The Jewish Communities in the Social Fabric of Latin Greece 281
equality enjoyed by Jews, like other free individuals, in Byzantium. It has been
claimed that earlier, in 1268, David Kalomiti of Negroponte had exceptionally
obtained Venetian citizenship.136 However, the terms used for the Venetian
citizen, civis venetus or civis Veneciarum, do not appear in the charter deliv-
ered to him, in which he is mentioned as “fidelis noster et Venetus”. In fact, he
was granted the status of Venetian subject by naturalisation. This status was
confirmed to his descendants. It entailed the benefit of Venetian protection
and privileges overseas, yet not the more extensive advantages conferred by
citizenship, regardless of location.137
Jews were barred from public offices, whether political, judicial or admin-
istrative in all the political entities of Latin Greece, while some Greeks had
access to them. Still, Jews occasionally fulfilled financial functions as in
Corinth. In Crete some of them obtained by special favour the function of mes-
seta or official middleman, in charge of collecting the state taxes on commer-
cial transactions. In 1433 the Venetian Senate quashed all earlier appointments
and prohibited new ones.138
In Crete the curia prosoporum, a court whose three judges were Venetians,
judged cases involving only Jews or Greeks.139 Its operation institutionalised
social inferiority with respect to the Latins. Yet Venice also implemented a pol-
icy of discrimination specifically targeting the Jews, aimed at individual and
collective social segregation. The most glaring manifestation of that policy was
imposed shortly after 1397. Venice ordered the Cretan Jews to display a round
yellow badge on their clothes, replaced in 1496 by a yellow headgear for males,
as a distinctive mark of Jewish social inferiority.140 The measure was in line
136 Silvano Borsari, “Ricchi e poveri nelle communità ebraiche di Candia e Negropont (secc.
xiii–xiv)”, in Πλούσιοι και φτωχοί, pp. 218–19; Borsari, L’Eubea veneziana, pp. 47–48;
Mueller, Immigrazione, p. 56, n. 73.
137 For the use and meaning of the terms, see above, n. 133. See also David Jacoby, “On the
Status of the Jews in the Venetian Colonies,” Zion. Quarterly for Research in Jewish History
28 (1962/63), pp. 59–64 (Hebrew, with English summary), with partial edition of two
documents referring to David and his descendants. A comparison between the charter
of 1353 (see above, n. 135) and the two documents reveals striking differences in wording.
See also Jacoby, “Venice and the Venetian Jews,” pp. 34–36, for the Venetian policy regard-
ing the naturalisation of Jews. On the basic differences between Venetian citizenship and
Venetian status overseas: Jacoby, “Les Vénitiens naturalisés,” pp. 217–35.
138 Jacoby, “Jews and Christians,” p. 260.
139 Ernst Gerland, ed., Das Archiv des Herzogs von Kandia (Strasbourg, 1899), p. 98, par. 1, and
p. 100, par. 19.
140 Jacoby, “Venice and the Venetian Jews,” pp. 36–37. Some individual dispensations were
granted.