Jews in the Italian Renaissance

During the Renaissance, the Jews of Italy experienced, in certain cities and courts, a participation in cultural life that was relatively free compared to the rest of Europe. Jewish physicians, philosophers, musicians, and printers contributed to the intellectual ferment of the era, and Hebrew printing developed notably in Venice. The contact between Jewish scholars and Christian humanists fostered a new interest in the Hebrew language and Kabbalah, as witnessed by the work of Pico della Mirandola. Figures such as the philosopher Yehuda Abravanel (Leone Ebreo), author of the Dialogues of Love, illustrate this creativity. This period of exchange was nonetheless followed, from the mid-sixteenth century onward, by a hardening marked by the Counter-Reformation and the creation of ghettos.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