lighting, which De’ Sommi addresses in such detail in his writings in the Quattro Dialoghi, is everywhere apparent in this description, as Psyche is holding a light in her hand, suggesting that on the stage there would be beautiful interplays of light and shadow. The word spalia could mean shoulder or back; however, knowing how aware De’ Sommi is of sightlines and the play of light and shadow, I have translated it as shoulder, suggesting that Amore was sleeping on his side, so as to be more visible to audience members. The intimate and erotic nature of the scene was enhanced by the candlelight held by Psyche, which would have created even more play of shadows and light on the stage. In this image and elsewhere, De’ Sommi was specially attuned 112 De’ Sommi, Amor e Psiche (Intermedio) in La Favola di Amor e Psiche nella Letteratura e nell’ Arte Italiana (Ugo de Maria: Bologna, 1899), 282–​89. My thanks to Nicoletta da’Ros for identifying “d’un leggiero zendale” as possibly meaning a light veil. This makes special sense in the case of Mantua, which is surrounded by lakes and is therefore especially susceptible to mosquitos. The veil made of a net or lace, covering the bed, would make sense as a type of mosquito net. In the Vocabolario Treccani, a zanzarièra is described as “cortina de velo che si pone tutt’intorno al letto, facendola posare sulle spalliere o su apposite supporti, e che serve per difendere dale zanzare la persona che riposa.” Treccani.it/​vocabolario/​zanzariera.

113 Belkin, “The Intermedio Amor e Psiche, by Leone de’ Sommi,” in Leone de’ Sommi and the Performing Arts, ed. Ahuva Belkin (Tel Aviv: Assaph, 1997), 160.

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94 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary to theatrical transformations—​in clothing, costume, and, especially, in lighting, which shifts emotion and enacts transitions. Belkin emphasizes De’ Sommi’s dramaturgical ability in the intermedi where he was able to bring dramatic elements into a genre that normally relied only on stage effects: “While his poetry may not attain the celestial heights produced by this type of spectacle on stage, this unique intermedio reflects De’ Sommi’s undisputed dramatic and theatrical gifts.”114 Like most intermedi, Amor e Psiche (1575) was a uniquely “intermedial” form, combining music, a moresca dance, pantomime, and other visual spectacles and working, dramaturgically, with the play alongside which it was presented, operating as commentary and elucidation or elaboration in turn. The intermedio also contains the signature self-​reference De’ Sommi often included in his works, when Psiche says: Show me, I pray you, the way that I may please in this as in many other things, Mercy of de’ Sommi (from the summits) that I have pleased Venus too wrongly angry with me. Mostrami prego il modo ond’io compiaccia in questo come anco in molte altre cose, mercè de’ Somi dei ho compiaciuto, Venere troppo a torto irata meco.115

As if to reinforce his own reputation, in the intermedio, De’ Sommi used a tour de force of visual effects, including water, references to a hell’s mouth and even to the underworld (In questo dir si scoperse prima il fiume et si udi un grane/​Mormorar d’acque—​the river was discovered first with a murmuring of water). Then the hell’s mouth was discovered and Charon on his boat was seen on the river (La bocca de l’inferno et si vide appresso comparer di la dal fiume/​Caronte sopra la sua barchette passer a l’altra riva).116 Fire and fireworks were the final elements that were incorporated into the already rich scenic and visual scheme. The intense visual work that De’ Sommi introduced in this intermedio in 1575 found other outlets in his dramatic works, for example, his pastoral Irifile.117 Irifile begins with a dialogue between tragedy and comedy; the allegorical use here recalls De’ Sommi’s strategy in Tsahouth Be’dihutah de’ Kiddushin, where the play begins with the female allegorical character Wisdom.118 Interestingly, Irifile, like the intermedio Amor e Psiche, makes use of fireworks and other devices, and it contains a character 114 Belkin, “The Intermedio Amor e Psiche by Leone de’ Sommi,” 156.

115 De’ Sommi, Amor e Psiche, 288.

116 De’ Sommi, Amor e Psiche, 288–​89.

117 The same technique was incorporate in the comedy Le tre sorelle, in one of the final scenes. Abd-​El Kader Salza also notes that some have speculated that the play was based on the pastoral Sacrificio of Agostino Beccari, which was represented on February 11 and March 4 in 1554 in the Este court, with music by Alfonso della Viulo, and published in Ferrara in 1555, adding credence to the speculation that De’ Sommi spent time in Ferrara. Salza, “Un dramma pastorale,” 115. 118 Salza provided the most complete study of this play in “Un drama pastorale inedito,” 105.

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known as Veridico, De’ Sommi’s stand-​in for himself in Quattro Dialoghi, and it has been suggested that De’ Sommi himself may have performed the role of the sage counselor in the pastoral piece.119 The year 1575 was marked by the death of Cesare Gonzaga, Count of Guastalla, De’ Sommi’s patron and the creator of the Accademia degli Invaghiti, where De’ Sommi was given the title of Scribe as an honorary member. Nevertheless, even the death of his patron did not stunt De’ Sommi’s productivity in the ensuing decade, and it is clear that he had by this point developed the tools of maintaining effective artist–​patron relations with a broad range of princes and rulers. Just a few years later, De’ Sommi’s La Fortunata was staged (1581), followed by plays by others, including: Il Giannizzero and Annibal Caro’s Gli Straccioni (1583).120 Crisis overtook the community in 1584 when Duke Guglielmo capitulated to the Church’s pressures and the Jesuits established the church of San Salvatore not just in the heart of the Jewish quarter, but near a synagogue.121 De’ Sommi used his talents to represent his community well in this turbulent time, and he agreed, following the Duke’s request, to write the intermedi for the lavish 1584 performance of Bernardo Pino de Cagli’s Gli Ingiusti sdegni when the Duke’s son, Vincenzo, married for the second time. Bolstered by this experience, and responsive to his community’s need in a time in which the Jesuit presence was increasingly oppressive for Jews, in 1585 De’ Sommi requested permission from Guglielmo for land to build a synagogue.122 That same year, De’ Sommi’s La Fortunata (which had first been presented in the late 1560s), was staged again at the court of Duke Carlo Immanuel of Savoy.123

De’ Sommi’s Dexterity in Cultivating Patrons

De’ Sommi could not have been this prolific without cultivating his relationship with his changing patrons (Cesare Gonzaga, Guglielmo, and Vincenzo) effectively. How did he do this? He had to have been as astute an interpreter of psychology as a creative artist, for 119 “I fuochi artificiali erano compimento di questa favola, nell quale il De’ Sommi aveva con mille artifice cercato di meravigliare e dilettare gli spettatori.” (The fireworks were a component of this tale, in which De’ Sommi, with a thousand artifices, tried to create wonder and delight for his spectators.) Salza, “Un dramma pastorale,” 114n1. 120 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 16. 121 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 13.

122 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 2n15. Also, see David Kaufmann, “Leone De Sommi Portaleone (1527–​1592): Dramatist and Founder of a Synagogue at Mantua,” The Jewish Quarterly Review 10 (April 1898): 445–​61. 123 Dal Molin, “Recovery of Some Unedited Manuscripts,” 113 and Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 658. Other plays by De’ Sommi include: Il Tamburo; L’Adelfa; La Diletta, Gli Onesti Amori, a prologue and intermedio for the play Gli Ingiusti Sdegni; La Drusilla; La Rappresentazione Delle Nozze di Mercurio e Filologia, dedicated to Duke Carlo Immanuel of Savoy; the intermedio Amore e Psiche and the pastoral play L’Irifile. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 658–​60.

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96 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary talent alone could not have accounted for De’ Sommi’s versatility in courting different men’s tastes and assuaging different men’s personalities. One example serves to lift the curtain on De’ Sommi’s ability (see Figure 7):124 Cosi indisposto come mi trovo, mi è venuto un capriccio di a[m]‌pliare in certo loco quel mio poema, et farli un prologo stravagante da accrescere vaghezza allo spettacolo, et però prego V.S. a voler mandarmi il libro per il prese[n]te, mentre io resto desideroso di farle honore in ogni occasione ove da lei sarò proposto.

Ho poi caro non haver parlato con altri che con V.S. del travaglio che me occorse quella notte, risoluto di non ne parlar[ne] in conto alc[uno] se non quanto mi consiglierà V.S. chi’io ne favelli, che sara il fine c[on] che me la racc[omando] in gratia, Di casa il penult[imo] Novembre 1579

Di V.S. devoto et obligatiss[imo] servitore Leone Hebreo de’ Sommi.

(De’ Sommi 30 October 1579, ASMn AG B. 2409 c 757 Herla, Segnatura -​C 1)

Indisposed as I find myself, there came to me a fancy that will surely add to my poem, in a certain part, and will give to it an extravagant prologue to increase the pleasure for the spectacle, and yet, I beg of Your Highness to send me the book for the present, while I still wish to honor you in every occasion which you recommend me.

I took care not to speak with anyone other than your Lordship about the travail that happened to me this night, resolving not to speak about it in any way unless it is what your Lordship suggests that I do, that the intention with which I recommend myself to your grace. From my house, this last day of November, 1579, From your devoted and obliged servant Leone de’ Sommi, the Jew.125

124 I have normalized the periods that appear in the original and changed them to commas. I use brackets as a convention when the original text has contractions or abbreviations that were commonly used. I adhere to the cataloging and library conventions of the Association of College and research Libraries, noted by Gregory A. Pass in Descriptive Cataloging of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern Manuscripts (Chicago: American Library Association, 2003). “The use of square brackets indicates that the information is either present in a manuscript and contemporary original, but supplemented by the cataloger, as in the expansion of abbreviations” (3). 125 Translation is my own from the archival source found in ASMn, AG, b. 2409 c. 757, letter by De’ Sommi to Guglielmo Gonzaga on November 29, 1579 (De’ Sommi, October 30, 1579, ASMn, AG, b. 2409 c. 757 Herla, Segnatura C-​1). (There is a discrepancy in the date noted on the top of the letter and in the archival record.)

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Figure 7. Letter by De’ Sommi. Archivio di Stato di Mantova, Archivio Gonzaga, B 2409 757 r.

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98 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary Written in De’ Sommi’s impeccable hand, the letter’s form reflects none of the emotional content. Like all other writing I have found by De’ Sommi, himself the author of a work on writing, this one suggests the careful attention to detail in handwriting and the elegant touch of a scribe, as well as the ideas of a writer. His word choices are deliberate and revealing and they hold clues for his relationship with the Duke as well as his own strategies in securing Ducal patronage. The term vaghezza, which De’ Sommi uses in his letter to Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga, is the same one that appears throughout the Dialoghi.126 Vaghezza has various meanings, but among them is pleasure or delight, and it is this pleasure that De’ Sommi wishes to emphasize to the Duke he will bring to the audience with his new addition to the prologue.127 When De’ Sommi was writing this letter in late November, preparations must already have started for the late winter Carnival season; and as the temperature grew colder, the winter festivities were an important and much-​anticipated source of relief from the dreariness of the bitter cold in this largely agricultural economy. The lightness of touch in De’ Sommi is evident in his disclosure that “mi è venuto un capriccio” (there came to me a fancy), a phrase both evocative and enticing enough to secure the Duke’s attention.128 This intimate exchange that takes place between an artist and his patron reveals much about that unique relationship. De’ Sommi seems to have a very cordial and familiar rapport with Guglielmo, writing of his illness and ideas coming to him late at night. Ill or not, De’ Sommi was at his prime when writing this letter, and his confidence is expressed both in the clean polish of his writing and in the confident familiarity that he assumes with the Duke. The letter also reveals the creative mind at work, how inspiration arrives for the creator (late at night), and how this artist must cultivate his relationship with his patrons so that he can guide his vision to fruition. Emphasized, too, are the effects of beauty (vaghezze) that De’ Sommi promises to incorporate. This is an important detail because it foregrounds De’ Sommi’s stagecraft, an element that would be well-​used by the Jewish theatre-​makers as a whole, as we shall see in the next chapter. In fact, in the Dialoghi, De’ Sommi mentions the word vaghezza several times in the third dialogue, when he has Veridico speak about the beauty and effects on stage. “[M]‌e par, dico, che l’abito sontuoso accresca molto di riputazione et di vaghezza alle comedie, et molto piú poi alle tragedie.”129 (“It seems to me that the lavish garments add much to the 126 De’ Sommi, Quattro Dialoghi in Marotti, Dialogue 3, 48, 49; Dialogue 4, 64, 66. Lisa Sampson also quotes the latter passage (p. 66) in “The Mantuan Performance of Guarini’s ‘Pastor fido’ and Representations of Courtly Identity,” The Modern Language Review 98:1 (2003): 65–​83.

127 The Vocabolario Treccani defines vaghézza at this period of time as many things, including “bellezza, leggiadria, grazia” (beauty, grace) and also “diletto, piacere” (delight, pleasure). www. trecc​ani.it/​voca​bola​rio/​vaghe​zza/​ 128 ASMn, AG, b. 2609 c. 757. Front side. 29.11.1579. Leone de’ Sommi to the Duke of Mantua [Guglielmo Gonzaga]. 129 De’ Sommi, Quattro Dialoghi in Marotti, 48.

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reputation and beauty of comedies, and more so to that of tragedies.”)130 And, a few lines later, “Io mi ingegno poi quanto piú posso di vestire I recitanti fra loro differentissimi; et questo aiuta assai, sí allo accrescere vaghezza con la varietà loro, et sí anco a facilitare l’inteligenza della favola.”131 (“I strive as much as I can to dress the actors in very different ways: and this variety adds to the beauty [of the performance], as well as facilitating the understanding of the plot.”)132 The visual effects are a main aspect of De’ Sommi’s stagecraft and a skill cultivated by him and his community in the staging of plays. The emphasis of this element of production was present not only on stage but also in these epistolary exchanges with his patrons, and De’ Sommi was ever mindful of branding his own work and that of the ebrei as a contracted production team able to pull off scenic marvels, whether in intermedi, pastorals, or comedies.

De’ Sommi as Advocate for the Jewish Community

In order to accomplish the extravagant stagecraft demanded by his patrons, in addition to the publication of various works which cemented his own reputation, De’ Sommi needed to cultivate support within his community as much as outside of it. It is easy to forget that the Jewish community was not a unified one, but heterogeneous, with the Ashkenazim and the Italiani, as well as the Sepharadim (albeit there were fewer of them in Mantua). They held different opinions about theatre and held different socio-​ economic positions within their community. And yet, De’ Sommi found unified support among the various Jewish families who contributed to the funding and making of the performances, and he repaid this loyalty by advocating tirelessly for his community. This ability to cultivate a united following and supportiveness reflects a skill at least equal to that which De’ Sommi had in finessing relations with the Dukes, and that energy is evident in correspondences De’ Sommi had with the patron Dukes as well as in archival community materials. De’ Sommi’s loyalty to his community is clearly shown in a letter written to Duke Guglielmo in 1577 in which he asks that Jews be permitted to monitor themselves using their own court of justice (as opposed to that of the Duke). This document is one of many in which De’ Sommi advocates for autonomy for the Jewish community to address its own needs. In this document, De’ Sommi asks for a “Bed din” (Court of Justice) and he uses the Hebrew word and then very consciously defines and explains it: “Bed din, che segnifica costitutione di giudicis” (A court of Justice, which means a body of judges).133 De’ Sommi explains that he is supplicating on the part of the local as well as the “foreign” 130 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 253. 131 De’ Sommi Quattro Dialoghi in Marotti, 49.

132 De’ Sommi in Nicoll, The Development of the Theatre, 254.

133 Italics are my own. Letter from Leone de’ Sommi to Duke Gugliemo, on 1.11.1577, ASMn, AG, b. 3389 c. 197. There is another copy of the letter on 10.9.1577. It is possible these are two copies of the same letter or that the letter was re-​submitted.

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100 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary Jews (by which he means the Ponentine Jews of Spain and Portugal, recently arrived in Mantua after the Spanish expulsions). He explains that this is a court of law that is necessary for the community to run itself “secondo il loro stile” (according to their style) and “secondo vito loro” (according to their life). In advocating in this way, De’ Sommi was consciously representing all members of his community, and in the spirit of a true massaro, a leader advocating for his people, he acted in their interests alone, and asked for no special favors for himself. It is a dignified plea for cultural understanding in a way we might not expect from a subordinate to a ruler. His communication with the Duke constitutes an evolution of Jewish-​Christian rapport in which there are points of deeper sharing and exchange despite the simultaneous taxation, occasional violence and constraining of the community. These contrasting elements coexist and constitute the complex mechanism of “exchange” that we will find in Mantua and through the vehicle of performance. We learn as much about De’ Sommi and the Jews as we do about Guglielmo, for after this letter we can assume that he had a greater familiarity with the Jewish Bed Din. In a nice reversal of roles, the archives document instances in which De’ Sommi, who so frequently supplicated on behalf of others in the Jewish community, actually had Christians supplicating on his behalf. So, for instance, Ercole Udine reminds Cesare Gonzaga that he needs to resolve the debt of sixteen gold scudi that he owes to De’ Sommi.134 De’ Sommi’s generosity of spirit and his genuine commitment to benefit the community is apparent in a document in which he refuses payment, preferring to donate it to the community itself so it can be used for other purposes. This is a letter that Simonsohn cites from the community notebooks, which, unfortunately, I have not been able to find, even though they are said to be part of the Jewish Community Archives.135 It is the solemn truth that on Sunday, the 8th of January 5341 (1581), the massari of the year 5340 (1580), Meir Bassan, Moses Ascirelli, and Mordecai Melli, acknowledged that they had received on behalf of the community from Israel Judah of Sirmino seventy-​ three Mantuan pounds, that he had received from Judah Sommo Portaleone, that are the very coins that the afore-​mentioned massari gave to the afore-​mentioned Judah Sommo for his trouble in the commedia that is now fit to be enacted at the next carnival with God’s help, and graciously returned to the aforementioned massari in the name of the community by means of the said Israel Judah, for he did not wish to receive anything from the holy congregation for their part that was due to him from the said commedia for his remuneration as above by the community, according to the division made between the community and the bankers. And with the agreement of the said massari I have

134 Herla, Segnatura C-​568. Mantua, Biblioteca Comunale Teresiana Ms. 995 H-​IV8 lett 35 c. 95. Ercole Udine reminds Cesare Gonzaga that he needs to cover the debt of 16 scudi to Sir Leone. (“Ercole Udine ricorda al Cesare Gonzaga che bisogna saldare il debito di 16 scudi d’oro (per 4 collette) a messer Leone.”)

135 Simonsohn lamented the loss of many of the materials he had originally found in the archives. See Simonsohn, “Savants and Scholars,” especially when he writes: “My ‘Jews in the duchy of Mantua’ was based on most of the documentary evidence available to me at the time. unfortunately, some of the documents then available in the archives of the Jewish community have since disappeared,” 302.

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written all the above so that the truth shall prevail. Thus spoke Eliah Melli son of Rabbi Zemah Melli of blessed memory.136

This generosity of spirit shows a prioritizing of the needs of his community over his own personal wealth and is another indication of De’ Sommi’s important role as a leader.

Exit With Fireworks

I began this chapter with the end of De’ Sommi’s life, and then I worked my way back to tell his story roughly chronologically. We have now arrived, more properly, at the end of his career, and I have shown the development of De’ Sommi’s work from experimental Hebrew poetry to the first-​ever comedy in Hebrew, through the influence of the commedia dell’arte and its female “warring” divas in 1560s Mantua to the more audacious staging designs discussed in the dialoghi and accomplished in comedies, intermedi, and pastoral plays. An exemplar of just how elaborate that stagecraft could be is De’ Sommi’s play Le tre sorelle (The Three Sisters), which the Università performed in 1588 at the cost of 250 gold scudi.137 The play borrows from Ludovico Ariosto’s La Lena (1528), and, like La Lena, Le tre sorelle has a character named Pacifico who is being duped by a procuress named Lena.138 In Le tre sorelle, the practice of magic is embodied in the character of a procuress named Melite, and, with her as a pretext, De’ Sommi is able to justify his staging feats, which may have included fireworks and other “special effects.” The special lighting effects that De’ Sommi mentions in his Dialoghi appears to have been employed to good use here, when in Act IV, Scene III, the character Zarda notes, “I’ll be happy enough with these few coins if they are true scudi—​which they seem to be, the way they look here in the moonlight.”139 As Beecher and Ciavolella point out, “These circumstances would, likewise, allow De’ Sommi to employ his special lighting effects about which he wrote at length in his Fourth Dialogue … Shading the candles would show off the fireworks in Melite’s well to greater effect as well.”140 The conceit is that Melite has a spirit who is caught at the bottom of the well in her house, and in the following scene (Scene vi) she performs an incantation and conjures him up.141 Magic was often associated with Jews.142 136 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 661n293. He is quoting from a letter found in J.C.A. (Simonsohn refers to “minute book A”) M.B, A 77a. See the note in the bibliography regarding Simonsohn’s archival references. 137 Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange,” 402.

138 Ludovico Ariosto, La Lena, in Five Italian Renaissance Comedies, trans. Guy Williams (London: Penguin Classics, 1978). 139 De’ Sommi, The Three Sisters, trans. Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction,” 101. 140 The Three Sisters, 129n48.

141 The Three Sisters, Act IV scene vii, Beecher and Ciavolella, “The Life and Works,” 103.

142 Edward L. Goldberg, Jews and Magic in Medici Florence: The Secret World of Benedetto Blanis (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011), and Amnon Raz-​Krakotzkin, The Censor, the Editor and the Text: The Catholic Church and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon in the Sixteenth Century (Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania University Press, 2007), 46.

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102 A Canny Theatrical Intermediary As Raz-​Krakotzkin has reflected, the book burnings of the 1550s in Rome performed an enactment of “the theatrical and public punishment of the Renaissance” (45). When the Gonzaga resisted the burning of the Talmud, as Guglielmo did for a time, he was resisting this theatricalized punishment. “Fire was understood as a sacral means of expurgation, and the public nature of the ceremony (often including the presence of the author or publisher) was a basic element of the event.”143 In contrast, the fireworks and fire fanfare enacted in Le tre sorelle reversed this purification ceremony and made fun of the very elements that were, elsewhere, feared tools of the Inquisition, all the while satisfying the audience’s desire for stage effects. If divine and satanic powers were attributed to the books, many of which were in Hebrew and Aramaic, then the belief in these powers is held to ridicule when the Bawd “mistakenly” is able to conjure, through fire and fireworks, a person. What a perfect concretization of the canny intermediary role that De’ Sommi took on his whole life. De’ Sommi was able to satisfy his Christian public while incorporating a mixed metaphor of fire as both a plot element and staging device. He performed his contractual duty as a theatre-​maker using theatre as a mode of cultural exchange without compromising his own community’s integrity, as well as communicating a level of critique through stagecraft. In the next chapter we turn to view how the Jews of Mantua fared once De’ Sommi was no longer with them. We find that although he was a tremendous force within theatre-​making, the community was nevertheless able to recover and find new ways of appeasing their Gonzaga patrons, adapting themselves with dexterity and ability to the new conditions of the Counter-​Reformation and the pressure to execute increasingly extravagant performances in response to Baroque sensibilities.

143 Raz-​Krakotzkin, The Censor, the Editor and the Text, 46.

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Chapter 4

A VIRTUOSO OF JEWISH MANTUA1

So much has

been written about De’ Sommi that we may be faulted for thinking that he was the one and only theatre-​maker among the Jews of Mantua. Indeed, it is easy to see how any other writer or theatre producer would remain in the shadows, eclipsed by the great light of this formidable playwright, impresario, and Jewish community leader. However, De’ Sommi was far from the only theatre producer in Mantua. In this chapter, I focus on another man, Shlumiel Basilea, who was famous enough to sustain the approbation and protection of the Gonzaga Dukes in the tumultuous period before and during the establishment of the Jewish Ghetto in Mantua in 1612. Basilea filled the vacuum left by De’ Sommi by forging another model for the Jewish theatre-​maker: that of a performer/​producer and company leader. This model contrasted with De’ Sommi’s example of a writer who also produced and choreographed, but never performed. The distinction is important: Basilea’s reliance on his own reputation for virtuoso performances was much influenced by the model of the commedia dell’arte actors who made their fame as performers before becoming company leaders. Basilea’s rise as an actor was a signal shift for the Jewish theatre-​making enterprise and a pronounced example of intercultural influences from the commedia dell’arte affecting a Jewish artist. Basilea’s importance is even more evident if we accept, as I argue in this chapter, that Basilea—​known by his stage name of “Shlumiel”—​created a Jewish archetype, that of “the Schlemiel,” that would have a lasting impact and is still visible today. The etymological proximity of Shlumiel Basilea’s name to “schlemiel” leads me to associate this “character” actor with impersonation and imitation, the two acting modes that made him famous. While considering this “origin” of the “schlemiel,” I do not lose sight of Basilea’s likely inspiration—​the giulliari/​jongleurs and Venetian buffoni—​and, therefore, his debt to the Venetian and Northern Italian comic traditions. Remarkably, Basilea was making theatre at a time of greater restrictions on Jewish–​ Christian relations, including the imposition of ghettos, which aimed to physically separate Jews and Christians. Basilea’s rise reflects the paradox that in a period of imposed cultural barriers, theatrical emulation, and borrowing nevertheless persisted between the Jews and Christians in Mantua. Even in the tumultuous post-​1612 ghettoization period, with shifting rulers and more extravagant staging needs, Basilea’s career flourished. Basilea and De’ Sommi could not have been more different. De’ Sommi modeled himself on the erudite writers and academy members who were active in the Christian world, while Basilea imitated the antics of the comic zanni. Like the zanni, Basilea 1 Parts of this chapter were presented at the medieval working group of the American Society for Theatre Research conference in Dallas, 2013. I thank Jenna Soleo-​Shanks, Lofton Durham, Kathryn Jenkins, and the late Claire Sponsler for their encouragement.

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104 A Virtuoso of Jewish Mantua imitated other characters’ voices, languages and mannerisms in keeping with a buffonic tradition that had its roots in the Venetian buffoni and perhaps also in the troubadors of medieval Europe. It is not surprising that each man took such a different tack. Even though we do not know much about their personal lives, what we know goes at least some way towards differentiating their individual theatrical inclinations and explains which patrons they may have found most traction with. Since Basilea relied on his acting talent, his reputation depended on an ability to forge an immediate connection with his audiences during the actual performance. On the other hand, De’ Sommi worked behind the scenes, writing, directing, and producing his plays in ways that made him less visible to the audience but highly present for his patrons and production teams, with whom he corresponded directly. For this reason, De’ Sommi leaves behind a trail of letters, often written in his own hand, whereas Basilea, though physically visible to his audiences, is less visible in the archives. We have no document written in Basilea’s hand (aside from his signature) and must rely on the information conveyed by his patrons and protectors in their letters on his behalf. Presciently, De’ Sommi wrote in a document called ‫“( ׳מראות הצובעות׳‬Mar’ot ha-​Tzova’ut” or, in De’ Sommi’s terms as translated into Modern Hebrew by Schirmann, on the art of writing, ‫)על אומנות הכתיבה‬.2 There, one of De’ Sommi’s stanza’s reads: ‫ יען כי לא‬,‫גדול כוח הכתב והמכתב הנעשה כהוגן וכשורה‬ ‫ כי אך אחרי מותם‬,‫בלבד יכבד את בעליו הן בעודן בחיים‬

‫יגדיל כבודם ויאדיר שמם וזכרם לטובה ולברכה לתהילה‬ .‫ולשם תפארת‬

Great is the power of writings done fair and proper, because not only do they honor their owners while they are alive, but also after their death they enlarge their reputation and will glorify their name and memory for blessings, praise and for glory.3

De’ Sommi’s awareness of the importance of writing as a means of ensuring eternal fame is conveyed clearly in this stanza. This is quite different from the performer’s embrace of presence, which is short-​lived and ephemeral by definition. Both Basilea and De’ Sommi had to rely on Jewish supporters and Christian protectors. However, they appealed to entirely different types of men (and, in some cases, women), and that difference says something about the types of creative people they each were. For instance, early in his career, De’ Sommi gained the support of a Jewish man and his wife, Reuven Sullam and Hanna Rieti, but, as I have already discussed, it was Rieti who played a special role in commissioning work from De’ Sommi in the 2 See Schirmann, The First Hebrew Play (1946), Appendix B, 140–​143.

3 Schirmann, The First Hebrew Play, 142. I thank Michela Andreatta for her important suggestions regarding the translation.

