Seder ha-Ha’arachah ve-ha-Hanhagah [Communal regulations and obligations]

(ITALY).

Eliezer Solomon d’Italia

Mantua

c.1786

Title within architectural arch

Vinograd, Mantua 552

Starting in 1588-89, the Tax Regulations of the Mantuan Jewish Community were printed at intervals, without interruption, until the end of the eighteenth century. The taxes levied went both for the internal upkeep of the Jewish Community, its institutions and functionaries, as well as payments to the general municipality of Mantua. “It was a special characteristic of the Mantuan community that it never went bankrupt, despite the great financial burden it was required to bear... The decline of the economic position of Italy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the increasing burden of taxes borne by the Jews, and the growth in the number of Jewish poor, all affected the Duchy of Mantua..but [they] succeeded in..balancing their budgets because they were able to manage their affairs more wisely than their brethren in neighbouring states.” See S. Simonsohn, History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua (1977) pp.375-90 Our issue is endorsed by Chief Rabbi Israel Gedaliah Cases (d.1793). It would be binding for three years, 1783-6