Trent 1475: Stories of a Ritual Murder Trial [Revised ed.] 0300068727, 9780300068726

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TRENT 1475

TRJDEN

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TRENT

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1475

STORIES OF

A RITUAL

MURDER TRIAL R

PO-CHIA HSIA \

PUBLISHED IN COOPERATION WITH YESHIVA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

_f."^l^>®r-i»a&,,

fiiMkaAfiaiCB^BaBy

^^t

Published with assistance from the Jesselson Foundation.

Engraving of Trent by Franz Hogenberg, ij88. Noted on the engraving cathedral; (b)

St.

are: (a) the

Peter's church; (c) the Castello Buonconsiglio; (d) St. Martin's

Gate. Reproduced courtesy of Provincia

Autonoma

di Trento,

Museo

provinciale d'arte.

Copyright

©

reproduced,

1992 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This

in

whole or

in part, including illustrations, in

book may not be

any form (beyond that

copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public pressX without written permission from the publishers.

Designed by Nancy Ovedovitz and Michigan,

Perpetua type by

set in

Grand Rapids, Michigan. Printed

Inc.,

Book

in the

The Composing Room of

United States of America by

Crafters, Inc., Chelsea, Michigan.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hsia, R. Po-chia, 19^^-

Trent 1475

:

stories of a ritual

murder

trial /

R. Po-chia Hsia.

cm

p.

Includes index. ISBN

I.

Blood accusation.

2.

Jews

Trent, d. 147^.

— —

4.

Italy

Trento

(pbk.)

— —

Trento

(Italy)

BM^S^.l.HJ^ 94^'. 38^

(cloth)

0-300-0J106-9 0-300-06872-7

Persecutions.

Simon, of

3.

Ethnic relations.

1992

— dc2o

92-4612 CIP

A

catalogue record for this book

7 he paper

in this

is

available

book meets the guidelines

Committee on Production Guidelines

for

for

from the

British Library.

permanence and

durability of the

Book Longevity of the Council on

Resources. 10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

Library

MEMORY

OF MY FATHER, WILLIAM TSE-MING HSIA,

IN

1928—1990

CONTENTS

LIST OF

ILLUSTRATIONS xi

FOREWORD

BY PEARL

BERGER

xiii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XV

INTRODUCTION xvii

ABBREVIATIONS XXV

CHAPTER ONE THE PRINCE-BISHOP I

CONTENTS

CHAPTER TWO THE JEWISH COMMUNITY 14

CHAPTER THREE THE INQUEST 26

CHAPTER FOUR THE TORTURE CHAMBER 34

CHAPTER FIVE "BLESSED SIMON MARTYR" ^i

CHAPTER SIX THEATER OF DEATH 61

CHAPTER SEVEN THE APOSTOLIC COMMISSIONER 69

CHAPTER EIGHT AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF BLOOD

CHAPTER NINE THE CONVERT

CHAPTER TEN THE WOMEN 10^

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ELEVEN JUDGMENT

IN

ROME

117

EPILOGUE 132

APPENDIX

A

NOTE ON SOURCES >37

NOTES 141

INDEX 169

ILLUSTRATIONS

Engraving of Trent by Franz Hogenberg, Frontispiece

1^88

The

Yeshiva Manuscript, folio 2v

xxix

I.

Johannes Hinderbach

2.

Celebration of the Seder

23

3.

Simon of Trent

57

4.

Two

g.

Sigismund of Tirol

82

6.

Letter

from Sigismund of Tirol to Captain Jakob von Sporo

83

7.

representations of the Holy Family

The Eruv Hazerot

6

5^-59

113

ILLUSTRATIONS

8.

Letter from Sixtus IV to Johannes

Hinderbach 9.

1

The Martyrdom of Simon of Trent

10.

Simon

as "the little

martyr" and saint

1

128

134-13^

FOREWORD

M

.ore than five

ago, the Jewish

community of Trent was

tion of ritual murder. "Prozess

hundred years

victimized by the accusa-

gegen die Juden von Trient," an

elaborate manuscript account of those tragic circumstances,

forms the basis for the present volume, which examines the events and describes the participants, both accusers and accused.

