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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014
Summary
Venice. While there is evidence from as early as the tenth century that Jewish merchants did business in the Italian city of Venice, the first Jewish settlements were not established until the thirteenth century. They were located on the island of Spinalonga (later called the Giudecca), away from the main part of the city. The first group of Jews allowed to live within central Venice were money lenders, who had been granted a charter in 1382. However, they left Venice in 1397 when their charter was not renewed. Any Jew who entered Venice was required to wear a yellow circle on his outer clothing; this was changed to a yellow head-covering in 1496.
In 1509, after numerous Jews living on the Venetian mainland fled across the lagoon to Venice in the face of invading armies, the government realized that allowing them to stay in the city would be doubly beneficial. They could provide the hard-pressed treasury with annual payments, and their pawnbroking services were convenient for the urban poor. Consequently, in 1513 the Venetian government granted the Jews a charter allowing them to lend money; that permission was periodically renewed until the end of the Venetian Republic in 1797 (see MONEY LENDING: MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN EUROPE).
However, many Venetians, especially clerics, objected to Jews residing throughout the city, so in 1516 the Senate required all Jews to move to the island known as the Ghetto Nuovo (new ghetto), which was walled up and provided with two gates that were locked from sunset to sunrise.
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- The Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture , pp. 641 - 643Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011