Simone Luzzatto. Discorso circa il stato de gl` Hebrei, et in particolar dimoranti nell`inclita Citt`a di Venetia [“Discourse on the Jews of Venice.”]

(ITALY)

Gioanne Calleoni

Venice

1638

FIRST EDITION. Aldine’s anchor device on title.

St. Cat. Bodl. col. 2597 no. 7191.

The author, Simone (Simcha) Luzzatto (1583-1663), was appointed senior Rabbi of Venice following the death of Leone Modena. Luzzatto was spurred to compose the present work due to a perceived threat of expulsion from Venice of its Jews. Luzzatto devoted the first part of the Discorso to a demonstration of the utility of the Jews to the economy of Venice. Perforce, he defends money-lending (which the Venetian Senate had required the Jews to engage in); moreover, the author argues that due to their political quietism at no time would Jews pose a threat to the internal security of the Venetian Republic. Whether as a direct result of this work or not, Jews were indeed permitted to remain in Venice. See B. Ravid, Moneylending in Seventeenth Century Jewish Vernacular Apologetica, & B. Septimus, Biblical Religion and Political Rationality in Simone Luzzatto, Maimonides and Spinoza in: Twersky & Septimus (eds.) Jewish Thought in the Seventeenth Century (1987) pp. 257-75; 399-433.