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first place.4 In acknowledgement of her important role in bringing the work to light, De’ Sommi dedicated his bilingual poem Magen Nashim to her, reflecting the profound influence and importance she had for him. Significantly, as far as I know, she is the only Jewish person he dedicated work to. Otherwise, his plays in Italian are dedicated to the Dukes and nobility. In his poem, De’ Sommi mentions another Jewish woman who may have played a part in supporting his work—​this time a woman living in Bologna.5 Basilea does not appear to have had this direct connection with any Jewish women that I can discern from the extant documentation, but he is described as travelling with Jewish companion performers, suggesting that he worked alongside other creatives in the Jewish community. De’ Sommi and Basilea gravitated to different Christian patrons for protection, and that in and of itself lent a hand to shaping their careers. De’ Sommi was very close to Cesare Gonzaga, Count of Guastalla and founder of the Accademia degli Invaghiti, an elite literary academy that attracted great writers and thinkers who were almost all Christian. De’ Sommi maintained strong relations, as I detailed in the previous chapter, with Dukes Guglielmo and Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua, and they remained his steadfast protectors and patrons. Basilea’s situation was entirely different and reflected his own profile as a travelling performer. His main patron was Don Giovanni dei Medici (1567–​1621), a legitimized son of Cosimo I who lived in Florence and spent much time in Venice. Don Giovanni was a very different character from the Gonzaga, and the Florentine world provided a different set of cultural influences that linked Basilea to a wider circle than in Mantua. Don Giovanni employed a Jewish man named Benedetto Blanis, who lived in the Jewish Florentine ghetto, as a librarian, and this meant the circle of contacts Don Giovanni encouraged include a number of Jewish people.6 The interconnected Jewish-​Christian relationship, which Edward Goldberg has detailed in two publications, may have served as a model for Don Giovanni’s patronage of Basilea.7 4 See Schirmann, The First Hebrew Play, 1946, Appendix C, 145–​201. The section highlighting Hannah is found on 148–​49. Also: Jaffe-​Berg, “Magen Nashim.” The reference to Rieti is found on 127n17. 5 In de’ Sommi’s words: ‫היא יושבת בקריה‬

Che madre è di studii detta ‫היא בולוניא ובה לן יה‬

(She dwells in the city

That is a mother for all study Called Bologna and there resides God [a play on the sound ya that ends the word Bologna]). De’ Sommi, Magen Nashim in Schirmann, The First Hebrew Play (1946), 167.

6 See Edward L. Goldberg, Jews and Magic in Medici Florence, and Goldberg, A Jew at the Medici Court: The Letters of Benedetto Blanis Hebreo (1615–​ 1621) (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011). 7 Goldberg, A Jew at the Medici Court.

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106 A Virtuoso of Jewish Mantua The intercultural milieu of Don Giovanni may have influenced Basilea’s own decision to model his existence on that of the buffoni or the traveling comici, as it provided him with the opportunity to move himself and those he traveled with, presumably a company of Jewish actors, from one region to another, depending on the invitations received and on the shifting favorability in policies towards Jews. Don Giovanni was also a guiding patron of Flaminio Scala, the capocomico of the Confidenti commedia dell’arte troupe. As Rosalind Kerr has shown, their relationship “shaped the Confidenti into a modern company.”8 It was an ability to vocally imitate various characters that led to Don Giovanni’s esteem for Basilea and made him willing to supplicate on Basilea’s behalf, asking for permission for him to travel outside of Mantua without having to wear the Jewish badge or sign.9 There are many examples of musician performers, such as Abramo dall’ Arpa and his son Daniel, but Basilea is the first and only actor that I know of who is written about with such admiration.10 Among other famous musicians are the brother and sister Salamone Rossi and Europa Rossi, who often performed in Mantua and were paid by “special funds” the Duke reserved for entertainment.11 Additionally, Isacchino Massarano was a versatile man of the theatre, serving as choreographer, singer, lutist, or dancer, as needed.12 Music had long been a way Jews entered performance, and the list of names above suggests that the tradition of incorporating Jewish musicians was established in Mantua at the time. Basilea seemed to be playing at another model entirely, achieving renown through professional acting, not usually an endeavor adopted by the Jews. Who was this man? What made Mantua fertile ground for the rise of a new type of Jewish performer who relied so heavily on his vocal performance to achieve stardom?

Basilea: A Closer Look at the Man

Basilea’s name already signals that this is no ordinary Jewish performer. He appears in the archives in various designations, including Simone Basilea/​Basileo, Simon, and Shlumiel.13 Simon “Shlumiel” ben Solomon Basilea came from an influential family 8 Kerr, “Introduction,” in Flaminio Scala: The Fake Husband, 13.

9 Burattelli adds, based on the work of Antonio Paglicci Brozzi in the late nineteenth century, that on January 16, 1619 Basilea also received permission not to wear the Jewish badge from the Spanish governor in Milan. Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 160.

10 Harrán, “The Levi Dynasty”; Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 658, referencing a document from February 18, 1569. 11 Don Harrán has fully documented the Rossi’s contribution to music making in Northern Italy.

12 On Isacco massarani, see: Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 158. Don Harrán, “Isacchino Massarano,” Grove Music Online, published in print and online 2001. Also in the online Encyclopedia Judaica. Encyclopedia.Judaica.com; Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua, 661.

13 The spelling of his name is sometimes inconsistent. Simonsohn has it as Simon (History of the Jews, 534) in some places but as Simone in others (663). There is also a discrepancy between Solomon Basilea (son of Solomon Basilea) (534) or ben Shlomo Basilea (663). In the Italian

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famous for its many Rabbis.14 Simonsohn notes that he was the son of the Rabbi Solomon Basilea, and the grandson of another Rabbi, Abraham Samson Basilea.15 While we do not know if Basilea had children himself, his family’s name appears in the archives in subsequent centuries. For example, late in the seventeenth century, the name Basilea is connected with Mošèh Zacuto, whose student, Avi’àd Sar šalòm Basilea (born in 1680), who was likely related to Shlumiel Basilea, brought Zacuto’s play to light.16 We do not know much about his personal life, but he probably spent much of his childhood in Mantua, during the years when its Jewish community was taking an active role in the theatre-​making described in the previous chapters. Because he belonged to a wealthy and well-​established family, his family would have been called on to take part, in some way, in the theatre-​making enterprise that the Jews had established. Shlumiel Basilea’s name surfaces in a number of different documents in four main archives: The State Archives of Mantua (ASM), the Jewish Community Archives of Mantua (ADCEM) (see Figure 8), the State Archives of Florence (ASF) and the State Archives of Milan (ASM).17 The archives contain letters regarding Basilea’s requests and permissions to travel and to be released from the obligation of wearing the Jewish badge. For example, Basilea, as evident from the Florentine State archive, asked the Duke of Modena for permission to travel with a company of actors and have a license to perform in Reggio, Modena, and Carpi during the final days leading up to the first day of the Quaresima (Lent). In this case it was Lorenzo Nettuni who was asking on his behalf, and it is possible that he was travelling with the famous commedia troupe of the Confidenti.18 There are also documents that include Basilea’s name as a signatory on the publication of “pragmaticas,” which functioned as agreements between the Gonzaga Dukes and the archives, he is referred to as Simon Basilea (see ADCEM filza 001, cartella 06, in a letter dated 20 May 1609) but in Hebrew he is often known as “Shlumiel Basilea” (see ADCEM filza 016, cartella 23). Furthermore, in the documents themselves, he is referred to as “Simon” but in the Digital interface created by the Archivi della Communita Ebraica di Mantova the name is spelled “Simone.” 14 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 518–​19.

15 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 585, 621, 698.

16 Avi’àd Sar šalòm Basilea was a student and disciple of Zacuto’s and the person responsible with providing an annotated version of Toftèh ‘arùkh to light, popularizing the text. Mošèh Zacuto, L’Inferno allestito: Poema di un rabbino del Seicento sull’oltretomba dei malvagi, trans. and notes Michela Andreatta (Milan: Bompiani, 2016), 78. 17 I am thankful to Edward Goldberg for bringing my attention and generously transcribing a letter from the state archives of Florence, Archivio di Stato di Firenze (ASF), addressed to Giovanni de’ Medici regarding Basilea. Burratteli studies Basilea in spettacoli di corte, 160, 177n90 and 91.

18 See Herla, Segnatura C-​266. Lorenzo Nettuni asks for permission from the Duke of Modena to permit Simon Basilea with a company of actors (the Comici Confidenti are mentioned) to have a license to perform in Reggio, Modena, and Carpi “fino al primo giorno del Quaresima [Lent].” There are two copies of the letter dated January 1, 1610 and December 31, 1610.

108

108 A Virtuoso of Jewish Mantua

Figure 8. Image of the bound documents and files of receipts held still today by the Jewish Community of Mantua, housed in the Jewish Community Archives, Mantua. (Image taken by author.)

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Jewish community representatives that regulated Jewish life.19 His name also appears on documents held by the Jewish community and in the community’s ledgers when he participated as a massaro (leader) or member of the committees on plays.20 In some cases, we have specific mention of Basilea in connection with performances he produced, as was the case with a play produced in 1594. On that occasion, the Duke requested Abraham Sarfati (the dancer) to be in charge of the commedia. In the capacity of producer, Sarfati was given permission by the community on December 13, 1594, as Simonsohn details, “to choose six people, both from among the council members and others, who would serve in pairs each week, and assist him in organizing the performance.”21 This gives us a sense of the tremendous scope of the productions and how much work must have been involved in them. It is possible that the massari functioned similarly to the capocomici, in the case of the commedia dell’ arte troupes. Two years later, on January 4, 1596, Basilea was nominated by the council, along with three other members, to be a part of the “commedia committee.” Clearly, Basilea was deemed worthy of leading the organization of productions. As part of the play committee, Basilea was charged with the supervision over gathering costumes for the production, borrowing props that may have been needed, overseeing rehearsals, preparing the space, and doing whatever was necessary to ensure a successful performance. By the early seventeenth century, Basilea’s role in production support grew, and his name is found repeatedly in the archives in a more distinctive capacity than others. Basilea’s role as a community producer of plays was not the principal way he gained the favor of his Christian patrons. Much more important was his role as an actor, a vocation for which it was especially important that he receive concessions to forego the dreaded “Jewish badge” normally forced upon the Jews. This badge called attention to the “otherness” of the wearer and often served as an invitation to harass and malign its unfortunate bearer. The license granted to Basilea, permitting him to travel without the sign while outside of Mantua, and even indicating something about his performance style, provides important information as to why he was allowed this freedom in the first place. A copy of this license can be found today in the State Archives of Mantua (ASMn). The license reads as follows: We give permission in the cities of this state to Simon Basilea the Jew, who, with his voice alone, is able to perform plays of many characters, to be able, at our approval, however,

19 One important way the pragmaticas influenced Jews was in their publication of sumptuary laws regarding dress. In the pragmatica, published in 1619, it was mandated that Jews wear a badge, the curtailing of extravagant dress by Jewish women, and the limitation of extravagance in banquets and celebrations of the community members. Basilea’s signature is found in that pragmatica. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 534.

20 Burattelli raises some doubt as to whether all of these are the same person. “It is likely that the Basilea mentioned by Simonson was not the same one as the one noted for the ability to recite plays alone” ([È] molto probabile che il Basilea segnalato dal Simonsohn non sia lo stesso che era noto per l’abilità nel recitare commedie da solo), Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte a Mantova, 162. However, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I assume it is the same person, as the dates do correspond. 21 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 663.

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110 A Virtuoso of Jewish Mantua to go and be in whatever cities, and places of these states, and to recite plays without having to wear a sign of any sort on his hat or in any other place, as is customary for the Jews, except in Mantua, where we would like him to have the usual sign. Therefore, we expressly instruct all ministers and customs officers not to harass him on any account, nor make him pay for his clothes or those he uses in comedies. Any sign of which should be stopped by our hand and seal. Dated from our palace gates on June 2, 1612.22 Concediamo licenza in città del paese a Simon Basilea Ebreo che con la sola sua voce suole rappresentar comedie di molti personaggi di poter, a nostro beneplacito però, andare et stare in qualsivoglia città, et luoghi di questi stati, et recitar comedie & senza portar segno alcuno al capello ò in altro luogo come fanno gl’altri Ebrei eccepto che in Mantova dove vogliamo che porte il solito segno. Commandando perciò espressamente a tutti li ministri, ufficiali et datiari nostri che non gli debbano dar molestia alcuna per tal conto, né fargli pagar datio per li suoi panni da dosso né per quelli ch’adopera nelle comedie. In fede di che la presente sarà fermata di nostra mano et del nostro sigillo. Data nel nostro palazzo di Porto li 2 di giugno 1612. (See Figure 9)

This permission guaranteed him the Duke’s protection and allowed him to “recitare in qualsiasi città,” and further, it guaranteed he not be molested by any official, nor asked for local taxes or levies (dazio) for his clothes or for his scenic costumes. This document is also tremendously useful in indicating the performance style Basilea used, especially the specificity that in acting “with his voice alone [he] is able to perform plays of many characters.” As Burattelli puts it, “One can already see a subtle but clear image of Simone Basilea” (“si può già fissare un’immagine nitida, anche se molto sottile, di Simone Basilea”).23 From the description, we can glean that Basilea’s vocal impersonation of various characters enabled him to expand his repertoire beyond just one type and to ventriloquize many characters. This was a useful skill frequently associated with the performance style of the zanni characters of the commedia dell’arte as well as with actresses in commedia dell’arte who often performed a variety of languages and linguistic personae.24 As Burattelli puts it: [Basilea was] A comedian active in the second decade of the seventeenth century, who did not belong to a company of actors, specializing in the solo representation of short and simple farces featuring several characters thanks—​presumably—​to his ventriloquizing and transformational skills and to a clever mimic game set up with the aid of a few simple props.25

22 License for Simone Basilea to perform given by the Duke of Mantua, Vincenzo Gonzaga dated June 2, 1612. From the Archivio di Stato Mantova, Archivio Gonzaga (ASMn). Mandati. Busta 47 vol. 98 c. 14. Also found in Herla, Segnatura A-​215 2/​6/​1612. I thank Michela Andreatta for reading this translation and offering guiding suggestions on it. Burattelli provides a transcription of this letter in Spettacoli di corte, 160. 23 Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 160.

24 See Jaffe-​Berg, The Multilingual Art of Commedia dell’arte (Ottowa: Legas, 2008), 30–​36.

25 “[U]‌n comico attivo nel secondo decennio del Seicento, privo di legami consociativi con colleghi di alcuna sorta, specializzato nella rappresentazione solitaria di brevi e semplici farse a più personaggi grazie—​presumibilmente–​alle proprie abilità ventriloque e trasformiste e a un sapiente gioco mimico intavolato con l’ausilio di pochi e semplici accessori di scena.” Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 160.

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Figure 9. License allowing Simon Basilea to travel without wearing the badge. ASMn, AG b. 47 vol. 98 c. 14r.

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112 A Virtuoso of Jewish Mantua In Burattelli’s interpretation of the documents, Basilea was a type of “solo” performer, who impersonated many characters in brief farces created to highlight his ability to imitate others’ voices and speech patterns. Burattelli refers to another letter by Don Giovanni de’ Medici to Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga (dated the March 16, 1610/​11) that indicates that Basilea had been a frequenter of the Florentine scene and had received permission by the late Ferdinando de Medici I, Archduke of Florence, not to have to wear the badge.26 In that letter “Simone Basileo hebreo” is noted as “a person of great ability and hard work, known for his recitation of plays by himself alone” (è persona di molta virtù et industria, particolarmente nel recitar da sù solo commedie).27 Burattelli conjectures that the letter suggests that at this date, Basilea (whom she assumes to be different from the person found in the Jewish archives) was not yet known to the Gonzaga. Simonsohn also interprets this document as meaning Basilea could create plays fully on his own.28 It is clear that Basilea captivated the audience with his ability to perform various parts, relying on his powers of imitation and alternation of the voice alone. In this performance modality, Basilea is connected to well-​established traditions in Northern Italy—​those of the troubadors and those of the Venetian buffoni. The jongleurs or troubadors had roots reaching back to the Middle Ages: theirs was a tradition of entertaining audiences with their own recitation and performance of tales. The jongleurs and the troubadors date back to the tenth century in France and shortly thereupon in Italy, Spain, Norman England, and Greece. These itinerant minstrels and poets who sang of courtly love and chivalry, often including acrobatics within their acts, performed across medieval Europe and influenced popular performance well into the sixteenth century. Basilea’s performance style, like that of the jongleurs, reflected an ability to orally interpret stories using a multiplicity of voices and characters. It also exemplified a tradition kept alive by performers living on the fringes of society. In addition, in Basilea’s performance, we see a forerunner for the work of Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, in which multiple characters and speech patterns are used to parodic ends.29 At the same time, another possible inspiration for Basilea’s performance style came from the Venetian buffoni tradition, which also used a “solo performance” convention and the imitation of a variety of different character types and voices. We know plenty of Venetian buffoni were also famous for doing just what Basilea appears to have done: shouldering the burden of an entire performance. Daniele Vianello has studied the ways in which buffoni such as Zuan Polo and Domenico Taiacalze were not wedded to a 26 Giovanni de’ Medici’s letter sent to Vincenzo Gonzaga, March 16, 1610, or 1611, if using the Florentine dating system, ASMn, AG, b. 1093 doc. 25. Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 161, 177n94. 27 Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 161.

28 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 12.

29 Jaffe-​Berg, “Forays into Grammelot: The Language of Nonsense,” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 15:2 (Spring 2001): 3–​16.

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single character type but invested in vocal improvisation and impersonation of various characters.30 Zuan Polo, recorded in Marino Sanuto’s (alternatively, Marin Sanudo) Diarii as Zuao, is singled out for entertaining his audiences by taking on many identities. Sanuto describes him as: “Zuao Polo bufon, qual fé’ assai cosse di piacer in vari abiti” (Zuan Polo, the buffoon, who is pleasing in donning many costumes).31 The possibility of taking on various costumes, and, by extension, characters, rather than performing one single character, as Vianello has emphasized, is a distinctive aspect of the buffoni, rather than the commedia dell’arte tradition in which an actor typically restricts himself to studying and reciting one role alone. Therefore, we find here the coexistence of two performance modes borrowing from distinctive performance traditions. One mode included a staging of a play by various actors, usually eight within a single play, as was clearly done with the commedia dell’ arte troupes active in Mantua at the same time. The other mode involved a comic recitation of a play by an actor who took on varying identities within performances, borrowing from a tradition known to have been pervasive in sixteenth-​century Venice. As Burattelli also expounds, the performances of sixteenth-​century actors such as Cimador and his companions Sivello and Zan Brighella demonstrate that other actors successfully created the types of performances Basilea enacted.32 In either case, Basilea’s work would have been influenced by the activities of professional performers in the Christian but not the Jewish milieu, indicating a high degree of contact between the communities, as Basilea would have had to see the performances of the professional players in order to take inspiration from them. In addition to these performance traditions of the Christian troubadors, comici or buffoni, there were Jewish troubadors called lezin or badchans in Eastern Europe, especially in Germany, and as those populations migrated into Italy, after waves of 30 Daniele Vianello, L’arte del buffoni: maschere e spettacolo tra Italia e Baviera nel 16. Secolo (Rome: Bulzoni, 2005).

31 Marin Sanudo, Diarii, 1514. Accessed online at: I diarii di Marino Sanuto (1533) archive.org/​ details/​idiariidimarino37sanugoog/​page/​n113/​mode/​2up. From the 1886 version published by F. Visentini, vol. 17 (September 1, 1513—​February 28, 1514). Online page 284, actual page from the Diarii, 543. 32 “Forse in simbiosi con un contemporaneo mestiere di mercante (magari di stoffe, in linea sia con le tradizioni del commercio ebraico che con le quotidiane necessità delle esibizioni drammatiche) il Basilea doveva attendere in modo continuativo all’esercizio comico, facendo proprie techniche performative di stampo cerretanesco antiche e sempre attuali, come dimostrano altri esempi, non numerosi ma nemmeno rarissimi, di personaggi dediti con successo alla medesima attività, quali il cinquecentesco Cimador e i quasi coevi Sivello e Zan Brighella.” (Perhaps alongside a mercantile trade (possibly of fabrics, in line with the traditions of Jewish trade and with the daily needs of performance) Basilea had to attend constantly to the art of comedy, keeping his craft current, as others who were not numerous but also not rare, demonstrated, in being successfully dedicated to the same activity, such as the sixteenth-​century Cimador, and the almost contemporary Sivello and Zan Brighella.) Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 160.

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114 A Virtuoso of Jewish Mantua expulsion and harassment in the fourteenth century, they influenced the types of performance-​making in Northern Italian Jewish communities. In the Middle Ages we find among the Jews traveling merrymakers, who probably patterned themselves after the troubadours, and took the place of former voluntary entertainers at weddings. Their task was by jest, music, and humorous song to provoke joviality. The name given them originally in Jewish writing is “lezin,” a term which occurs in “Asufot,” by R. Elijah b. Isaac of Carcassonne, who lived in the early part of the thirteenth century.33

The “letzin” had been present since at least the early thirteenth century, and there are mentions of “lezin” (The Yiddish version of the Hebrew word ‫ליצן‬, leitzan, meaning clown) in Asufot by R. Elijah b. Isaac of Carcassonne.34 As explained in the Jewish Encyclopedia, “These jesters were obliged to possess not only comic ability, but also a certain deal of learning, since those jokes were appreciated most which were connected with scriptural verses or Talmudic passages.”35 The Badhan was “a merrymaker, professional jester, whose business it is to entertain the guests at a marriage-​feast with drollery, riddles, and anecdotes.”36 In Basilea’s ventriloquized performance, we see echoes of this other cultural tradition as well. The license Basilea received was effectively based on his voice, which underscores the relevance of sound and aurality for early modern performers. In her recent work on the commedia dell’arte and early opera, Emily Wilbourne emphasizes the importance of the “resonant aural dimension of performance” apart from the words and language that give pleasure and meaning in performance.37 Focusing on the commedia dell’arte, Wilbourne argues that the aural dimension of commedia was “a crucial structure within Italian theatricality, preceding and ultimately facilitating the invention and popularization of Italian opera.”38 Wilbourne’s work convincingly argues that what she calls “the noise of commedia performance and the sonic epistemology through which the commedia dell’arte made sense to early modern audiences” was powerful enough to have helped attune an audience to the birth of an entire new genre.39 Similar to Wilbourne, Henke 33 Jewish Encyclopedia, ed. Isidore Singer, Cyrus Adler, https://​jew​ishe​ncyc​lope​dia.com/​artic​les/​ 2314-​badc​hen, 427. 34 Look also at the word “Badhan” in the online Jewish Encyclopedia, ed. Isidore Singer, Cyrus Adler et al., https://​jew​ishe​ncyc​lope​dia.com/​artic​les/​2314-​badc​hen, 427.

35 Jewish Encyclopedia, ed by Isidore Singer, Cyrus Adler et al., https://​jew​ishe​ncyc​lope​dia.com/​ artic​les/​2314-​badc​hen, 427. 36 Jewish Encyclopedia, ed by Isidore Singer, Cyrus Adler et al., https://​jew​ishe​ncyc​lope​dia. com/​artic​les/​2314-​badc​hen and also look at the badhan in Yitzhak Buxbaum, Storytelling and Spirituality in Judaism (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1994), 155. 37 Emily Wilbourne, Seventeenth-​ Century Opera and the Sound of the Commedia dell’Arte (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016), 8. 38 Wilbourne, Seventeenth-​Century Opera, 11.

39 Wilbourne, Seventeenth-​Century Opera, 10.

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emphasizes the “residually oral culture” of early modern Italy.40 This residual orality was reflected back to audience members when they experienced the voice stretching itself playfully and flexibly in terms of sound, meaning and imitation. As Henke writes: For the oral performer, language itself becomes a material to be played with, acrobatically deployed in games whose non-​cognitive, infantile pleasure is tied to somatic rhythms. Rather than producing nonsense, tout court, the buffone, zanni, and Dottore figures test the limits of sense, pushing language to its semantic and syntactic limits.41

Basilea relied on this very verbal and oral dexterity when he voiced many different characters, something that audience members, such as his patron, found remarkable. The voice made it possible for a Badchan, leizin, or Jewish actor to have power over his audience, an ability or force that was otherwise elusive for a member of a cultural minority. As Henke puts it, “[t]‌he oral performer must establish phatic contact with his audience, and he does so largely by the power of his own voice.”42 Voice, timber, tone, and vibrations connect the listener and speaker affectively and physically in what can be an uncomfortably intimate way. Voice coaches write about the physicality of speech in terms echoing the intimacy of touch for this reason.43 There is something especially boundary-​breaking in an early modern Jewish actor using his voice to break ground as a performer. There is another way to interpret Basilea’s work, not as a “solo” performance, but as a stand-​out performance of virtuosity and versatility within a company of performers, in the way the commedia dell’arte performances spotlit stars and “divas” of the stage, as Ros Kerr has put it.44 From this interpretation, Basilea was more akin to the late sixteenth-​century and early seventeenth-​century comici than to the buffoni of the early sixteenth century. The document I referred to earlier from the State Archives of Modena (which appears to be a letter by Lorenzo Nettuni of Bologna and Simon Basilea, Ebreo of Mantua to the Duke of Modena, requesting a license to perform in Reggio Modena, and mentioning “Simon ebreo mantovano con I compagni comici”) supports this interpretation by mentioning the presence of a company of actors who traveled alongside Basilea, in a fashion reminiscent of the comici.45 (The document also solidly identifies Basilea as a Jew from Mantua, offering more credence to the fact that Basilea 40 Robert Henke, Performance and Literature in the Commedia dell’Arte (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 31. 41 Henke, Performance and Literature, 35–​36.

42 Henke, Performance and Literature, 32.

43 The physicality of speech is a concept explored by leading voice coaches in the last decades. See Patsy Rodenburg, The Right to Speak: Working with the Voice, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1992, rpt. London Bloomsbury, 2015); Cicely Berry, Voice and the Actor (New York: Wiley, 1973); and Arthur Lessac, The Use and Training of the Human Voice: A Bio-​Dynamic Approach to Vocal Life, 3rd ed. (Boston: McGraw Hill, 1997 (originally 1960)). 44 See Kerr, The Rise of the Diva.

45 Herla, Segnatura C-​266, Archivio di stato di Modena, b. unica Comici, cc. n.n. (1/​1/​1610).

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116 A Virtuoso of Jewish Mantua the performer was the same as Basilea the Massaro.) We do not know much about Basilea’s companions, but it seems logical to assume that they were also Jews—​and, therefore, that along with the stable company of Jews in Mantua there was at least one travelling troupe, led by Basilea, of Jewish actors. Basilea’s performances were agile and moveable. In fact, at least on two occasions, when his name appears in archival documents it is as the organizer of a full commedia, for a production with similar low-​cost values as his solo work. In this instance, Basilea organized a play performed in Gazzuolo in August 1608, as well as another commedia in Marmirolo, both within the Mantovano region ruled by the Gonzaga.46 Receipts for the 1608 production show that the cost of the production totaled no more than 50 scudi, a modest expenditure compared with the estimate usually given for a performance, which is 100 scudi.47 This may be an indication that Basilea was agile in his ability to create productions with a variety of budgets, even very small ones that meant a minimal number of actors, and therefore less of a cost for paying the actors, paying for their costumes, and other attendant expenditures. The years in which Basilea performed (roughly 1606–​1618), first under Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga (r. 1587–​1612) and then under Francesco IV (1612) and Ferdinando Gonzaga (r. 1613–​1626) were productive but tumultuous. Yet, as hard as they were, they were nowhere near as difficult as the years to come, especially the devastating War of Mantuan Succession (1628–​1631), to which I will turn in the next chapter. During Basilea’s tenure, in many ways the other player was Ferdinando Gonzaga, whose rule as Duke contrasted greatly with that of his father, Vincenzo, and his grandfather, Guglielmo, both able and adept rulers capable of controlling their city. Ferdinando’s reaction to the Jewish residents and his ability to manipulate the Jewish population into serving his own needs, be they economic or cultural, was not at the same level. Originally destined for the cloth—​and ordained and serving as a Cardinal at the age of 20—​Ferdinando was recalled when his brother Francesco died unexpectedly in December 1612, after less than a year of rule.48 Ferdinando’s reign was characterized by the urge to organize and unify the impressive family art collection that had been amassed by several generations of ancestors.49 Rather than focus on acquiring new paintings, commissioning new buildings and sponsoring more performances, Ferdinando set his attention on arranging and ordering the acquisitions of his progenitors. Yet, despite his best efforts to organize rather than buy more, Ferdinando was plagued by financial pressures as well as the inability to produce an heir. As Bourne puts it, Ferdinando 46 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 606.

47 See Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange,” 402.

48 Ferdinando became Mantua’s sixth duke in 1613 at the age of 25 when his brother died unexpectantly. Bourne, “The Art of Diplomacy,” 184. 49 Bourne, “The Art of Diplomacy.”

