TY - JOUR
T1 - Jews and Judaism in the Rhetoric of Popular Preachers
T2 - The Florentine Sermons of Giovanni Dominici (1356-1419) and Bernardino da Siena (1380-1444)
AU - Ben-Aryeh Debby, Nirit
N1 - Funding Information:
I want to express my thanks to Prof. R. Fubini from the University of Florence and to Prof. B.Z. Kedar from the Hebrew University for many helpful remarks on a previous version of this study, and to the editor, Prof. K. R. Stow, for many valuable suggestions. I would also like to thank the anonymous readers for their constructive criticism, and the Yad Hanadiv Foundation for their generous support of this study. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America–Florence 2000 in a session on Renaissance Judaism.
PY - 2000/1/1
Y1 - 2000/1/1
N2 - The article deals with the perceptions of Judaism of Savonarola's most important predecessors, the Dominican preacher Giovanni Dominici and the Franciscan preacher Bernardino da Siena, who were active in fifteenth century Florence. These preachers offer two distinct models of mendicant preaching regarding the Jews: Dominici based his views on theological arguments, while Bernardino focused on contemporary Jewish moneylenders and their destructive dangers. The preachers' opposition to the Jews was grounded in their political ideal of Florentine republic as a purified sacred body where there was no place for polluting outsiders as the Jews. Both preachers succeeded in influencing the fate of the Jews. Dominici might have had a hand in the banishment of Jews from Venice and there is circumstantial and linguistic evidence that he was responsible for the change in Florentine policy against the Jews in the legislation of 1406. Bernardino caused the banishment of Jews from many Italian towns and was responsible for measures taken against them, such as segregation. Both preachers were successful in keeping the Jews out of the city of Florence, although they failed in their attempt to have the Jews expelled from the Florentine territories.
AB - The article deals with the perceptions of Judaism of Savonarola's most important predecessors, the Dominican preacher Giovanni Dominici and the Franciscan preacher Bernardino da Siena, who were active in fifteenth century Florence. These preachers offer two distinct models of mendicant preaching regarding the Jews: Dominici based his views on theological arguments, while Bernardino focused on contemporary Jewish moneylenders and their destructive dangers. The preachers' opposition to the Jews was grounded in their political ideal of Florentine republic as a purified sacred body where there was no place for polluting outsiders as the Jews. Both preachers succeeded in influencing the fate of the Jews. Dominici might have had a hand in the banishment of Jews from Venice and there is circumstantial and linguistic evidence that he was responsible for the change in Florentine policy against the Jews in the legislation of 1406. Bernardino caused the banishment of Jews from many Italian towns and was responsible for measures taken against them, such as segregation. Both preachers were successful in keeping the Jews out of the city of Florence, although they failed in their attempt to have the Jews expelled from the Florentine territories.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=52849125486&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1023/A:1007168120389
DO - 10.1023/A:1007168120389
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:52849125486
SN - 0334-701X
VL - 14
SP - 175
EP - 200
JO - Jewish History
JF - Jewish History
IS - 2
ER -