Skip to content
Register Sign in Wishlist

The Jewish Ghetto and the Visual Imagination of Early Modern Venice

  • Date Published: July 2019
  • availability: Available
  • format: Paperback
  • isbn: 9781316616901

Paperback

Add to wishlist

Other available formats:
Hardback, eBook


Looking for an inspection copy?

This title is not currently available on inspection

Description
Product filter button
Description
Contents
Resources
Courses
About the Authors
  • Dana E. Katz examines the Jewish ghetto of Venice as a paradox of urban space. In 1516, the Senate established the ghetto on the periphery of the city and legislated nocturnal curfews to reduce the Jews' visibility in Venice. Katz argues that it was precisely this practice of marginalization that put the ghetto on display for Christian and Jewish eyes. According to her research, early modern Venetians grounded their conceptions of the ghetto in discourses of sight. Katz's unique approach demonstrates how Venice's Jewish ghetto engaged the sensory imagination of its inhabitants in complex and contradictory ways that both shaped urban space and reshaped Christian-Jewish relations.

    • Presents a new approach to the urban spaces of Venice by exploring the influence of the Jewish ghetto
    • Situates the study of ghetto architecture in the context of the senses, particularly seeing and touching
    • Offers a study of Venetian architecture that goes beyond the sumptuousness of Renaissance palaces
    Read more

    Reviews & endorsements

    'In this original and beautifully illustrated book, Katz dissects the ghetto's architecture and visual appearance to understand how space and sight structured Jewish life and Jewish-Christian relations in early modern Venice.' Flora Cassen, H-Judaic

    'This book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the nature of ghettoization and Christian Jewish relations, with stimulating new visions of Venetian urban architecture, spatial relations, and social contexts. Beneficially, the author takes us beyond Venice with wider comparisons and contrasts, thus emphasizing Venetian particularity.' Christopher F. Black, Renaissance and Reformation

    'Recently Jews and Christians celebrated the five hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the Venetian ghetto. Tourists come to walk the streets, to see the synagogues, and to eat kosher food. The ghetto space is as much a creation of the Jews as it was of the Venetian authorities. Dana E. Katz's The Jewish Ghetto and the Visual Imagination of Early Modern Venice will serve as an excellent guide to exploring the ghetto today.' Howard Tzvi Adelman, Renaissance Quarterly

    'Katz's insistence on the verticality of the ghetto reminds us to evaluate the full significance of the three-dimensionality of the early modern built environment, which may be mentally flattened by factors such as our familiarity with early modern cartography. More broadly, this study highlights the importance, complexity and porosity of enclosure in the urban context. Above all, it prompts us to reflect on how architecture can frame and direct sensory experience, and how sensory experience shaped social relations.' Alexandra Bamji, Renaissance Studies

    See more reviews

    Customer reviews

    Not yet reviewed

    Be the first to review

    Review was not posted due to profanity

    ×

    , create a review

    (If you're not , sign out)

    Please enter the right captcha value
    Please enter a star rating.
    Your review must be a minimum of 12 words.

    How do you rate this item?

    ×

    Product details

    • Date Published: July 2019
    • format: Paperback
    • isbn: 9781316616901
    • length: 202 pages
    • dimensions: 230 x 153 x 15 mm
    • weight: 0.4kg
    • contains: 40 b/w illus.
    • availability: Available
  • Table of Contents

    Introduction
    1. Margins as laboratories of urban planning
    2. Enclosures as topographies of vision
    3. Windows as sites of visual disturbance
    4. Walls as boundaries of the night
    Conclusion.

  • Author

    Dana E. Katz, Reed College, Oregon
    Dana E. Katz is Joshua C. Taylor Associate Professor of Art History and Humanities at Reed College, Oregon. Her research explores representations of religious difference in early modern Italy, with a particular focus on Jewish-Christian relations. Katz is the author of The Jew in the Art of the Italian Renaissance (2008), as well as articles in The Art Bulletin, Art History, and Jewish History.

Related Books

Sorry, this resource is locked

Please register or sign in to request access. If you are having problems accessing these resources please email lecturers@cambridge.org

Register Sign in
Please note that this file is password protected. You will be asked to input your password on the next screen.

» Proceed

You are now leaving the Cambridge University Press website. Your eBook purchase and download will be completed by our partner www.ebooks.com. Please see the permission section of the www.ebooks.com catalogue page for details of the print & copy limits on our eBooks.

Continue ×

Continue ×

Continue ×
warning icon

Turn stock notifications on?

You must be signed in to your Cambridge account to turn product stock notifications on or off.

Sign in Create a Cambridge account arrow icon
×

Find content that relates to you

Join us online

This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Read more Close

Are you sure you want to delete your account?

This cannot be undone.

Cancel

Thank you for your feedback which will help us improve our service.

If you requested a response, we will make sure to get back to you shortly.

×
Please fill in the required fields in your feedback submission.
×