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“represents a tragic figure, occupying at once the apex of Gonzaga collezionismo, yet carrying the seeds of its destruction.”50 This, then, was the man whose reign corresponded with Basilea’s main years as a theatre-​maker in his prime. During this period, which corresponds to a later time in Basilea’s career, it is striking to discover that he served as a producer of one of the most costly productions that the Jews of Mantua put on. This extraordinary event involved circumstances that read almost like a story in and of themselves. In 1615, Basilea was in charge of the commedia committee for the Carnival season. This play has an unusual history in that it was not only a lavish production, but also one whose development was far from typical in the Mantova Jewish community. As backdrop to this story, it is important to keep in mind that, at the time of this play’s creation, Ferdinando was involved in one of the few projects that he would sponsor as Duke, which he undertook in 1615: creating a small version of the Scala Santa he had as a Cardinal in Rome in the Palazzo Ducale.51 It is possible that this undertaking overwhelmed him and made it challenging to divert his attention to Carnival events. It is also possible that the tenor of the building of the apartment itself, which Bourne suggests was used for “devotional purposes” and “illustrates the duke’s efforts to import to Mantua a prestigious and tangible memory of his cardinalate,” were at odds with the bucolic and lascivious Carnival events.52 More pointedly, Burattelli suggests that the pious Ferdinando may have also more vigorously pursued the anti-​Jewish directives of the Holy See.53 In fact, Burattelli points out that while he was performing in places as far away as Rome, Milan, and Vienna, Basilea performed less frequently in Mantua, possibly due to this spirit of anti-​Semitism. “Perhaps the less frequented piazza was Mantua, where Duke Ferdinando, already a man of the Church, had decided to more rigorously apply what his predecessors did not, the anti-​Jewish directives of the Holy See.”54 Burattelli’s hunch is that Basilea operates in a way similar to a mountebank, as identified by Roberto Tessari, not as one who would perform professionally in stanze (rented halls used for performances) but rather, in the piazza, in connection with selling wares.55 As Burattelli speculates, Basilea may have had to perform while undertaking mercantile work, possibly in the textile trade; and thereby, he would have been like other sixteenth-​century Christian mountebanks (like Cimador, Sivello, and Zan Brighella).56 50 Bourne, “The Art of Diplomacy,” 185. 51 Bourne, “The Art of Diplomacy,”184. 52 Bourne, “The Art of Diplomacy,”184. 53 Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 161.

54 “Forse la piazza meno frequentata era proprio Mantova, dove il duca Ferdinando, già uomo di Chiesa, aveva deciso di applicare più rigorosamente di quanto non avessero fatto I suoi predecessor le direttive antiebraiche della Santa Sede.” Buratelli, Spettacoli di corte, 161. 55 Tessari differentiates the professionals form the charlatans in La Commedia dell’Arte, 44. 56 Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 160.

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118 A Virtuoso of Jewish Mantua A lack of information about Basilea’s background makes it impossible to conclusively say whether this was the case. However, it is important to also consider the work he did as a director and massaro for the Jewish community in Mantua, a role that required theatre-​making of a different type than the solo performance mode alone. At the very least, this was a versatile and highly skilled theatre-​maker, able to perform “exchanges” of all sorts with his varied audiences. To return to the 1615 performance, on Basilea’s end, preparations for the performance appeared to have begun well enough—​apparently the play was well-​ rehearsed and ready for performance. But at the last minute, the Duke informed them that he could not be present at the performance, effectively postponing the production. Simonsohn offers a narrative of the of the events as follows: but at the last minute, when the actors were already in their costumes, the Duke informed them that he could not be present at the performance, as he intended to see a ballet. He asked the actors to remember their parts, as he wished to see the play at his palace. The date of the performance was postponed time and again, and the actors had to continue their rehearsals. The performance took place only after the Feast of Tabernacles that year, and was later performed once more. Dances, humourous [sic.] episodes, and musical performances were added to the commedia. In this programme [sic.] the musician Solomon de’ Rossi among others, participated, and it cost the community nearly five thousand five hundred Mantuan lire.57

As theatre practitioners know, any process, no matter how rewarding, of rehearsing a play is not complete until the terrifying and exhilarating moment in which the curtain figuratively or literally rises and the audience, the essential final element, is added to the mix. In 1615, that moment was delayed, and stretched to the point of breaking until finally it was relieved, nearly a year following the original performance date, when the company could perform in front of the Duke and his audience. How could a cast, especially a Jewish cast set to perform before the Gonzaga Duke and his Christian entourage, have handled the combined pressure of suspension of artistic fulfillment as well as the anxiety of performance before people who held their well-​being in their hands? The cost for the performance of over 900 scudi (5,500 Mantuan Lire) was nearly nine times the average cost of a production. The staggeringly elaborate needs of this production were very far from Basilea’s usual mode of solo performance, or his modest ventures in Gazzuolo. Certainly, the inclusion of illustrious musicians such as de’ Rossi accounts for some of these prohibitive costs. In addition, the rental of costumes for an unanticipated timeframe must have greatly increased the cost as well. Furthermore, the actors had to be kept performance-​ready for quite some time, nearly nine months (from winter to fall). However, they still had to rehearse enough that they could perform at the drop of a hat. In order to do this, they would need an agile director at the helm—​one used to taking on the functions of various characters on stage, and one supple enough to 57 Bourne, “The Art of Diplomacy,” 665–​66. I am relying on Simonsohn’s narration and was not able, myself, to find the original documents about this event in either the Jewish archive or the Mantuan State Archives.

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maintain the repertoire in his mind and in the minds and bodies of his actors. Basilea’s ability as a solo performer must have come in handy, especially for the challenging circumstances of this performance. The costliness of the production and the labored process of staging it, with the long delay, all underscored the changing times, a different patron and sea change in the performance dynamics of the Jews in Mantua. A final signal was sent when the concession earlier granted to Basilea had become harder and harder to secure by the 1620s. In August of 1620, Giovanni de’ Medici wrote a letter to the new Duke of Mantua asking that Ferdinando I Gonzaga grant Basilea the same privileges as the former dukes.58 Following Giovanni de Medici’s (of Florence), request for the concession, the Duke of Mantua communicated that it was harder to allow Jews not to wear the sign, and that this also applied to Simon Basilea.59 Clearly, by this point, strains in the productive performative exchange of a few decades earlier were becoming increasingly pronounced. As hard as times were when De’ Sommi was working in the theatre, it is clear that for Basilea, life was at least as, if not more, difficult. The frequent shifts in rulers in Mantua meant that licenses and travel permissions needed to be renewed with each new Duke. Ferdinando Gonzaga was not as keenly focused on theatre production nor on the Jews in his domain as were Vincenzo and Guglielmo. Finally, the spirit of the Counter-​Reformation added more strain on the Jews living in Northern Italy, and rulers increasingly capitulated both to demands of the Church and to demands of the population that the Jews be marked and separated, as we see in the creation of more ghettos and in the reluctance to renew licenses permitting Jews to travel without the Jewish badge. With these challenges in mind, we now turn to look, with greater focus, at the ways the Counter-​Reformation forced the Jewish theatre-​making enterprise in Mantua to adapt and change, bringing it ever closer to its eventual cessation in the middle of the seventeenth century.

58 I fully translate this letter (found in ASMn AG, b. 47 vol. 98, c. 14) in Commedia dell’ arte and the Mediterranean, 134–​36.

59 See Herla, Segnatura C-​1917. From Archivio di Stato Firenze Mediceo del Principato. 22/​8/​ 1620. Duke of Mantua to Giovanni de Medici.

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Chapter 5

JEWISH THEATRICAL PRODUCTION IN THE SHADOW OF THE COUNTER-​REFORMATION1

Looming above Dukes Guglielmo, Vincenzo, and Ferdinando’s reigns, and over the

productive work by De’ Sommi and Basilea, was the Counter-​Reformation. This Catholic resurgence, a response to the Protestant Reformation, began with the meetings of the Council of Trent, known in Latin as the Concilium Tridentinum (1545–​1563), and lasted until the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1648). The period had tremendous consequences for the Jewish community, ones that influenced every aspect of their lives: what they could read and publish, whom they could meet with and live next to, and how safe they felt. A time of increased restrictions and rules, this was also a period that recent scholars have recast as paradoxically both productive and collaborative, punctuated by high levels of Jewish-​Christian dialogue.2 Evidence from performances at this time reveals a high degree of artistic exchange that took place, notably, in theatre-​making.3 This productivity was nevertheless conditioned by the terms of the Counter-​Reformation, and, therefore, while there was productive exchange, it was at times onerous. For example, the Jews undertook increasingly costly productions—​which included a mechanism of self-​taxation that became increasingly difficult for the community to bear. Notwithstanding the burden that performance now represented, performance production in this period also “recast” the Jews’ role more broadly within the professional world of theatrical production, chiefly that of the commedia dell’arte. It was during this period that the Jews of Mantua evolved a unique way of using performance strategically as a type of currency—​both cultural and actual—​that could serve them especially well during. Part of that “currency” was the ability to serve as “contractors” for performance: ones who could create tremendous stage spectacles based on the know-​how that would be passed down from generation to generation. Another asset that the Jews had was their ability to draw on their own intracommunal resources, including a stock of clothing that could serve as costumes and a variety of props (the costumes and stocks, collectively, were known in Italian as robbe) that were important in production. Indeed, in Mantua, the Jewish economy was founded on banking, the strazzaria, and goldsmithing and metal work.4 Tellingly, many of the families of the 1 This chapter borrows heavily from my article “Performance as Exchange,” in Theatre Survey.

2 See the work of Raz Krakotzkin, The Censor, the Editor, and the Text, Bonfil, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy, and Ravid, Studies on the Jews of Venice, 1382–​1797.

3 See Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange,” in Theatre Survey. 4 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 255.

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122 In the Shadow of the Counter-Reformation performance massari, such as Sarfati, were connected to the cloth industry.5 Equally important, the Jews “recast” their role in the “business of entertainment” by providing services to the travelling comici from the commedia dell’arte troupes, whose nomadic work necessitated strong partnerships with the Jews, who could provide them financial, legal and residential help when necessary. In this chapter, I first introduce the ways the Counter-​Reformation’s legal restrictions and ghettoization affected the Jewish Community of Mantua and its production of theatre. I then outline the ways in which these pressures of the day moved the Mantuan Jews to use performance as a cultural currency in their exchanges with the Dukes of Mantua.6 As part of the process of evolving this strategic use of performance, Mantuan Jews re-​branded themselves as “contractors” for performance.7 This was especially useful as production paradigms shifted to become increasingly dependent on the material elements of the staging: set design, costuming and effects, with a marked de-​emphasis on the textual dimension (at least in the Jews’ theatre-​making efforts). Related to their contractual role, the Jews served the professional comici of the commedia dell’arte. This was part of the theatre-​making Jews of Mantua’s growing identity as contractors who held a central role in theatre-​making in Northern Italy, in a time of salient importance to theatre-​making in general, when the commedia dell’arte was influencing what we still identify as “European” theatre traditions—​professional acting, commercial theatre, contracts used for detailing the terms of performance, performance-​specific costumes, makeup, and mask use. In this sense, precisely at a period of growing restriction and separation, Jews played an important role in the creation of the golden age of commedia dell’arte.

The Counter-​Reformation and its Effect on the Everyday Lives of the Jews of Mantua As we have already seen, throughout the sixteenth century, Jews, though not equal, were ever-​present and important participants in the theatrical life of Mantua. The Gonzaga Dukes offered their protection in exchange for the freedom to worship and participate in the local economy, albeit in controlled and limited ways.8 The dictates of the Council of Trent were severe and created a series of anti-​Semitic policies that limited Jewish life in tangible ways. While many of the worst effects of the punitive Tridentine policies would be felt elsewhere, notably in Rome, Northern Italy was not insulated from them. Tensions towards the Jews exploded in the 1550s in Rome, and this affected the entire 5 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 256.

6 Jaffe-​Berg, “Ebrei and Turchi. Performing in Early Modern Venice and Mantua,” in Transnational Connections in Early Modern Theatre, ed. M. A. Katritzky and Pavel Drábek (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 2019), 1–​23.

7 My thanks go to Tracy Davis who encouraged me to think of the idea of the contractor in relation to the Jewish theatre producers. 8 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 106.

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Italian Peninsula. In 1553, Pope Julius III instigated book burnings in Rome, which included the Talmud, and these were followed by book burnings in Venice. The election of Cardinal Giovanni Pietro Carafa as Pope Paul IV in 1555 also had many negative consequences for the Jews. Pope Paul IV (1555–​1559) increased restrictions on them and issued the draconian Papal bull “Cum Nimis Absurdum,” which forced the Roman Jews into a ghetto, forced them to sell their real estate to Christians, prohibited Jews from hiring Christian servants or wet nurses, and forbade Jews and Christians from sharing meals or forming friendships. In addition, Pope Paul IV enforced censorship, creating the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (The Index of Prohibited Books) published in 1559, which prohibited the Talmud and other Jewish books.9 A decade later, in 1569, the expulsion of Jews from the Papal territories (Rome and Ancona excepted) by Pope Pius V was a further blow to the Jewish communities in the Italian region. Jews from the Papal lands fled North, seeking safe havens in the Northern Principalities as well as in Venice, a situation that made it harder for the local Jewish communities to absorb the refugees and that increased tensions with the Christian community.10 Paradoxically, during the Counter-​Reformation period, amidst these restrictions on Christian-​Jewish contact, Christian scholars’ interest in Jewish literature, especially the Kabbalah, increased. As Bonfil states: “[h]‌ere, in the cradle of humanism, Christian humanists would look to Jewish scholars to teach them Hebrew and every kind of Hebrew text.”11 The interest was “not only for the purpose of polemic against Judaism,” as Raz-​Krakotzkin puts it, but “also as an authentic body of knowledge, essential for the understanding of the Scriptures and for confirming the Christian faith.”12 A similar dynamic appears to have shaped theatre production. Paradoxically, increased performances occurred at the same time as ghettoization, which separated the Jew from the Christian and reflected an anxiety about sexual and other types of “mixing.” Despite the move to separate, in performances we find a great deal of Jewish-​ Christian interaction, including creative cross-​fertilization among performers. In order to accomplish this type of exchanges, there was a growing need for what Ruderman and Veltri call “cultural intermediators.”13 Therefore, even against this turbulent backdrop, the Jews of Mantua performed plays continuously during the entire period. In 1554 we have evidence of a costly production, as do we in 1563, 1568, 1569, and then again in 1574 and 1575. (A full list of the productions that I know of can be found in the appendix to this book.) These large-​scale productions often involved collaborations 9 See Raz-​Krakotzkin, The Censor, the Editor, and the Text, 37. Notably, as stipulated in the Index of Trent in 1596 (which would exist until 1966 when Pope Paul VI finally abolished it), if the title of Talmud were omitted from its publication, then it could be tolerated. Raz-​Krakotzkin, The Censor, the Editor, and the Text, 61. 10 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 12. 11 Robert Bonfil, “A Cultural Profile,” 180.

12 Raz-​Krakotzkin, The Censor, the Editor, and the Text, 23.

13 Veltri and Ruderman, Cultural Intermediaries.

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124 In the Shadow of the Counter-Reformation with Christian playwrights and directors. In no way did they isolate the Jews from the Christians; however, separation was increasingly called for by the edicts issued in this period. In near-​defiance of the apparent call for no contact between the peoples, the Jews produced Massimo Faroni’s play Le Due fulvie for the 1568 Carnival season in collaboration with none other than Bernardo Tasso (father of the famed poet Torquato Tasso), and with the approval of the Accademia degli Invaghiti, which counted Leone De’ Sommi among its members.14 In 1575 Gli Sconosciuti (Perfect Strangers), a prose comedy by De’ Sommi, was performed before the Dukes of Mantua, Ferrara and Parma and other princes.15 Thus, the ever-​present Jewish theatrical performances stood in contrast to the political events plaguing the Jews in the peninsula. Giaches de Wert, the famous composer, created music for De’ Sommi’s intermedio Amor e Psiche, which was designed to accompany Gli Sconosciuti.16 Once again, the overt incorporation of the Jews at the very moment they were literally being expelled elsewhere was as much a provocation of the Holy See on the part of the Northern Principalities as it was a gesture of inclusion for the forlorn Jewish community. When in 1575 Cesare Gonzaga, Count of Guastalla, De’ Sommi’s patron and the creator of the Accademia degli Invaghiti died, the loss of an influential patron meant that De’ Sommi and other Jews had to face increasing pressures from Papal edict, the post-​ Tridentine fallout, and the waves of expulsions elsewhere in the peninsula. Theatrical mixing had the unintended consequence of polarizing the Jewish and Christian populations, creating an environment prone to combustive conflict amongst the various residents. As a result, against the backdrop of the Counter-​Reformation, the Gonzaga Dukes sought to placate the Christian population by regulating increased separation from the Jews. This led to sometimes contradictory actions on the Dukes’ part. For example, in 1576, a Papal emissary of Gregory XIII arrived in Mantua to work on a compromise to the bull Cum Nimis Absurdum.17 At the same time, Duke Guglielmo issued an edict on March 1, 1576, in which he expressed displeasure at the disorder occasioned by the Jews and their scandalous association with Christians and issued a number of prohibitions regarding living and consorting with each other.18 In this way, the Duke sought to both appease his Christian population and accept the presence of the Jews in his domains. He also sought to negotiate with the Papacy, but also to affirm his own and his region’s independence. The consequences were an increase in Mantua’s Jewish population, which grew from 960 Jews in 1587 (out of a total population of 34,281) to a 14 Herla, Segnatura C-​754. ASMn, AG, b. 2579, cc. n.n. Luigi Rogna writes to Tullio Guerrierion, February 13, 1568. 15 Relying on the work of Peyron and Pegna, since the original text is lost, Simonsohn says notes in margins of play are in Hebrew. See History of the Jews, 658n277, 278. 16 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 15. 17 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 13.

18 The printed proclamation is found in ASMn, AG, b. 3389 c. 189. Also in Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange,” 415.

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population of 1,591 Jews in 1601 (out of a total population of 31,422 as counted in the 1592 census).19 Among the things under increased surveillance were singing, dancing, and participating in celebrations where Jews and Christians were present together. All of these functions now required a license, issued by the Duke. Whether this was done in earnest or in order to placate the Papal emissaries is not known, but it resulted in harsher restrictions for Jews. Jews were prohibited from having windows facing the Church or the Christian cemetery and forced to close their windows so that they would not be visible to Christians even while in their own homes. The following year, in 1577, Guglielmo reaffirmed his toleration of Jews and granted them the right to live within Mantua and her domains, but, at the same time, he renewed the call for separation between Jews and Christians.20 On August 28, 1577, he also called for the Jewish badge to be worn on the Jews’ garments, so that Jews could not be mistaken for Christians. This marker had been required in Mantua since the fifteenth century, but Guglielmo specified the location, color, and number of signs (two) to be worn by the Jews. This was part of a growing trend, initiated a century earlier, to visually brand them. Diane Owen Hughes has shown that, beginning in the fifteenth century in Northern Italy, Jewish women and men were increasingly branded—​the women by their traditional wearing of earrings and the men by the yellow Jewish badge or “O” that was to be attached to their outer garments.21 Whereas earlier, Jewish women migrating from Naples and further South could be distinguished by their wearing of earrings, by the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, this was no longer true. Many Jewish women took on the “Christian” habit of not wearing the earrings; conversely, some Christian women adopted the Jewish habit.22 This created confusion, as it was not always clear who was Christian and who was Jewish: By the middle of the fifteenth century, it had become extremely difficult to distinguish Jews from Christians. They spoke the same language, lived in similar houses, and dressed with an eye to the same fashions.23

The greatest concern was the potential for Jews and Christians to have intimate relations, and, therefore, in the same edict I mentioned earlier, Guglielmo warns against carnal relations between Jews and Christians (Christiano, comme Hebreo qual peccarà 19 For these statistics, see Grendler, The University of Mantua, 6. Grendler takes the numbers from the periodic censuses the government put out to determine the amount of grain needed to feed the population, and which have been recorded in a variety of historians’ accounts.

20 “Volendo noi che gli Hebrei quali per a commodità de sudditi nostri tolleriamo che poassano habitare in questa nostra Città, & Dominio, siano in modo differenti dalli Christiani, che senza esser conosciuti non possano meschiarsi con essi ...” ASMn, AG, b. 3382 c. 193. The letter is printed and dated August 28, 1577. 21 Owen Hughes, “Distinguishing Signs,” 22.

22 Owen Hughes, “Distinguishing Signs,” 22–​23.

23 Owen Hughes, “Distinguishing Signs,” 16.

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126 In the Shadow of the Counter-Reformation carnalmente meschiandosi insieme, contro la prohibitione delle leggi). The punishment in such a case was harsh: fifty scudi and a beheading.24 Performances, ever attuned to shifting styles and politics, reflected this changing environment. Claudia Burattelli emphasizes that during this period of Guglielmo’s reign, the performances were restricted to Carnival time alone. This meant that the contact and exposure between the Christian and Jewish communities would be finite, limited to the sanctioned period of the Carnival, which, in any case, was a period of allowed transgression. What began with Guglielmo deepened with Vincenzo, his successor: Later on the same fondness for musical theatre would have contributed to excluding the Jewish actors from the most important performances, but the main cause of the progressive reduction of the role of the Jewish community in the context of the Gonzaga spectacles is most certainly found in the incremental carrying out of the Counter Reformation dictates put in motion by Vincenzo and accelerated by his successors.25

There is a discrepancy between how Burattelli and Simonsohn portray Vincenzo’s and Guglielmo’s attitudes toward Jews. Writing from a Jewish historical perspective, Simonsohn presents Guglielmo as more punitive in his policies when compared to Vincenzo.26 Writing from a theatre historian’s perspective, Burattelli emphasizes Guglielmo’s desire for sovereignty from the Holy See and Vincenzo’s greater capitulation to the Inquisition, which eventually marked the decline of Jewish participation in theatre. At the same time, in some ways Vincenzo was far more favorable in his policies regarding Jews, and he also created an intimacy with them—​in his visits to the synagogue, for example. On another occasion “he attended, accompanied by his relatives and courtiers, a party given by the dancer and musician Isaac Massarani, at his home. But it seems that they feared the displeasure of the Church for the visit was made incognito.”27 Nonetheless, it is true that Vincenzo’s policy regarding performance perpetuated Guglielmo’s decision to limit Jewish performances to Carnival period. Notable exceptions are October of 1601 and the summer of 1604.28 The performances demanded of the Jewish community had significant costs, and the price of performance definitely increased under Vincenzo and after De’ Sommi had disappeared from the stage. Expenditures for sets, costumes, effects, musicians, dancers, and actors were considerable and often led the community to 24 ASMn, AG, b. 3382, c.193. The letter is printed and dated August 28, 1577.

25 “In seguito la stessa predilezione per il teatro musicale avrebbe contribuito a escludere gli attori ebrei dalle rappresentazioni di maggiore importanza, ma la causa principale di questa progressiva riduzione del ruolo della communità israelitica nel contesto spettacolare gonzaghesco è quasi sicuramente da cercare nel graduale adeguamento ai dettami della Controriforma avviato da Vincenzo e accelerato dai suoi successori.” Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 167. 26 Simonsohn, A History of the Jews, 662–​63 on Vincenzo.

27 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 526. Simonsohn point of reference is to D’Ancona’s Origini del teatro italiano, though he does not give the page. 28 Simonsohn, A History of the Jews, 663.

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scramble to tax its members internally, thereby creating an indirect tax, as I have argued elsewhere.29

Paradigmatic Shift of Performance

One significant change from one Duke to the next had to do with the content of the performances themselves. While the Jewish productions were noted for their stagecraft early on, the transition from Guglielmo to Vincenzo signaled a paradigm shift in Jewish performances, from text-​based to spectacle-​based productions, in which the text was of secondary concern. We see this in the evolution of De’ Sommi’s work where later pieces like Le tre sorelle or the intermedi he created (notably Amor e Psiche) made central use of fireworks and other stage effects. From the 1550s to the 1570s, productions by the Jews were based on the plays of Ariosto, Faroni, and De’ Sommi. De’ Sommi in particular was an important writer for the Jewish community, and probably wrote with the talents of Jewish actors in mind. Even in the case of the intermedi, which were more visually and musically based, De’ Sommi took a hand in the writing. After De’ Sommi, in the absence of a writer with so much experience, the productions appear to have relied more heavily on non-​textual components such as elaborate stage devices. This was not only because the community lacked a playwright in residence, but also because tastes had changed, and the Counter-​Reformation showcased elaborate sets, lighting and staging effects, and production of wonders (meraviglie) as well as beautiful effects (vaghezze). Taking a closer look at stagecraft’s association with the Jews, we can see that the community’s stagecraft abilities had been a constant feature of Jewish theatre-​making, and one that they capitalized on in the latter part of the sixteenth century. As early as 1554, the community had staged a spectacle with stage machines under the guidance of the two massari, Jacob Sullam and Samuel Shalit.30 They were both community leaders, and so, at this earlier point, it appears that they had a dual role as performance “directors/​producers” as well. This was a convenient arrangement, as the production was costly and the ability to draw from the community coffers was an asset for the producers. Expenditures were 574.10.3 Mantuan Lire, primarily for the costumes used in the play production.31 That same year, Sullam also represented the community in a regional meeting of the Jewish congress of Italian Jewry that took place in Ferrara in 1554, thereby emphasizing the intertwined nature of community leadership and play production.32 De’ Sommi was still in his twenties in these years, and so it makes sense that the community would have selected more seasoned members for something as 29 Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange.” 30 Simonsohn, A History of the Jews, 657.

31 Simonsohn, A History of the Jews, 657. Simonsohn takes his details from the JCA and the Minute Book (M.B.) A 33 a: 35b of 1554. 32 Simonsohn, A History of the Jews, 415.

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128 In the Shadow of the Counter-Reformation important as running the production: so much was riding on the productions that it would require a more mature member. Along with De’ Sommi, we have an indication that on February 7, 1577, “Isach dansra hebreo” (Isaac the Jewish dancer also known as Isaac Massarani) was a massaro for the Università.33 Therefore, it is clear that the community found it important to rely on capable massari for the staging of the plays. Notably, Isaac was a dancer or performer and no longer a playwright at this later date. Simonsohn suggests that the massari served for a one-​year period, but archival documentation reveals that many served on repeated years, so that the appointment may, more accurately, have been on a seasonal or project-​to-​project basis.34 The penchant for stage craft was apparent in a 1579 production recognized for its stage sets, including the creation of elaborate portals and doors, which emphasized good preparation and attention to detail. On this occasion, on February 5, 1579, the Jews had prepared a performance for the visiting Archduke Ferdinando of Bavaria. It was a five-​ hour play, similar to other Italian plays, with the exception that this comedy did not have a Magnifico or a Zanni character. The setting clearly following the Serlian design strategy for a typical Renaissance street.35 It is not clear if the Jewish company used a painted backdrop that was provided by the court and had been used by other, professional actor companies; or, if part of the appeal in hiring the Jews for this occasion was that they would provide the backdrop that could be used for later productions by others. What is certain is that the lavish nature of the Jewish staging would only continue late in the century. Case in point was 1581 when the Ebrei mounted another lavish production, this time for a visit from Maximilan of Austria.36 We lack any archival or secondary evidence that the Jews painted the sets themselves. However, we know that shopkeepers known as vendecolori evolved professionally in Venice in the Renaissance, and, as part of “the industry of color,” they provided dyes for furniture and ceramics but also for fabrics.37 Pigments were traded internationally, and it is not at all unlikely that the Jewish 33 ADCEM, filza 1, cartella 43. See the digital archive at: http://​digi​ebra​ico.bibl​iote​cate​resi​ana.it 34 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 345.

35 Herla, Segnatura: L-​330. From Monaco, Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv—​Geheimes Archiv-​ Korrespondenzakten, 925, fols. 26–​27. The document is dated February 5, 1579. 36 Beecher and Ciavolella note that this was Le due fulvie by Massimo Faroni, a play they write had already been performed by the Jews for the Carnival of 1568. Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 15. However, D’Ancona notes that the Jews had performed Farrone’s Le due fulvie on February 13, 1568, which was directed by Bernardo Tasso (Torquato Tasso’s father). D’Ancona, Origini del teatro in Italia, 226. Then in 1581 the Jews performed a different play, called I Sospetti. D’Ancona, “Il teatro Mantovano nel sec. XVI,” Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, vol. 5 (Florence: Ermanno Loescher, 1885), 48.

37 See: “16th-​Century Renaissance Pigments and Painting Techniques,” in nga.gov/​conservation/​ science/​16th-​century-​pigments.html accessed May 4, 2021. On the vendecolori, see: Louisa C. Matthew, “ ‘Vendecolori a Venezia’: The Reconstruction of a Profession,” Burlington Magazine (November 2002), 144 and also: Barbara H. Berrie, “Mining for Color: New Blues, Yellows, and Translucent Paint,” Early Science and Medicine 20:4/​6 (Special Issue: Early Modern Color Worlds, 2015).

