Communities > Disputes in Corfu
Universita' Italiana della Sinagoga Corfiota Aborigine contro Universita' della Sinagoga Corfiota Greca: Title page.
Universita' Italiana della Sinagoga Corfiota Aborigine contro Universita' della Sinagoga Corfiota Greca: Second to last spread
Universita' Italiana della Sinagoga Corfiota Aborigine contro Universita' della Sinagoga Corfiota Greca: Last spread
Universita' Italiana della Sinagoga Corfiota Aborigine contro Universita' della Sinagoga Corfiota Greca: Binding
Universita' Italiana della Sinagoga Corfiota Aborigine contro Universita' della Sinagoga Corfiota Greca: Rear cover
Universita' Italiana della Sinagoga Corfiota Aborigine contro Universita' della Sinagoga Corfiota Greca.
Manuscript in Italian on parchment.
Italy, 1674.
MS X893 Z8 v.3 no. 6
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
This manuscript was produced as a result of a dispute between the two Jewish communities in Corfu. The Greek community was older but smaller and more exclusive, while the Italian community, which also incorporated Iberian refugees, was larger and more diverse. Although the two communities had lived in harmony for several hundred years by the 17th century, the influx of refugees into the Italian community caused some cultural tensions. Throughout this period, delegates of the Greek and Italian communities appeared before the Venetian Council and its Doge, with the Greeks requesting seniority privileges notwithstanding the shrinking numbers of their community. The Italian community delegation proved that they also had members with longevity in Corfu, and the Doge decreed that these Italian members be respected in addition to those from the Greek communities.
The distinctly Italian manner of illustration (including a copy of a Venetian printers’ mark, painted on a page following the text) is perhaps a nod to the equality that the Italian community had achieved after the Doge’s decision.
Purchased for Columbia by Salo Baron from David Fraenkel, 1933.