Women and Jewish Marriage Negotiations in Early Modern Italy - For Love and Money

List of contents

1. Introduction: Jews, Women, and Rabbis in Italy 2. Negotiating Engagement: Anticipating Danger 3. Breaking Betrothals: Fleeing Danger 4. Negotiating in and out of Marriage 5. Anticipating Death: Negotiating Assets 6. Remarriage: Negotiations Between Families 7. Conclusion

About the author

Howard Tzvi Adelman is Director of the Jewish Studies Program and Associate Professor of History at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Summary

This book examines the role of women in Jewish family negotiations, using the setting of Italy from the end of the Renaissance to the Baroque. In ghettos at night and under the scrutiny of inquisitions, Jews flourished. Life and learning were enriched by Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, the Ottoman Empire, transalpine Europe, west and east, and Catholic neighbors. Rabbinic discourse represented conflicting customs in family formation and dissolution, especially at moments of crisis for women: forced betrothal; physical, mental and financial abuse; polygamy, and abandonment. In this book, case studies illustrate the ambiguity, drama, and danger to which women were exposed, as well as opportunities to make their voices heard and to extricate themselves from situations by forcing a divorce, collecting or seizing assets, and going to Catholic notaries to bequeath their assets outside traditional inheritance, often to other women. Despite intrusion by rabbis, their ability for coercion was limited, and their threats of punishments reflected the rhetoric of weakness rather than realistic options for implementation. The focus of this text is not what the law says, but rather how it enabled individual Jews, especially women, to speak and to act.

Product details

• Authors: Howard (Queen's University Adelman, Howard (Queen''s University Adelman, Howard Tzvi Adelman, Howard Tzvi (Queens University Adelman, Howard Tzvi (Queen''s University Adelman
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.03.2018
• EAN: 9780815348092
• ISBN: 978-0-8153-4809-2
• No. of pages: 222
• Series: Routledge Research in Early Modern History
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; History, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / Jewish, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Jewish Studies, c 1500 onwards to present day, Jewish Studies, Archaeology, Social and cultural history, History and Archaeology, Relating to Jewish people and groups, Modern Period, C 1500 Onwards, Social groups: religious groups and communities