Details

Subjects:

Jews -- Italy -- Livorno -- History.
Jews -- Italy -- Pisa -- History.
Jews.
History.
Livorno (Italy) -- History -- 16th century.
Pisa (Italy) -- History -- 16th century.
Italy -- Pisa.
Italy -- Livorno.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Decrees.
Manuscripts, Italian.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Italian.

Summary:

Copy of an edict inviting foreign merchants, especially Jews, to settle in Livorno and Pisa, and defining their rights and privileges. The original edict was issued from the ducal palace in Florence, dated 10 June 1593, and consists of 44 clauses. The rights and privileges included amnesty for offenses committed previously, freedom from debts incurred elsewhere, free safe conduct in Livorno, the right to conduct business throughout Tuscany, the same rights and privileges in conducting foreign trade as others in Tuscany, protection from extraordinary levies beyond the usual taxes, exemption from the regulations on Jews living in Florence and Siena, the right of Jews to build and maintain a synagogue and cemetery, the right to observe Jewish holidays, ownership of printed books or manuscripts reviewed by the Inquisition, ownership of real property, freedom to practice for Jewish doctors, permission to employ Christian servants, the right of heads of households to bear arms, and freedom from wearing an insignia signifying Jewish identity.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Collation: Parchment, ii (contemporary paper) + 12 + ii (contemporary paper); 1-6²; [1-12]; modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto. Catchwords on some leaves, lower right verso (f. 2v-6v, 10v). Link to collation model at end of record.
Layout: Written in 22 long lines, ruled in drypoint, with clauses numbered in the left margin.
Script: Written in a humanistic script, with clause numbers and initials at the beginning of each clause in square capitals.
Decoration: Medici arms in ink (f. 1r); floral design in ink at end of text (f. 12r); inhabited 3-line initial in ink (f. 1v); simple 2-line initial in ink at the beginning of each clause.
Watermark: Sun in circle on flyleaves.
Binding: Contemporary Italian goatskin over pasteboard, blind-ruled, with one pair of linen ties and remnants of a second pair.
Origin: Written in Italy, possibly in Florence, after the edict was issued in 1593.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Prince Piero Ginori Conti, ms. 10375 (bookplate inside upper cover).
Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 19 May 2000, lot 229, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.
Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle in honor of Arthur Kiron, Schottenstein-Jesselson Curator of Judaica Collections, Penn Libraries, 2011.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 153 (LJS 379).

Cited as:

UPenn LJS 379

Contributor:

Ginori Conti, Piero, 1865-1939, former owner.
Schoenberg, Lawrence J., former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

213494296

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page

Collation model