(ITALY)

AUCTION 30 | Tuesday, September 20th, 2005 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Books and Manuscripts

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Lot 191

(ITALY)

Two documents from the rabidly anti-Semitic Jesuitic, Kingdom of Sardinia: 1) Regie Patenti Colle quali S.M. accorda agli Ebrei di tutti i Regi Stati l’esenzione di portatre il segno… [“Royal decree by King Victor Emanuel of Sardinia exempting Hebrews from wearing the sign prescribed by the general Constitution; permitting them to practice arts and trades; to exit their respective ghettos; and granting them a period of five years to deacquisition goods acquired during the rule of the previous government”]. (Turin: Stamperia Reale, 1 March 1816). * 2) Regie Patenti colle quali Sua Majesta, Ordina agli Ebrei proprietarii di stabili…[“Royal decree of the Sardinian Government ordering Hebrews owning properties to send to the Intendancy of Finances a list of their holdings, and ordering the obligatory sale of such holdings by 1 January, 1824, after which time those properties still within the possession of Hebrews will be publicly sold by the Magistrate”]. (Turin: Stamperia Reale, 15 February, 1822) Each pp.(7) + 1 integral blank. Loose. Folio

Est: $800 - $1,000
Napoleon Bonaparte was viewed as something of a savior by Italian Jewry. Under the French, the Jews enjoyed rights they had never known in their long and lugubrious history. With Napoleon’s defeat in 1814, came the inevitable backlash, or what historian Cecil Roth has termed the “Recoil.” In the Kingdom of Sardinia, heavily influenced by the Jesuits, the old anti-Jewish code was once again enforced - with a vengeance. In 1816, Jewish property-owners, who had prospered under Napoleon, were given five years to liquidate their holdings. Seeing that the process did not progress as planned, the government served notice in 1822 that properties remaining in Jewish possession by January 1, 1824 would be publicly sold by the Magistrate. The one concession to the Jews made in 1816 was that the regulations regarding the wearing of the Jewish badge were relaxed. See C. Roth, The History of the Jews of Italy (1946), pp. 448-49