284 Jacoby
the Jewry was the only socio-religious body in Crete recognised as a legal entity
by the state, a substantial advantage over the Greeks, who lacked any commu-
nal or representative institutions. In sum, the communal structure reinforced
voluntary collective segregation from within, while Venice enhanced it from
the outside.148
As noted above, in Byzantium Jewish residential segregation was
enforced before the Fourth Crusade in Constantinople and possibly also in
Thessalonica.149 The Jewish neighbourhoods of Latin Greece inherited from
the Byzantine period were all situated at the edge of cities, mostly outside the
walled urban space. One may wonder whether their location had been deter-
mined by the Byzantine authorities in order to segregate the Jews, or whether
they were the result of segregation by choice. In Candia the location of the
Judaica along the sea may have also been related to the ecological concerns
of the authorities, rather than to social considerations, considering the refuse
and bad smell produced by tanning, a major occupation in the midst of the
Candiote Jewry.150 The relocation of Jewish tanners to the suburb of Modon in
1391 was similarly motivated.151
Around 1325 Venice imposed residential segregation upon the Jews of its
Greek territories, in order to reduce social interaction between them and
Christians. In 1423 it issued a general ban on Jewish acquisitions of real estate
outside the Jewish quarters in these territories, and enjoined the Jews to sell the
property they held within two years.152 By 1448 the boundaries of the quarter
in Rethymnon were marked by crosses, a design obviously conceived as a vexa-
tious affirmation and a constant reminder of the superiority of the Christian
faith and as a direct challenge to the Jewish population.153
However, residential segregation was not systematically implemented, nor
could it be. A Greek resided in the Jewish quarter of Candia in 1393, clearly not
the only one.154 Population overflow from Jewish neighbourhoods, individual
148 Jacoby, “Jews and Christians,” pp. 256–59; Jacoby, “Venice and the Venetian Jews,”
pp. 41–43; on the communal institutions, see also Starr, “Jewish Life,” pp. 95–102.
149 See above, p. 278.
150 Ankori, “Jews and the Jewish Community,” pp. 327–28, 350, claims that the Jews were
“forcibly” relegated “to the degrading rank of tanners” and that the location of their quar-
ter in Candia was imposed upon them. There is no evidence to support these views: see
Jacoby, “Jews and Christians,” pp. 255–56.
151 See above, pp. 263–64.
152 Noiret, Documents, pp. 297–98.
153 Jacoby, “Venice and the Venetian Jews,” pp. 37 and 53, n. 24.
154 Jacoby, “Jews and Christians,” p. 277.