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Journal of Mediterranean Studies, 1994 ISSN: 1016-3476 Vol. 4, No. 2: 330-343 VIDAL AND HIS PEOPLE E d g a r M o r in Extracts from Vidal et ses siens by Edgar Morin. Paris, Le Seuil, (1989). T h e L iv o r n ia n s In 1593, the grand-duke of Tuscany authorized foreigners, which included the Jews, to settle in Livorno, then a fishing village. In the 16th and 17th centuries Livorno opened its doors to Catholics from England, Moors from Spain, Jews expelled from Oran by the Spaniards in 1667, and Spanish and Portuguese M arranos. In the 17th century the city becomes a large port, competing with Venice and Salonica, with which it had trade relations. And further: during the 18th century, Livom ian Jews, often of Sephardic and indeed M arrano origin, but greatly italianized, settled in Salonica, probably attracted by the beratli' privileges from which they can benefit. They in fact enjoy Austrian consular protection (Austria representing Tuscany from 1737), and can benefit from English and most of all French protection (France is directly in control of Tuscany from 1800 to 1815); these Livornians are to form the bulk of the Frankish colony which takes international trade and brokerage into its hands. ‘They soon assert themselves on the local market and play a leading role in transactions with the W est.’2 Among these Livornians, one has to include the Nahums, the Franceses, the Beressis, who settled there around the end of the 18th century, and the M osseris, who arrive in the middle of the 19th. W hile the old Sephardis of Salonica are orientalised from then on, the Livornians are westernised to the extreme. They are brought up on secular W estern culture, and have already absorbed secular thought and new ideas from Tuscany which is a haven during the second half of the 18th century. In 1764 Beccaria publishes in Livorno his work Dei delitti e delle pene which breaks with the idea of punishment and any form of repression. Pietro-Leopoldo of Habsbourg-Lorraine, grand-duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790, is the perfect ‘enlightened despot’: in 1786 he promulgates a penal code inspired by B eccaria’s ideas, and for the first time in Europe, abolished the death penalty, torture, and crimes of lèse-majesté; he abolishes the Inquisition in 1787, and favoures physiocratic ideas. It was in this climate that the Livornian Jewish community which settled in Salonica at the end of the century took shape. The Livornians, by virtue of their status, were at first consular protégés, and then naturalized Italian after the unification of the Peninsula; they avoided the Turkish State, the Jewish administration, and the tax collected by the former from the latter. Initially, Copyright © 1994 Mediterranean Institute. Univ. of Malta Vidal and His People 3 3 1 they establish links with the modern W est. From then on, benefiting both from their im munity from rabbinical power and their economic privileges compared to the Turks and the other Jews, they will introduce the modern, secular, technical and economic W est to Sephardic Salonica. These Livom ians are in a sense neo-M arranos/not Christianized, but secularized: they wear European clothes, shave, and speak Italian in their homes; the wealthier ones send their sons to be educated in Tuscany, often in Universities. Throughout the 19th century, theLivomians of Salonica,concentrated in the Frankish districts,live endogamously, marrying within their small community. There are perhaps 2,000 Livom ians and Tuscans in the middle of the 19th century, since Italy, which had then become a nation (1861) will count 3,000 Italians in the city. Exempted from the tax, privileged in their status and speaking Italian and French, the Livomians constitute a link between the Sephardis, the Greeks, the Tuscans, the Austrians, the French, and, more widely, between the Ottomans and the Westerners. They are contacts for W estern firms and companies in the Ottoman Empire. Also, families of Livomian origin are to economically dominate and culturally guide the city during the 19th century. After establishing and developing commerce on a large scale, they become importers...

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