The City of Rome 227
Boso described its synagogues, some of which dated back to the Classical world.6 We
also know of Jewish families in Rome, members of which became famous schol-
ars.7 The Jewish writer Benjamin of Tudela alludes to nathan ben Yehiel, composer
of the Arukh (c.1100), a compendium of Talmudic study and one of the most
prominent members of the community.8 We also find that solomon ben isaac of
Troyes, known as Rashi (1040–1105), one of the most distinguished Jewish exe-
getes in western Europe, influenced many Jewish scholars in the city and that there
were frequent communications between rabbinic scholars in Rome and those in
Baghdad and Paris. in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries both Christian and
Jewish exegetes were familiar with Rashi’s work.9
Hence although the Roman curia was far away from most Jewish communi-
ties—which meant that any communication, never easy in the medieval world,
was often delayed—Rome was the exception. There, popes encountered the Jewish
community on a regular basis and, as temporal lords, imposed restrictions on Jews
in the city—as they did in the papal states more widely—ensuring that they lived
in certain prescribed areas of the city and, from the fourth Lateran Council on-
wards, that they wore distinctive garb.
nevertheless, in general, legislation in the papal states was relatively tolerant
towards Jews. Christians and Jews living in Rome were organized into distinct
communities which regularly performed on ceremonial occasions. These commu-
nities were bound together by a highly localized discourse about their past.10
Works such as the Historia Imaginis Salvatoris (c.1145) of nicholas Maniacutius,
the anonymous Descriptio Lateranensis Ecclesiae (c.1073–1085) and its first revi-
sion by John the Deacon (c.1159-1181), Cardinal Boso’s entries in the Liber
Pontificalis, the Liber Censuum, or Book of Taxes (c.1192) of Cencius Camerarius—
Cardinal Boso’s successor and papal chamberlain to both Clement iii and Celestine
iii, later to become Honorius iii—as well as the Mirabilia Urbis Romae (c.1143)
of a certain Canon Benedict, all inform us of Jewish–Christian interaction in cere-
monies and in daily life. 11
6 Cardinal Boso, ‘Les Vies des Papes rédigées par le Cardinal Boson et inserées dans le Liber Censuum’,
in Le Liber Pontificalis: Texte, introduction et commentaire, ed. L. Duchesne, 3 vols, 2nd series (Paris,
1955–1957), Vol. 2 (Paris, 1892), pp.353–446. see Berliner, Storia degli Ebrei di Roma, dall’antichità
allo smantallamento del ghetto, pp.80–1.
7 Berliner, Storia degli Ebrei di Roma, dall’antichità allo smantallamento del ghetto, pp.89–95.
8 Marie Therese Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past: The Jewish Experience of Rome
in the Twelfth Century’, in Rome Re-Imagined: Twelfth-Century Jews, Christians and Muslims Encounter
the Eternal City, ed. L. Hamilton, s. Riccioni, Medieval Encounters 17/4–5 (2011), 471.
9 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, p.87.
10 Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, pp.493–4.
11 nicholaus Maniacutius, ‘Historia imaginis salvatoris’, in Salus Populi Romani: Die Geschichte
rőmischer Kultbilder im Mittelalter, ed. G. Wolf (Weinham, 1990), pp.321–5; ‘Descriptio Lateranensis
Ecclesiae’, in Codice topografico della città di Roma, ed. R. Valentini, G. Zucchetti, 4 vols (Rome,
1940–1953), Vol. 3 (Rome, 1946), pp.326–73; Cardinal Boso, ‘Les Vies des Papes rédigées par le
Cardinal Boson et inserées dans le Liber Censuum’, in Le Liber Pontificalis: Texte, introduction et com-
mentaire, Vol. 2, ed. Duchesne, pp.353–446; Cencius Camerarius, ‘Liber Censuum’, in Le liber cen-
suum de l’église romaine, ed. P. fabre, L. Duchesne, 3 vols (Paris, 1889–1952), Vol. 1 (Paris, 1905),
pp.296–9; Benedictus Canonicus, ‘Mirabilia urbis Romae’, in Codice topografico della città di Roma,
ed. R. Valentini, G. Zucchetti, 4 vols (Rome, 1940–1953), Vol. 3 (Rome, 1946), pp.17–65. see
Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, pp.467–8.