Museum received this

Yeshiva University gift

from Erica and Ludwig

trons of Jewish culture

—

manuscript

Jesselson, universally

its artifacts, its spirit,

in 1988 as a

acknowledged pa-

and

its ftiture.

manuscript was presented with the hope that the stories ords would be heard.

Good fortune led us to Ronnie

it

The rec-

Po-chia Hsia,

whose response to the challenge was executed with enthusiasm and the dignity of true scholarship.

Our

gratitude to

all.

Pearl Berger

Benjamin Gottesman Librarian

and Dean of Libraries, Xlll

Yeshiva Universitj

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I Benjamin Gottesman Librarian

me

grateful to Pearl Berger,

to study the manuscript newly acquired by Yeshiva University

Museum, and

to her

and David Bei^er of Brooklyn College

gracious hospitality during ect

am

at Yeshiva University, for inviting

for tfieir

my research visit in New York. The proj-

was helped along the way by Anna Esposito of Rome and Diego

Quaglioni of Trent,

who

are in the process of publishing a three-

volume edition of the Latin manuscript records of the

trial

and

other related documents. To Professor Quaglioni and Professor Iginio

Rogger of Trent,

1

owe the honor of an

the international conference on the

Hinderbach held the

work with

tion, including

in

October

1989.

life

Many

invitation to attend

and work of Johannes people contributed to

ideas, suggestions, questions, favors,

and informa-

Alan Dundes, Stephen Greenblatt, John Harris,

Alfred Haverkamp, Penelope Johnson, Bruce Kupelnick, Kate

and Michael Langen, Alison and Gordon Weiner, Charles

XV

T

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Wood; at

students in

New

my graduate seminar on early modem Europe

York University, in particular David Lederer and James

Palmitessa; lecture audiences at

Dartmouth

College,

University, the University of California at Berkeley, versity of Trier;

and the anonymous reader for

New

York

and the Uni-

Yale University

Press.

For institutional support, Library, Yeshiva University

am indebted to Yeshiva University Museum (especially to its director, I

Sylvia Herskowitz), the helpful staff at the Archivio di Stato in Trent, the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek,

terlibrary

College.

Loan department

and to the In-

Dartmouth Amherst and the

staff at the library at

The University of Massachusetts

at

National EndowTnent for the Humanities provided generous travel support.

Pamela Crossley has been trying times

when

words are meant

this

as a

a constant

companion during the

manuscript was being written. These

token of

my

gratitude and affection.

Norwich, Vermont Spring,

1

992

INTRODUCTION

ritual at

murder

A

trial

German manuscript of

the

of Trent that was acquired in December 1987

an auction at Sotheby's was presented in 1988 to Yeshiva Uni-

versity

Museum in New York. Copied by one person, in standard '

German chancery hand, the Yeshiva manu614 folios, numbered consecutively by Illuminated initials are found throughout the manu-

late fifteenth-century

script

(YM)

the copyist.

consists of

script. In addition, folio 2v contains illuminated

red, blue,

and green and

also the coat of

Wiirttemberg. At the top of this is

a marginal inscription that

folio,

borders in gold,

arms of the house of

written in a different hand,

shows the

later

provenance of the

manuscript: "Conventus vindobonensis carmelitorum Discalcea-

torum." The leather binding bears the year 161^, which probable date

manuscript

when

text, written in black ink,

tions in red ink.

is

the Viennese convent acquired the text. is

the

The

interspersed with nota-

INTRODUCTION

YM

The

was copied sometime

after 20

June 1478, the date of

the papal bull that exonerated Bishop Johannes Hinderbach

of any impropriety in his conduct of the Trent.

It

most

likely

trial against the Jews of was commissioned during the second half of

There

1478, or, at the latest, during 1479.

regarding the genesis of the bly could have

YM, but

is

either of

no firm evidence two people plausi-

commissioned the manuscript. One was, of course,

the count of Wiirttemberg, Eberhard the Bearded, founder of the University of Tubingen,

whose coat of arms

is

depicted in the

manuscript; the other was his brother-in-law. Cardinal Francesco

Gonzaga, bishop of Mantua and canon of the cathedral of Trent.

