(Source: University of Pennsylvania Press)
The University of Pennsylvania Press has
published a new book on the usage of the legal system by the Jewish population
of 13th century Venetian Crete.
ABOUT THE BOOK
When Venice conquered Crete in the early
thirteenth century, a significant population of Jews lived in the capital and
main port city of Candia. This community grew, diversified, and flourished both
culturally and economically throughout the period of Venetian rule, and
although it adhered to traditional Jewish ways of life, the community also
readily engaged with the broader population and the island's Venetian colonial
government.
In Colonial Justice and the Jews of
Venetian Crete, Rena N. Lauer tells the story of this unusual and
little-known community through the lens of its flexible use of the legal
systems at its disposal. Grounding the book in richly detailed studies of
individuals and judicial cases—concerning matters as prosaic as taxation and as
dramatic as bigamy and murder—Lauer brings the Jews of Candia vibrantly to
life. Despite general rabbinic disapproval of such behavior elsewhere in
medieval Europe, Crete's Jews regularly turned not only to their own religious
courts but also to the secular Venetian judicial system. There they aired
disputes between family members, business partners, spouses, and even the
leaders of their community. And with their use of secular justice as both
symptom and cause, Lauer contends, Crete's Jews grew more open and flexible,
confident in their identity and experiencing little of the anti-Judaism
increasingly suffered by their coreligionists in Western Europe.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rena N. Lauer teaches history and religious
studies at Oregon State University.
More information here
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