The Former Jews of This Kingdom: Sicilian Converts After the Expulsion 1492-1516 (Medieval Mediterranean)

This book examines the presence of the converted Jews in Sicily following the 1492 expulsion, discussing their legal status, economic activities and integration into Sicilian society, and the phenomenon of conversion and return of many exiles. The research is based on the account of books of the Spanish Inquisition in Sicily and other contemporary sources. Detailed inventories of confiscated property offer insights into the converts' cultural world, and can also be of interest to the scholar of social and material history in Early Modern Europe. By focussing on royal policies towards the converted Jews, and on the process of establishing the Spanish Inquisition in Sicily, the study sheds new light on Ferdinand the Catholic's politics in Sicily and southern Italy. Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Tables 8 Preface 10 Acknowledgments 12 Maps 13 Introduction 16 I. The Cultural Heritage 17 II. Sicily in the Later Middle Ages 18 III. The Historiography and the Sources 25 IV. Some Methodological and Technical Considerations 30 Chapter One The Formation and Composition of the Neofiti Population in Sicily 33 I. Conversions Before the Expulsion 34 II . Expulsion and the Encouragement of Conversion 36 III. Exile and Return 42 IV. Immigrants and Foreigners 58 V. Numerical Evaluation 65 VI. Conclusions 73 Chapter Two New Christians or Former Jews—Legal, Social, and Economic Frameworks 84 I. Royal Policies—Taxation, Discrimination and Protection 86 II. An Uneasy Welcome: Attitudes of the Old Christian Population 98 III. Jews, Converts, and the Sicilian Economy 115 IV. Conclusions 140 Chapter Three In the Shadow of the Inquisition 142 I. The First Period—Formal Beginnings to 1500 146 II. The Spanish Inquisition and the Neofiti: 1500 to 1510 158 III . The Auto de fé of 1511 186 IV. Acts of Faith from November 1511 to August 1515: ‘Relaxations’ and Mass Reconciliations 206 V. The Revolt of 1516 and its Aftermath 214 VI. Conclusions 229 Chapter Four Tracing a Portrait of Sicilian Converts 232 I. Judaizing 234 II. The Evidence of Material Culture 250 III. Group Identity 269 IV. Conclusions 298 General Conclusion 303 Appendix I: Dates, Coins, Weights, and Measures 311 Appendix II: Documents 313 Glossary 338 Bibliography 340 Index 354 The Medieval Mediterranean Peoples, Economies and Cultures, 400–1500 376 Discusses the situation of Conversos in Sicily (which belonged to the Crown of Aragon) after the expulsion of Jews from the island in 1492. There was a decade of protection and acceptance, followed by persecution on the part of the state and the Inquisition. The local elite was willing to allow Jews to continue to enjoy certain privileges and engage in business. However, the state (under the rule of King Ferdinand) engendered a progressive deterioration in the status of converts, e.g. via heavy taxation of property and other economic measures. Concludes that the advent of the modern state in Mediterranean Christian countries eliminated the semi-autonomous existence of the remaining non-Christian (including Jewish) minorities in Iberia and the adjacent islands. States that the mass conversion of Sicilian Jews may have reflected a Sephardic, Arab-influenced concept of religious dissimulation and intention of temporary conversion (even if for more than one generation). (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism) "This book examines the presence of the converted Jews in Sicily following the 1492 expulsion, discussing their legal status, economic activities and integration into Sicilian society, and the phenomenon of conversion and return of many exiles. The research is based on the account books of the Spanish Inquisition in Sicily and other contemporary sources. Detailed inventories of confiscated property offer insights into the converts' cultural world, and can also be of interest to the scholar of social and material history in Early Modern Europe." "By focusing on royal policies towards the converted Jews, and on the process of establishing the Spanish Inquisition in Sicily, the study sheds new light on Ferdinand the Catholic's politics in Sicily and southern Italy."--BOOK JACKET