174 Tasca
On the other hand, Sardinian Jews started to travel to a greater degree
around the Mediterranean ports, which contemporaneously led to an in-
creased flow of arrivals from Sicily for trading and for other reasons. Many
Jews from Palermo, Trapani, Catania, and Messina came to the port of Cagliari,
mainly to sell clothes, hides, and coral. They often stayed in the Castello’s jude-
ria and eventually they established relationships with their local coreligionists,
to such an extent that many of them moved there and became integral mem-
bers of Cagliari’s colony. The exchange was mutual; there is plenty of evidence
reporting that many of Cagliari’s Jews also decided to move to Sicily.30
The new restrictions that came into force in around the 1480s, anticipating
the 1492 Edict of Expulsion, forced Cagliari’s aljama to make certain changes.
In 1485, in particular, the viceroy decreed that Jews could leave the island only
to visit the Crown States, subject to his or her deputy’s approval, and provided
that they guaranteed their return to Sardinia. The reason behind this measure
lay in the fact that the Jews often left the island without permission to go to
Naples or other lands outside Aragonese control, exporting their goods from
Sardinia, resulting in substantial losses for the Crown. The fact that some of
the colony’s leading exponents disappear from the records at this time, sug-
gests that the most affluent families of Cagliari’s aljama left the island on this
occasion. Others may have departed in 1488, following the further restrictions
mandated by the Viceroy Don Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza. These affected only
the Jews of Cagliari’s Castello and were a clear warning sign of the storm that
was about to hit the Jews in every Spanish dominion.31
Testimony to the effects the Edict of Expulsion is found in a series of letters
addressed to the island’s lieutenant. In one letter, dated 23 August 1492, the
king, who evidently held the local officials in high esteem, stated that “the Jews
leaving Cagliari meant the loss of 70 hubs of activity.” If we consider that each
family at the time was made up of five or six people, this figure refers to a popu-
lation of around 400 Jews, far too few for a colony that should have counted at
least twice as many. However, this figure might be correct if those families who
had left Sardinia for the Naples area and southern Italy between 1485 and 1488
Cecilia Tasca, “Ebrei sardi e siciliani nel mediterraneo medioevale: affinità istituzionali,
relazioni commerciali e rapporti sociali. Materiali per un Repertorio di Fonti,” in Europa
e Mediterraneo. Politica, istituzioni e società. Studi e ricerche in onore di Bruno Anatra,
eds. Giovanni Murgia and Gianfranco Tore (Milano, 2013b), pp. 40–61, and Cecilia Tasca,
“Mercanti ebrei fra Toscana e Sardegna (secoli XIV–XV ),” in “Mercatura è arte”. Uomini
d’affari in Europa e nel Mediterraneo tardo medievale, eds Lorenzo Tanzini and Sergio
Tognetti (Roma, 2012b), pp. 223–245.
30 Shlomo Simonsohn, “I rapporti fra la Sardegna e la Sicilia nel contesto del mondo ebraico
mediterraneo,” in Tasca, “Gli ebrei in Sardegna,” pp. 125–131.
31 Tasca, “Ebrei e società,” docs. 936–938.