Thanks to Mantegna's

Gonzaga

we have vivid portraits of the Duke Luigi III; his consort, Barbara

frescoes,

family: the father,

of Brandenburg; and their children, including the third son, Francesco, and a daughter, Barbara,

who

married the bearded

count. To celebrate his marriage, Eberhard traveled to ing in

Mantua

in April 1474. If he

German

must have murder trial comEberhard would have remembered the

Alps, the traditional route of the

passed through Trent. Thus,

menced city

in

March

on the Adige

147^,

River. In

when

kings, he

the ritual

any event,

that the initial repository of the library in Stuttgart.^

Italy, arriv-

took the Brenner Pass across the

it is

YM

Undoubtedly, the

reasonable to assume

was Eberhard 's personal

ritual

murder trial

turned the count decidedly against the Jews within

domain: when Eberhard founded a university 1477, he also expelled

all

in

in

his

Trent

own

Tubingen

Jews from the town; and

tament of 1492, Eberhard forbade Jews to reside or trade Wiirttemberg.

We

in

in his tesin

^

cannot document

how

the manuscript was transmitted

from Stuttgart to Vienna. Presumably, the Carmelite convent acquired the manuscript as a

gift.

But from

whom? One might

speculate that the imperial family was the patron. The Habsburgs

could have acquired the manuscript during their occupation of

Wiirttemberg (1^20-1^34), his title

after

Duke

Ulrich was deprived of

by an imperial ban, for murdering one of his knights. The

XVlll

INTRODUCTION manuscript might have been transported to Vienna after the capture of Stuttgart in 15^34 by Imperial troops. At any rate,

we know

that

from 161^ to

CarmeHte convent Depression, a time

in Vienna.

YM

1930, the

From

in the

United

in the

when many rehgious houses in Vienna sold off was put up for auc-

their manuscripts, the Yeshiva manuscript tion."^

remained

At the beginning of the Great

that time, this manuscript

was

States, until its acquisition

in a private collection

by the Yeshiva University

Museum. Properly speaking, the

YM

not an exact copy of the

is

trial

proceedings. Commissioned during the campaign to secure the

canonization of "Little Martyr Simon" in

Rome, the manuscript

includes only selected judicial documents generated by the ritual

murder

The

trial.

YM

opens with

German

a

translation of

Pope

Sixtus IV's bull, in order to give the text that follows both a

chronological and legitimizing frame. In the words of the authoreditor:

Here, in the diligence

first

and

place,

is

the papal Bull, in which, praise be the

judicial proceedings,

our Holy Father the Pope

recognizes and declares the duly conducted against the

innocent boy

and sentencing

named Simon, and that the said trial against the said

Jews was conducted

may

trial

Jews of Trent, recorded below, on account of the holy, in a judicious

and upright manner,

as

one

learn hereafter.^

Following the text of the papal bull and the imprint of the coat

of arms of the house of Wijrttemberg the

is

the

official

statement on

trial:

Now, here following we

will

tioned interrogation and

dance with godly

begin with every and each aforemen-

trial,

which were carried out

law, against the

in accor-

blasphemers and desecrators of

the Passion of Jesus Christ, against the Jews of Trent, on account

who was piteously the same Jews; but murdered by and inhumanly tortured and of the innocent child and holy martyr Simon,

XIX

INTRODUCTION

first,

concerning the accusation and the

many great,

remarkable,

aforenamed Jews brought on by the search for the missing child, can be found hereafter.^

and true

signs indicating the

The next portion of the 5^-17).

(fols.

text constitutes a narrative prologue

provides an

It

official

chronology of events be-

tween Good Friday and Easter Sunday, taking the reader quickly through

a

number of scenes:

the boy's father, Andreas, approach-

ing the bishop after mass; the search ordered by the podesta, or civil

magistrate; the discovery of the corpse in Samuel's house; the

examination of the wounds; the conveying of the body to Peter's;

and the

arrests of the first Jews.

