The Jews in Sicily. Volume 7: 1478-1489, and: The Jews in Sicily. Volume 8: 1490-1497 (review)

The two volumes under review are part of the massive A Documentary History of the Jews in Italy, whose general editor is Shlomo Simonsohn. There have been four volumes on Milan (Simonsohn), three on Piedmont (Renata Segre), three on Umbria (Ariel Toaff), two on Liguria (Rosanna Urbani), and I myself have produced two on Rome. Projected volumes will cover Tuscany and Southern Italy. Simonsohn has now undertaken what will be the largest single contribution, that on the Jews of Sicily. Including the present volumes 7 and 8, the series now numbers twenty-three volumes. The next ten volumes will also be on Sicily, including a monographic study due out by 2011.

Volumes 7 and 8 deal with the most dramatic period for Sicilian Jewry, the years 1478 to 1497. Many documents are fully reproduced, but not all, which would have trebled the volumes' size. In 1492, these Jews — scattered in communities throughout the island, as well as the islands of Malta, and Pantelleria (document no. 5,458: the numeration is consecutive from volume 1), and all subjects of the Crown of Aragon — were expelled together with the Jews of Spain.

The rich documentation allows readers to use their imagination in stringing the materials together. A great deal is suggested: in particular, that Maurice Kriegel's thesis that the expulsion of 1492 was decided at the last minute is correct (Revue Historique, 1978). In the fifteen years leading up to the event, only hindsight would have offered the faintest clue about what surely came as a bolt out of the blue. The order itself (no. 5,439) was hidden for about three months, likely to ensure that Jews would not run off with money and property before officialdom organized. Indeed, with no more than a handful of exceptions, Jews were protected from despoliation and violence (no. 5,276), in part to guarantee that they would pay off an enormous fine of 10[5],000 florins. Their property was sequestrated and held until payoff, as no. 5,636, perhaps, best illustrates. Jews tried to smuggle property out and paid Christians to do so (no. 5,941 [March 1493]). No. 5,990 (early 1494) lists contributions to the huge fine by various communities, excluding Palermo. Jewish debts, and their collection, are listed in many complete registers, which are detailed in the instances listed in no. 6,102 (1497).

There was some Christian protest. No. 5,497 (1492) lists concerns of Sicilian officials about what the Jews' absence augured: those who lost revenues from Jewish tenants had to be compensated (no. 6,059), while those who received Jewish property were themselves to pay taxes on it (no. 6,079 [January, 1496]). The actual departure took about a year. No. 5,796 (1492) reports concerns about dishonest boat owners, and 5,865 (December, 1492) suggests some Jewish passengers were defrauded. The expulsion also accelerated conversions. Often a husband converted, claimed his children for the Church, but his wife refused to follow (no. 5,635 [1492] is poignant), although not always (no. 5,431 [1492]). No. 5,454 (1492) is the first of various royal letters protecting converts, who were to enjoy the same rights as Christians and suffer no monetary loss (nos. 5,535 and 5,559).

Yet besides expulsion, these two volumes record the living world of the Jews. Documents issued by the viceroy and other officials order that Jews be protected from exploitation, guaranteeing, for example, a Jewish wine monopoly and exemptions from wearing the badge. Slaves who converted, however, had to be handed...