Kenneth R. Stow, "The Consciousness of Closure: Roman Jewry and Its Ghet" in David B. Ruderman, ed., Essential Papers on Jewish Culture in Renaissance and Baroque Italy (New York, 1992)

1) What measures did Pope Sixtus V undertake to ease some of the restrictions and burdens placed on the Jewish community by his immediate predecessors?

2) Why does Stow contend that Sixtus V's liberalization measures led to more, rather than less, disillusionment in the Jewish community?

3) How did Sixtus V's expansion of the Roman ghetto serve to enrich him, his family, and his subordinates?

4) What role did the ghetto play in Sixtus V's attempts to prosletyze the Jews?

5) What was the rationale behind Sixtus V's plan to issue a "censored version" of the Talmud?

6) Do you think Sixtus V should be praised or criticized for easing restrictions on the Roman Jewish community in view of his personal interests for doing so?

7) Do you agree with Stow's thesis regarding the reasons for the sudden use of the word "ghet" by members of the Jewish community? Might Rabbi Pompeo del Borgo also have simply used the name in jest, as a term of irony?

8) Might the emigration suggested by the nearly 200 patents which were issued between 1587 and 1590, granting Jews permission to reside outside of Rome (roughly 13 per year), according to Stow's own figures, indeed have played a role in the simultaneous decline of the ghetto's marriage rate?

9) Did the overcrowding in the ghetto at all ease in the wake of the expansion? What evidence might be required for a definitive answer to this question?

10) How might the physical isolation of the Jewish community have served to further popularize use of the "contamination threat" as a rationalization for additional restrictions?

Terms, Concepts, Names, and Dates

serraglio

Papal States

Sixtus V

House of Converts

Franciscans

Council of Trent

entry patents

1492 (Spain)