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tradespeople, especially those specializing in the strazzaria and cloth industry, would have had connections and access to the same colorful pigments used by oil painters. Jewish involvement in the wool industry, the clothing and repurposing business, lending of furniture, as well as print, all involved the use of dyes. Recent scholarship on the vendecolori and on color has clarified that: “The emphasis for early modern merchants was less on who would be using these goods—​painters using pigments, dyers using dyes, doctors using simples—​and more with their impact (as color).”38 Multiple applications were possible for the dyes and color pigments being traded, and the Jews happened to be involved in multiple businesses that required color. Color was also especially valuable for use within stage settings, costumes and even props. Once again, the Jews had an advantage in their ability to draw from a variety of trades and crafts that were especially useful in theatre-​making. During the Carnival of 1582, the Jews presented the tragedy Selene by Gimabattista Giraldi.39 However, in the Jewish archives, a document from January 20, 1582, addressed to Abraham Francese, the massaro for the production, refers to it as Il Selino. That document includes some Hebrew in two places: on the top of the page, where there is a reference to the “holy community” (‫ )קק’ מנטובה‬and on the back side of the document, where Abraham Francese is addressed with the phrase “about the business of the comedia” (‫(על עסק הקומדיה‬.40 The document also includes an elaborate description of costumes for the production.41 This list has been studied by Burattelli and also by Alessandra Veronese, who transcribes the details of the items as follows: A little hat covered with white veil with a high crown with a silver moon at the top and with six long feathers. A drape garment with gold or silver background to wrap that is well decorated with gold

Large shoes that are opulent and well decorated. A belt with silver buckles, and scimitar with silver sheath./​A staff with golden branches two arms long. A Scofon [something worn over the socks] in the color of the socks. Boots over shoes.

Capelletto coperto di zendal bianco con la corona alta con la luna d’argento in cima et con sei penachi lunghi./​Una veste di drappo con fondo d’oro o d’argento da cingere ben guarnita et tutta abottonata d’oro./​Calzone grande all rizzarda ricchissime et guarnite./​ Cinta con fibbie d’argento, et scimittarra con fodro argentato./​Bastone con le verghe d’oro lunghe doi braccia./​Scoffon del color delle calze./​Stivaletti over scarpe.42 38 Julia A. DeLancey, “ ‘In the Streets Where They Sell Colors’: Placing ‘vendecolori’ in the urban fabric of early Modern Venice,” Wallraf-​Richartz-​Jahrbuch 72 (2011): 195.

39 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 16. See also Burattelli, who corrects a reference by Simonsohn in connection to the play. Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 168n5.

40 ADCEM, filza 2, cartella 8 (on verso). 41 ADCEM, filza 2, cartella 8.

42 Alessandra Veronese, “Le carte dell’archivio ebraico di Mantova,” 57. Also transcribed in Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 148.

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130 In the Shadow of the Counter-Reformation If the list was intended for the massaro, then the Jewish community would presumably have had to make or borrow the items on that list, including head coverings (Capelletto) and crowns (Corona).43 At the bottom of the document, there is a partly legible statement that appears to indicate that the bankers and the Università needed to spend and buy these items (“Dichiamo per oche bisognando spender detta sepse vanda //​ in conducamen//​ comel’altre spese secondo l’esame fra l’universita et banchieri”). Clearly, this production cost the community a lot in terms of the costuming that it needed to make, buy, or rent. Another striking aspect of the production was the settings. As Ciavolella and Beecher relay: “A Mantuan writing to Giraldi’s patron Alfonso II reported that although Duke Guglielmo did not like the play … ‘the scenery was splendid and the intermezzi most beautiful.’ ”44 Both these details, from the Jews themselves and from an eyewitness to the production, make clear that the visual aspects—​scenery and costumes—​were heavily invested in and made an impression. Maybe it was the visual aspect of the production that motivated Vincenzo Gonzaga, still five years away from becoming Duke of Mantua, to request a play by the Jews, at his own expense, for his birthday in August. Ciavolella and Beecher note this was to be De’ Sommi’s Il giannizzero.45 Why would the Christian Duke want the Jews to perform? What was it he perceived they would do that a commedia dell’arte professional company could not? If he was covering the production costs, then that would no longer be an advantage, so the incentive had to come from elsewhere, and it appears that it had to do with the artistic nature and the high production values (impressive staging, lavish costumes) the Jews would bring to the table. It is also possible he perceived that, as a future Duke of Mantua, part of his duty and his power was to patronize performances by the Jews as part and parcel of his offering protection to them. Regardless of Duke Vincenzo’s motivation, whether it was opportunism, inferred responsibility to act with generosity, or a genuine interest in the Jewish theatre enterprise, the record of Jewish theatrical productions under his reign suggests that a degree of “exchange” persisted, with the Jews exercising autonomy regarding the terms of their engagement in performance, especially when it came to scheduling the performances. While it is true that performances were demanded of the Jews, nevertheless, on certain occasions, Jews could stipulate the terms of their performances.46 For example, on one 43 For more information on Renaissance clothing, see https://​fas​hion​hist​ory.fit​nyc.edu/​bea​uty-​ ado​rns-​vir​tue-​ital​ian-​rena​issa​nce-​fash​ion/​.

The veil attached to a head piece is described by Lane Eagles in this site, and she shares an image by Fra Filippo Lippi, Portrait of a Woman, 1445. Cesare Vecellio’s Habiti antichi, et moderni di tutto il Mondo [Modern and Ancient Clothing from all the World] (Giovanni Bernardo Sessa, Venice 1598) (republished as Vecellio’s Renaissance Costume Books: All 500 Woodcut Illustrations from the Famous Sixteenth-​Century Compendium of World Costume by Cesare Vecellio New York: Dover, 1977) provides plenty of examples of the ways people dressed in the sixteenth century. 44 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 16. 45 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 16.

46 Beecher reflects that the performances “embodied a two-​way organizational process whereby the Jews could also conduct the transaction as a means for reclaiming power ...” Beecher, “Leone de’ Sommi,” 2.

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occasion, they clarified that they could not act on Shabbat or on a holy day.47 In this instance, we know the Università negotiated with Duke Vincenzo, making it clear that if they were forced to produce a play during a holy day (probably in this case the High Holiday of Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur) they would not incorporate the “effects” that we have seen they were famous for. What is important is that the aforementioned Jews are forced to put in consideration before your Excellency that the 22 of September, in which they were commissioned to be ready to recite this play, is one of the most solemn and important holidays which they have, and not only the 22nd but also the 23rd, and the 24th is Saturday [Shabbat]: it seems that it would be necessary either to make it one day earlier, or to wait until the following Sunday, as one would not want to produce the work without the effects, like the fireworks and sounds and other pleasing elements, which are not allowed by Jewish law during holidays and holy days.

quello che importa, et che sono i sudti Hebrei sforzati a mettere in consideratione dell’ A. S. si è che il giorno del 22 di 7bre, nel quale vengono commessi ad essere all’ ordine per recitare questa favola, è una delle più sollenni e principali feste che abbiano tra loro, et non solo il 22, ma il 23 ancora, e ‘l 24 è Sabbato: sì che sarà necessario o di anticipare il do tempo un giorno, overo d’aspettare alla Domenica seguente, quanto non si volesse far l’opera manchevole di molte vaghezze, come di fuochi et di suoni e d’altre piacevolezze, non comportate dalla legge hebraica o farsi in simili giorni festivi.48

Here, the Jews are very detailed in explaining that both their high holidays and Shabbat are days on which they cannot operate any fire/​lights or mechanically produced sounds, which, together, account for the effects or beauty (vaghezze) in the production. They also imply that, if the production were only dependent on recitation, they would be flexible in their ability to perform. However, the suggestion is that without the vaghezze, the production would lose its distinctive feature.

Jews as Contractors in Vincenzo’s Extravagant Age

As the productions under Vincenzo’s reign became more “taxing,” in terms of the number of material elements (costumes, prop use, effects, scenery) and their expense, the Jews nevertheless gained something in the process. Whereas elsewhere in the Italian Peninsula, the Counter-​Reformation period translated into increased subjugation and 47 Levenstein, Songs for the First Hebrew Play, 32. Levenstein quotes from MacNeil. “Ottavio Lambartesco, Mantua, to (Vincenzo Gonzaga, Mantua): Leone de’ Sommi has yet to appear, but Il Massaro [Isacchino Massarano] and the other ebrei have asked Lambartesco to forward the enclosed document to the Duke.” The enclosed document, identifying the ebrei as “l’Universitá degli hebrei,” requests that the Duke call for Leone de’ Sommi, who is in Piemonte, and that the Duke choose the play he would like performed so that the actors may learn their parts. It further says that September 22 is one of the most solemn of Jewish Holidays, as is the 23rd, and that the 24th is a Saturday, so they cannot perform then; therefore, it would be best to wait until that Sunday (September 25) to have the play (ASMn, AG, b. 2642, fols. 170r–​171v) doc. 17. Levenstein, Songs for the First Hebrew Play, 35–​36. 48 D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, 427–​28.

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132 In the Shadow of the Counter-Reformation humiliation, in Mantua, through theatrical performances the Jews doggedly asserted a professionalism that enabled for them to become partners in performance, rather than subalterns forced to subjugate themselves to the privileged Christian Dukes. Instrumental to this exchange was the identity the Jews created of themselves as contractors for performances, professional producers of artistic merit. There were exceptions to this exchange, and anti-​Judaic sentiments are sadly attested by the gruesome killing of an eighty-​year-​old Jewish woman named Giuditta Franchetti on April 22, 1600, when she was burned at the stake for being a witch in a “spectacle” that was attended by the Gonzaga Ducal family and others.49 The burning was followed closely by other punitive measures imposed on the Jews, including a 1602 edict issued by Duke Vincenzo ordering total separation of the communities.50 The fulfillment of these restrictions was clearly symbolized with the establishment of the Ghetto (February 24, 1612).51 Nevertheless, performances staged by the Jews of Mantua persisted, and during this difficult period, theatrical productions were more necessary than ever for the Jews to maintain. The lavishness of Baroque aesthetics in this time meant more elaborate costumes, sets, and effects. While performance was a burden in its costliness, it was also a lifeline for maintaining a continuous, if tenuous, exchange between the Jews and Christians and a visible assertion of the presence and necessity of the Jews within the larger Mantuan world. The onerous nature of performance is evident in a document recording the elaborate process of borrowing clothing from within the community for costuming a performance. The performance was Accessi de Amor (1605), and it required months of preparation. The community secretary for the Jews, David Yaffe, recorded the names of the participants in the production, which took place on February 17, 1605; he also listed the items that were lent by the massaro Abramo da Udine in service of the play.52 We see in this example an evolution in the role of the massaro as a provider of goods for the theatrical production, a type of prop, and costume master, a contrast from the middle of the sixteenth century in which the massari were drawn from the most respected community members and functioned as representatives rather than professional contractors.53 This marked a different role for the massaro and was probably the reason that there were increased numbers of massari for productions at this time, allowing each massaro to specialize in a different aspect of the production. For example, in December of 1594, Abraham Sarfati was allowed to choose as many 49 See Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 144.

50 See “Mantua” by Gotthard Deutsch, Ismar Elbogen, and Joseph Jacobs in the Jewish Encyclopedia: The Unedited Full Text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, accessed online at: Jewishencyclopedia.com, May 1, 2021. 51 Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 144.

52 ADCEM, filza 9, cartella 1. There are receipts of payment (Ricevute di Pagamento) for da Udine in the documentation by David Yaffe. 53 Simonsohn highlights the fact that two community leaders served as massari for a production in 1554. History of the Jews, 657n274.

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as six people to assist in organizing the performance. While they included notable community members, such as the banker Mordecai Norsa, they also included the actor Simone (Shlumiel) Basilea, who was chosen for his professional expertise rather than for being a community leader.54 By 1596 and 1597, there was increasingly specialized hiring within the Jewish community for different community members to provide the costumes and supplies for the actors.55 Other people who lent their services and loaned items were also listed, and one of these items was a pair of shoes (though we don’t have details about what made them so special as to merit being recorded).56 In another instance, a seamstress was paid to make costumes for a performance in 1601.57 As a result of this process for finding intracommunal ways to provide for the production, the Jews became good at procuring items for theatre, which was a useful skill they could apply to performances outside of their community. Paradoxically, at a period of growing restrictions on contact between the religious groups, it appears Jews were increasingly providing goods and services for Christian actors, notably those of the troupes of the commedia dell’arte. When performers traveled, they traveled light, and they did not have all the scenic elements they would have needed for staging more elaborate productions in the ducal courts of the North. Jews conveniently provided the scenic materials and props that made these performances appealing to the wealthy Dukes.58 In an astonishing document housed in the ADCEM, we can find a detailed list of clothing to be provided “for the Company of the Gelosi” (per la compagnia delli comici gelosi).59 The clothing includes items that were connected to the commedia dell’arte character type of a Magnifico or to the masks typically worn in a commedia dell’arte performance. In addition to clothing, there were other items Jews could provide for the performances. Burattelli quotes this list drawn on August 15, 1588 signed by Michele Tedesco “delivered, on behalf of his brothers, ‘the things signed below to sir Giulio Spangolo of the Gelosi troupe’ ” (“ ‘consegnava per conto dei suoi confratelli le sottoscritte robbe a messer Giulio spagnolo della compagnia delli comici Gelosi’ ”).60 Among the things that were delivered are clothing for a zanni, new and old masks, false black and red beards, and a wide-​sleeved blouse.61 Here is extraordinary evidence that the most important company of commedia dell’arte actors, the Gelosi, was using the services of the Jews of Mantua. 54 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 663n302. 55 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 663n303.

56 ADCEM, filza 10, cartella 1 (January 12, 1606) page 99 out of 154. 57 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 665n311.

58 Burattelli writes about the possibilities that the Jews provided costumes for the Carneval “mascherata” as well as even providing lodgings for the professional players. Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 146. 59 ADCEM, filza 3, cartella 1, p. 3 out of 44 on the digital archive.

60 Burattelli quotes from the document in Spettacoli di corte, 146.

61 Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 146.

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134 In the Shadow of the Counter-Reformation Costumes and props were sometimes made especially for the actors, but other times, they may have come from items available in the Jewish-​owned pawn shops. As Veronese notes, “In some cases the scenic elements came from the pawn shops, which had quite a few Jewish owners; sometimes, they came from rentals.”62 The Jews lent props and items for performances for professional companies who needed to impress their audiences with elaborate stage settings and lovely furnishings. Thereby, the Jews evolved to be an inextricable part of the broader “business of entertainment” that emerged in the late sixteenth century. In many ways, Mantua was a model for this new paradigm. Burattelli articulates the ways that the Jewish trades in fabrics and second-​hand rags, as well as their work in pawn shops had, already in the late sixteenth century, positioned them as ideal partners for performance. The widespread activity of trade in fabrics and rags and the concentration of pawn shops made the ghetto, in Mantua as elsewhere, the ideal place to draw materials from, not infrequently without expense, for the clothing and accessories required by the theatre and for carnival.63

Veronese points to a 1604 note in the Jewish archives about the renting of clothing to be worn in a masquerade.64 In this instance, the clothing is being borrowed not for a specific performance but for reveling or celebratory purposes. However, it is not a stretch to imagine that the same services provided for a Maschera could be provided by the Jews for explicitly theatrical purposes. As Vincenzo’s needs for performances became increasingly elaborate, a larger number of performers (and costumes) were needed for the productions, which typically included dancing, singing and acting, and more and more auxiliary services to support production became necessary. The Jews, it appears, provided many of these services, and so they went from providing only for performers (musicians, dancers, actors, writers) to serving as early modern “contractors” who could be hired to perform necessary services and provide various goods for production.65 They appear to have been versatile with regards to the spaces in which they performed. Often the performances were located in the Palazzo Ducale itself, in the middle of the city. However, at least on one occasion, the 62 “In alcuni casi i costumi di scena derivavano dai banchi di pegno, che vedeva-​ no un’ampia presenza di faccendieri ebrei; a volte provenivano da noleggio …” Alessandra Veronese, “Le carte dell’archivio ebraico di Mantova,” 57.

63 “La diffusa attività di commercio di stoffe e straccerie e la concentrazione dei banchi dei pegni facevano del ghetto, a Mantova come altrove, il deposito ideale cui attingere, non di rado senza spesa, per il reperimento degli abiti e accessori richiesti dal teatro e dal carnevale.” Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 146.

64 Veronese’s reference is from the ADCEM, which she denotes as “ACE” from June 21, 1604, ADCEM, filza 8, cartella 48. Veronese, “Le carte dell’archivio ebraico di Mantova,” 57–​58. “Nota relativa al prestito di vestiti per andare in maschera del 21 giugno 1604, che cita ‘sei vestiti di zanollo’, ‘sei baute’ e altri sei vestiti.”

65 Jaffe-​Berg in the Routledge Companion to Theatre History and Historiography, ed. Tracy Davies and Peter Marx (London: Routledge, 2020).

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Jews performed at the Palazzo Te, on the outskirts of the city as well, as can be seen in a document from 1612 which notes they performed for the entire court at the Palazzo Te.66 The Jewish Community Archives are rife with examples of efforts made on the part of Jews for the benefit of their productions. For example, in 1580, the Jews received payment for costumes to be used in the intermedi of the Jewish comedy.67 Jews were artisans and craftsmen as well as fabric merchants and pawn-​shop owners, and those occupations made them helpful candidates for making and lending costumes and props for performance. The Jewish ability to provide costume items for production reflected on their involvement in the Mantuan textile industry at large, which included woolens, knitwear, and silk. As historian Grendler puts it: “Mantua and the Mantovano lived on the textile industry” and furthermore, “Mantua was the knitwear capital of Italy in the early Seventeenth century.”68 The region manufactured woolen goods and then sold a variety of items, including, at one point, the very popular woolen caps or headpieces known as berrette (a combination of a beret and a large woolen cap), closely followed by other knitwear (agucchieria), notably knitted stockings, gloves, and vests.69 The berrette have a special relevance to the Jews who were often required to wear them in yellow or red as a way of marking themselves as distinctive from the Christian population. It is ironic to consider that Jews had a hand in making the very caps that they were branded by since Jews took part not only in the second-​hand cloth industry but also the knitwear industry.70 Grendler emphasizes the innovative nature of the knitwear industry: “Because knitted hose did not need to be sewn and fitted by a tailor, they were an early example of ready-​to-​wear clothing.”71 Fashion historian Carlo M. Belfanti has emphasized that Mantua came to dominate the innovative production of woolen knitted stockings, “which in the second half of the [sixteenth] century rapidly became a fashion item throughout Europe.”72 This concentrated technical knowledge would have helped the Mantuan economy, but it would have also meant that the knowledge could be transferred to other parts of Northern Italy or beyond, if circumstances made it hard for Jews to live in Mantua. As Belfanti puts it: “From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries the cities of Northern Italy acted as poles for the movement of skilled artisans, a powerful impulse toward the propagation of technical knowledge.”73 66 Herla, Segnatura C-​968. ASMn AG, B. 2725 fasc. 1, doc. 120. Lodovico Mazzi writing to Cardinal Gonzaga on July 19, 1612. The performances included fireworks and machines as well, separate from the Jewish production.

67 Herla, Segnatura P-​111. 21 May 1580. ASMn, AG, b. 3141 Registro spese Duc. Camera c. 49v (217v) 282 L were paid for the costumes. 68 Grendler, The University of Mantua, 3 and 4. 69 Grendler, The University of Mantua, 4.

70 Grendler, The University of Mantua, 6.

71 Grendler, The University of Mantua, 4.

72 Carlo M. Belfanti, “Guilds, Patents, and the Circulation of Technical Knowledge, Northern Italy during the Early Modern Age,” Technology and Culture 45.3 (July, 2004): 585. 73 Belfanti “Guilds, Patents,” 588.

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136 In the Shadow of the Counter-Reformation The knitwear industry was not the only way Jews took a hand in making and procuring materials for performance and Carnival. Jews in Mantua participated in goldsmithing as well as trading and crafting jewelry.74 It appears that the cloth and jewelry trades often led to interesting business opportunities for the Jews who had a hand in both crafts. For example, the Mantuan State Archives preserve a receipt of payment to Lelio Massarano, the Jew on April 16, 1585 for what appears to be a measurement or unit (un canon) of fabric of super fine gold yarn which was used in the embroidery of socks and an ornamental satin collar for the Duke.75 In this case, the golden detail was embroidered into the yarn itself, so that the yarn was spun of wool and gold, reflecting a remarkable craftsmanship that drew on the abilities of the Jews to work in both the woolen and gold trades. Clearly a talented craftsman, Lelio was repeatedly called on for his services, and there are more receipts for payments to him, including one for expenses for a silver tocca (an expensive silk cloth woven with silver threads) for the 1591 Carnival.76 Massarano was drawing on his connections with Jewish silk merchants who had the Duke’s permission to trade in silk in Mantua, while the production of silk was left to the Christian manufacturers.77 Silk was versatile and desirable in this period as now. It could be interwoven with silver threads in embroidering Christian and Jewish ceremonial cloths that were used for religious objects, such as the meilim (used to wrap the Torah in or the covering of the Holy Ark in the synagogue) and made into satin for clothing or decoration.78 Angelo Ferrarese, Ebreo appears to have been another Jewish craftsman in the service of the Duke. Angelo was paid for white Flanders Canvas (per tela di fiandra Bianca) that was used to house the masks owned by His Serene Highness the Duke (per far abiti da maschera per Sua Altezza).79 The masks may have been Carnival-​related, or 74 Grendler, The University of Mantua, 6.

75 In Herla, the detail is specified as: “Nota della somma di L. 36 data da Benedetto Abondi a Lelio Massarano ebreo per un canon d’oro filato sottile sopraffino, necessario a fare il ricamo delle calze (embroidery of the socks) e del colletto di raso (satin collar) di Sua Altezza.” Receipt note of April 16, 1585, Herla Segnatura P-​1077. ASMn AG b. 401 c. 470r Cfr. P338. There is another receipt in Herla, Segnatura P-​338 from 4 March 1585. I would like to thank Anastazja Buttitta for the suggestion that a canon may be a unit of measurement. In fact, the “canna” was a measurement used in many regions within the peninsula, including the Papal States, Naples, and others. See: www.clav​iant​ica. com/​Geo​metr​y_​fi​les/​Ital​ian_​geom​etry​_​app​endi​x_​2.htm.

76 Herla, Segnatura P-​378. ASMn, AG, b. 402, c. 84v for a payment of 86 Lire to Lelio “per una tocca d’argento” on 1/​1/​1591. The Vocabolario Treccani defines the tòcca as a silk cloth woven with gold or silver threads (drappo di seta inessuto di fili d’oro o da’arento). See: www.trecc​ani.it/​voca​bola​ rio/​tocca_​res-​1a037​904-​0037-​11de-​9d89-​00163​57ee​e51/​ 77 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 260–​61.

78 On the ways in which the Jews used embroidery, including woven silver in ceremonial fabrics, see Warp and Weft: Women as Custodians of Jewish Heritage, Curator Anastazja Buttitta (catalogue). U. Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art, Jerusalem (July 2019–​January 2020). I thank Anastazja Buttitta for sending me a copy of the catalogue. Also digitized at: https://​arth​erst​ory.net/​warp-​ and-​weft-​women-​as-​cus​todi​ans-​of-​jew​ish-​herit​age-​in-​italy/​accessed April 14, 2021. 79 58.10 Lire were paid for this, and the payment is noted in Herla, Segnatura P-​21, ASMn, AG, b. 3141, Spese Ducal Camera: Vesteria, c. 643. Payment was given on July 1, 1589.

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they may have been used when the Duke went to a theatrical performance or to another place where he did not wish to be immediately recognized. More performance-​related evidence from the archives includes a payment of 19 Lire, made to a Jew (messer Jacob ebreo) in the 1591 Carnival season, for jewels (gioielli).80 While the jewels in this case are costume jewelry, to be used in a theatrical production, Grendler has pointed out that Jewish artisans “played a major role” in jewelry production.81 It was not only men who provided materials to the Duke and for performances. A Jewish woman supplied services to be used for the Carnival season of 1591. In this case, the payment was for a much higher amount than we have seen previously. This is another confirmation of Burattelli’s statement that, during the Counter-​Reformation period, Jewish theatrical activities were confined mainly to Carnival time. The extraordinary sum of 232.15 Lire was paid to Madonna Gentila, ebrea for an item (noted as per [franze]); in addition, the sums of 4299.1.1 and 4163.6 Lire were paid for blades, taps, and other props (per lane, tocche e alter ‘robbe’).82 Madonna Gentila was supplying metal weapons for theatrical purposes. Kyna Hamill reminds us that at this time, the “prop” weapons would have been actual metal work; and therefore, the props produced by the Jews for performance purposes were no different from the ones made for normal use.83 This was convenient for the Jews who, as we have seen, were involved in the gold, metal, and jewelry business, in addition to the cloth trade.84 This document is especially interesting because it suggests that while women may have been restricted from performing on stage, they definitely took part in theatre-​making behind the scenes—​a contribution, as we shall see, that was not at all negligible and that grew in importance during the seventeenth century. One way in which women may have provided a hidden labor was in fabric making repurposing. Repurposing of cloth and fabrics was a mainstay of the Renaissance world in which a tablecloth might turn into a garment, and a piece of embroidery might find itself used within an item of clothing, as examples. Women had a special role in the Italian world of embroidery making as well as in lace work. Jewish women had a particular role in contributing to this as they were expected to fulfill the requirements for a housewife to partake in ‫( הידור מצוות‬hiddur mitzvot, beautification of the commandments) and ‫( לעלות בקודש‬la’a lot ba-​qodesh, elevate in holiness), meaning changing an object that is an everyday object into a sacred one.85 This translated into 80 Herla, Segnatura P-​25, ASMn, AG, b. 402, c. 76 from January 1, 1591. 81 Grendler, The University of Mantua, 5.

82 See Herla, Segnatura P-​390, ASMn, AG, b. 402 c. 85 for January 1, 1591.

83 “Furthermore, the weapons used onstage would not be imitated ‘props’ but objects moved from the real world to the stage world, thus carrying all social signification with them.” See Kyna Hamill, “A Cannonade of Weapons: Signs of Transgression in the Early Commedia dell’arte,” Theatre Symposium 18 (2010): 41. 84 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 256.

85 Warp & Weft. https://​arth​erst​ory.net/​warp-​and-​weft-​women-​as-​cus​todi​ans-​of-​jew​ish-​herit​age​in-​italy/​accessed April 14, 2021.

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138 In the Shadow of the Counter-Reformation textile objects when women took a simple cloth or piece of embroidery and used it to ornament a Torah covering or prepare the wrap for a child to wear in a circumcision ceremony. In 1604, the head of the staff in Mantua, Andrea Peri, asked the massari of the Jewish community to borrow a woman’s shirt to be used in a masquerade, along with other zanni type costumes for the staff members of the Duke to wear.86 When, in the summer of 1608, the Court moved itself to Gazzuolo, outside of the city of Mantua, but within the Mantovano, to be out in the country and also to see a play staged there, the Jewish community provided mattresses and sheets, and even lodged some of the guests at the performance.87 Goods and services (on stage and off) were thus handily provided by the Jews, at a presumably reduced cost, especially when offered to the Duke and his staff, as well as to the professional performers.

Legal and Economic Dealings Between Jews and Actors

In addition to procuring props and making costumes, Jews supported the Christian actors of commedia dell’arte monetarily, when they offered their services for “taking care of business” for the actors who frequently toured. Such was the case with Tristano Martinelli, the famed commedia dell’arte actor who played the role of Arlecchino. The documents we have attest to a legal issue Martinelli had with a Ferrarese Jew named Abramo de Vitta. Vitta had been charged with taking care of the actor’s business with the Monte di Pietà of Ferrara, presumably loans the actor had there. The archival record notes that the actor and Mantuan citizen Tristano Martinelli had dealings with Mastino and Abramo de Vitta of Ferrara, who were in charge of the actor’s financial interests with the Monte di Pietà (a charitable lending bank) of Ferrara.88 Another document similarly connects the famous commedia dell’arte actor Silvio Fiorillo to a Jew. Here, the actor sends Enzo Bentivoglio a letter on November 17, 1615, in which he notes that he will have the money for moving expenses, which the Jews are sending, and that the transaction is being handled by a Jew of Ferrara named Vito.89 It is likely that this is the same Abramo de Vitta of Ferrara who helped Tristano Martinelli, indicating De Vitta made a living from serving actors in financial matters. Another letter by Ercole Marliani to an unknown member of the Court of Mantua on October 17, 1618 notes that he is sending money to Leone the Jew because the same Leone will provide for the play and for the intermedi. Marliani was especially concerned about the situation 86 Warp & Weft. https://​arth​erst​ory.net/​warp-​and-​weft-​women-​as-​cus​todi​ans-​of-​jew​ish-​herit​age​in-​italy/​. 87 See Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 146 for this extraordinary instance.

88 These materials are bundled archivally in files dedicated to the work of the notary (notarile). See: Herla, Segnatura A-​32 ASMn, Noratile Notaio Sinforiano Forti b. 4464 ter. June 8, 1617. Also, a note from the attorney (procura) representing Martinelli is found in Herla, Segnatura A-​31, February 9, 1617, ASMn, Notarile Notaio Sinforiano Forti b. 4464 ter, cc. n.n. 89 Herla, Segnatura C-​2360. Ferrara, Archivio di Stato-​Bentivoglia. Lettere Scelte M.82 cc. 287–​88.

