Abstract
This project is part of a larger plan that aims to innovate Jewish intellectual and social history in the long term by focusing on spatiality and on the creation of a new tool for historical research: the first ever open-access digital and dynamic “Atlas of Jews’ Intellectual Heritage in Global Italy”. This result will be achieved through a multidisciplinary approach, that is instrumental in deconstructing and overcoming the old - but still present in the general public and among many non-specialized scholars - paradigm of the insularity of Jewish history and culture, thus reaffirming the importance of the social and cultural exchanges between the Jewish minority and the surrounding society. The project is structured in two steps: a) The qualitative and quantitative investigation of a series of case studies based on archival research and a spatializing approach; the collection of both qualitative and sets of standardized quantitative data on the spatial position and circulation of people, artifacts and manuscripts or books. b) A dissemination plan that will share historical know-how and its technological implementation within the scientific community, previously identified cultural institutions, and civil society at large. The project places strong emphasis on dissemination, by prioritizing the task of raising social awareness around Jewish socio-cultural heritage and identity. Its focus on material culture, art, books and maps will foster collaborations with art museums, archives, libraries, Jewish communities and other cultural institutions. The analysis of the different perspectives will be carried out by two separate projects that will contribute to the construction of the digital and dynamic atlas by collecting sources in different fields. The project deals with the socio-cultural aspect through the analysis of manuscripts, books, people and objects. A distinctive and innovative feature of this project is its multidisciplinary approach to the study of the Jewish past within the Italian academic framework. In fact, the project's team is made up of three Units which include experts in different fields and historical periods and will work within three Italian State universities. Members of the team include scholars of Judaism and Hebrew language, Hebraists, historians of books and manuscripts, social historians, generalist historians of the Middle Ages, early modern and modern eras (some of whom are publicly engaged in gender equality, minority issues, and in the field of anti-discrimination). Another strength of this project is the construction of an information database and its digital, freely accessible presentation, which is currently rare in this field. It is intended as part of a larger database that will contribute to the elaboration of the atlas. The main results of the Bologna Research Unit are as follows: 1) The research unit advanced the study of medieval and early modern Jewish intellectual and social history by investigating the spatial dynamics of Jewish communities and the circulation of manuscripts and books within and beyond the Italian peninsula. 2) It provided a more integrated and dynamic understanding of Jewish participation in Italian and European history by challenging historiographical models that portrayed Jewish communities as largely insular and by demonstrating the central role of mobility, cultural exchange, intellectual networks, and sustained interaction with surrounding societies from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period. 3) It reconstructed the production, circulation, ownership, visual features, intellectual context, and preservation of medieval Hebrew manuscripts and early modern printed books, focusing on Jewish libraries and the transmission of philosophical, magical, and kabbalistic texts across Jewish and Christian contexts. 4) It analyzed the networks behind manuscript circulation and highlighted the mobility and complexity of Jewish cultural heritage across Sephardic, Ashkenazic, and Roman traditions in the late Middle Ages and early modern period. 5) It highlighted the role of material texts, fragments, and bibliographical scholarship in shaping Jewish cultural heritage and interreligious exchange in the Italian and European context. 6) It explored the Jewish presence in sixteenth-century Rimini through the systematic study of local notarial records. 7) It investigated the history of Sephardic Jews in the Duchy of Savoy through research conducted at the State Archive of Turin. 8) It produced new findings on the Hebrew manuscript fragments preserved in Italian archives, with a particular focus on the Emilia-Romagna region. 9) It incorporated a substantial corpus of research data on Jewish history in Italy, including archival findings, into the IN-ITALJA Digital and Dynamic Atlas (https://in-italja.org), significantly expanding the availability of resources for future research. 10) It produced a significant body of scholarly publications and fostered interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers in Jewish studies, Jewish history, general history, and related fields in the humanities and social sciences. 11) It organized the workshop: Persone e idee in movimento: il ruolo degli ebrei nella vita economica, politica e sociale in Italia nel lungo Rinascimento (XIV-XVII secolo), University of Bologna, 5 February 2024. 12) It organized the international conference: Jewish Mobility: People, Artifacts, Books and Manuscripts (14th-20th centuries), University of Bologna, 30 June – 1 July 2025. The proceedings of this conference are currently in preparation as a special issue of Materia Giudaica.
Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Saverio Campanini
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento di Storia Culture Civiltà
Coordinatore:
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Università di Bologna(Italy)
Contributo totale di progetto: Euro (EUR) 197.549,00
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 69.932,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
28/09/2023
Data di fine:
28/02/2026
