Documenti sugli ebrei a Grottaglie nei secoli XV-XVI

Abstract

Documents on the Jews of Grottaglie in the 15^th and 16^th Centuries

According to some documents and a constant tradition, there existed in Grottaglie an active Jewish community between the late Middle Ages and the Early 16^th century. According to local scholars, the Jews settled in the ravine called Fullonese in order to devote themselves to the dyeing and tanning of leather, as the toponym suggests. Allegedly the Jews disseminated the culture of pomegranate in Grottaglie, the fruit being possibly used in the dyeing process. Later on, the Jews settled in a neighborhood called the “Giudeca”, in the south-west part of the town, near Porta S. Antonio Abate. In the same district there was a church called Santo Stefano dei Giudei. The present article is a first attempt to sketch a documentary history of the Jews in Grottaglie. It draws on a small but significant set of documents: 1) a register of the Chiesa Madre dell’Annunziata, whose earliest records date back to 1417; 2) a parchment of 1486 preserved in the Capitular Archive of Grottaglie; 3-4) two notarial acts of 1531-32, prepared by the notary Federico Cirasino; and 5) the record of a pastoral visit in Grottaglie by the Archbishop of Taranto Lelio Brancaccio in 1577.