Mantua records

The records from Mantua, Italy, have now been put online at http://www.adacta.fi.it/digitalib/archeb/index.php

A list of Jewish communities in Italy, 1671

The Universal History devotes a whole section to the “Dispersion of the Jews”. Below is a snapshot of communities in Italy. This might be limited to Spanish and Portuguese, excluding the indigenous Italian Jews.

"The reader may further consult the last will of Zachariah a Porto, a rich Jewish merchant of Urbino, that died at Florence, an. 1671, after he had compiled a concordance on the comments of the thalmud, which he left at his death to the rabbies at Rome, and his library to the academy of it. He bequeathed moreover 24,000 piastres to his nation; one-fourth part of which he divided between the academies of Leghorn, Venice, Jerusalem, and of the Holy Land. The other 18,000 piastres were to be distributed to serve for dowry to the Jewish daughters of the synagogues of Rome, Ferrara, Ancona, Urbino which was his native place, Pesaro, Cesano, Venice, Padua, Verona, Rovigo, Florence, Siena, Pisa, Leghorn, Mantua, Modena, and Reggio; which shews how numberous they are still in Italy."

The modern part of an universal history. 1759. Page 409

Jews of Mantua, 1766

"The Jews have a pretty synagogue in this city, where they live cleaner and more comfortable than we have observed them in other places."

Source: John Northall. Travels through Italy. 1766.