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Podcast: New Books in Italian Studies
Episode: Federica Francesconi, "Invisible Enlighteners: The Jewish Merchants of Modena, from the Renaissance to the Emancipation" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021)
Description: In her recent book on the Jewish community of Modena in Italy, Federica Francesconi tells a tale of contradictions. Segregated to the city’s ghetto in the 17th century, the Jewish merchants of the city nonetheless possessed an enormous presence in its economic, governmental and cultural milieu. By the start of the 19th century, these merchants even took center stage in Modena’s political scene following Napoleon’s conquest of Italy and the subsequent abolition of the ghettos themselves. How did this transformation occur? In what ways had life in the Modena – and in the Modenese ghetto – prepared these Jewish mer...