Italian Promissory Note issued to Reuben ben Samuel Sforno and others.
AUCTION 54 |
Wednesday, March 21st,
2012 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts Autograph Letters, Graphic & Ceremonial Art
Lot 272
(ITALY).
Italian Promissory Note issued to Reuben ben Samuel Sforno and others.
Bologna: 15th May, 1439
Est: $4,000 - $5,000
Father and son Reuben ben Samuel Sforno and Abraham ben Samuel Sforno were the leading Jewish bankers in Bologna during the first and second halves of the 15th-century respectively. The building that housed both the Sforno bank and the Sforno family home still stands on the Piazza Santo Stephano, in the historic center of the city. The building has frequently been misidentified as the home of the Biblical commentator, philosopher Obadiah Sforno (1475-1550) who did indeed live in Bologna, where he conducted a yeshiva with the support of his brother Hananel Sforno, also a Bologna banker. Sforno, or Spurno as it is spelled in one document here, is first found as a Jewish family name in the 15th-century, but the relationship of Obadiah and Hananel to Reuben and Abraham, while seemingly apparent, has not been demonstrated.
For more on the activities of Jewish bankers in Renaissance Bologna, see M. G. Muzzarelli, Banchi ebraici a Bologna nel XV secolo (1994).