Jews In Sardinia 173
ill-concealed disapproval of the local councilors or other officials, and had
achieved a certain economic prosperity. They accordingly had strong grounds
to maintain the rights they had acquired inasmuch as they were active par-
ticipants in the abovementioned towns, where they certainly received com-
parable treatment to the other inhabitants. Indeed, in the fifteenth century,
the Jewish minorities seem to have cohabited with the predominant Christian
groups. This phenomenon was attested by the ongoing growth of the Jewish
community and the concomitant division of Cagliari’s Castello—the quarter
assigned to the Jews—at the beginning of the century. One side featured the
greater juderia maggiore, including the carrer maior, as well as the oldest part,
from the Fontana tower as far as the Rua del Oriffayn; the other, the juderia
minore or parva, went up through the wall as far as the Rua del Vy and the al-
leyway that led to the tower of San Pancrazio. 27
In the second part of the century, the quarter had fallen into a state of disre-
pair, while the colony continued to grow, making it necessary to find new spac-
es. In fact, the sovereign authorized the Jews to rent houses and shops outside
the assigned area. A few years later, the housing situation in the entire Castello
area approached breaking point. In 1471, when the king learned that there were
not enough houses in the overcrowded juderia, he accepted the plea of the Jew
Astruch Farsis, and allowed him to take up residence in a house with a shop in
the midst of the Christian inhabitants, near the gate of the juderia and close
to the Elephant Tower (ad turrim eloqui vulgari dictam del Orifany), where he
could live with his family and carry out his trade.28
The steady growth of Cagliari’s aljama throughout the century also had a
strong impact on the social structure, which was initially organized into three
equally represented groups. Merchants, physicians, auctioneers, brokers, shop-
keepers, tailors, blacksmiths, cobblers, and shirt-makers were the most com-
mon professions, but a large and entrepreneurial group of merchants soon
took control of the community. From this time, the new Jewish merchant
class, represented by the Alfaquim, Bonfill, Castello, Ceret, Franch, Genton,
Manahem, Milis, Muntells, Rimos, Sollam, and Soffer families—all interrelated
through shrewdly arranged marriages—held political and economic power in
the colony. These findings represent completely novel evidence of the birth
of the first merchant businesses and companies, which were sometimes com-
posed of a mixture of peoples, and sometimes of Jews alone.29
27 Tasca, “Ebrei e società,” docs. 265–267, 444, 850.
28 Ibid., doc. 574.
29 Evidence of trading companies is extremely rare throughout the fifteenth century, even
in other contexts. See, for example, Filena Patroni Griffi, “Le fonti notarili e le attività
ebraiche in Italia meridionale nell’età aragonese,” Napoli Nobilissima 33 (1994), p. 143.