St.

Written from the simu-

lated perspective of an "eyewitness," this narrative prologue,

possibly compiled and edited at a later date than the

main bodv of

the text, formed a structurally distinct part of the manuscript, linking the prefatory papal bull with the subsequent judicial text.

An

authorial voice

is

clearly present: the narrator,

and commented on the

initial

events,

who described clerk, who

was not the law

simply recorded the subsequent interrogations.

The main body of the

YM

consists of the trial proceedings.

Except for the preliminary examinations of hostile Christian witnesses,

who

provided some of the "great, remarkable, and true

signs indicating the Jews," the

tions of nineteen in

main

text records the interroga-

men and four women

of the Jewish communitv

Trent conducted between 28 March 147^ and 6 April 1476

(fols.

24—612). Arranged by witness, the text follows a chrono-

logical

order within the subsections of the family groups, begin-

ning with the householders and their servants, progressing to their

house guests, and concluding with the women. The excep-

tion

was Samuel, the leader of and spokesman

for the Jewish

community, whose interrogations were placed first although he was not the first to be questioned by the magistrates. The authoreditor explains his arrangement in a passage worth quoting at

length in order to give a sense of actually put together:

how

the text of the

YM

was

INTRODUCTION But since the Jews wanted to know or say nothing about these aforementioned remarkable signs and indications, neither about the death or about the

manded,

in

wounds of the holv

child, Justice

com-

such a grave matter, that the truth be thoroughly and

properly examined through judicial torture, so that such a great evil

would not go unpunished, or that anyone innocent might on its account. And thus the podesta in

suffer or be suspected

Trent himself ordered the Jews to be seized, which he was obliged to

do on account of his

office,

and earnestly examined according

to court proceedings, which was proper in such matters. Al-

though the same questions, with the confessions, were

as

first

Seligman Jew, as he was named

recorded

in the following trials

put to Bonaventure, in in

Italian,

or

German, the cook of Samuel

Jew; after him to the Other Seligman, son of Mayr Jew; thirdly to son of Samuel; fourthly to

Israel,

only in the

fifth

Vital, servant

place to Samuel himself,

the same Samuel and dealt with his

he

w as

things,

1

of Samuel; and

began, however, with

trial, in

view of the

fact that

almost the leader, the instigator and originator of most

and

in

my

opinion, certain things are said

more

clearly in

his confession.^

Who

was

this "I"?

Before attempting an answer,

examine more closely the textual and the

YM. As

1

have argued above, the

we need

to

linguistic characteristics of

YM

is

a

complex corpus,

a

compilation and translation of texts from different sources, ar-

ranged according to an editorial principle that made story of ritual

murder

it

the official

in Trent. Five distinct "voices"

can be

identified: those of the Christian witnesses, the author-editor, the

Jews, the magistrates, and the scribe.

The

Christian witnesses,

including the convert Giovanni, gave damaging testimonies at the

beginning of the

trial;

they occupied a minor role in the

YM. The we do

author-editor cannot be identified for certain. Although

not

know

the identity of the translator,

we do know

that the law

Hans von Fundo and some were German speakers who heard first-hand the "confessions" of the Jews, all of whom spoke German. It is a of the other witnesses to the

clerk

interrogations

reasonable conjecture that the person

XXI

who prepared the German

INTRODUCTION

depend

text did not

solely

on the written Latin manuscripts but

had access to the vivid memories of the

also

men who had

recently seen and heard the Jewish prisoners. Leaving both of

these voices aside,

we

voice of the Jews

actually the different voices of fifteen

four

is

are

left

with three others. The collective

In the context of the trial, however, they are

The

interlocutors.

reduced to one

set of

magisterial voice of authority includes the

main speaker, the podesta,

his colleague the captain,

and their

Also present at the interrogations were jurors,

interpreters.

guards, and

official

in the text.

