Shylock’s Venice: The Remarkable History of Venice’s Jews and the Ghetto
HARRY FREEDMAN
(BLOOMSBURY CONTINUUM, 256 PP, £20)
TABLET BOOKSHOP PRICE £18 • TEL 020 7799 4064
A crucial observation regarding the Venetian economy is made by a character in The Merchant of Venice who tells us that “the trade and profit of the city consisteth of all nations”. A staunchly Catholic society which nevertheless sheltered heretic Protestants and allowed Greek refugees to raise their own Orthodox Church, a bulwark of Christendom most of whose trade was carried on with Muslims, Venice was also, for at least five centuries, a place called home for flourishing Jewish communities arriving from mainland Italy, northern Europe, Portugal and Spain.