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regarding costumes, hairpieces, and boots.90 It may be especially appropriate that the Jew Leone would help with the procuring of and payment for these particular props and costumes, given the Jewish expertise. Another interesting letter by Marliani to Ducal the Secretary Giovanni Magni suggests that “Furthermore, he assures that he has provided the houses for the comedians and that the Jews will give them what they need for their stay, as commanded by Your Highness.” (Inoltre assicura di aver provveduto alle case per i comici e che gli ebrei daranno loro l’occorrente per il soggiorno, secondo il comando di Sua Altezza.) This is a telling indication that, by this point in the seventeenth century, the Mantuan Dukes were relying on the Jews to give the comici (who happened to be members of the Confidenti company) “what they need” (daranno loro l’occorrente per il soggiorno) when they toured into the city.91

Desirability and Surveillance of Jewish Performers in the Counter-​Reformation

Alessandro da Rho, a ducal officer, wrote to Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, on December 25, 1605 to inform him about the situation faced by actors in Turin, who happened to be the company of the esteemed Tristano Martinelli (who played the role of Arlecchino). They apparently needed to return to Mantua and awaited the Duke of Savoy’s permission to leave. He delayed this permission, seemingly holding the comici hostage because he wanted something else from the Duke of Mantua. In Rho’s communication with Duke Vincenzo, he suggests that the Duke of Savoy “thought that the Duke of Mantua could have prepared entertainments by the Jews” (“ma crede che il Duca di Mantova potrebbe far preparare intrattenimenti dagli ebrei”)92 It is not clear exactly what he meant by this, but it implies that the Duke of Savoy was expecting the Mantuan Duke to send a delegation of Jewish performers, and he received the commedia dell’arte actors instead. It is astonishing that the Jews were put on par with or even above the comici in terms of their cache and capacity as entertainers, but that appears to have been the case. This example says a lot about the value of the Jews in terms of performance and suggests that they had by this point attained a high degree of professionalism. In another correspondence from three days later, on December 28, 1605, it is clear that the actors were still waiting for the license from the Duke of Savoy permitting them to leave. The actors waited for the permission to leave Turin, while the Princess of Savoy [of Savoy/​Turin] wanted them to stay. The Duke of Mantua had other actors and plays for the Jews to perform: for that reason he thought to allow them [the other actors] to remain in Turin.

90 Herla, Segnatura: C-​1146. ASMn, AG, b. 2741 fasc. II, c. 50. Letter sent October 17, 1618.

91 Herla, Segnatura, C-​1156. ASMn, AG, b. 2741 fasc. II, cc. 72–​72bis. Written on December 22, 1618. 92 Herla, Segnatura C-​1077. December 25, 1605. Alessandro da Rho to the Duke of Mantua.

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140 In the Shadow of the Counter-Reformation (I comici aspettano la licenza da partire da Torino, mentre le Principesse vorreberro che restassero. Il Duca di Mantova dispone di altri comici e di commedie da far recitare agli ebrei: perciò si pensa che possa concedere di lasciarli a Torino).93

Taken together, these letters suggest that the Duke of Savoy was, in effect, holding the esteemed commedia dell’arte company of Tristano Martinelli hostage in Turin because he really wanted to see a performance by the Jews of Mantua, whom the Duke of Mantua refused to release. Conversely, it also suggests that Vincenzo, Duke of Mantua, was toying to a degree with the Duke of Savoy by withholding the Jewish performers. In this example, the Jews were both a pawn and literally a currency of exchange, though not of their own doing, giving the upper hand to the Duke of Mantua, who obviously had something valuable (the Jewish performers) that others wanted. Possibly, the novelty of Jewish performers and distinguishing features of their performance ability made them such desirable hired entertainment. A decade later, on December 12, 1619, in the correspondence between Ercole Marliani and Annibale Chieppio, sometimes ducal secretary and then Count, Marliani wrote to relay Flaminio Scala’s upcoming, though belated, arrival in Casale. In the letter, Marliani mentions that he asked the Jews to prepare a play for the coming Carnival, and then states he is ready to prepare for several intermedi.94 From this, it appears that the preparations of the intermezzi are relegated to the Jewish theatre-​makers. The seamlessness of performance as a form of exchange is striking here. Scala represented the apex of professional commedia dell’arte performance. The interchangeability of Scala’s name with that of the Jews indicates that they either functioned on the same level as the famous professional arte troupes in terms of the quality of their work—​or, at the very least, that it was not outrageous to view their work in relation to Scala. It is evident that by this point, under the reign of a weaker Duke (Ferdinand, son of Vincenzo I), Marliani was a far more hands-​on collaborator than past ducal secretaries. It also reveals Marliani’s higher degree of surveillance and scrutiny of the Jewish theatre-​makers. Another document, for example, reveals that Marliani was present at rehearsals, monitoring the Jews’ activities and preparations for the plays.95 As a result of Marliani’s hands-​on involvement in the management of performances, it was clear that the Jews were under pressure to produce performances that pleased a demanding and exacting taskmaster. These highly surveilled performances were considerably less of an “exchange” and more of a coercion in these years. Consequently, the picture one gets from these documents is that the Jews were focused on pleasing and accommodating Marliani with scenically elaborate elements and stage effects. In the letter from Marliani to the Duchess of Mantua on December 21, 1619, there is information about the staging and production values of plays by the Jews. Apparently, Marliani attended the rehearsals the Jews were preparing for the arrival of the Duchess of Mantua, in which they were 93 Herla, Segnatura C-​1078. December 28, 1605 Alessandro da Rho to the Duke of Mantua. 94 Herla, Segnatura C-​1266. December 12, 1619. From ASMn AG.

95 Herla, Segnatura C-​1267. ASMn, AG, b. 1745 fasc. XV doc. 464. December 21, 1619.

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using various apparati that required a special order from the prefect (magistrate or chief officer).96 Clearly, the Jews were relying on a very elaborate stage machinery if they needed special permission from the chief officer or magistrate. Perhaps the apparatus was dangerous, or very costly? In any case, here, again, is evidence that the scenic dimension of the performance was closely associated with the Jews and that this was the hallmark of their work. Another document notes the versatility of the Jews in being able to perform in various spaces. In this instance, on July 19, 1612, the Jews performed at the Palazzo Te for the entire court.97

The Intimacy of Exchange

The extraordinary and even intimate terms of exchange during performance are accentuated in another example: a literal exchange of costumes between Jewish and Christian performers. In this case, Lorenzo Campagna, servant to Duke Vincenzo, wrote to the Marchese Fabio Gonzaga, the Duke’s second cousin (who was in Polestre), on January 28, 1611, letting him know that he was sending the six ballet costumes (sei vestiti da baletti) requested by Fabio as well as six hats (sei Capelli) and two women’s garments (cacciate da donna).98 That in itself is not unusual; what is striking is that he relayed, furthermore, that all the clothes were at that moment being used in a production that the Jews were preparing to perform. This document reveals a considerable amount of sharing between the Jews and Christians. It suggests that this was commonplace. It may be that the costumes were owned by the Jews; we simply do not know for certain. But the fact that the Jews and Christians wore the same clothes suggests a surprising intimacy of exchange, given all the rules and restrictions on contact. The paradoxical proximity of the Jews and Christians is evident in this and other examples shared in this chapter. Taken together, they paint a picture of a highly interconnected dynamic of Jewish support for the Christian performers, of side-​by-​ side performances by the Jews and Christian comici, and of specialized skills honed by the Jews to make themselves desirable as theatrical contractors. It seemed a perfect arrangement that could have gone on forever. The Jews used theatrical productions to ensure their secure protection and the comici benefited from another marginalized group that served as a collaborative supporter. However, this tradition was not to last forever. In the next chapter, I turn to an examination of what happened to the Jewish performance-​makers in the middle of the seventeenth century. 96 “Marliani attende ai preparative della commedia che gli ebrei reciterranno per l’arrivo della Principessa di Mantova. Perché le cose riescano al meglio sarebbe necessario dare un ordine al prefetto [per gli apparati].” Herla, Segnatura C-​1267. ASMn, AG, b. 1745 fasc. XV doc. 464. December 21, 1619. 97 ASMn, AG, b. 2725 fasc. 1 doc. 120. July 19, 1612.

98 ASMn, AG, b. 2721, fol. II, number 8 fasc. III, doc. 2, cc. [pages] 45–​46. Also found in: Herla, Segnatura C-​1271, ASMn, AG, b. 2721 fasc. Iii doc. 2 cc. 45–​46. January 28, 1611.

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Chapter 6

THE END OF JEWISH PERFORMANCE IN MANTUA1

How does a

performance tradition die? Often, we are so busy thinking about the new—​the origins of something, its premiere—​that we forget to consider its end. How does the performance tradition itself die out? What makes it finally stop, the energy and creativity thrusting into it now over? That is the question hovering over this chapter, which focuses on the moment in which the generative energies of the Jewish Mantuan community and the complex but ongoing exchange between it and the Gonzaga Christian community came to an end. We know that theatre, which had once been a mainstay of the Jewish community in Mantua, no longer happened there after 1650—​certainly not in the consistent way it had for 120 years. There were some aborted attempts to get it to restart it, but for all intents and purposes, the final performance in Mantua occurred in 1650. Why did it end at that point and in that year? What were the stakes for the ending? Was it a decision made by both parties—​Jewish and Christian, artists and public? Was coercion involved? In this chapter, I consider the circumstances that led to the ultimate cessation: the dying out of the powerful Guglielmo and Vincenzo father-​son forces; successive waves of misfortune, such as a devastating plague; and then the horrific Mantuan War of Succession (1628–​1630) when the community was temporarily exiled in 1630 and performances had to stop. Upon returning to the devastated city, no one was able to support the kind of lavish spectacles that the Jews had put on since the early sixteenth century. Nonetheless, against these tremendous odds, by the time the Jewish population returned to a devastated Mantua in 1631, the Università had begun to re-​group and then it staged its post-​exile performances once again. Thus, not even the War of Succession was able to completely bring the performance tradition to a stop. If that is the case, then what did cause it to end? In this chapter, I trace the final decades of Jewish performance in Mantua. I look at various historical interpretations of the end of the performances and provide some additional theories as to why this important form of cultural exchange and currency was halted. Principally, I look at the ways in which increasingly conservative voices within the Jewish community itself gained sway in convincing the population to reduce and turn away from theatre-​making. Concomitantly, I introduce the rise of a tradition of disputation in the city of Mantua. Disputation, I argue, addressed many of the Jewish community’s needs for self-​ assertion and justification in ways that were more direct than theatre and performance. Disputation never pretended to be an exchange, and its uneven power dynamic was very different from the types of exchanges that performance made possible. 1 This chapter incorporates sections from my essay “Drama as Disputation in Mantua,” Medieval Encounters 24 (2018): 666–​79. My thanks to Alex Novikoff and Brian Catlos for guidance on that essay.

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The End of Committed Gonzaga Patronage Certainly, one factor in the demise of the Jewish theatrical tradition in Mantua must be traced to the Gonzaga, and to a general weakening of their patronage. When Vincenzo died in 1612, his Dukedom was inherited by his son Francesco IV. He was Vincenzo and Eleanora’s eldest son, and the natural heir to the important seat of power. Francesco was married to Margaret of Savoy, daughter of the Duke of Savoy, and he was already a father of three children by the time he took hold of Mantua and Montferrat. However, this was not to last long. By December 22, 1612, he had died of smallpox. His reign had lasted just under a year. For the artists under his patronage, the brevity of the reign was a devastating blow. Not only had they lost a true patron of the arts in Vincenzo, but Francesco IV had promised to be a fine future financier in his own right. In 1607, Claudio Monteverdi dedicated the opera Orfeo to Francesco, and that gesture signaled not only Monteverdi’s own hopes for the Duke, but the hope of an entire artistic community for this future Duke. Francesco’s untimely death put an end to those hopes, and it meant that the process of securing Ducal, favor and patronage would need to be reignited once again. Artists who had just submitted new requests to Francesco IV now had to prepare to curry favor with his successor. The Jews were especially vulnerable: every time a Jewish artist wanted to perform, he needed protection from the Duke, assurances that he was allowed safe travel to other regions (which included permission not to wear the Jewish badge, if such a permission was granted to him by the previous Duke, in order to ensure safer passage), and funding for projects undertaken in Mantua. All of these permits took time and required a great deal of cooperation from the various middlemen who wrote and returned letters of requests as well as from lesser aristocrats who often worked with the Jews and helped to procure assurances and support from the Duke. There was always the very real possibility that the requests would not be granted and procuring the permits again and again cost time and creative energy. The succeeding Duke Ferdinando, as we have already seen, was a much-​diminished patron of Jewish and other performances when compared with his brother. With his own energies initially focused on his taking the cloth, his patronage was similarly directed towards projects other than theatre-​making. However, even this more diminished patronage was not the only factor leading to the cessation of performance, and, as we have seen with the career of Basilea and other performance-​makers, the Jews did persist in making theatre well into the 1620s. However, in the late 1620s, a devastating unanticipated war would have stark consequences especially for the Jews.

The War of Mantuan Succession and its Devastating Effects

There is no question that the War of Mantuan Succession played a part in the demise of Jewish theatre-​making in Mantua. It brought the Jewish community to its knees, and, ultimately, to exile; it diminished patronage by depleting the coffers of the Gonzagas; and it brought on sack and plague, weakening the cultural fibers of the city that had sustained artistic activity for over a century.

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The War of Mantuan Succession was an offshoot of the Thirty Years’ War, and its history is intertwined with the question of Gonzaga rulers’ succession. For that reason, a short explanation of the problem of lineage is necessary to understand the breakout of the war. By the time the last of the Gonzaga males (Vincenzo II) died in 1627, there were no legitimate male heirs to the Gonzaga Dukedom. The resulting vacuum led to a conflict among different groups, all vying for control of the wealthy and centrally located region. A series of calamitous illnesses, coupled with difficulty securing male heirs, spelled disaster for what had been an otherwise sturdy line of Gonzaga rulers. After the death of the influential Duke and art patron Vincenzo Gonzaga (1612), his son Francesco Gonzaga IV inherited both the throne and the Duchy of Monferrato in Piedmont. Francesco IV’s reign exceedingly short reign—​he died at the age of 26 in the same year as his father, in 1612—​undermined decades of stability. He left two female heirs, neither of whom could inherit the throne; his daughter, Maria of Mantua, was only three years old upon his death. For this reason, he was succeeded by his brothers Ferdinando I (discussed earlier and in the previous chapter) and Vincenzo II, both of whom were cardinals, never intended for marriage or succession. Following Francesco’s death, both Ferdinando I and Vincenzo II left the cloth, although neither managed to leave a legitimate heir before each died equally early deaths, in 1626 and 1627, respectively. After the death of Vincenzo II in 1627, his niece, Maria of Mantua—​who by this point had married Charles de Nevers (oldest son and heir of Duke of Nevers, Rethel and Mayenne, also called Charles)—​sought the Dukedom. Naturally, Charles, Duke of Nevers, saw himself as the rightful heir to the throne.2 This would have meant that Mantua would conform to French interests. However, there were two other claimants to the throne. Maria’s mother, Margaret, widow to Francesco IV, was the daughter of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy. Therefore, the Duke of Savoy claimed he was the rightful heir to a portion of the Dukedom, specifically the Duchy of Montferrat (in the Piedmont region), which had earlier been inherited by a female. He was supported by the Habsburgs, who also controlled Milan. The second claimant was Ferrante II, Duke of Guastalla, who was a distant cousin from Spain. Ferrante II was supported by the head of the powerful Holy Roman Empire, Emperor Ferdinando II. The Emperor’s wife, Eleanor of Mantua, was also a daughter of Vincenzo Duke of Mantua. Hence, a very complicated situation was brought on by these powerful claimants to the throne. At the most devastating point of the Thirty Years’ War for Mantua, Emperor Ferdinando II sent a German army to besiege the city. Charles, Duke of Nevers, lacked the full support promised by Louis XIII of France, and so he left. The siege continued until July 1630. That year, Mantua was further impacted by a plague. Already weakened, Mantua then experienced a three-​day long sack at the hands of mercenary army troops. The troops, known by the German term landsknechte (servants of the land) were led 2 On the War of Mantuan Succession, see Barbara Furlotti and Guido Rebecchini, The Art of Mantua: Power and Patronage in the Renaissance (Los Angeles: Getty, 2008), 258.

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by two Austrian soldiers, Count Aldringen, and Matthias Gallas, in the service of Spain. Gallas’ army was especially infamous for its cruelty. His brutality left its mark on Mantua, which was devastated by the siege and attack. The plunder, which took place on July 18–​20, 1630, had devastating effects: two-​thirds of the residents of Mantua died because of the plague, sack, and violence. In addition, the treasured works of art that the Gonzaga had cultivated for generations were affected. Three years earlier, in 1627, Vincenzo II had sold most of the Gonzaga collection of masterpieces by Titian, Raphael, Mantegna, and others to Charles I of England, where many of these treasures can still be found today. The sack damaged what remained in Mantua.3 As Barbara Furlotti and Guido Rebecchini describe it: “Like vultures, merchants from every city from Emilia and Lombardy converged on Mantua for this feeding frenzy, and for more than a decade, in various places in Italy, one saw sale notices for works of art that had been looted from the ducal palace complex.”4 The Peace of Regensburg (also known as the Treaty of Ratisbonne), signed on October 13, 1630, ended the war, but it also instated Carlo I, Duke of Nevers, as ruler in Mantua. In 1631, a further peace, the Peace of Cherasco, confirmed Carlo I (Charles Gonzaga Nevers) as ruler, with concessions to the other claimants. The city’s population was decimated, down to a quarter of what it had been; some estimates put it at 8,000.5 The Jewish population had been forcibly exiled, and many of these exiles had moved to Venice. It is possible that the war and the forced exile were the drivers for the cessation of theatre-​making. Indeed, by the middle of the seventeenth century, mutual exchange was no longer a reality. The War of Mantuan Succession (1628–​1630), the siege, plague, the exile of the Jews and their diminished state upon being permitted to return in 1630 made the financial burden of the performances impossible. Another factor leading to the demise of theatre came from a different direction altogether. Next, I turn my attention to the internal tensions within the community that resulted in increased self-​ restrictions on the performances. As restrictions grew and performance became was a mere imposition, it ended.

Internal Tensions Within the Jewish Community

Rather than gravitate only towards external explanations for the cessation of theatre in Mantua, we must also consider that the Jewish community had a degree of agency and responsibility for its own fate, and that the cessation of theatre impacted at least in part by internal forces. Simonsohn states that: The last theatrical performance presented by the Jews of Mantua for the Duke, was given in the middle of the seventeenth century. Until that time, the Jews had been very active

3 Silks and tapestries were tipped, paintings stolen, and defaced. See Furlotti and Rebecchini, The Art of Mantua, 258. 4 Furlotti and Rebecchini, The Art of Mantua, 258. 5 Furlotti and Rebecchini, The Art of Mantua, 258.

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in the field of entertainment and amusement in the theatre, and in Purim celebrations. But this later ceased, and what had been permitted, and even desirable, became strictly forbidden. The influence of the ghetto spirit can be felt here, as it conquered and repressed the simple joys of life.6

Notwithstanding Simonsohn’s emphasis on the role of the ghettoization in limiting performances, other factors were also at work. One of these was internal pressure from the Rabbis. Sephardic Rabbis, whose own experience of forced conversions was potent and who may have believed that the theatre encouraged licentiousness, were especially prone to anti-​theatricalism, not least of all because the theatre encouraged men and women to commingle in potentially unchaste ways. A small note in the Jewish archives details a curious prohibition which is relevant in this regard.7 The prohibition was issued during the Carnival of 1649, which just happens to be the year of the last performance by the Università. It prohibits Jews from playing games or gambling (divieto gli ebrei di dedicarsi al gioco) and it prohibits Jewish women from attending comedies at night: “Jewish women are forbidden from attending comedies at night.” (“Divieto … alle donne ebree di assistere alle commedie di notte.”)8 This prohibition is repeated in the “Pragmatica” of 1651, a document the Jews printed in Hebrew and intended as an internal regulation of the community on the part of rabbinical and community leadership (primarily by the massari). Women are “Forbidden to attend theatrical performances,” according to the December 24th Pragmaticas of 1651 and 1652.9 The recurring mention of this prohibition suggests, first, that despite the prohibitions, women continued to attend the theatre, which made it necessary to issue reminders, and, second, that women’s attendance was frowned upon, at least by the forces behind the Pragmaticas. It appears that women’s participation (in attending theatre) had grown conspicuous by the 1640s and 1650s. It also appears that the Rabbis did not approve. This raises the question: did women’s defiant attendance of performances play a role in the community putting an end to the performances? In order to better understand this situation more, and to consider how women’s participation played a role in the bias against such performance, it is helpful to cast a glance eastward, to Venice, in a slightly later period. In Venice, the influential Sephardic Rabbi Shmuel Aboab, known also by his acronym RaSHA (Rabbi Shmuel ben Avraham) left a very clear textual trail indicating an objection to women attending theatre, and, by extension, to theatre-​making among the Jews in general. Aboab’s work is found in the Responsa literature, a body of writing that congregants directed to esteemed Rabbis, asking questions that pertained to the community, religious regulations, and rituals. 6 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 537.

7 This is also noted in Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 536. Simonsohn produces an image of the 1650 Pragmatica. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 540. 8 ADCEM, filza 29, cartella 37, February 20, 1649.

9 ADCEM, filza 30, document 34 for December 24, 1651. See ADCEM, filza 30, doc. 54 for December 29, 1652.

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Rabbi Aboab’s clout emanated from his position as head of the Bet Din ‫( בית דין‬rabbinical court) of Venice. Aboab’s response to a query—​likely made several years before its publication in 1702—​made clear his objection to a plan for creating a theatre in the Venetian Ghetto. He vehemently suggested that the theatre was becoming a negative influence, even a contaminant, within the holy camp of the Ghetto. Aboab’s response was printed and published as Devar Shemuel or the word or saying of Samuel (‫שמואל דבר‬, Venice, 1702). For Aboab, theatre was morally degrading in its association with both idol worshiping and, especially, the fact that women and men would be mixing together and seated side by side.10 In his response, he references the Talmudic prohibition on “theatre and circuses of idol worshipers” in the section Avodah Zarah 18b: ‫אשרי האיש אשר לא הלך לטרטיאות ולקרקסיאות של עובדי כוכבים‬

(Blessed is the man who does not go to theatres or circuses of idol worshipers.)

Aboab’s indictment of the theatre provides a good historic account of a space in which men and women mixed: ‫והאחרון הכביד הקל ארצה עטרת תפארת היהדות בעיר ההיא לבנות ולהקים‬

‫להם בקרב מחנם הקדוש בתי טרט׳אות ובתי קרקס׳אות הקבועות ונאספו שמה‬ …‫אנשים ונשים וטף בנות ישראל הצנועות עם הפרוצות עוברות על דת משה‬11

He [the wealthy funder of the theatre] has further degraded the pride and glory of Judaism in that city [i.e. Venice], by building and establishing permanent theatres and circuses in the midst of the holy camp [i.e. the Jewish quarter], where men and women and children gather. Modest and chaste Jewish young women sit alongside prostitutes who violate the law of Moses.

While it is not conclusive that the Venetian situation was the same as in Mantua, the fact is that, following the War of Mantuan Succession, many Jewish residents of Mantua migrated to Venice, and this was especially true of the Jewish performing residents. Therefore, the Mantuan theatre-​makers must have influenced the Venetian Jewish world, and circumstances in Venice likely played an increasingly large role in the consciousness of Mantuan residents in the middle-​to-​late 1600s. The tragic consequences of this migration were unforeseeable when the Mantuans set off for Venice and eventually took a hand in the artistic work produced in an artistic academy created there. A plague in Venice (1630–​1631) killed off the “ ‘best members’,”12 who were presumably the migrant artists recently arrived from Mantua. The Academy was known as “Accademia degli Impediti” that Harrán describes as: “ ‘of the impeded, 10 See Andreatta “Introduzione,” 87–​8n30 and see my discussion of Aboab in Jaffe-​Berg, “Ebrei and Turchi Performing in Early Modern Venice and Mantua.” Publication is forthcoming.

11 Aboab 1702: She’elah daled (4th question). The spelling of “‫ ”בתי טרט׳אות ובתי קרקס׳אות‬alters the modern Hebrew spelling (‫)בתי תיאטראות וקירקסות‬. Also see Israel Zinberg, “The Orthodox Movement and Its Representatives,” A History of Jewish Literature: Vol. IV, Italian Jewry in the Renaissance Era, trans. Bernard Martin (New York: Ktav), 155–​82, at 177–​78. 12 Harrán, “Madama Europa,” 229.

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in allusion to the unfortunate state of our captivity that impeded the completion of any valorous action.’ ”13 But later, it was known as a compagnia or society, which Harrán suggests was due to the fact that the Academy met regularly. It is interesting that the term compagnia was also how theatrical performers referred to themselves, as in the compagnie delle calze, compagnia dei Gelosi, etc. … Thus, it is possible that, upon the arrival of so many artists from Mantua, where musical, dance, and theatre artists were often one and the same or certainly shared company, the appellation would borrow from theatre—​another instance of the commedia dell’arte and the Jewish theatre being in dialogue with each other. In fact, Elliott Horowitz, based on writing by early modern Jews such as Leone Modena as well as Giulio Morosini (a Jew who had converted to Catholicism), notes the large number of Jewish confraternities, and the fact that they modeled themselves on the Christian confraternities.14 Although there were similarities between theatre-​making in Venice and Mantua, there was also a marked difference in that ghettoization occurred later in Mantua than in Venice. This appears to have had a connection to the fact that in Mantua, the theatre was used as a means of currying favor with the Dukes and that there were fewer internal oppositional voices from the Jewish community itself. In the Venetian instance, and especially following the influx of performers from Mantua following the 1630 expulsion of the Jews from Mantua, the Venetian Jewish community’s self-​censoring and self-​ regulating of the community itself led to a number of dissenting voices opposing theatre-​ making. Ghettoization in Venice, while not fully restrictive of the Jewish-​Christian sharing of performances, did lead to a more sustained culture of Jewish insularity and anti-​theatricalism. The consideration of merrymaking, performance, and the inclusion of women in rituals of all kinds was not universally condemned among all Rabbis in the peninsula. In some periods, women could be members of the confraternities in Rome, Ferrara and elsewhere, allowing them to take an active role in pious works and good deeds.15 Since the confraternities were also groups that created ritual performances, this may have opened the door for women to participate more widely in mimetic activities. Furthermore, some Rabbis, notably Rabbi Judah Mintz, the Ashkenazi Rabbi of Padua in the first half of the sixteenth century, allowed merrymaking, theatre, and even permitted young women and young people to wear masks on Purim—​which was far from the case for all the rabbinical powers.16 In fact, there seems to be a distinction between the Ashkenazi and the Sephardic Rabbis in their approaches to the participation of women in ritual services and in performative activities in general. Allowing women to 13 Harrán, “Madama Europa,” 229.

14 Horowitz, “Processions, Piety, and Jewish Confraternities,” in The Jews of Early Modern Venice, ed. Robert C. Davis and Benjamin Ravid (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 239–​40. 15 On this see Veltri and Ruderman’s publication on confraternities and Horowitz, “Jewish Confraternal Piety in Sixteenth-​century Ferrara.” 16 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 527n95.

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participate more broadly in cultural activities meant that there was a greater inclusivity in terms of cultural activities, such as theatre-​making. Therefore, it also appears that the approaches to theatre-​making may have split along the fault lines of Ashkenazi or Sephardic background. Robert Bonfil makes another point about a growing spirit of “cultural insularity” emanating from a combination of Levantine and Eastern European Jews, whose influence was reflected in the types of writing they embraced. As he argues: Thus, contrary to common opinion, Jewish cultural insularity was a consequence not of the ghetto situation but rather of a strong ideological inspiration coming from the backward East. It is indeed symptomatic that very few works written by Jewish authors in Italy were rooted in the specifically Italian context. Most of the books published in Italy, particularly in Venice, were authored by Levantine or East European Jews, and, as already noted, they mostly belonged to the Talmudic sphere. As a result, most of the printed literary production circulating among the Jews all over the diaspora at the dawn of the modern era carried a strongly medieval stamp and persevered in a deeply outdated discourse.17

Bonfil paints a revisionist idea of Jewish culture in which isolationism and insularity characterized the Jewish culture during the sixteenth century. But this, by the late sixteenth century, was shifting, as the spirit of Talmudism mixed more and more with Kabbalism in Venice.18 As Bonfil relates, the introduction of Talmudism into the synagogue meant that Talmudic discourse was no longer found in the all-​male yeshivas (or seminaries) but became part of the mixed-​gendered context of the synagogue.19 Many, including Aboab, found this threatening and alarming. Increasingly, too, Christian influences, confraternities, theatrical performances, and music were gaining popularity among the Jews, leading to “a peculiarly Jewish response to the demands of growing secularism in western Europe.”20 The growing heterogeneity of the Jewish community, with the influx of Eastern European, Levantine and Sephardic Jews, created increased tensions among Italian Jewish communities, where different cultural groups within the community as a whole varied in their response to the cultural expressions of theatre, music, and study.21 Clearly, this mixing resulted in mounting pressures, and internal conflict resulted in a backlash against what were perceived as growing assimilationist tendencies. Thus was created what Bonfil terms the “gendered splitting of cultural space,” in which women were perceived and made to be inferior to men in terms of the sphere they occupied in synagogue, home, and yeshiva (where they were not present). Until, “finally, young women were totally excluded from the yeshiva, which was by definition not only an institution for the learning of Talmud but also a 17 Bonfil, “A Cultural Profile,” 183–​84. 18 Bonfil, “A Cultural Profile,” 187. 19 Bonfil, “A Cultural Profile,” 187. 20 Bonfil, “A Cultural Profile,” 189.