The

who

men and

women, each with its own distinctive history and personality.

witnesses, but they are given only a few lines

belongs to the scribe

final voice, all-prevailing,

recorded the interrogations. There were two such notaries

— Hans von

Fundo, the

(Blutschreiber),

who was

official

scribe of the criminal court

present during most of the sessions, and

Peter Rauter of Maleferrat.

Von Fundo asked

to be relieved of

duty on 28 October 147^ on account of the investigation of the apostolic commissioner, who had accused the authorities in Trent

The podesta, Giovanni de Salis, refused the request, citing von Fundo 's indispensable linguistic skills (he was fluent in German, Italian, and Latin), but agreed to appoint of a miscarriage of justice.

Reuter

as a

second law

(magisterial,

the

clerk. ^

Jewish, and

As

a rule, the three

scribal) are

heard

major voices

indirectly. Sitting in

shadow of the torture chamber, von Fundo

usually recorded

the dialogue between magistrate and prisoner in the third person;

he often resorted to indirect discourse and employed phrases such as Man

Jragt,

("It

is

asked), a stunning reminder of the

ordered procedure and impersonality of judicial torture. Occasionally, direct

statements from the prisoners threaten the or-

dered universe of the transcript, and emotions burst through the

bulwark of chancery discourse.

The reader of the manuscript thus problem of translation

— from

is

speech to

faced with a twofold text,

and from one

language to another. The primary instance, the

moment

of

INTRODUCTION speech,

represented by the dialogues between two sets of

is

and the Jews. For setting, we have chamber in the castle: a bare room, high a few benches, perhaps a window or two, and

interlocutors: the magistrates

to imagine the torture ceilings,

stone walls,

the strappado, an instrument constructed of a rope and pulley to

The podesta presided over all sessions; the capcommander, was present at many but not

hoist prisoners. tain,

the city's military

others

sessions;

all

—

administrators,

served as interpreters and

and notaries

jurors,

official witnesses.

Seated at a table

supplied with pen, ink, and paper, the scribe described the scene

and the dialogue for the record of the court and for Vivid as the

trial

man

record

may read, we cannot forget it was written

words alien to the protagonists. Four languages were actually involved in the

by one

From

the

Brescia,

in

YM, we know

was an

Italian

The

speaker with a poor

German

Italian,

for the Jews; the answers, in

write

down all

Israel,

trans-

German, were

the scribe tried to

Except for the couple Anna German and Italian, the Jews German; many of them had travelled from central that

was

who were

spoke only

all this,

little

The podesta

which one of the interpreters

translated back for the podesta; during

and

command of German;

von Sporo, a German, knew

interrogation proceeded in this way:

asked questions, in lated into

interrogations.

that the podesta, Giovanni de Salis of

conversely, the captain, Jakob Italian.^

posterity.

said, in Latin.

fluent in both

Europe and understood interrogations, Israel

little

or no

Italian.

Twice, in separate

and Anna gave short answers

— —when

in Italian

the

occasions were remarkable enough that the scribe recorded these

speeches in the original.

Hebrew came

in at

the Jews swore to their confessions and

two points

when

the magistrates

coerced them to repeat the prayers in the Haggadah deemed

blasphemous to

Christianity.

The

YM itself registers the polyph-

ony of the trial; it represents a record of multiple translations: from Italian into German, from German back to Italian, from Hebrew into German and Latin, from Italian and German into

INTRODUCTION

Latin,

and from the Latin court transcript into the German text of

the manuscript.

And

sinister translation

tween

fact

and

finally,

the manuscript reflects a far

— one which

more

transgresses the boundary be-

fantasy, collapsing voluntar\' statements into invol-

untary confessions and distorting Jewish

ethnography of barbarism. ^°

rites into a Christian

ABBREVIATIONS

AST, APV,

C

Archivio di Stato, Trent. Archivio Principesco-Vescovile, Capsa

SL

Sezione Latina

ST

Sezione Tedesca

ONB "Pro bibliotheca"

Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek "Pro bibliotheca erigenda": Mostra

di

manoscritti ed incunaboli del vescovo di

Trento lohannes Hinderbach,

146^—1486.

Trent: Biblioteca comunale, 1989 Process!

