474 benjamin ravid
them, initially at sunset but then slightly extended to one hour after dark
in summer and two in winter; only Jewish doctors, and later merchants,
were routinely allowed outside after curfew time, while permission to do
so was occasionally granted upon special request to other individuals, but
almost never—with the exception primarily of a few doctors—was a Jew
authorized to stay outside all night.64
although the Jews tried to avoid moving to the ghetto, overall the insti-
tution of the ghetto constituted a positive step mediating between their
former state of non-authorized presence and the newer brief reality of
unrestricted residence throughout the city, as it represented the compro-
mise that recognized the legitimacy of their residence in the city but care-
fully controlled their presence in it. Yet the existence of the ghetto did not
assure the continued residence of the Jews in Venice, for that privilege
was based on the five-year charter of 1513. consequently, upon its expira-
tion in 1518, the senate took up the issue of its renewal, leading to very
sharp differences of opinion on the question of what to do with the Jews.65
Ultimately, socio-economic raison d’état triumphed over traditional reli-
gious hostility, and the charter of the Jewish moneylenders was renewed,
from 1548 on for five-year periods, and in retrospect, they were to remain
in the city to the end of the republic.66
the charters set forth the basic laws governing the residence of the
Jews in the city and especially their pawnbroking, usually referred to
somewhat misleadingly as moneylending since the full italian name for
the establishment in which the transactions took place was banco (plural:
banchi) di pegni [bank of pawns], which was shortened to banco or banchi,
with the result that their owners and managers were often referred to as
banchieri (bankers) rather than prestatori or feneratori (moneylenders), or
more accurately, pawnbrokers. the basic provisions of the charters were
supplemented by many additional laws enacted by the major legislative
Venetian councils and regulations issued by numerous administrative
bodies.
64 see ravid, “curfew time in the Ghetti of Venice.”
65 excerpts in english translation in Pullan, Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice: The
Social Institutions of a Catholic State (cambridge, Mass., 1971), pp. 488–98; and r. Bonfil,
Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy (Berkeley, 1994), pp. 39–43. see also B. ravid, “on sufferance
and not as of right: the status of the Jewish communities in early-Modern Venice,” in
d. Malkiel, ed., The Lion Shall Roar: Leon Modena and his World, Italia: Conference Supple-
ment Series, 1 (Jerusalem, 2003), pp. 20–24.
66 see ravid, “on sufferance,” pp. 25–43.