21 On the heterogenous spaces, see Bonfil, Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy, 185–​87.

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completely male space.”22 While exceptions could be found, the increasingly exclusive male insularity prevailed.23 This resonates with De’ Sommi’s stipulations regarding the exceptionality of women performing if they are of high status, far removed from quotidian life. Thereby, we see how the negotiation of gender separation in the religious sphere had its parallel in the cultural sphere, in the loosening of separations between women and men. Ultimately, the opinions of conservative Rabbis such as Aboab prevailed in Mantua. The end of the performance tradition signaled the end of a degree of cultural exchange. If we think back to all that the exchange had meant—​acceptance, more than just a commodity, a type of gifting—​then the complex relationship embedded in the performance as exchange (albeit at times onerous and taxing) ended with the cessation of performance. The Jewish Ghetto was ever-​more closed after 1650. The Jews signaled to the Gonzaga and the Christian community that they no longer wanted all that had come with the exchange, that they preferred the monetary delivery of taxes rather than the symbolic communication of other things hoped for: acceptance, communication, touch. The Gonzaga acknowledged the same on their part. The communities would now live an increasingly solitary existence. The seventeenth century marked a turbulent time for the Jews inside and outside Italy, and while there were many positive points of security and safekeeping of Jews at this time, there were moments in which violence bubbled to the surface and resulted in harm to and significant unease for the Jewish communities. Early in the century, as I have already shown, the shocking burning of eighty-​year-​old Giuditta Franchetti, accused of witchcraft, signaled the precarious state of Jews in the region. Just a few decades later, the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648 (marked by the Peace of Westphalia) led to the emergence of another wave of fervent Protestant anti-​theatricalism in Germany, which may have also had its effects in Italy. While there was tremendous cultural sharing between Jewish and Christian communities, this sharing was not without controversy, many Jews opposed the transferal of such knowledge. Many secular ideas were being assimilated within the Jewish cultural sphere, but there was also an internal resistance from the community. The cessation of the performances reflected the Jewish community’s state. Simonsohn writes that it appears that the performance had become a burden for the community and was no longer something done willingly.24 Soon after, Jews stopped performing at all in Mantua, and staging productions became forbidden for Jews in the community, who were barred from attending theatre or even performing at the Jewish holiday of Purim, during which Jews were traditionally encouraged to put on plays.25 Thus, the cessation 22 Bonfil, “A Cultural Profile,” 174. 23 Bonfil, “A Cultural Profile,” 175.

24 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 16. Simonsohn takes this information again from the Jewish archival sources in Mantua. 25 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 16.

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of theatre appears to be reciprocal. The community either communicated to the ruler (in how they performed) that they no longer wanted to do so, or they internalized the change and prohibited it themselves. The insularity that Jews had emerged from was now increasingly felt again in the middle of the seventeenth century. And when, occasionally, the youth in the community petitioned the elders to be allowed to perform, this enthusiasm was quickly squelched.26 As I have stated elsewhere, it is interesting that the end of the performance tradition meant the beginning of a new tradition: that of disputation, which began in Mantua, where it had never taken root before.27 As Simonsohn puts it: “In Mantua itself there were no public debates. We know of no polemical work or apologia written here before the latter half of the seventeenth century.”28 Disputation, in which Jews defended their own religious beliefs, is a very different form of cultural exchange compared to theatre-​ making. While both have a performative element to them, theatre-​making, as I explore it in this book, relies on a great deal of mutual respect and interaction that places the Jewish and Christian communities almost at eye level with each other. Disputation, on the other hand, is both combative and has a putative dimension that automatically puts the Jew in a defensive position. The fact that disputation appears to have been initiated by the Jews themselves, as an alternative to theatrical exchange, speaks volumes about their desire to withdraw from intercultural exchange to greater insularity and separation. It also says much about the increasing power of Rabbis, many of whom were of converso origin and took a more reactionary tack to leading their communities. The end of theatre in Mantua was, therefore, also a consequence of the tumultuous waves of migration and displacement of Ashkenazi Jews, the turbulence of Messianic Judaism, and the growing preoccupation of both the Jewish and Christian populations with disputation as a form of cultural deliberation, if not exchange. Simonsohn notes that Rabbi Judah Briel “renews the tradition” of disputation in Mantua towards the end of the seventeenth century.29 This, of course, roughly corresponds to the period of cessation of the performances. There had been Mantuan residents who took part in disputations, but when they did, it was outside of Mantuan domains. One famous example is that of Rabbi Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol (b. 1451 Avignon–​1525 Ferrara), who resided in Mantua for some years and did hold many debates.30 However, these debates were always held in Ferrara, under the domain of 26 There were attempts in 1729, 1757, and 1779 to perform plays. The Jewish community resisted these petitions, except in 1729 and 1757, when performances did take place. However, the 1757 performance was only allowed on condition that only Jewish community members be allowed to see it, a marked departure from the free and open mode of performance as exchange earlier in previous centuries. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 16. 27 See Jaffe-​Berg, “Drama as Disputation in Mantua.” 28 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 639.

29 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 639. I discuss this in “Drama as Disputation in Mantua,” 679. 30 See Jaffe-​Berg, “Drama as Disputation,” 668.

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the Este family. Farissol is important to consider within the context of disputation for a few reasons. First, he was a major defender of Judaism within disputations. Second, he was frequently in Mantua, and, therefore, could potentially have disputed there, but never did. This underscores the fact that Mantua was not a place that encouraged this type of exchange. Last, there are aspects of Farissol’s Jewish profile that bear strong resemblance to that of Leone de’ Sommi, as both were heavily steeped in the world of Jewish texts, both represented the Jewish community and frequently held leadership positions within it, and, finally, both also engaged in artistic vocations—​one being a musician, and the other a playwright and director. Interestingly, when Farissol first resided in Mantua, he and his father promoted themselves as musicians, and Farissol called himself a menagen (player of music).31 By 1475, when he was heading the Jewish congregation of Ferrara, he became known as the community’s official hazan (cantor).32 Menagen is an ambiguous term, and David Ruderman suggests that the Hebrew word, which literally means “player of music,” could be taken to be a player of musical instruments, but could also refer to a cantor.33 The distinction is relevant because it reflects Farissol’s desire to publicize the fact that he could play an instrument. Instrument-​playing would have been undertaken outside of the synagogue, or in a secular context, and so, it may indicate that Farissol was open to interacting with non-​Jews as well as Jews. In a time in which the performing arts were in high demand in this region of Northern Italy, to be known as one who played an instrument was important in potentially being hired for performances, weddings, and other festivities—​by Jews, but also by non-​Jews. For a family newly arrived to the area, with relatively limited financial means, the Farissols it seems were eager to make visible their various abilities. David Ruderman points out that the end of the fifteenth century marked “the very close of intense Jewish-​Christian disputation,” when most arguments made by Christians had already been answered by Jewish interlocutors.34 Ruderman adds: Yet even in Italy, public debates between Jews and Christians still represented an integral part of Jewish-​Christian relationships in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Quite often, they became an entertaining pastime for Italian dukes and their courts, who enjoyed the colorful spectacle of religious confrontations between learned Christians and Jews.35

Notable here is the fact that disputations had a life even in the tolerant context of Italy, and, furthermore, that they were seen as a form of entertainment. This point will become especially relevant as we consider the entertainment of drama as a context for 31 David B. Ruderman, The World of a Renaissance Jew: The Life and Thought of Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1981), 13, 19. 32 Ruderman, The World of a Renaissance Jew, 13, 19. 33 Ruderman, The World of a Renaissance Jew, 13, 19. 34 Ruderman, The World of a Renaissance Jew, 57. 35 Ruderman, The World of a Renaissance Jew, 57.

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disputation. However, none of the disputations took place in Mantua, but rather at the Ferrarese court. Born in Avignon, Farissol moved to Mantua with his father, residing there by 1470. Over the next few years, Farissol moved between Mantua and Ferrara, serving the Jewish community. He made a living copying Hebrew manuscripts and serving as a musician and a cantor and taking part in many disputations.36 As Ruderman explains: “Farissol engaged in a series of debates on the respective merits of Judaism and Christianity” frequently, and with different interlocutors.37 Famously, under the Duke Ercole, I, Farissol partook in disputation in which: [He] represented the Jewish side in a debate with Christian monks. In the wake of the debate, Farissol wrote the work “Magen Avraham”, or “Vikuah Hadat”, of which only sections were printed. Farissol’s main work, “Igeret Orhot Olam”, a geographical treatise, was printed a few times, and even translated into Latin. The other works of Farissol in print and manuscript are: sermons; explanatory notes on Ethics of the Fathers; letters; and an index to A Guide of the Perplexed.38

Yet, while Farissol was an active debater and a frequent visitor to and resident of Mantua, he never debated in that city ruled by the Gonzaga—​only in Ferrara, under the Este family. In fact, Simonsohn emphasizes that: “[t]‌he Jewish Scholars of Mantua contributed little to polemic literature and Jewish apologetics, whose main purpose was to defend Judaism and the Jews from Christian attack.”39

Mantuan Theatre as a Forum for Debate and Exchange

Disputations in the Middle Ages took place in university settings, and often, under the auspices of the ruling classes and the wealthy.40 In Ruderman’s words, they could be seen as providing their audience with an intellectual entertainment. But that was not the only forum for debate and exchange. Jody Enders, Alex J. Novikoff, and Carol Symes have argued for the relevance of theatre as a component of the public sphere and a basis for exchanges of ideas and dynamic debate.41 In arguing for a medieval public 36 A detailed account of Farissol’s life is found in Ruderman, The World of a Renaissance Jew. On Farissol’s early life in Mantua, see 12–​13. On his continued visits and work in Mantua, see 18. Also, see: Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 707. 37 Ruderman, The World of a Renaissance Jew, 57. 38 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 707. 39 Simonson, History of the Jews, 639.

40 More on the Scholastic environment can be found in Weijers, A Scholar’s Paradise: Teaching and Debating in Medieval Paris. Vol. 2 of Studies in the Faculty of Arts. History and Influence Series (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015). A detailed discussion of disputations and the Quaestiones as a central component of pedagogy is found in Jody Enders, The Medieval Theater of Cruelty: Rhetoric, Memory, Violence (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999), 42–​43. 41 Theatre could often host disputation. Such is the case with the Latin mystery play Ordo Prophetarum and German Ludos de Antichristo (twelfth century) and other twelfth-​ and thirteenth-​century



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sphere, Symes takes up Habermas’ notion of a public sphere of interaction, debate, and exchange, which he applies to modernity and extends to an earlier period.42 In doing so, Symes argues for the importance of theatre in playing a “larger role in medieval public life” using the medieval city of Arras in France as her specific example.43 As she shows, theatre, exercised in the open, public spaces of medieval Arras, was a means of exchanging information, asserting opinions, and negotiating conflicts.44 Similarly, Novikoff has suggested that “[t]‌he role of theatrical activity in public life during these decades provides a useful counterpoint to developments within learned circles.”45 Also writing about an earlier period, Novikoff states that: “Performance practice in the thirteenth century was not merely a mirror of society but a social and political sphere that engendered the exchange of information and ideas and served as a vibrant medium for debate, deliberation and dispute.”46 Enders demonstrates the power of theatre to rehearse arguments that could otherwise be made in the setting of a formal debate or disputation. In Death by Drama and Other Medieval Urban Legends, Enders examines the role of theatre in perpetuating anti-​Semitic beliefs that originated in a thirteenth-​century Parisian legend by tracing the legend’s afterlife through the creation of a fifteenth-​century play (Sainte Hostie) about the desecration of the host. Not only did theatre provide a forum for arguments against Jews, Enders shows, but, because the legend could be enacted as truth before an audience, theatre proved a tremendously powerful vehicle in convincing the audience of the veracity of the legend itself. As Enders puts it: “[t]‌he old anti-​Semitic legend seemed more real because of theater.”47 Or, as she titles her subsequent chapter: “[s] eeing is believing.”48 Just as medieval France and England encouraged debates in an open, public way, Italy, often overlooked in terms of medieval drama, serves as an important example for the creation of theatre as a space for the exchange of ideas and debates about Christian religious drama pitted Jew/​Christian in a disputation. (See “Disputation,” in the Jewish Virtual Library, www.jewis​hvir​tual​libr​ary.org.) In these plays, Ecclesia and Synagoga were pitted against one and other within an argument about the superiority of Judaism or Christianity. 42 Carol Symes, “Out in the Open, in Arras: Sightlines, Soundscapes, and the Shape of a Medieval Public Sphere,” in Cities, Texts and Social Networks, 400–​1500: Experiences and Perceptions of Medieval Urban Space, ed. Caroline Goodson, Anne E. Lester, and Carol Symes (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010), 280–​81.

43 Carol Symes, A Common Stage: Theater and Public Life in Medieval Arras (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007), 2. 44 Symes, A Common Stage, 3.

45 Alex J. Novikoff, The Medieval Culture of Disputation: Pedagogy, Practice, and Performance (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 144. 46 Novikoff, The Medieval Culture of Disputation, 144.

47 Jody Enders, Death by Drama and Other Medieval Urban Legends (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 120. 48 Enders, Death by Drama, 156.

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religion.49 In Mantua, beginning in the early sixteenth century, but possibly even in the late fifteenth century, it was not the Christian religious drama that staged Jewish and Christian debates. The Jewish community itself staged and performed dramas, some of which encompassed Jewish and Christian debate. However, this was done on Jewish terms and from a Jewish perspective, and, on one occasion, in Hebrew. It may be said that the very fact that Jews participated in theatre-​making at all was itself a kind of staged counter-​disputation aimed against the denigration of Jews. The end of the performance tradition certainly left a vacuum. Theatrical exchange had meant that there was a secular space for the public exchange of ideas, be they among the Jews or between the Jewish and Christian communities. It had also meant a degree of acceptance on the part of both communities that such bridges could be constructed. The complex relationship embedded in the performance as exchange ended with the cessation of theatrical performances. The Jewish Ghetto (constructed in the wake of the Counter-​Reformation in 1612) was increasingly restricted after 1650. There is an almost astonishing correlation between the end of theatre and the beginning of a tradition of disputation in Mantua. When we least expect it, towards the end of the seventeenth century, well after the medieval tradition should have been dead and buried, in Mantua, strange embers of exchange began to flicker with the re-​appearance of disputations. Simonsohn notes that “Rabbi Judah Briel renews the tradition of polemical literature here.”50 Among Briel’s writings are criticisms of the Gospels, responses to anti-​ Jewish works, defenses against attacks of various Christian theologians, and discussions of the Christian belief in miracles.51 Briel’s legacy was then taken up by his various students, creating a continuous tradition of disputation in Mantua well after the period of theatrical activity had ended. Therefore, it appears that in Mantua, disputation began when theatre ended. That is, when there was no longer an outlet for interaction and exchange in public venues, communication among the religious communities was only enabled only by the putative frame of the disputation.

A Coda: Theatre and Conversion

There is one other reason why the Jews themselves may have stopped the long-​enduring and beneficial enterprise of theatre-​making. This is a painfully poignant possibility, and it speaks to the larger forces of religion and power that have hovered over the happy industry of theatre-​making all the while and that speak to the coercive nature of minority members’ existence and of the pressure to assimilate. In 1606 Federico Follino writes to Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga about a young Jewish boy, “Melet Ebreo, il putto” 49 On the tendency to overlook Italian medieval theatre, see Sticca, “Italy: liturgy and Christocentric Spirituality,” in The Theatre of Medieval Europe: New Research in Early Drama, ed. Eckehard Simon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991). 50 See Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 639. He lists Briel’s biography on 698–​99. 51 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 639.

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Figure 10. Letter regarding Melet, Ebreo. ASMn, AG 2705 fasc. 8 c. 4 tif.

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Figure 11. Image of “Aron ha-​Kodesh,” or the Arc, at the main synagogue of Mantua, Via Govì, Mantua. (Image taken by author.)

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(Melet, the Jew, a young child), who had a fight with and was struck by another Jewish boy named Daniel Ricchi (fu percosse da esso Ricchi) (see Figure 10).52 Follino shelters Melet, whom he tells Vincenzo, would otherwise be harassed and hurt by this other boy, Daniel. Follino explains his interest in Melet in that the boy recited so well in the play (“il putto così fatto che recita con tanta gala in comedia”). In fact, Follino takes Melet to his own home, an unusually personal interest and a determined action. It does bring to question the degree to which Follino took liberty with this Jewish boy. Where were the boy’s parents? The massari? Was his interest purely to “save” Melet from a brawl with another boy? How dangerous could that have possibly been? A few years later, as Burattelli notes, Follino advocates for another Jew, this time another participant in the performances staged for the Carnival of 1608, a converted Jew named Francesco Renato “l’ebreo convertito” (the converted Jewish).53 Placed together, these two archival anecdotes give an uneasy sense that, set against the heated zeal of the Counter-​Reformation, the performances may have been used as a means of converting younger performers to Catholicism. It is impossible to conclusively know what was Follino’s interest in either Melet or Francesco, the Jews, and his interest may have been purely artistic and protective. However, one wonders if these boys were not the only ones to come quite literally under the influence of Follino or others who may have had a personal interest in them and an impact on their religious convictions.

52 ASMn, AG, b. 2705 fol. II.8 The letter is from July 15, 1606. Burattelli also refers to this case on 155 and 127n47. 53 Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 127n47.

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Chapter 7

CONCLUSION

I am more convinced than ever that Jewish Mantua’s contribution to learning and the arts, to the sciences and literature and to most other fields of cultural interest, was overwhelming in comparison to that of most other Jewish communities in the later Middle ages and early Modern times … compared to other Jewish Italian communities, the contrast is striking. Sicilian Jewry, which numbered between 25,000 and 30,000 on the eve of the expulsion, or twenty to thirty times the figure for Mantua, did not produce over the millennium of its existence a fraction of the cultural treasure that Mantuan Jewry did.1 Shlomo Simonsohn Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 27.12

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations created the first-​ever declaration of human rights, adopted as Resolution 217. In it, article 27.1 define the arts as a human right. For the question of theatre-​making by underrepresented groups in the early modern age, we have seen that theatre existed on an elastic and ever-​expansive spectrum, including both celebration and exchange as well as burdensome taxation. Jews, but not only Jews, used theatre-​making as a means of gaining access to audiences they otherwise could not have reached, participating in cultural spaces that increased their own human rights while bringing fame, recognition, and free entertainment to their patrons. Simonsohn’s look back at research he conducted decades ago reflects a scholar in awe of an historic situation that was distinctive and surprising. He notes the surprising ability of such a small community to impact so much cultural production, as compared with similar communities of Jews living elsewhere. There was something powerful in the Jews of Mantuan Jew’s theatre-​making efforts because they occurred in an area that was at the crux of so much artistic production and theatrical innovation. This subject compels a closer look, which is what I have attempted to do in this book. The questions this book concerns itself with have to do with what happens when the Jew of Mantua, who is both of the Mantuan citizenry and not, performs, participating in representation. What happens when he performs in Gonzaga weddings? And when he performs in Christian homes during Carnival? And when he is showcased in front of visiting dignitaries? Georg Simmel writes that “the stranger” enables conversations that would otherwise not be possible between two non-​strangers. Is that how theatrical performance also functioned in Mantua at this time? Is that what Judith’s 1 Simonsohn, “Savants and Scholars in Jewish Mantua.”

2 (www.un.org/​en/​univer​sal-​decl​arat​ion-​human-​rig​hts). Accessed on November 21, 2018.

162

162 Conclusion and Holofernes’ performance in Pesaro was? What of Carnival performances based on well-​known Italian plays? Were these provocative in certain ways? When De’ Sommi wrote the Dialoghi, he was partaking in the summation and dissection of Italian theatre and offering a “how to” manual to the establishment itself. When he asks for a stable space for presenting theatre he is overstepping, it seems. But what happens when De’ Sommi presents Three Sisters (which has some criticisms of the social policy of forced marriages)? What happens when Basilea, as a Jew, takes on the controversial role of the buffo who ventriloquizes various voices, a performative trope associated with the buffoni and the commedia dell’arte characters but also relates to the Jewish tradition of the Leitzin or Badchan? What happens to the Jewish community itself when the first Hebrew play is created? At the heart of all these questions is a bigger one: what were the Jews hoping to achieve through performance? Was it acceptance, economic acknowledgement, and support? Performance can serve as an exchange—​one that has been received, acknowledged, and accepted. This may have been what was happening when the Jews performed as part of a delegation and were invited to put on a performance or hosted. In these instances, the Gonzaga dukes were acknowledging that this religious and cultural minority, was on some level, worthy of inclusion. In that sense, the Jews were not merely providing a service, nor were they only supplying something that was demanded of them, although that was surely part of it. In this book, I have considered the complex tradition of Jewish theatre-​making in Mantua in terms of its development and influence from the Pesaro traditions of the late fifteenth century until the tradition’s cessation in the middle of the seventeenth century. I have shown how consistent, capacious, and influential Jewish theatre-​making in Mantua was during these years. In so doing, I highlighted the work of Leone De’ Sommi, presenting some new materials about De’ Sommi himself (such as the dialogues with the nursemaid and child), providing more attention to his bilingual poem “Magen Nashim,” and paying close attention to information about his journey to Piedmont. At the same time, I have given Shlumiel Basilea his due as the famous actor that he was. Additionally, I have contextualized the other theatre-​makers (Tsarfati, Sullam, etc.) who were influential community organizers, theatre directors, choreographers, and play producers. In addition, I have highlighted the presence of women as part of the production effort of the Jewish community as a whole. Their work, though “hidden,” was not insignificant, and a consideration of their contribution rounds out our understanding of theatre-​making as a communal enterprise. Part of Jewish theatre-​making involved the transformation of the Jews into professional, hired “contractors.” Thereby, like their Christian counterparts active in the commedia dell’arte, the Jews were professionalizing themselves within the budding industry of theatre-​making. This book reflected on the ways this professionalization occurred, through acting, directing, writing, but also through stage craft and costuming, especially since these were essential elements of performance during a time of great theatrical innovations. To accomplish this research, I have brought together Jewish studies scholarship and theatre scholarship, and I have drawn on the Jewish Community Archives to a

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greater extent than had been possible before, bringing those together with materials found in the Mantuan State Archives, as well as in other regional archives. My hope is that this book offers an answer to Siro Ferrone’s call for a study of the ways in which Jews have contributed to theatre-​making in the entirety of the peninsula, including the non-​Jewish theatre-​makers of the commedia dell’arte, for example. Finally, rather than considering the Jews only in relation to the Christians, I have provided greater information about the internal complexities of the Jewish community, especially in terms of their heterogeneous cultural origin (as Italiani, Ashkeanzim and Sepharadim), as it conditioned responses and attitudes towards theatre. In so doing, I have drawn on Jewish studies as well as theatre studies, bringing together these disparate fields which normally do not participate discursively with one another. Therefore, I end by taking my cues from studies of the commedia dell’arte and considering those in relation to the Jewish Mantuan theatre-​makers. Much has been written about the ways in which the sixteenth-​century performers of commedia dell’arte had to serve two publics: an aristocratic, courtly circle of patrons, providing the actors with passports and letters making international travel possible, and a plebeian public that could be assembled at a moment’s notice and provide an audience and money for the nomadic actors. Siro Ferrone, who has studied the itinerant comici for the better part of three decades recently put it best: In order to survive, professional comici had to appeal to two sets of audiences: on the one hand the aristocratic patrons, who guaranteed significant profits and protection; on the other hand, a growing audience alien to court life and indifferent to the themes and symbols of high culture.3

Not so differently, the Jews of Mantua also had to survive by appealing to two audiences: Jewish and Christian. As Yair Liphshitz deciphers the many cultures at work in De’ Sommi’s Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin, The play’s intertextualities reveal a multilayered drama of voices and texts encountering one another: Jewish textual tradition is conjoined with Italian theatrical culture into “double-​voiced” performative moments; the Purimic parodies are put in conflict with Jewish canon; and even the Aramaic of the Talmud is put in dramatic opposition to the Hebrew of the Bible.4

And as Beecher and Ciavolella ruminate,

The currents of influence flowed both ways. Jews were influenced by the secular and Christian drama as much as they may have contributed to the broader Italian performance tradition. We can only imagine how the companies must have watched one another and vied with one another for the competitive edge that would guarantee sustained popularity.5

3 Siro Ferrone, “Journeys,” in Commedia dell’arte in Context, ed. Christopher B. Balme, Piermario Vescovo, and Daniele Vianello (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 68. 4 Lipshitz, “Performance as Profanation,” 147.

5 Beecher, “Introduction: ‘Erudite’ Comedy in Renaissance Italy,” 14.

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164 Conclusion The ways in which the Jews and Christians coexisted and mutually impacted one another is an important legacy to consider, stemming from the unusual and extraordinary theatre history chapter of Jewish theatre-​making in Mantua. From out of the shadows emerges a picture of a very productive community that used the creative arts, for a century and a half, to forge a bridge, a dialogue, and a connection with the larger community around them.

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Appendix 1

TRANSLATION OF DESCRIPTION OF JEWISH PERFORMANCE IN PESARO IN 1475

In this came also to present the Universita of the Jews of Pesaro who came as the decorated livery beautiful and ornate to represent the Queen of Sheba when she came to visit and present Salomon with this visible[?]‌order sent as a first quantigio? various children [or cherubs] two by two with new clothing of people and spoke in the Arabic style with date palms in the hands. Then came a large elephant, bigger than a large ox with a muzzle and with teeth so well hidden that they almost seemed real and one couldn’t see [??] legs of the men who were in the elephant that it is impossible to write of this in detail for those who did not see the amazing artifice that was created. And at the top of this elephant was a golden chair in which was seated a Jewish woman with a crown as a Queen dressed in gold and behind her two more elephants who looked similar. On them was a tower with flags on it and the Queen’s ladies in waiting. In questo ven ne anche a presentare la Universi ta delli giudei di pesaro Li quale ve(n) nero cum la infrascripta liurea bella & ornatissima representan do la regina Sabba quanto ven ne a visitare & (a) presentare a Sala mone cum questo ordine videlic … Eniva un prima quantigio vari & putti a dui a dui cum

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166 Appendix 1 cum novi habiti di persone & dit (ques) l’ta alla arabescha, cum palma ve(n) di datteri in mano. Poi veniva uno Elephante maggiore assai che uno grande boue col muso & colli denti si ben contrafatto che quasi pareve vero ne si vedea ch(e) il portasse ançi dasi medesimo siue dea caminare si bene erano comp ate le gambe delli homini che erano dentro cum quello dello e lephante che impossibile faria a scrivere chi non la vesse veduto el mirabile arteficio detto. E(t) rop(sopra) questo elephant era una sedìa doro. Et in questa sedia sedea u na donna ebrea coronata in forma di Regina vestita doro & drieto allei venieno dui altri elephanti simili: sopra li quali era uno ca stello cum torre & bandiere pie no di damiselle di quella Regina.1

1 Consulted at the Vatican Library and also available digitally at digi.vattib.it Mss Urb.Lat.899 on 86r.

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Appendix 2

JEWISH PERFORMANCES IN MANTUA

Appendix of materials related to performances by Jews, massari, writers, Jewish musicians and actors: Date

Performance Occasion

Participants

Notable Events and Information

1489

Judith and Holofernes Performance in Pesaro for the Marriage of Maddalena Gonzaga

Jews of Pesaro1

Maddalena is the sister of Marquis Francesco Gonzaga

Salamone & Jacopo, ebrei

Mario Equila, Federico Gonzaga’s secretary to Duke of Ferrara requesting the two Jewish performers2

1475

Performance of Jews

1520

Accession of Federico Gonzaga

1525

Performances

February 24, 1525

Carnival

Jews of Pesaro

Guglielmo da Pesaro choreographs. Illustrated book in the Vatican Library

Based on works by Jewish writers3

Comedy at the house of the children of Sir Zoanne, recited by Jews and based on their own composition. Letter by Vincenzo de’ Preti, court secretary to Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua4

1 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 14.

2 Iain Fenlon, Music and Patronage, 40–​41; Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange,” 397, see n36 for clarification of Fenlon; and Cecil Roth suggests that the two actors were Solomon and Jacob, Salamone e Jacopo, ebrei. Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance, 248.

3 Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange,” 397; Fenlon, Music and Patronage, 40–​41; and Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance, 248. 4 Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange,” 397n38, 412 citing ASMn, AG, b. 2506, c. 267, also published in D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, 2: 398.

