The Murder of Giacomo Matteotti: Sources and Interpretations
Mauro Canali, The Matteotti Murder and Mussolini: The Anatomy of a Fascist Crime, Palgrave 2024 On June 10, 1924, Giacomo Matteotti, a young member of the Italian Parliament and Secretary…
Academia
Swahili Lit Festival
As Primo Levi’s book is becoming available to Swahili readers, we would like to welcome on these pages news about Swahili literature, translation, book publishing and literary festivals. This interview…
Historiography in Motion: Jews and State Building
A new book will be presented at Bookhouse on March 18th. Jews and State Building: Early Modern Italy, and Beyond. Edited by Bernard Dov Cooperman, Serena Di Nepi, and Germano…
Immanuel’s Riddle
“But when I raise my voice at Kedushah or Yozer, the fountains of song open wide. And on Kippur, or Purim, or any of the holidays, whether I chant a…
The Last Muslims in Italy
During Dante’s lifetime, the only Muslim city on the Italian peninsula ceased to exist. Dante does not mention Lucera Saracenorum (a Latin placename meaning “Lucera of the Saracens”) in his writings,…
Advertising the Self: Formiggini’s Talking Postcards
In an era in which advertising was not yet an industry but rather an incipient trade entrusted more to imagination than anything else, the Italian publisher Angelo Fortunato Formiggini invented…
Under Gentile Eyes
Representations of the Jews and Judaism in Medieval and Modern Europe Edited by Fabrizio Franceschini and Enrico Giaccherini Image: Venice, Esther Scroll, late 18th century, Florence, Jewish Museum …
Jewish Citizens
The National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah opened its third exhibition entitled Beyond the Ghetto. Inside Out curated by Andreina Contessa, Simonetta Della Seta, Carlotta Ferrara degli Uberti,…
Angelo Fortunato Formiggini: An Italian Publisher
Born in Modena to a family of court jewelers who had maintained their private synagogue for generations, Angelo Fortunato Formiggini (1878–1938) was a publisher first in Modena (1908–11), then in…
Slavery and Conversion in Papal Rome
A conversation with Marina Caffiero. Your best known research focuses on the history of forced baptisms of Jews during the Inquisition era and on the institution of the House of…