Processi contro gli ebrei di Trento,

14JS. Vol.

I, /

Processi del

Anna Esposito and Diego

14JS~

14JS. Ed.

Quaglioni.

Padua: cedan, 1990

Dei Giudici. Apologia ludaeorum.

Quaglioni,

Battista

Apologia ludaeorum.

Invectiva contra Platinam.

Propaganda

antiebraica e polemiche di Curia durante

XXV

il

ABBREVIATIONS

Pontifcato di Sisto IV

(14JI-1484). Ed. Diego Quaglioni. Rome: Roma nel

Rinascimento, 1987

Rogger

II

Principe Vescovo Giovanni Hinderbach

(146^—1486) Jra

tardo medioevo e

umanesimo: Incontro

di studio,

ottobre 1989. Ed. Iginio

Trento,

2—6

Rogger. Trent.

N.d., forthcoming.

YM

Yeshiva University

Museum. New

Manuscript record of the

trial

York.

against

the Jews of Trent ("Prozess gegen die Juden von Trient")

TRENT 1475

-^VJi^ut? von

^ncvff Qct^ot V*»»uc^.ucirt»»

ri? R-»*i»**t»»Sc»l

Si^

%.4

>cm Vwx^

SC^

Vv»tvt~^*

Wu^niCTi eke

Ht%ttMf»i

v**^/? "fn

Jem fw*4fot

(^c«*w^/>^ 6^ff^**^^f,^te^

/ic^ >yc#«;«r

-Ov^-

^^-vc^

^

-^Y^

i^* e, 123

Hus, Jan, 12-13 Langenstein, Heinrich von, j-6,

Innocent

M-12,

Pope, 127, 128

IV,

Lazarus (son of Aaron of SeravallX

Innocent VIII, Pope, 4 Innsbruck,

30, 31, 49, 60, 82, 84, 87, 88,

19, ^o, 61, 69, 81, 98,

92, 129,

42, 49, 84, 87-88, 89, 91, 92, 103 Isaac (son of

1

103

Moses of Bamberg),

Lazarus the pious, 22, 62

Lombardy,

20, j2, 93,

Mala Jama,

33, i2^

103, 126

3,

29

Israel

(son of Joaff), 20

Israel

(son of Samuel X

Margaritha. See Blond Gretchen

Margaritha (wife of Hans LedererX

iij,

112,

108,

129,

Martin V, Pope,

13

Emperor, 129

Maximilian

I,

Mayer,

17,

130.

the painter, 22, 28, 30, 49, 73,

82, 83, 84, 93,

32

i^, 16, 17, 26,

29-30^ 3'v32, 36, 43, 47, 48-49, 61, 6j, 67, Israel

2

91-

133

Isaac the cook, 21, 27, 28, 31, 3J-36,

22,

10,

13

9J-103, '04, in,

i^,

18, 29, 31, 40, 43, 47,

49, 67, 68, 108,

1 1

Messianism, 12-13

114 Michiel, Giovanni, cardinal, i2o

Mocenigo, Pietro, doge of Venice,

Jakob von Sporo,

29, 36, 47, jo, ^5,

61, 62, 64, 77, 78, 79, 81-82, lOI

Jews: in Vienna,

11, 13;

21,

10^,

108; in Trent,

travels of,

ij,

100; languages

moneylenders,

82,

coniaX

19-20, 22, 24, 64,

known 16,

24,

95-96,

wealth

of, 28; in

Rovereto, 30, 7^, 79, 127; violence

28-29, 3>, 49,

22,

87, 88, 89-90, 91

15,

17-18, 29, 31, 39, 40,

42-43, 44, 46, 49, 61, 63, 6J-66,

by, 16; as

36,

84

Moses ("Old Moses," Moses of Fran-

14-2 j;

99; as physicians, 18, 24, 41, 62, 109, 119;