168

168 Appendix 2 1549

1550

1554

a play by ebrei for marriage of Duke Francesco and Caterina, niece of Emperor Charles V and daughter of Ferdinand, King of Romans5

Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta written by Deqiddushin (A Comedy of Yehudah and Betrothal) attributed to Leone de’ Sommi6

First Hebrew play printed by Meshullam Sullam.7 There is mention of “Magen Nashim” in the play

spectacle with stage machines “commedia”

Expenditures were 574.10.3 Mantuan Lire, costly. Spending for the Commedia and costumes9

Magen Nashim

1563

Quattro dialoghi in material di rappresentazioni scheniche

1563

I Suppositi by Ludovico Ariosto presented by ebrei for visit to Mantua of Austrian Archdukes Rudolf and Ernest11

Jacob Sullam and Samuel Shalit served as directors (massari)8

ebrei

Bilingual poem of fifty stanzas by De’ Sommi in Hebrew/​Italian

Treatise on directing by De’ Sommi10

5 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 14; D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, 401–​2; Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 657. 6 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 7. Leone de’ Sommi’s patron was Cesare Gonzaga of Guastalla (Count of Guastalla from 1557–​1575). His son was Ferrante, and he also patronized him, asking in 1580 that Guglielmo exempt him from the Jewish badge. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 660. 7 Beecher and Ciavolella, 7.

8 See Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 657. 9 See Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 657.

10 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 8.

11 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 657 and D’Ancona. Also, see Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 15.

169

Appendix 2

1567

April 17 Francesco Gonzaga, Count of Novellara writes to Castellano di Mantova

1568

Carnival, Le due fulvie by Mantuan playwright Massimo Faroni performed by the ebrei.14 Performed for Carnival on February 13, 156815

1569

1569

Along with the Jews, Bernardo Tasso (father of Torquato) took part in the preparations16

Daniel ben Abraham Dall’Arpa takes part in commedia

169

Petition for a room to showcase performances in Mantua.12 In d’Ancona’s narration of Francesco Gonzaga’s request on behalf of Leone, it was “perche intende di accomodare una stanza, nella quale comodam.te et honestam. te potranno stare e gentilhomini e gentildonne a vedere recitare Comedie”13

He also apparently forged a signature on two monetary notes to another Jew, and was punished (jailed) for this, but released on 300 Lire bail so that he could participate. He is son of harpist17 Pope Pius V expels Jews from Papal territories. Jews flood North18

12 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 12.

13 D’Ancona, Origini del Teatro Italiano, 404. D’Ancona differentiates between a request for a “sala” which would be found in a palace and a stanza which would be equivalent to the spaces used by professional actors, often in a private place. 14 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 657.

15 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 15. Also, d’Ancona, Origini del Teatro Italiano, 402 where he writes the Ducal secretary Luigi Rogna on February 13 noted this. “Vanno gli hebrei imparando la Comedia, nel qual negotio si trova impiegato il Sig.r Tasso: si reciterà la sera di Carnevale, et è intitolata le due Fulvie: comedia nuova del Farone, approbata dall’ Accademia.” Noted in d’Ancona’s Origini del teatro in Italia, 2:1877, 226. 16 Simonsohn, History of the Jews 657 and ASMn, AG, 13.2.1568. 17 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 658.

18 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 12.

170

170 Appendix 2 1574 or 1575

1575

1575

1575?

I doni (lost play by De’ Sommi, a pastoral fable)

performed in these years to commemorate the death of Cesare Gonzaga. It had musical interludes19

I Doni, a pastoral-​heroic fable by de Sommi composed on the death of patron, Cesare Gonzaga20 Gli Sconosciuti, a comedy in prose by Leone de’ Sommi, Burned in Turin fire21

Death of Cesare Gonzaga, Count of Guastalla, patron of De’ Sommi and creator of the Accadmia degli Invaghiti. Father of Ferrante II La Drusilla

Simonsohn says in margins of play are notes in Hebrew.22 Performed before Dukes of Mantua, Ferrara, and Parma and other princes. Giaches de Wert, the famous composer composed music for the Intermedi Amor e Psiche designed to accompany Gli Sconosciuti23

Dedicated to Cesare Gonzaga and written for the Accademia degli Invaghiti and produced roughly around 1575

A lost play24

19 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 15. 20 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 658.

21 D’Ancona cites all the plays in Origini del Teatro Italiano, 404.

22 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 658, and in notes 277 and 278, he refers to publication by Peyron and Pegna, among others … in which perhaps the details of the margin notes were found. 23 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 15. 24 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 15.

171

Appendix 2

1576 February 7, 1577 1581

Ebrei mount a lavish version of Le due fulvie by Massimo Faroni for visit of Maximilan of Austria28

D’Ancona writes that the production was actually I Sospetti29

1581 Carnival, 1582

La fortunata by De’ Sommi staged for first time in 158130

Isach dansra26 hebreo (Isaac the Jewish dancer)

171

Papal emissary of Gregory XII arrives in Mantua to work on a compromise to the bull Cum nimis …25

Indication that he is massari for the universita27

They had already performed this for the Carnival of 1568, suggesting they had a repertoire of plays and productions and knowledge of how to produce them

Jews present the tragedy Selene by Gimabattista Giraldi.31

“A Mantuan writing to Giraldi’s patron Alfonso II reported that although Duke Guglielmo did not like the play … ‘the scenery was splendid and the intermezzi most beautiful’ ”32

25 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 13. 26 Likely, this is an abbreviation for dansatore or danzatore. 27 ADCEM, filza 1, cartella 43.

28 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 15.

29 D’Ancona, “Il teatro Mantovano nel sec. XVI,” Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 5 (1885): 1–79 at 48. 30 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 16. 31 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 16. 32 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 16.

172

172 Appendix 2 1582

20 Gennaio 1582 1582 1583

Vincenzo requested a play by the Jews at his own expense for his birthday in August. This is De’ Sommi’s Il giannizzero33 description of costumes for the commedia (possibly the same as above) De’ Sommi’s Il Giannizzero, comedy in prose for Carnival

“Nota relative alla descrizione dei costume per attori della ‘commedia’ [I think it is for Caro’s gli straccioni or Selene]”34

They were scheduled to perform a tragedy by Muzio Manfredi for Carnival but instead performed Annibal Caro’s Gli straccioni (the scruffy scoundrels)35

That year De’ Sommi was asked to write intermezzi for Bernardo Pino de Cagli’s Gli Ingiusti Sdegni36 Jews also performed Gli Ingiusti Sdegni in Parma. Isacchino Massarano, the choreographer arranged the dances for this37

33 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 16. 34 ADCEM, filza 2, cartella 8.

35 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 16.

36 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 16; Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 661.

37 Isacchino arranged the dances for Bernardo Pino da Cagli’s Ingiusti Sdegni, presented in Parma in 1584 by the Jewish theatrical company of Mantua. Harrán, “Isacchino Massarano,” Grove Music Online, published in print and online 2001. Also found in the online Encyclopedia Judaica (Encyclopedia.Judaica.com).

173

Appendix 2

1584 1584

1585 1585

??

Vincenzo marries for the second time and De’ Sommi was asked to write the intermezzi for a lavish performance of Bernardo Pino de Cagli’s Gli Ingiusti sdegni. The play was called Gli onesti amori and it is not extant

Leone de’ Sommi stages La fortunata, comedy in prose. Performed in 1585. At court of Duke Carlo Immanuel of Savoy40

173

Jesuits establish church of San Salvatore at the heart of the Jewish quarter, and near a synagogue38

Leone de’ Sommi requests Guglielmo for land to build A synagogue39

Other plays by De’ Sommi include: Il Tamburo, a comedy in verse; L’Adelfa comedy in prose in five acts; La Diletta, a comedy in five acts; Gli Onesti Amori, prologue and Intermezzo for the play Gli Ingiusti Sdegni … La Drusilla, a pastoral drama, dedicated to Cesare Gonzaga; La Rappresentazione Delle Nozze di Mercurio e Filologia, dedicated to

38 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 13.

39 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,” 52n15. Also, see Kaufmann, “Leone De Sommi Portaleone” and Schirmann, Studies in the History of Hebrew Poetry, 89. 40 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 658.

174

174 Appendix 2

1586 1588

Duke Carlo Immanuel of Savoy; Intermedi of Amor e Psiche and L’Irifile41

In the summer of 1588 the Jews were preparing the recite a play for the Duke’s birthday. On 26 of June, we have a letter indicating the Jewish community awaits the return of De’ Sommi from Piemonte.43 They write again on 1 of July.44 Leone returns 12 August. De’ Sommi’s writes Le tre sorelle (The Three Sisters) in 1588, with a dedication dated September 24 to Vincenzo. Unclear if it was performed in 1589, and we know it was subsequently performed again in 1598

Leone de’ Sommi is part of a plan to have Guglielmo elected as king of Poland.42 250 gold scudi for costs of Production45

Melli is investigated by the Inquisition because of writings by De’ Sommi.46 January 19, 1592

41 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 658. La Drusilla was written for the Accademia degli Invaghiti, where he was a scribe, 660. 42 Beecher and Ciavolella, “Introduction: The Life and Works,”12.

43 Letter by the Jewish community to the Duke, ASMn, AG, 26.6.1588, Herla, Segnatura C-​521.

44 Letter by the Jewish community to the Duke, ASMn, AG, b. 2642 fasc. 8 cc. 170–​1731.7.1588. Also see: Herla, Segnatura C-​20 and C-​19. 45 Jaffe-​Berg, “Performance as Exchange,” 402.

46 Archivio di Stato di Turino, Protocolli Ducali. Serie di Corte, reg. 248, fols. 133r–​137r; Patenti Controllo Finanze, vol. 54, fols.745–​75r. Segre, The Jews in Piedmont. Document # 1519, 741–​42 and Document # 1525, 749.

175

Appendix 2

1594

Production of a play

1595

Mention of two plays by unknown authors, no longer extant, possibly by De’ Sommi found in the list of books submitted to the censor by Isaac Sullam. Both manuscripts were in Hebrew: Tale of Joseph and the comedy of the eunuco (eunuch)48

January 4, Unnamed performance 1596

January 8– “Accessi de Amor” September 1, 1605

June 28, 1605

Performance of a play

175

Shlumiel Basilea mentioned; Abraham Sarfati on Dec. 13, 1594 charged to select six people to assist in organizing47

Shlumiel Basilea is nominated with three others to be part of the “commedia committee”49

“A list of people who participated in the play Accessi de Amor, performed on the 17th of February 1605. A note about items lent by the Massaro Abramo of Udine for the play—​a receipt of payment by David Yaffe, the secretary of the Università in these years.”50 Committee of massari for comedia51

47 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 663. 48 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 659. 49 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 663.

50 “Lista delle persone che hanno partecipato alla commedia Accessi de Amor rappresentata il 17 Febbraio 1605–​Nota riguardante le cose Prestate [lent] dal Massaro Abramo da Udine per servizio della Commedia—​Ricevute Di pagamento (David Yaffe, segretario della Universita negli anni). ADCEM, filza 9, cartella 1. Page 3 out of 70. P.63. All the names of participants are printed. 51 JCA, Simonsohn refers to Minute Book C (M.B.C) 25a, June 28, 1605.

176

176 Appendix 2 December Request for the comici 18, 1605 ebrei of Mantua from the Duke of Savoy in Torino

Concessione della licenza May 31, 1605–​ December 4, 1606

The Princess of Savoy did not allow the comici (not Jewish) apparently including Tristano Martinelli (Arlecchino) of CDA fame, to leave Turin. Instead, in order to grant them a license to leave, the prince would like other plays to be recited by the Jews52 “Concessione della licenza di ‘andar di note senza il lume’ per I partecipani alla Commedia”53

January 11, 1606

Ricevuta di pagamento

January 12, 1606

List of things for ballet

List of things for ballet, including candles.54

August 1608

Receipts for Basilea56 Performance in Gazzuolo

50 Scudi

1606

Delli Intreghi de Amor by The cast of over Torquato Tasso performed 60.55 for Carnival

“Ricevuta di pagamento per fabbricare scarpe and uso della Commedia” Ordine di pagamento per le persone che prestano servizio durante la Comedia

52 Herla, Segnatura C-​1077, December 25, 1605 Alessandro da Rho writes to the Duke of Mantua and suggests that the Duke of Mantua can have the Jews prepare intrattenimenti (entertainment). See also Herla, Segnatura C-​1078, December 28, 1605 when da Rho writes again to the Duke of Mantua, Vincenzo Gonzaga requesting a recitation by the Jews. 53 ADCEM, filza 10.

54 ADCEM, January 12, 1606, filza 10, cartella 1. The document is on p. 99 (out of 154 pages).

55 D’Ancona, “Il teatro Mantovano nel sec. XVI,” 428. ADCEM, filza 10, doc. 1 (page 19), December 31, 1605. “Order of Marquis Fabio Gonzaga, Commander in chief of the Mantuan army, and governor of the city of Mantua.” According to the Duke’s order, the participants in the commedia were allowed to move on the nights of the Carnival without lights. Among the participants were Isaiah ben Samson Massarani, Mordecai de’ Rossi (the son of “Madama Europa”) who had taken part in the performances of the previous year. Filza 10, docs. 1 (pages 16–​17). There is also a letter from the Duke’s commander to Abraham Udine (8.2.1606) stating: “kindly pay to the bearer the wage of the foreign musicians, who had played on the eve of the performance.” The sum was 12 Lire. As above, on February 10, 1606, there is a request to pay 15 Lire to five Mantuan musicians who had played together with the foreign musicians. There is also list of various expenses in connection with the commedia of 1601. ADCEM, filza 10, cartella 1 (pages 20–​26). 56 ADCEB, filza 10, cartella 3 (1) September 2, 1608.

177

Appendix 2

January 28, 1611

1612 1612

6 “vestiti da balletti” (Ballet outfits) 6 cappelli (hats) 2 cacciate da donne (women’s wraps or cloaks) are requested, all of which are being used by a play prepared by the Jews57

Lorenzo Campagna, a servant of Duke Vincenzo writes to the Marches Fabio Gonzaga, the Duke’s second cousin, letting him know that he is sending the items requested

Jews perform at the Palazzo Te

1612–​1613 Performance of 1613

1615–​1616 Performance expenses60

1617

commedia “on the Tè”

1618

Receipt by Annibale Campi, Ducal Secretary to Duke Ferdinando to Sansone Levi and Simone Basilea

177

The costumes were—​it appears—​being used for a comedy being prepared by the Jews. Lorenzo Campagna is sending these items to Fabio Gonzaga. This indicates there was sharing of costumes by Jews and non-​ Jews. The costumes may have been in Jewish hands Ghetto of Mantua created

Performance for the entire Court58

“Include expenses for the performance of 1613. Among the items of expenditure: ‘to send a message to Guastalla to call Aaron Polacco and Abraham Razan who were needed for the commedia.’ The hire of a horse for this, and ‘to write a soggetto’ for the commedia”59 5,458.1 Lire total expenses 700–​ 800 scudi

Expenditures for a comedia performed “on the Tè” meaning at the Te palace 4,668 m Lire, 667 scudi!61 300 scudi for the massari62

57 Herla, Segnatura C-​1271, January 28, 1611. ASMn, AG, b. 2721 fasc. 111 doc. 2 cc. 45–​46. 58 ASMn, AG, b. 2725 fasc. 1 doc. 129, July 19, 1612.

59 Simonson, History of the Jews, 666n315. Simonsohn refers to: JCA filza 12, doc. 9.

60 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 665–​66. Simonsohn refers to: JCA filza 14, doc. 1 (7), 1615–​1616. 61 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 666. Simonsohn refers to: JCA filza 14, doc. 30.

62 Digital archive of ADCEM, filza 15, cartella 4 (two pages). The second page with his signature (in Italian). http://digi​ebra​ico.bibl​iote​cate​resi​ana.it/​. “Ricevuta dei massari Simone Basilea e Sansone Levi per il pagamento del compenso al notaio Annibale Campi,” April 6, 1618.

178

178 Appendix 2 1620 1644

Performance was Della Palma by unknown writer Requested commedia

September Receipt in merit for 20, 1655 payment for performance

Performance63

Duke Carlo II (age 16) requests Jews to perform64 Ricevuta in merito al pagamento “per servizio della comedia”65

1644–​1648 Annual Performances

Simonsohn says the community gave annual performances 1644 and for the next five years. “From then for the next five years, the community gave a few annual performances, until the Duke decided to cancel the customary performance and to demand a tax payment instead. The performance was then more of an imposition on the community than a gesture of good will”67

February 20, 1649

“Divieto gli ebrei di dedicarsi al gioco, e alle donne ebree di assistere alle commedie di note.”68 (It is forbidden for Jews gamble/​ engage in games and for Jewish women to attend plays at night)

Appointment of committee A payment of 33 Mantuan included Lire to a priest, for Samule Fano, commodities supplied to Benjamin Melli Mordecai Sullam for the and Elhanan commedia66 Sullam. Costume committee included Alatino Alatini, Eleazar Franchetti and Samuel Nathaniel Norsa. For financing, a 50 scudi tax was imposed on the community Prohibition self-​imposed for women

63 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 666–​67n314–​16.

64 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 667. Simonsohn refers to the JCA (Minute Book), M.B. E 29b, January 12, 1644. The committee included Moses Norsa, Mathias Portaleone, and Samuel Fano (30.1.1644) with a budget of 250 scudi. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 668n318. 65 ADCEM, filza 28, cartella 51.

66 Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 668n319. Simonsohn references: JCA, filza 28, doc. 51, September 20, 1645. In the digital archive of the archivio ebraico, there is a signature of Elhanan Sullam in Hebrew, with the word “Heshbon” on it. ADCEM, 1644, filza 28, cartella 41, page 12 out of 34. http://​digi​ebra​ico.bibl​iote​cate​resi​ana.it/​.

67 The date given is February 6, 1645. Simonsohn, History of the Jews, 668. Simonsohn also suggests: “the Duke requests from the community a sum of money in exchange for the performance of the commedia … After this date there is not further mention of a performance in the minute books of the community.” Simonsohn History of the Jews, 668n319. Here, Simonsohn references: JCA 45b, January 11, 1651. 68 ADCEM, filza 29, cartella 37.

179

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources and Archives Consulted Materials in the State Archives of Mantua (Archivio di Stato di Mantova [ASMn]) are found in files (buste) and document folders (carte or cartelle); I designate these materials using “b” and “c,” for ease of reference, as this is the way they are notated in the archive. Sometimes, a document folder is references as a fascio (bundle) using the abbreviation “fasc.” Occasionally, other abbreviations are used, such as “cc.” or “n.n.”. I preserve the same notation used by the archive itself. Theatre-​related archives are digitized in the enormously useful Herla Archive (www. cap​ital​espe​ttac​olo.it), which is updated several times a year. I provide references to the Herla collection when the documents are mentioned there. I was able to visit the Jewish Community Archives (Archivi della communita ebraica a Mantova [ADCEM]), currently under the directorship of Emanuel Colorni. ADCEM materials are referred to as files (filze) and file folders (cartelle) and I used this nomenclature. Most of the documents from the ADCEM are available online through an interface with the Teresiana Library in Mantua at: http://​digi​ebra​ico.bibl​iote​cate​ resi​ana.it In some cases, the documents that I consulted in person at the Jewish Community Archive were not easily re-​traceable in the online interface. In those instances, I noted the materials as “non-​digital” copies consulted in person. Simonsohn, who consulted the archives in the 1940s and 1950s, refers in his History of the Jews to the JCA (Jewish Community Archives). When using Simonsohn’s references, I left the JCA designation rather than change it to ADCEM. Simonsohn often references the Minute Books of the community. I did find a few bound records in the archives themselves; however, not all of the records are bound, and in most cases, it is not possible to find the references to the Minute Books in either the in-​person or digital archives. Burattelli notes a similar challenge when she attempted to verify the records.1 Archivio della Communita Ebraica di Mantova (ADCEM) also accessible through their digital platform at: http://​digi​ebra​ico.bibl​iote​cate​resi​ana.it Archivio di Stato Mantova (ASMn)

1 Burattelli, Spettacoli di corte, 168n6. “mentre non si sono potuti riscontrare affatto i libri di minute, irreperibili al momento delle nostre ricerche …” (while it was not possible to find the Minute Books, which were untraceable at the time of our research).

180

180 Bibliography Archivio di Stato Mantova, Archivio Gonzaga (ASMn, AG) Archivio di Stato Turino (A.S.T.)

Archival and Primary Sources De’ Sommi, Leone. Quattro dialoghi sull’arte del rappresentazioni sceniche (ca. 1565). Permission for Moyse Melli to travel and recover his credits granted by the Infanta, Duchy of Piedmont. Document # 1524, Archivio di Stato di Turino, patenti Controllo Finanze, vol. 54, fol. 95r–​v. Published in Renata Segre, ed. The Jews in Piedmont. Documentary History of the Jews of Italy volume 3 (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1986), 749. Letter of December 4, 1582 from Turin, by Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Piedmont, to the Jews through their representatives Anselmo Carmi, Benedetto Poggietto and Moisé Melli, granting an extension to previous charters, permitting Jews of Piedmont to have certain privileges (such as bank loan operations) and protection for ten years beginning on the First of January, 1586. AST Patenti Controllo Finance, vol. 40, fols. 58r–​59v; Privileggi et capitoli, pp. 46–​52. Published as Document # 1334. in Renata Segre, ed. The Jews in Piedmont, 631–​32. Letter of October 10, 1584 from Biella, by Cardinal Borromeo to the Pope after he paid a two-​ day visit to Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Piedmont for the Duke’s forthcoming marriage. B. Ambr. M. F. 70 Inf., fol. 277v. Published as Document # 1358, in Segre, The Jews in Piedmont, 643. Letter of September 29, 1567 by Giaches de Wert to Conte Alfonso Gonzaga, Novellara, Archivio Storico Comunale, AG. Autugrafi, B.73, c. n.n. is found in Herla, Segnatura C-​3858. Letter of February 7, 1577 by the president of health in Mantua to the Jewish community’s massari for money. Noted is “Isach dansra hebreo” (Isaac the Jewish dancer, or Isaac Massarani). ADCEM, filza 1, cartella 43. See the digital archive at: http://​digi​ebra​ico.bibl​ iote​cate​resi​ana.it Revisions to the privileges of the Jews amended on October 25, 1584 in Turin and issued by Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Piedmont. The source is AST Editti stampati, mazzo 2; A. Seg. Vat., Nunziatura di Savoia, reg. 13 fol. 593r. I.R.V.T. Fondo Ghetto, cart. 2. Published as Document # 1360, in Segre, The Jews in Piedmont, 644. Protocol issued January 19, 1592 in Turin by the Infanta [the Duchess] to the Università of the Jews of Piedmont, upon payment of 6,000 scudi to the Duchess in addition to a donation of 1,000 to the Inquisitors, agreeing that the ducal commissioners and the Inquisitors stop criminal proceedings and molestation against the Jews for banking, commercial practices, holding forbidden books or employing Christian servants. Archivio di Stato di Turino, Protocolli Ducali. Serie di corte, reg. 248, fols. 133r–​137r; Patenti Controllo Finanze, vol. 54, fols. 745–​75r. Published as Document # 1519 in Renata Segre, ed. The Jews in Piedmont, 741–​42. ASMn letter by the Jewish community to the Duke, 26.6.1588, Herla, Segnatura C-​521. ASMn 1.7.1588, Herla, Segnatura C-​20 and C-​19. ASMn. 1.7.1588, b. 2642 fasc. VIII cc. 170–​173. C-​19.

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181

Edict of Toleration of Jews (tolerauorint mi hac Civitate, et dominio Mantua Hebreos), issued October 28, 1540, ASMn, AG, b. 3389, c. 8. Letter of Request/​Petition from Francesco Gonzaga, Count of Novellara to Castellano di Mantova on April 17, 1567. On behalf of Leone de’ Sommi requesting rooms for the purpose of staging plays. Letter from Leone de’ Sommi to Duke Gugliemo Gonzaga September 10, 1577, ASMn, AG, b. 3389 c. 197. Letter from Leone de’ Sommi to Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga on November 29, 1579. Letter from Leone de’ Sommi to Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga on October 30, 1579, ASMn AG b. 2409 c. 757 Herla, Segnatura C-​1. (There is a discrepancy in the date noted on the top of the letter and in the archival record.) ASMn AG b. 2609 c. 757. Front side. 29.11.1579. Leone de’ Sommi to the Duke of Mantua [Guglielmo Gonzaga]. Midrash Tanchuma, “Lech Lecha 8” see: www.sefa​ria.org/​Midra​sh_​T​anch​uma,_​Lec​h_​Le​cha.8. Nissim ben Jacob ibn Shahim, “Sefer Ma’asiyyot ha-​Hakhamim wehu Yafeh meha-​Yeshu’ah.” Translated by William M. Brinner as An Elegant Compilation Concerning Relief After Adversity, Yale Judaica 20 (New Haven: Yale University, 1977). See the Hebrew version translated from the Arabic by Haim Ze’ev Hirschberg, ‫( מהישועה יפה חיבור‬Hibur Yafeh meha yeshua) Jerusalem: Siphriat mekorot, hotza’at mossad Harav Kouk, 1953. Ordine delle nozze dello illustrissimo messer Costanzo Sforza e Camilla d’Argona (Wedding order of the illustrious Sir Costanzo Sforza and Camilla of Aragone). 1480. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Shelfmark: Urb.Lat.899 (ID 217947). Digitally accessible at: digi. vattib. Sacchetti, Franco, Novelle (Tales from Sacchetti), trans from the Italian by Mary F. Steegman. London: Dent, 1908. (Available on Google Books.) Zacuto, Mošèh. L’Inferno allestito: Poema di un rabbino del Seicento sull’oltretomba dei malvagi, translation and notes Michela Andreatta (Milan: Bompiani, 2016).

Primary Sources in Translation Ariosto, Ludovico. La Lena. Translated by Guy Williams in Five Italian Renaissance Comedies. London: Penguin, 1978, 61–​111. De’ Sommi, Leone. A Comedy of Betrothal (Tsahoth B’dihutha D’Kiddushin) as part of the Carleton Renaissance Plays in Translation. Translated by Alfred S. Golding. Ottawa: Dovehouse, 1988. ———. The Three Sisters. Translated by Beecher and Ciavolella. Carleton Renaissance Plays in Translation 14. Ottawa: Dovehouse, 1993. ———. Quattro Dialoghi or The Dialogues of Leone di Sommi. Translated by Allardyce Nicoll, in The Development of the Theatre. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1958. Appendix B: 238–​62. “The ‘Geto at San Hieronimo’, 1516 From a Senate decree of March 29, 1516,” republished in Venice: A Documentary History 1450–​1630, ed. David Chambers and Brian Pullan with Jennifer Fletcher. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992, 338.

182

182 Bibliography

Reference Sources IDEA: Isabella D’Este Archive online created by Deanna Shemek, Anne MacNeil and Daniela Ferrari, and accessible at: idaart.web.unc.edu/​the-​virtual-​studiolo/​ Jewish Encyclopedia (‫)אנציקלופדיה יהודית‬, www.daat.ac.il/​encyc​lope​dia/​value.asp?id1=​1059. Jewish Encyclopedia, https://​jew​ishe​ncyc​lope​dia.com/​artic​les Treccani (Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti), www.trecc​ani.it/​voca​bola​rio/​ ombra Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion, Adele Berlin, ed. Second edition. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Secondary Sources Abrahams, Israel. Jewish Life in the Middle Ages. New York: Meridian, 1958. Reprint, 1961. Facsimile copy republished in 2005 by Adamant Media Corporation and Elibron Classics Replica edition from the original edition (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America edition, 1911). Clubb, Louise George. Italian Drama in Shakespeare’s Time. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. Hacker, Joseph R. and Adam Shear, ed. The Hebrew Book in Early Modern Italy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. Kerr, Rosalind, ed. and translated by Flaminio Scala, The Fake Husband, A Comedy. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series, 75. Toronto: Iter, 2020. MacNeil, Anne. “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman,” The Musical Quarterly 83:2 (summer 1999), 247–​79. Luzio, Alessandro and Rodolfo Renier (L. Roux e c., 1893). “Il matrimonio di Giovanni Sforza con Maddalena Gonzaga segui il 28 ottobre 1489. Il ricevimento, la cerimonia, le feste, il convito ci sono descritti in due belle lettere del 29 e del 30 ottobre, indirizzate al marchese Gonzaga da suo fratello Giovanni e da Maddalena stessa.” In Mantova e Urbino: Isabella d’Este ed Elisabetta Gonzaga. Turin: L. Roux E c., 1893; reprint Bologna: Forni, 1976, 48–​49. Rosenberg, Charles M. “Introduction”. Artistic Centers of the Italian Renaissance: The Court Cities of Northern Italy Milan, Parma, Piacenza, Mantua, Ferrara, Bologna, Urbino, Pesaro, and Rimini, ed. Charles M. Rosenberg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Scolnicov, Hannah. “Staging A Comedy of Betrothal on the Serlian Stage.” In Leone de’ Sommi and the Performing Arts, edited by Ahuva Belkin. Tel Aviv: Assaph, 1997, 119–​32. Symes, Carol. “The Drama of Conflict and Conquest: Medieval Theatre’s First Millennium.” ROMARD: Research on Medieval and Renaissance Drama, 51 (2013): 69–​74. Wood, Margaret Mary. The Stranger: A Study in Social Relationships. New York: Columbia University Press, 1934.

