696 paul f. grendler
the figure does not include those who studied at padua and obtained
degrees elsewhere, or who studied at padua without obtaining degrees
but still practiced medicine. Some of these Jewish medical students came
from Venice and the Veneto, which meant that they studied latin and
other subjects.
like christian girls and women, probably only a small number of Jew-
ish girls and women received limited formal educations, usually at home
from tutors or family members. but there were exceptions. Some Jewish
women learned enough hebrew to be employed in hebrew publishing.62
and there is the remarkable example of Sarra copia Sulam (1600?–41). a
Venetian Jewess married to a wealthy merchant, she spoke and/or read
hebrew, italian, Venetian, Spanish, french, and possibly latin. She pre-
sided over a salon of learned men that included Venetian nobles; she cor-
responded with christian intellectuals from other parts of italy; she wrote
italian poetry; and she discussed aristotelian philosophical issues.63 copia
Sulam was a Jewish counterpart to Moderata fonte, lucrezia Marinella,
and arcangela tarabotti.
Conclusionthe fact that Venetian pre-university schooling changed little over 200
years suggests that education reflected Venetian values. the Most Serene
Republic stood on political, social, and institutional foundations that
changed little over a thousand years, while the myth of Venice promoted
the ideology of an unchanging constitutional state. its gerontocratic
political system rewarded cautious, long-lived officeholders. the continuity
of Venetian education also expressed the character of the Venetian
Republic.
Bibliographyadelman, howard, “another More nevukhim: the italian background and the Education
program of leon Modena’s More nevukhim bikhtivah bilshonenu hakadosh,” in Jacob
neusner, Ernest S. frerichs, and nahum M. Sarna, eds., From Ancient Israel to Mod-
62 howard adelman, “the literacy of Jewish Women in Early Modern italy,” in barbara J.
Whitehead, ed., Women’s Education in Early Modern Europe. A History, 1500–1800 (new
York/london, 1999), pp. 133–58, at p. 134.
63 Sarra copia Sulam, Jewish Poet and Intellectual in Seventeenth-Century Venice: The
Works of Sarra Copia Sulam in Verse and Prose, along with Writings of Her Contemporaries
in Her Praise, Condemnation, or Defense, ed. and trans. by don harrán (chicago, 2009).