Moses of Bamberg,

household

structure of, 14-1^, 18-19, 20-

67,

130

Moses (son of EngelX Moses (son of TobiasX

2 1

Moses the

pious, 22

Moses the

tutor, 19, 28, 31, 49, 82,

against, j2, 7^, 128-29; in Verona,

84, 87, 88, 91, 92,

103,

104

78; in Venice, 96, 98, 103; in Re-

gensburg, 97-98; in Rome,

1

14,

118-20, 127; in Vicenza, 128-29. See also

Anti-Semitism

^2,

7J, 78

Nardini, Stefano, cardinal, 7

Norhella (daughter of SaraX 19

Nuremberg,

171

i^,

19,

0,

59, 9i,

99

INDEX Old Johannes

(gravedigger), 24, 39

of others against,

Padua,

108,

22, 24, 71, 97,

6,

Pope,

II,

execution

99-100

Peter, Hans,

cardinal,

Piedmont, Pius

Platina,

Schallman. See Samuel Schonlein, 15,

122-23,

120, 124

10,

6, 7,

1

1-

1

1

114,

2,

115,

131

Schweizer, der,

126

124,

Podesta. See Giovanni de Salis

29-30, 87,

21,

18,

107—08,

106,

89

106-07,

122-23, •31

115,

26

4,

123,

108-11, 114,

II

Giacomo Ammannati, 1

Pope,

II,

66-67

of,

Sara, 19, 21, 26, 27-28, 87,

Piccolomini, Aeneas Silvius. See Pius Piccolomini,

and

40, 43, 49, 61-65; sentencing

120

7, 70,

31, 32, 38, 42,

44, 46, 60, 88; questioning of, 37,

124

Paolo di Novara, 102-03 Paul

testimony

of, 17, 18; arrest of, 29;

2,

17, 22, 24, 30,

3,

3^-36, 38-39, 77-78. 79

Second Vatican Council, 135 Seligman ("the Other Seligman"X

Raphael, 72, 99 Rauter, Peter, 66, 67, loi

Regensburg,

8,

15,

murder

trials,

3,

3^-36, 38, 44, 49, 61,

28,

66, 67, 68

91, 93, 97, 98

Ritual murder. See Blood libel Ritual

17,

Seligman the cook,

15,

26-27,

Sigismund, archduke of Tirol:

128

29, 36,

44, 49, 67, 68

76, 92-93, 98,

Rituals: bath, 26, 109; slaughter, 43;

69, 71, 72, 78, 98, 102, 114;

16, 53,

com-

executions, 67-68, 103-04; ges-

pact with Hinderbach,

9;

tures, 88, III

sion of

approval of

Ritzard of Brixen, 91, 97, 98

Rome,

106,

104,

Rottaler,

121, 123

2,

3;

100, 104,

discovery

27, 28, 29, 30; ac31, 32,

35-36,

37-4^, 47, 48, 49, 63, 64, 65, 66,

Rovereto, 30, 74-77, 79, 99, "iS, 126,

i,

counts of his death,

24-2^, 39, 114

Wilhelm,

25, 68, 94,

114; search for,

of his body,

(tailor),

126, 129

Simon of Trent:

108—21,

130

127,

Roper

trial by, 81,

4, 7, 8, 9, ^6, 69, 70, 71, 73,

78, 80, 98, 99,

trial by, 50, 51;

suspen-

84, 85, 87, 88, 96, 97,

127

no.

108,

101,

106,

III, 112; miracles at-

tributed to, 51-52, 71-72, 74; cult

Salomon, 98-99, 102-03, 114

of, 53,

Salomon (son of

Engel),

79,

Salomon (son of

Giitlein), 2

2

Salomon the cook, 19-20, 122-23,

Samuel:

3,

21,

22,

'oo,

112,

11^,

135;

