Bettie's Books

bookshelves: net-galley, autumn-2013, italy, venice, translation, anti-semitic

ARC from NetGalley: Open Road Integrated Media/Mondadori

Translation by Katherine Silberblatt Wolfthal

First published in Italy as 'Storia del ghetto di Venezia'

Dedication: For Anna-Vera and Davide

Opening: "The Jews must all live together in the Corte de Case, which are in the ghetto near San Girolamo; and in order to prevent their roaming about at night: Let there be built two gates, on the side of the Old Ghetto where there is a little Bridge, and likewise on the other side of the Bridge, that is one for each of two said places, which gates shall be opened in the morning at the sound of Marangona, and shall be closed at midnight by four Christian guards appointed and paid by the Jews at the rate deemed suitable by Our Cabinet."

How serendipitous; just reached the Ghetto in Ackroyd's 'Venice: The Pure City' when I received this. HUZZAH.

This is wall-to-wall erudite writing and I doubt there is a knowable fact or statistic missing from the pages.

You need to know about the backdrop to The Merchant of Venice? This is your baby.

The history of Usury of the Jews in Venice is your bag? Then here it is, laid out like a dissertation with all references footnoted and sources hattipped.

The translation is good and I have come away with more than enough information to fox the pants off the rivals at the next table at a pub quiz so that should make for a happy reader, yes? Not precisely, some sparkle is needed to make future purchasers feel not only better informed but reached out to aswell.