The Ghetto of Venice; A History

New York: M. Evans and Company, Inc, 1987. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xvii, [1], 313, [1] pages. Illustrated endpapers. "From" --an Appreciation by Elie Wiesel. Footnotes. Illustrations. Glossary of Hebrew Terms (Raffaele Grassini). General Bibliography of Reference Works. Index. Minor edge soiling. Riccardo Calimani (born 1946 in Venice, Italy) is a writer and historian, specializing in Italian and European Judaism and Jewish history. A graduate of Philosophy of science at the University of Venice, he worked many years a director of TV programs at RAI for the Venetian Region. Among his many works are Dialogo sull'ebraismo (Dialogue on Judaism); The Ghetto of Venice (Costantino Pavan Prize), Ebrei e pregiudizio (Jews and Prejudice, Storia dell'ebreo errante (A History of the Wandering Jew), L'Inquisizione a Venezia (Inquisition in Venice), Passione e tragedia (Passion and Tragedy), Ebrei eterni inquieti (Jews, Eternally Restless). In 1986 he received the Prize for Culture from the Italian Parliament and in 1997 the European Prize for Culture. Derived from a Kirkus review: This detailed study traces the Venetian Ghetto from its 16th-century beginnings to the Fascist depredations of 1943-45. Calimani not only untangles the complicated social, religious, political, and cultural strands that make up the story and weaves them into a colorful tapestry, he brings to life scores of scholars and scoundrels, financiers and fanatics who made their home in the walled enclave. He explodes many of the myths that have grown up about ghetto life. Calimani is most evocative when he is recounting the lives of ordinary Jews. Among the other topics: messianic expectations, money lending and usury, the Inquisition, and anti-Semitic propaganda, all of which Calimani handles with exemplary thoroughness and lack of sensationalism. Aided by Katherine Silberblatt Wolfthal's smooth and lively translation, Calimani has here rendered Venice's Ghetto in distinctive, memorable style.