Classics, Medieval & Renaissance 2012 - University of Toronto ...

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Jews and Magic in Medici Florence
The Secret World of Benedetto Blanis
Edward Goldberg
In the seventeenth century, Florence was the wealthy
capital of the Medici Grand Dukedom of Tuscany. But
amid all the affluence and splendour, the Jews in its
tiny Ghetto struggled to earn a living by any possible
means, including loan-sharking, rag-picking, and
second-hand dealing.
From their ranks arose Benedetto Blanis, a businessman
and aspiring scholar from a distinguished
Ghetto dynasty who sought to parlay his alleged
mastery of astrology, alchemy, and Kabbalah into a
grand position at the Medici Court. He won the
patronage of Don Giovanni dei Medici, a scion of
the ruling family, and for six tumultuous years their
lives were inextricably linked.
Drawing on thousands of newly uncovered
documents from the Medici Granducal Archive,
Edward Goldberg reveals the dramas of daily life
behind the scenes in the Pitti Palace and in the
narrow byways of the Florentine Ghetto.
Edward Goldberg is an art historian and a longtime
resident of Florence. He has worked for more
than thirty years in the Medici Granducal Archive.
‘Suspenseful and compelling.’
Lucia Frattarelli Fischer, University of Pisa
(Toronto Italian Studies)
384 pp / 20 illustrations / 6 x 9 / 2011
Cloth 978-1-4426-4225-6 $70.00 (£48.99)
Paper 978-1-4426-1333-1 $32.95 (£23.99)
A Jew at the Medici Court
The Letters of Benedetto Blanis Hebreo (1615–1621)
Edward Goldberg
Benedetto Blanis sent nearly 200 letters to Don
Giovanni dei Medici that depict in vivid detail his
daily life in the local Ghetto and his machinations
behind the scenes at the Medici Court. Edward
Goldberg shares these recently discovered letters –
the largest body of surviving correspondence from
any Jew in Early Modern Europe – in this definitive
critical edition, complete with transcriptions in the
original Italian, English-language summaries, and
full explanatory notes.
The letters describe Blanis’s fraught relations
with his Jewish and Christian associates, his desperate
(and often illegal) business schemes, his disastrous
strategies for advancement at the Medici Court,
and the general pervasiveness of occult practices,
especially alchemy, astrology, and Kabbalah. He
also offers remarkable insights into the everyday
realities of Florentine life – as viewed through the
eyes of a Jewish outsider who penetrated the inner
circles of the Medici regime.
‘Readers will be deeply grateful to Edward Goldberg
for the enormously valuable information he provides
in this volume.’
Robert Bonfil, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
(Toronto Italian Studies)
448 pp / 6 x 9 / 2011
Cloth 978-1-4426-4383-3 $85.00 (£59.99)
The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570)
L’arte et prudenza d’un maestro cuoco / The Art and Craft of a Master Cook
Translated with Commentary by Terence Scully
Arguably the most famous chef of the Italian
Renaissance, Bartolomeo Scappi oversaw the preparation
of meals for several Cardinals and was the
personal cook for two popes. At the culmination of
his prolific career he compiled the largest cookery
treatise of the period. Scappi’s Opera presents more
than one thousand recipes along with menus that
comprise up to a hundred dishes.
In this first English translation of the work, Terence
Scully makes the recipes and the broad experience
of this sophisticated papal cook accessible to a
modern English audience interested in the culinary
expertise and gastronomic refinement within the
most civilized niche of Renaissance society.
Terence Scully is a professor emeritus in the
Department of Languages and Literatures at Wilfrid
Laurier University.
‘Highly readable … many fans of cooking will enjoy
sifting through its voluminous entries.’
Robert Appelbaum, Times Higher Education (Book
of the Week, April 2009)
(The Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library)
800 pp / 27 illustrations / 6 x 9 / 2011
Paper 978-1-4426-1148-1 $45.00 (£31.99)
2 University of Toronto Press