123,

125-30,

132-35;

as relic, 72; canonization of,

•32

28, 31,

Sixtus IV, Pope, 69, 78, 79, 80, 81,

39, ^4, 77, 79,

109,

body

'3' 14,

^4-60, 69, 70, 73, 77, 78,

121,

114,

household

of,

24-30, 3^,

117,

36,

'O',

'07,

108,

116,

129,

130,

15-16; lineage

118,

119,

120,

124,

127,

130

Sophia (daughter of Master HansX 114,

115

Sprintz, David, rabbi, 15, 63, 64

172

I

INDEX

Storytelling,

2,

6j, 84, 86-87, 9°,

Unferdorben, Maria,

^4-^5, j6

2j,

University of Bologna, 70 Siisslein,

106,

28-29, 3o> 87,

20, 21, 27, 1

1

Synagogue,

University of Vienna,

116

J,

22,

18,

lo-ii, 12-

6,

'3

26-27, 38, 44, 63,

Usury,

II, ^3

^,

113

8^, 88, 96,

Vatican Library, 118, 124 Veneto, ^2, 93, 103, 126

Tiberino, Giovanni Mattia, 30, 33,

Venice, 30, 46, ji, j6, 69, 74-7 s, 80,

Si-S^y 64, 69

98,

12!

Tirol, 7, 18, 38, j2, 129

Ventimiglia, bishop of See Dei Tobias:

3,

26-30, 49, 54,

14, 21, 24,

Giudici, Baptista loi,

107,

109-10, 112, 116, 135; Verona,

household

of,

questioning

18-20; arrest

41-42, 4^, 46-

of, 40,

Vicenza,

Vienna,

47, 62-63; testimony of others Vital,

against, 44, 48, 64, 6^; execution of,

8,

of, 29;

74, 7^, 78, 79-80, 128

0,

69, 71, 121, 128 11,

i^, 31, 36, 40,

12,

13

47-48, 49, 61,

6^, 66-67, 68

67

Trent: cathedral, 24,

104,

i;

Buonconsiglio,

27, 29, 34, 37, 71, 9j, 99,

106, 109, 122;

church of

3,

Wagenseil, Christof, 132, 133

103,

Witches,

4,

89

St.

Wolfgang. See Peter's, 3, 29, 30,

cipality of,

7-8,

9;

communal

St.

Martin's Gate, 104

Unferdorben, Andreas, ^4-^^, J6

the painter

Yeshiva Manuscript,

i,

2,

i,

stat-

48, 63,

utes of, 35;

Israel

71-72, 132, 13^;

cathedral chapter, 6-7, 9; prin-

31,

10,

6, 7, 9,

2^, 30,

137,

Young Moses.

2,

3^, 41, 4^,

139-40

See

Moses the tutor

Zanesus. See Schweizer, der Zovenzoni, Raffaele, ^i, ^3

73

History/Jewish Studies

On

Easter Sunday, 1475, the dead body of a two-year-old boy

Simon was found

in the cellar

of a Jewish family's house in Trent,

magistrates arrested eighteen Jewish

of in

ritual

murder

—

Jewish religious

men and one

woman on

Jewish

Town

the charge

the killing of a Christian child in order to use his blood

rites.

In this engrossing book, R. Po-chia Hsia reconstructs

the events of this tragic persecution

and

sets the trial

and

of medieval blood

in the historical context

"A highly readable

named Italy.

its

documents

libel.

most notorious chapters

report of one of the

in the history

of anti-Semitism. The book gives the modern historian and the general public

access to the stunning spectacle of medieval 'due process,' the assumptions of the persecutors,

and the experiences of the victims."

— Heiko A. Oberman, author of Luther: Man Between God and "The

horrible story of judicial torture, false witness, conversions exacted

of less painful forms of execution,

is

told calmly

the Devil

on

and with scholarly

the promise care."

—Frank Kermode, London Review of Books "Specialists

and non-specialists

will find this a stimulating

and rewarding work."

— Stephen D. Benin, Religious Studies Review R. Po-chia Hsia

is

professor of European history at

New York

University.

Published in cooperation with Yeshiva University Library

Also available by R. Po-chia Hsia

The Myth of Ritual Murder in Reformation Germany

Jews and Magic

Society and Religion Cover

illustration: Detail of

in

Munster, 1535-1618

engraving of Trent by Franz Hogenberg, 1588.

Reproduced courtesy of Provincia Autonoma

di Trento,

Museo

provinciale d'arte.

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS New Haven

and London

ISBN 0-300-06872-7

9

780300"068726