Family Ties & Political Structure in Pisa and Livorno

In his presentation of two documents pertaining to Jews in Pisa and Livorno, Bernard Cooperman discusses the link between family connections and the construction of a new formal Jewish community and explores the connection between family and business networks. Cooperman argues here that new communities in early modern Italy were often structured as merchant companies, and it was a family that was a base of trade networks. Family also became a method of joining the community, while at the same time families and individuals used membership in a community to legitimize a family. The presentation further explores interracial marriages and offspring of Sephardic Jews, role of women in the community and in wealth distribution. A larger overarching argument is that it was in the early modern period that the Jewish community was able to create formal structures. This presentation is for the following text(s): Communal Decision of June 8, 1606 in Pisa Petition of Jewish Merchants of Pisa to Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo II Click here to view the vide