The Hebrew Book in Early Modern Italy

Chapter 2. Marchion in Hebrew Manuscripts: State Censorship in Florence, 1472

CHAPTER 2 Marchion in Hebrew Manuscripts: State Censorship in Florence, 1472 Nurit Pasternak The signature of Marchion in small Latin humanistic characters appears in seventeen Hebrew manuscripts, all of which are related in one way or another to Florence.1 This peculiar signature is in fact a censor mark interspersed within the folios of each of the seventeen manuscripts: as a rule it appears on the side margins of the written text, adjacent to deleted words, lines, or passages that were regarded as blasphemous and disparaging to the Christian faith.2 In several cases it was placed in close proximity to an expression that called for apologetic explication, and that ultimately was left untouched.3 Followed by the sigla, or abbreviation mark, SS, Marchion’s signature must have acted as a formal stamp of validation.4 The humanistic script of Marchion’s signature betrays the fact that this intervention occurred sometime during the fifteenth century, certainly in Italy, and most probably in Tuscany, where this script prevailed.5 The investigation of Marchion’s signatures, their significance, and their historical context was set in motion after the deciphering of three Hebrew inscriptions in the lateral margins of the famous Ashkenazi Hebrew codex of the Talmud now kept in Florence.6 During the fifteenth century that manuscript had belonged to the prestigious San Miniato family of Jewish ‘‘bankers’’ residing in Florence.7 The three Hebrew inscriptions, all in minute , cursive Italian hand, with Marchion’s signature appended to them, are placed on the margins facing the expression umot ha’olam: they restrict the definition of this collective term to worshipers of idols, excluding the Christians from it.8 One of them reads as follows:9 Marchion 27 Figure 2.1. Marchion’s signature in the margins of an expurgated text, MS New York, Jewish Theological Seminary 4518, fol. 81r. Courtesy of the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary. We mean by this expression excepting the Christians and others who believe in the Creator and are therefore excluded from this term. . . . We carried out this revision (hagaha) by order of the Eight, August 1472 (Elul 5232), and their notary, ser Marchion, will sign his name upon it.10 A similar inscription, formulated almost identically though apparently inscribed by a different Hebrew hand, appears in a paper manuscript containing the Book of Precepts (Sefer miz .vot gadol).11 Two more apologetic notes in this vein are found in an undated mah .zor.12 From these inscriptions one may infer that at least two individuals were involved in revising and correcting the Hebrew text, as indicated above by the use of the first person plural: ‘‘we carried out’’;13 moreover, the Hebrew hands that wrote the margin inscriptions were undoubtedly those of Jews, who, so it seems, troubled to clarify that they were acting upon the authorities’ orders, indeed by orders of the ‘‘Eight.’’ Do we have here a team consisting of a censor (be he a Christian, a Jew, or a convert) accompanied by an appointed notary, on a joint mission of expurgating Hebrew manuscripts?14 Judging from the dissimilarity in Hebrew handwritings among the apologetic inscriptions in 28 Chapter 2 the three manuscripts, a different scenario comes to mind: perhaps the Florentine Jews who owned manuscripts would be summoned to the appointed functionary of the Eight (namely, their notary, Marchion) with their books;15 here we are faced with two options—these books would either be emended by each owner beforehand;16 or they would be emended by their owners (or possibly by their emissary17 ) in Marchion’s presence. As to the apologetic inscriptions clarifying that the offensive term excluded Christians, it seems reasonable that each of the book owners would be required to inscribe in their own hands a short declaration in this regard (namely, the marginal inscriptions), thus affirming their good faith—hence the different Hebrew handwriting.18 To complete the operation, as a professional notary would, Marchion appended his signature next to each inscription or erasure, confirming that he had witnessed the procedure and was satisfied that all was in order. One is tempted, already at this stage, to compare Marchion’s working procedure to that of sixteenth-century censors :19 whereas he placed his signature next to every rectification, as becomes a notary (or lawyer) dealing with formal documents, the censors who were active a century later in the framework of the Counter-Reformation signed only once...