183

INDEX

Abraham ben Ezra, 10 Accademia degli Impediti, 148 Accademia degli Invaghiti, 82, 95, 105, 124, 170, 174 Accessi de Amor, 132, 175 actors, 3, 13, 18, 26, 47–​48, 79, 88–​91, 99, 163 Christian, 3–​4, 30, 33, 133–​34, 138 Cimador, 113, 117 Jewish, 2, 7, 29–​30, 34, 38, 49, 54–​55, 56–​ 59, 61, 85, 104, 106–​7, 109–​10, 113, 115–​16, 118, 126–​28, 131, 133, 139, 162, 167, 169; see also Ebrei professional (commedia dell’arte), 3–​5, 18, 30, 33, 70–​72, 79, 81–​83, 85–​86, 90, 101, 103, 106–​7, 109, 113–​15, 121–​22, 130, 133, 138–​40, 149, 162–​ 63, 170 Sivello, 113, 117 women (actresses), 56, 82–​83, 90, 110; see also Barbara Flaminia and Vincenza Armani. Zan Brighella, 113, 117; see also Simon Basilea, Giovanni Battista Andreini, mountebanks Amor e Psiche, 92–​94, 124, 127, 170, 174 D’Ancona, Alessandro, 2, 4, 55, 57–​58, 69, 128, 169–​71 Andreatta, Michela, 22–​24, 44, 104, 107, 110, 148, 183 Andreini, Giovanni, 19 anti-​Semitism, 82, 117, 122, 132, 155–​56 anti-​theatrialism, 147, 149, 151 Archdukes (Austrian) Rodolfo and Ernesto (Rudolf and Ernest), 58, 168 Archduke Ferdinando of Bavaria, 128 De Architectura, Virtuvius, 45 Aretino, Pietro, 21, 70–​71, 73 Ariosto, Ludovico, 47, 58, 86, 73, 101, 127

Armani, Vincenza, 83 Aron ha-​Kodesh (holy arc), 158–​59 Dall’Arpa, Abramo (Abramo Levi), 61, 106 Dall’Arpa, Daniel (Daniele) Levi, 61, 169 Ascirelli, Moses, 100 assimilation, 150, 156

badhan, 25, 56, 114–​15, 162; see also letzin banking, 11, 122, 182 baretta (brette); also see Jewish badge, 17, 51–​52, 110 bar-​mitzvah, 26 Baruchson-​Arbib, Shifra, 25, 60 Basilea family, 13 Bassan, Meir, 100 Basilea, Simone (Shlumiel Basilea), 7, 103–​19, 121, 133, 144, 162, 175–​77 Beecher, Donald, 5–​6, 15, 30, 41, 45, 47, 66, 78, 82, 86, 88, 92, 95, 101, 123–​24, 128–​29, 130 Beede (tax), 11 Belfanti, Carlo M., 135 Belkin, Ahuva, 5–​6, 66, 77–​78, 93–​94, 184 Bentivoglio, Enzo, 138 Bet din (bed din), 99–​100, 148; see also Jewish courts of Justice blackface in performance, 40 Bonfil, Robert, 10, 15, 21–​22, 29, 75, 121, 123, 150–​51 Book of Judith, 42; see also Judith Bourne, Molly, 46, 116–​18 Bovo Buch, 71; also see Elia Levita Bozzolo, 15 Burattelli, Claudia, 4–​6, 41, 44–​45, 49, 53–​ 54, 59, 85, 106, 109–​10, 112–​13, 117, 126, 129, 132–​34, 137–​38, 159, 181 Burke, Peter, 70 business of entertainment, 114, 129, 134, 138

184

184

index

Campagna, Lorenzo, 141, 177 carnival, 3, 20–​21, 55, 61, 137 and Jews, 20–​21, 80, 98; see also giudiata Mantua, 56, 59, 86, 88, 100, 117, 124, 126, 128, 136–​37, 140, 159, 167, 169, 171–​72, 176 Roman, 20 Carroll, Linda L., 60 Casale Monferrato, 63–​64, 145 Cassen, Flora, 17 Castel Goffredo, 15 Castiglione delle Stivere Solferino, 15 La Celestina, 22, 77–​78 Chaganti, Seeta, 56 Charles I of England, 146 Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, 64, 145; see also Duke of Savoy Charles of Nevers, 145 Charles V, 59 Chieppio, Annibale, 140 Christian values, 7 Ciavolella, Massimo, 5, 15, 30, 41, 78–​79, 82, 86, 88, 92, 95, 101, 123–​24, 128, 130, 163, 168–​70, 172, 183 circumcision celebrations 26, 138; see also veglia Comedy of Betrothal, 5 15, 66, 70, 77–​78, 80–​81, 168; see also Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin Commedia dell’arte, 3–​6, 16, 20, 30–​36, 41, 56–​57, 70–​74, 78–​83, 85–​68, 90, 100–​1, 103, 106–​7, 109–​10, 113–​19, 121–​22, 130, 133, 137–​41, 149, 162–​63, 168–​69, 172–​78 Commedia dell’arte and the Mediterranean, 6, 16, 20, 30, 41, 79 Commedia erudita, 32, 66, 78, 80–​81, 103 Compagnie della Calza (Companies of the Hose), 60, 149 Condotte (charters of privileges for Jews living in Venice and Milan), 13 contact between Jews and Christians, 15–​16, 19, 113, 123–​26, 133, 141

“Contractors” for performance Jewish, 7, 29, 33, 59, 83, 86, 102, 121–​22, 131–​34, 141, 162 Contrasti, 70–​71 convents, 19 Conversos (converts to Christianity), 20, 22 correspondences with patrons, 54, 78, 86, 95, 98–​99, 139–​140 cost of performance, 7, 42, 101, 116, 118, 130, 138 costumes, 3–​4, 28, 33, 38, 40–​41, 47, 57–​ 58, 61, 80, 90, 109–​10, 113, 116, 118, 121–​22, 126–​27, 129–​35, 138–​39, 141, 172, 177 Council of Trent (1545–​63), 15, 23, 60, 121–​22 Counter-​Reformation, 7, 15, 19, 28, 31, 83, 92, 102, 119, 121–​27, 131, 137, 139, 156, 159 Cremona, 21 cultural production, 8, 26, 35, 161 “Cum Nimis Absurdum,” 123–​24 customs and traditions Jewish, 163 of Jewish performance, 24, 77, 113, 162 of non-​Jewish performance, 42, 56, 103, 112, 113, 122 dance master, 35, 49 Jewish dance master, 33–​35, 49, 53, 61 dancers, 3, 36, 40, 47, 51, 61, 127, 134 Da Rho, Alessandro, 139 Davar be Ito (A Thing in Its Time), 76 Davis, Robert C., 10, 29, 149 Davis, Tracy, 122 debate, see disputation Della Pittura, by Leon Battista Alberti, 45 Devar Shmuel, 148 “A Dialogue in Hebrew between Miriam and a Baby,” 70–​71 disputation, 6, 8, 143, 152–​56 Le Due fulvie, 59, 86, 124, 128, 169, 171 Duke of Savoy, 64, 69, 95, 139–​40, 144–​45, 174, 176

185



Ebrei (Jewish acting troupe), 2, 99, 128, 134, 139–​41, 168–​69, 171, 176 Edict of Toleration of Jews (tolerauorint mi hac Civitate, et dominio Mantua Hebreos), 11, 13, 125, 183 effects (special effects for the stage), 46, 48, 74, 88, 91, 94, 98, 99, 101–​2, 122, 126–​ 27, 131–​32, 140; see also stagecraft Eleanora of Aragon, 50 Elia Levita, 71; also see Bovo Buch Emperor Ferdinando II, Holy Roman Emperor, 145 Emperor Rudolph II, 64 Enders, Jody, 154–​55 Equicola, Mario, 48, 54 D’Este, Beatrice, 50 D’Este, Ercole I, Duke of Ferrara, 6, 45–​ 47, 154 D’Este, Ercole II, 45 D’Este, Isabella, 41–​53, 55, 59, 167, 184 attitude towards Jews, 49–​53, 60 Exagoge (by Ezekiel), 77 exchanges of goods, 28, 136–​38 of ideas, 10, 99, 143, 154, 156 of services, 12, 28–​29, 31, 122, 133–​34, 136–​38, 149 theatrical, 7, 61, 83, 92, 118, 122, 123 expulsion, 11 from Eastern Europe and the Germanic lands, 113–​14 Iberian expulsions, 15, 23, 72 from the Italian Peninsula, 10, 15 from Mantua, 51, 149, 161 from the Papal territories, 15, 123 European theatre tradition, 4, 7, 122 Faroni, Massimo, 86, 124, 127–​28, 169 Fenlon, Iain, 5, 41, 54–​55, 59, 167 Ferrante II, Duke of Guastalla, 145 Ferrara, 11, 15–​16, 26, 28–​29, 34, 43–​50, 53–​54, 56, 58, 69, 72–​73, 86, 92, 94, 124, 127, 138, 149, 152–​54, 170 Ferrone, Siro, 5, 30–​31, 163

index

185

Finzi family, 13 Fiorillo, Silvio, 138 fireworks, 94–​95, 101–​2, 127, 131, 135 Flaminia, Barbara (also known as Flaminia Romana), 83–​86, 88, 90 Fo, Dario, 112 Follino, Federico, 156, 159 La Fortunata, 95, 171, 173 Francese, Abraham, 129 Franchetti, Eleazar, 178 Franchetti, Giuditta, 132, 151 Furlotti, Barbara, 145–​46

Gallas, Matthias, 146 Gathering of Manna, 48 Gazzuolo, 116, 118, 138, 176 Gelosi, 133, 149 Gemiluth Hasadim (Jewish charitable organization), 26, 29 German dance hall (tanzhaus), 24–​25 ghetto and ghettoization, 7, 16, 18–​20, 23, 28, 149, 151 Florence, 105 Mantua, 25, 28, 103, 122–​23, 132, 134, 147, 149–​51, 156, 177 Rome, 123 Venice, 51–​52, 148 Giaches de Wert, 85–​86, 92, 124, 170, 182 Il Giannizzero, 95, 130, 172 Giovanni Ambrosio, 35, 50; see also Guglielmo da Pesaro giudiata (play of the Jews), 20 giulliari/​jongleurs, 103 goldsmithing, 121, 136 gold trade, 136 Gonzaga, Cardinal Ercole, 11, 23, 60 Gonzaga, Cesare, 78, 82, 92, 95, 100, 105, 124, 130, 168, 170, 173 Gonzaga, Francesco II, 6, 11, 41, 47, 50, 52, 57, 59 Gonzaga, Francesco III, 6, 11, 57 Gonzaga, Francesco IV, 116, 144–​45 Gonzaga, Federico II, 6, 54, 59–​60 Gonzaga, Ferdinando, 116–​19, 144–​45, 177 Gonzaga, Giovanni, 41, 59

186

186

index

Gonzaga, Guglielmo, Duke of Mantua, 1, 6–​7, 33, 35–​36, 46, 59, 63–​64, 92, 95–​6, 98–​ 100, 102, 105, 116, 119, 121, 124–​27, 130, 144, 168, 171, 173–​74, 183 Gonzaga, Maddalena, 41–​42 Gonzaga, Marchese Fabio, 141, 176–​77 Gonzaga, Vincenzo, 46, 63, 92, 95, 105, 110, 112, 116, 119, 121, 126–​27, 130–​32, 139–​41, 143–​46, 156, 159, 167, 172, 174, 176–​77 Gonzaga, Vincenzo II, 145–​46 Grendler, Paul F., 13, 15, 125, 135–​37 Guastalla, 15, 78, 95, 105, 124, 145, 168, 170, 177 Guglielmo da Pesaro or Guglielmo Ebreo (William the Jew of Pesaro), 33, 35–​36, 50, 167; see also Giovanni Ambrosio Guynn, Noah, 12, 56

intermedi, 57–​68, 66, 69, 73–​74, 85, 88, 92, 94–​95, 99, 101, 127, 135, 138, 140, 170, 174 Irifile (Hirifile), 66, 94

impresario, 7, 83, 103 Index Librorum Prohibitorum (The Index of Prohibited Books), 123 Infanta Caterina (Catherine Michelle of Spain), 64–​65, 182

Kabbalah, 8, 21, 23, 29, 123, 150 Katz, Dana, 6, 11, 15–​16, 19 Kehillah Kedoshah (holy community), 28, 129 Kerr, Rosalind (Ros), 73, 106, 115, 184

habiti antichi, et moderni di tuto il mondo (modern and ancient clothing from all the world), 130; see also Cesare Vecellio Hamill, Kyna, 137 ha-​Reuveni, David, 80 Harrán, Don, 6, 61, 69, 106, 148–​49, 172 Haskamah see Pragmatica Hazan (cantor), 153 Helou, Ariane, 69 Heng, Geraldine, 16–​17, 36 Henke, 83, 114–​15 Holy Community (Kehillah Kedoshah) ‫ ק”ק‬28, 129 Holy Land, 79–​80 Holy See, 3, 23, 117, 124, 126 pilgrimage site, 79–​80 as setting in plays, 79 Horowitz, Elliott, 26, 29, 149 humanism, 7, 49, 123

Jacopo, ebreo, 48–​49, 54, 85, 167; see also actors, Jewish jewelry trade, 136–​37 Jewish badge or sign or “lo O,” 17, 52, 60, 106–​7, 109, 119, 125, 144, 168 the Jewish Queen (la Regina Ebrea), 38–​40 Jews Ashkenazim, 8, 12–​13, 22–​25, 29, 99, 149–​50, 152, 163 Italiani, 12–​13, 22–​23, 25, 29, 99, 163 Levantini, 13, 15, 22, 150 Ponentine Jews, 22, 45, 53, 100 Sephardim, 13, 25, 72–​73, 99, 147–​50, 163 Jewish badge or sign, 17, 52, 60, 106–​7, 109, 119, 125, 144, 168 Jewish hat, 17, 52, 110, 118, 129, 135 “judenhut” (yellow ring), 51 yellow badge in Piedmont, 64 Jewish charitable organizations, 23, 28 Jewish-​Christian dialogue and collaboration, 121, 123, 132, 133, 151 Jewish community and communal life, 5, 10, 21–​26, 33, 43, 46, 54, 72, 86, 99, 114, 123, 126, 150–​51, 161 Jewish confraternities, 24, 28–​29, 149 Jewish courts of justice, 99; see also bet din (bed din) Jewish religious life, 8–​10, 28–​29 Jewish ritual and celebrations, 10, 20, 24–​ 26, 29, 147, 149 Jewish self-​regulation, 14, 28, 30–​31, 149 Joseph ben Samuele Tsarfati, 22, 162 Judith and Holofornes, 42–​44, 161–​62, 167; see also The Book of Judith

187



knitwear, 135–​36 Korda, Natasha, 28

languages (used for performance) Aramaic, 78, 102, 163 German, 57, 145 Yiddish, 43, 71, 114 laws regulating the Jews, 14, 19, 51, 53, 147; see also Jewish badge sumptuary, 51 La Lena, 81, 101, 183 Leon Battista Alberti, Della Pittura, 45 letters, 41–​42, 44, 46, 55, 107, 104, 115, 144, 154, 163 Letzin, 56, 114; see also Badhan Levenstein, Anna, 66, 69, 131 Levi, Rosa, 61 Levita, Elia, 71 license, 125; see also passport not to wear the Jewish badge, 109, 110–​ 11, 114, 124 to perform, 107, 110, 115 for travel, 109, 139, 176 lighting for the theatre, 46, 58–​59, 88, 91, 93–​94, 101, 127 Lippi, Fra Filippo, 130 Lipshitz, Yair, 5–​6, 76–​77, 79, 163 Luzzara, 15

MacNeil, Anne, 6, 31, 49, 184 Madonna Gentila, 137 Magen Nashim (In Defense of Women), 26–​27, 66, 73–​77, 81, 105, 162, 168 Magnifico character, 128, 133 Mandragola, 78 Mantegna, Andrea, 46, 146 Mantuan State Archives (Archivio di Stato di Mantova, ASMn), 41, 136, 163 Il Marescalco (1527–​7), 21 Marmirolo, 116 Mar’ot ha-​Tzova’ut (on the art of writing), 71, 104 marriage forced marriage, 82

index

187

of Maddalena Gonzaga and Duke Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, 41–​43 as subject matter in plays, 15, 22, 80 Margaret of Savoy, 144 Maria of Mantua, 145 maritime trade, 10 Marliani, Ercole, 138–​41 Martinelli, Tristano, 31, 138–​40, 176 Massarani, Isaac, 106, 126, 128, 176, 182 Massarano, Lelio, 136 Massaro (massari), 7, 12–​13, 23, 63, 100, 109, 116, 118, 129–​32 Maximilian of Austria, 128, 171 De’ Medici, Don Giovanni, 105–​6, 112, 119 De’ Medici, Ferdinando I, Archduke of Florence, 112 medieval troubadours, 104, 112–​13 Mediterranean Mediterranean travel, 13, 79 as subject of plays, 79 Melli, Eliah, 101 Melli, Mordecai, 100 Melli, Moyse (Moisé Melli), 63–​65, 182 Melli, Zemah, 101 Melet, Ebreo 156–​59 The Menaechmi (Plautus), 45, 47–​48 Menagen (Player of music), 61, 153 Me’or Einayim (Light of the Eyes), 2 Messianic Judaism, 8, 80, 152 Middle Ages, 10, 16–​18, 24, 26, 34, 42, 45, 52, 56, 112, 154 Midrash Tanchuma, 81, 183 Migliarisi, Anna, 69, 88–​91 mise en scène, 47, 61 Mitzvetanz (wedding celebration) (Mitzvah tanzes), 25 Mitzvetanz (Mitzvah tanzes), 25 Modena, Leone, 149 moneylending, 10, 12, 27, 30 Monte de Pietà, 138 Monteverdi, Claudio, 85, 144 Moors, 40 Moresca (dance), 40, 61, 73, 94 Morosini, Giulio, 149 mountebanks, 117

188

188

index

multi-​generational Jewish performers, 61–​62; see also Sullam family and dell’Arpa family musicians, vii, 3, 8–​9, 34, 38, 61, 106, 118, 126, 134, 153, 167, 176

Naselli, Giovanni Albert (Zan Ganassa), 83, 85; also see Zan Ganassa Nettuni, Lorenzo, 107, 115 Nobel Prize, 112 Norsa family, 13, 25 Mordecai Norsa, 133 Moses Norsa, 178 Samuel Norsa, 178 Novellara, 15, 85–​86, 169 Novikoff, Alex J., 143, 154–​55 opera, 3, 32, 85, 88, 114, 144 oral culture, 115 “others,” 16, 18 Owen Hughes, Diane, 10, 17, 53, 125

Palaeologina, Margaret, 59 Palazzo Ducale (Mantua), 117, 134 Palazzo Te, 60, 135, 141, 177 da Panzone Zenovese, Friar Dominico, 51 patrons (of the arts), 7, 46, 49, 54, 78, 86, 95, 98–​99, 105–​6, 115, 124, 130, 144–​ 45, 168, 170–​71 Parisi, Susan, 15 Parma, 92, 124, 170, 172 passport, 18, 163 pastoral plays, 32, 65–​66, 92, 94–​96, 101 patron relations, 3, 40, 44, 46, 68, 77, 95–​99, 102, 104–​5, 109, 161, 163 Pattuzi, Stefano, 77 Pavesi, Giorgio, 6, 74, 80 pawnbrokers, 20 pawn shops, 30, 134–​35 Peace of Cherasco, 146 Peace of Regensberg, 146 Pegna, Lydia, 69, 92, 124, 170 Peri, Andrea, 138 Pesaro, 6, 15, 22, 33–​38, 40–​44, 46, 50, 54–​ 56, 58, 62, 86, 162, 165, 167 Peyron, Bernardino, 69, 92, 124, 170

Philip II of Spain, 64 Piedmont, 63–​64, 69, 145, 162, 182 Pietro Bertelli’s Diversarum nationum habitus (Padua 1594-​6), 21 Pietropaolo, Domenico, 90 Pino de Cagli, Bernardo, 95, 172–​73 Plautus, 45–​48, 55 poetry in Hebrew, 22, 27, 61, 74, 94, 101, 173 Pope Julius III, 123 Pope Paul II, 20 Pope Paul IV (formerly Cardinal Giovanni Pietro Carafa), 123 Portaleone family, 13, 68, 178 Portaleone, Yehudah 69, 95, 100; see also Leone de’ Sommi Pragmatiche (charters of privileges for Jews living in Mantua) Pragmatica, 13–​14, 25, 107, 109, 147; see also Haskamah prayer rites, 24–​25, 70 De Preti, 55, 167 props (stage props), 4, 7, 11, 28, 30, 33, 38, 41, 83, 109–​10, 121, 129, 131–​135, 137–​139 metal weapons for the stage, 137 public sphere, 154–​55 publishing houses, Jewish, 27, 60 Purim spiel (play) 25, 55–​56, 78–​80, 88, 149, 151 Quattro dialoghi in materia di rappresentazioni sceniche (Four Dialogues on Scenic Representations), 59, 66, 68, 71, 73, 82, 84, 86, 88, 93, 95, 98–​99 Queen of Sheba, 35–​43, 165–​66

Rabbi Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol, 8, 152–​54 Rabbi David Provenzali, 68 Rabbi Judah Briel, 8, 152, 156 Rabbi Judah Mintz, 149 Rabbi Nissim ben Jacob ibn Shahim, 43, 183 Rabbi Shmuel Aboab (RaSHA), 14, 28, 147, 150–​51 Rabbi Shmuel Hanagid, 43

189



Rabbinical congresses, 45 race, 16–​17 racialization of Jews, 38–​40 Ravid, Benjamin, 10, 17–​18, 29, 51, 121, 149 Raz-​Krakotzkin, Amnon, 15, 101–​2, 121, 123 Rebecchini, Guido, 145–​46 “Regina Ebrea” (Queen of the Jews), 38–​39 religious dramas (sacre rappresentazioni), 20, 155 Renato, Francesco, 159 repurposed cloth, 90, 129, 137; see also strazzaria Ricchi, Daniel, 159 Rieti, Hannah, 27, 104 de’ Roberti, Ercole, 48 Rogna, Luigi, 84–​85, 124, 169 de Rojas, Fernando, 22, 77 Roma people, 21 Rosh Hashana, 131 de’ Rossi, Azariah, 2, 18 de’ Rossi, Mordecai, 176 de’ Rossi, Solomon (Rossi, Salamone), 13, 18, 106, 118 Roth, Cecil, 20, 25, 41–​42, 54–​55, 167 Ruderman, David, 26, 29, 31, 45, 69, 123, 153–​54 Ruzante (Angelo Beolco), 60 Sabbioneta, 15, 31 Sacchetti, Franco, 21, 183 Ṣaḥuth Bediḥuta Deqiddushin (The Comedy of Betrothal) 6, 22, 66, 70, 77–​82, 163, 168 Salamone, ebreo, 49, 54, 167; see also actors, Jewish Salza, Abd-​el-​Kader, 69, 94–​95 Sampson, Lisa, 98 Sanuto, Marino (Marin Sanudo), 113 Sarfati, Abraham, 77–​78, 109, 122, 132, 175 Scala, Flaminio, 106, 140, 184 Schama, Simon, 68–​69 Lo Schiavetto, 6, 19 Schirmann, Hayyim (Jefim), 4, 22, 27, 66, 69–​71, 74, 76–​80, 104–​5, 173 “Schlemiel” (shlumiel), 103 Gli Sconosciuti, 92, 124, 170

index

189

Scroll of Ester (Megillat Esther), 38, 80 second-​hand cloths, 2, 12–​13, 134–​35; see also strazzaria Selene (Il Selino), 129 Serlio, Sebastiano, 60, 91, 128 Sforza family, 34–​41, 183–​84 Sforza, Giovanni, Lord of Pesaro, 41, 184 Shabbat, 25, 131 Shalit, Samuel, 56–​57, 127, 169 Shomrim Laboker (guardians of the dawn Jewish penitential society), 24, 29 Sicilian Jewry, 161 silk, 13, 29, 58, 135–​36 Simmel, Georg, 11, 161 Simonsohn, Shlomo, 2, 4–​28, 55–​60, 69, 86, 92, 95, 100–​1, 106–​7, 109, 112, 116, 118, 122, 124, 126–​28, 132–​33, 136, 146–​47, 149, 151–​52, 154, 156, 161, 168–​70, 173, 175, 177–​78, 181 de’ Sommi, Leone 1–​7, 15, 22, 25–​28, 30, 33, 46, 58–​60, 63–​105, 119, 121, 124, 126–​ 28, 130–​31, 151, 153, 162–​63, 168, 170–​74; see also Yehudah Portaleone solo performance, 112, 115–​16, 118–​19 soundscapes, of prayer, 19, 115 Spagnolo, Giulio, 133 Sponsler, Claire, 19, 103 stagecraft, 44, 46–​47, 58, 88, 98–​99, 101–​2, 127; see also effects stage settings, 130, 134 stereotypes of Jews, 19, 82 stock characters, 81, 90 Stowe, Kenneth, 28–​29 gli straccioni, 95, 172 strazzaria (second-​hand rag trade), 13, 121, 129 Sullam, Jacob, 56–​57, 127, 168 Sullam, Meshullam, 78, 168 Sullam, Reuven, 27, 77, 104 I Suppositi (The Pretenders), 58, 86, 168 surveillance of Jews, 15–​19, 41, 64, 125, 139–​140 surveillance during rehearsals, 140 Symes, Carol, 154–​55 synagogue, 19, 25, 29, 31, 80, 95, 126, 136, 150, 153, 158

190

190

index

Taiacalze, Domenico, 112 Talmud burning of, 102 prohibition of, 123 tanzhaus (dance hall), 24–​25 Tasso, Bernardo, 86, 124, 128, 169 Tasso, Torquato, 59, 70–​71, 124, 128, 169, 176 tax, Jewish, 10–​12, 30–​31, 60, 127, 178 self-​taxation, 121, 126–​27 Tedesco, Michele, 133 Tedeschi (German Jews), 13, 57 Terence, 45, 48 textile trade, 2, 8, 10–​11, 13, 15, 22, 30, 38, 117, 134–​37 Testa, Simone, 28 theatre English, 28 Jewish theatre troupes, 59; see also ebrei (Jewish acting troupe) theatrical effects see effects or stagecraft theatrical exchanges see exchanges theatrical intermediary, 63, 68, 73, 75, 81, 92, 102 Thirty Years’ War (1618–​1648), 24, 33, 121, 145, 151 The Three Sisters (Le tre sorelle), 5, 66–​67, 82, 94, 101–​2, 127, 162, 174 Torah, 23, 26, 81, 136 Torah covering, 136, 138 trade, 2, 8, 10–​11, 13, 15, 22, 30, 38, 113, 117, 134, 136–​37 Trivellato, Francesca, 29–​30 troubadors, 104, 112–​13 Turin, 63, 69, 139–​40, 170, 176, 182

Udine, Abramo da, 132 Udine, Ercole, 100 Università (degli ebrei) (the university of the Jews), 2, 12–​13, 23, 28, 37, 53, 58–​59, 101, 128, 130–​31, 143, 182 Vaghezza, 96, 98–​99, 127, 131 Vecellio, Cesari, 130

Veglia (viglia or vigilia), 26; see also circumcision ceremony Veltri, Giuseppe, 5, 26, 31, 45, 61, 123, 149 vendecolori, 128–​29 Venetian buffoni, 7, 103–​4, 106, 112–​13, 115, 162 Venice, 7, 10, 13, 17, 19, 28–​29, 43, 50–​52, 60–​61, 105, 113, 121–​23, 128–​ 30, 146–​50 ventriloquized performance, 110, 114 Veronese, Alessandra, 5–​6, 27, 35, 129, 134 Vianello, Daniele, 112–​13, 163 Virtuvius’ De Architectura, 45 visibility or invisibility of theatre-​ makers, 104 De Vitta, Abramo, 138 War of Mantuan Succession (1628–​1631), 24, 116, 143–​46 Weaver, Elissa, 19 De Wert, Giaches, 85, 92, 124, 170, 182 wedding dances 25, 33, 56; see also mitzvetanz or mitzvah tanzes Westwater, Lynn, 19 Wilbourne, Emily, 6, 19, 114 women and cultural production, 26–​29, 49–​50, 73–​76, 81–​83, 90, 136–​38, 149, 162 women as contributors to theatre-​making, 137, 162 Yaffe, David, 132, 175 Yiddish, 43, 71, 114; see also language, Yiddish Yom Kippur, 131

Zacuto, Mošèh, 22, 107, 183 Zampelli, Michael, 30–​31 Zan Ganassa, 83; see also Giovanni Alberto Naselli Zanni, 85, 103–​4, 110, 115, 128, 138 Zoanne, 55, 167 The Zohar, 21, 23 Zuan Polo, 112–​13