This book offers a new take on the engagement of Jews with outside culture and the interplay of the Jewish community with the reforming state through a study of the Jews (nazione ebrea) of eighteenth-century Livorno, a bustling free port in Tuscany, an Italian state known for its far-reaching reforms inspired by Enlightenment principles. Based on sources both internal and external to the community, it combines cultural analysis with a study of economic policies and political developments, and integrates lines of inquiry informed by Italian and Jewish historiography. The first few chapters trac ... More

This book offers a new take on the engagement of Jews with outside culture and the interplay of the Jewish community with the reforming state through a study of the Jews (nazione ebrea) of eighteenth-century Livorno, a bustling free port in Tuscany, an Italian state known for its far-reaching reforms inspired by Enlightenment principles. Based on sources both internal and external to the community, it combines cultural analysis with a study of economic policies and political developments, and integrates lines of inquiry informed by Italian and Jewish historiography. The first few chapters trace the participation in Tuscan culture, awareness of Enlightenment thought, and scientific reformist aspirations of a number of Livornese Jewish scholars, and it argues that the study of the natural sciences, university study, and medical research enabled educated Livornese Jews to engage with Enlightenment values and ideals. The book then concentrates on Jewish reactions to Tuscan reforms that affected the community's economic and political life. On the one hand, the Jewish leadership responded actively and selectively to these reforming efforts; on the other hand, ambivalent individual responses to the state's endeavors were informed by the pursuit of utilitarian interests that bypassed the Jewish authorities. Finally, by showing that the generous privileges enjoyed by the nazione ebrea had conservative rather than liberalizing effects in the long run, the book offers a critique of the oft-repeated claim that Jewish economic utility fostered smooth processes of integration.