Blood Libel: On the Trail of an Antisemitic Myth

555 Pages·2020·8.043 MB·English

by  Magda Teter

Blood Libel

B LO O D L I B E L
On the Trail of an Antisemitic Myth
 MAGDA TETER 
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
2020
Copyright © 2020 by Magda Teter
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
First printing
Jacket design: Tim Jones
Letterforms photograph courtesy of Glyphstock/Getty
9780674243552 (EPUB)
9780674243569 (MOBI)
9780674243545 (PDF)
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Names: Teter, Magda, author.
Title: Blood libel : on the trail of an antisemitic myth / Magda Teter.
Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2020. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019029681 | ISBN 9780674240933 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Blood accusation—Europe—History. | Christianity and
antisemitism—Europe—History. | Anti-Jewish propaganda—Europe—History.
Classification: LCC BM585.2 .T48 2020 | DDC 305.892/404—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029681
In gratitude to
Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi ל״ז
who introduced me to Isaac Cardoso and Shevet Yehudah
Jeremy Zwelling
who gave me support when I needed it
Jeannette Hopkins
who taught me all I know about writing and book publishing
Stephen Freedman ל״ז
who brought me to Fordham and offered cheer and encouragement

Contents
Illustrations ix
Note on Places and Names xi
Introduction 1
1. From Medieval Tales to the Challenge in Trent 14
2. The Death of Little Simon and the Trial of Jews in Trent 43
3. Echoes of Simon of Trent in Eu ro pean Culture 89
4. Blood Libels and Cultures of Knowledge in Early
Modern Eu rope 152
5. Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews Respond to Blood Libels 208
6. “Who Should One Believe, the Rabbis or the Doctors
of the Church?” 236
7. “Jews Are Deemed Innocent in the Tribunals of Italy” 279
8. The “Enlightenment” Pope Benedict XIV and the
Blood Accusation 300
viii Contents
9. Cardinal Ganganelli’s Secret Report 323
10. Calculated Pragmatism and the Waning of Accusations 345
Epilogue: The Trail Continues 377
Notes 387
Archival and Printed Primary Sources 493
Acknowl edgments 515
Index 519
Illustrations
Map 1 Eu ro pean sites of blood libel court cases. xiii
Fig. 0.1 Der Stürmer, May 1, 1934, the ritual murder issue. 3
Fig. 0.2 A mural of Simon of Trent on Brückenturm in Frankfurt. 6
Fig. 0.3 Simon of Trent, late sixteenth-century painting, northern Italy. 8
Fig. 1.1 William of Norwich, from Hartmann Schedel,
Weltchronik (1493). 16
Fig. 1.2 Simon of Trent, from Schedel, Weltchronik (1493). 17
Fig. 2.1 Pilgrims visiting the relics of Simon (1475). 45
Fig. 2.2 Tobias capturing Simon, Hystorie von
Simon zu Trient published by Albert Kunne (1475). 66
Fig. 2.3 Simon’s martyrdom with Simon held by Moses,
Kunne chapbook. 67
Fig. 2.4 Simon as martyr, Kunne chapbook. 68
Fig. 2.5 Simon on the altar, Kunne chapbook. 69
Fig. 2.6 A 1475 broadsheet with Brunetta. 77
Fig. 3.1 Simon of Trent, pirated edition of Schedel’s Liber
chronicarum (Augsburg,1497). 90
Fig. 3.2 Antonio Gesti, Martirio di S. Simone di Trento (1589). 115
Fig. 3.3 Michelangelo Mariani, Il glorioso infante S. Simone (1668). 126
Fig. 3.4 Passover seder, Kunne chapbook. 129
x Illustrations
Fig. 3.5 Examination of Simon’s body after its discovery,
Kunne chapbook. 130
Fig. 3.6 Jews put to the flames, Kunne chapbook. 131
Fig. 3.7 Execution of the baptized Jews, Kunne chapbook. 132
Fig. 3.8 Jews conspiring to kidnap a child, with Christian
symbols of fish and lamb, Kunne chapbook. 133
Fig. 3.9 Tobias ordered to kidnap a Christian child, from Tiberino
published by Ginther Zainer in Augsburg (1475). 134
Fig. 3.10 Fresco on the site of Simon’s house in Trent. 141
Fig. 3.11 “Tobias the Jew snatches the boy,” a painting in
Sandomierz, Poland. 144
Fig. 3.12 Simonine iconography of ritual murder, Sandomierz, Poland. 145
Fig. 3.13 “Raptus,” from a painting “San Simonino da Trento”
by Pietromartino Fiammingo di Anversa (1597). 146
Fig. 3.14 Northern Eu ro pean iconography stressing murder (1698). 150
Fig. 4.1 A Jew desecrating a crucifix, from Schedel, Weltchronik. 155
Fig. 4.2 Burning Jews, from Schedel, Weltchronik. 156
Fig. 4.3 Pages from Münster’s Cosmography (1567). 159
Fig. 4.4 First printed illustrated Haggadah,
by Thomas Murner (1512). 176
Fig. 6.1 S. Simonino da Trento, broadside by Giovanni Parone
(1643–1730). 262
Fig. 8.1 Andreas of Rinn, early twentieth- century devotional card. 313
Fig. 10.1 A drawing of a body found near Tyczyn in 1766. 360
Fig. 11.1 Story of Simon of Trent in Der Stürmer, 1934. 381