Ariel Toaff - Blood Passover

"Et dum Puer sic staret, quatuor vel six ex Judaeis ibi astantibus pupugerunt cum acubus Puerum et ipse Wolfgangus fuit unus ex illis qui popugit [...] dum sanguis exiret, Heberle Judaeis cum quadam scutela stagni vel argenti, colligebat sanguinem" ([Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica , cit., p. 141). See also Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento , cit., pp. 39-40.

“Mane sequenti venerunt plures alii Judaei ad videndum dictum corpus et in quo die sequenti de sero idem corpus fuit sublatum de capsa et portatum in Synagogam praedictam, in quam tunc venerunt circa triginta Judaei” (cfr. [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica, cit., p. 141). See also Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento , cit., vol. II, pp. 30-40.

"Jossele et Sayer praedicti mandaverunt Jacob et Isac, quod debere auferre corpus de dicta Synagoga et illud portare ad sepeliendum in quandam curiam contiguam dictae Synagogae, quae curia est versus Orientum, et quod illud corpus deberent sepelire in dicta Curia in quodam angulo a meridie, quae curia est circumdata muro et in eam intratur per quoddam ostium, quod tenetur clausum" ([Bonelli], Dissertazione Apologetica , cit., p. 141). See also Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento , cit., vol. II, p. 40.

Cfr. Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder , cit., pp. 66-72; Rubin, Gentile Tales , cit., pp. 123-128.

Cfr. Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento , cit., vol. II, pp. 38-39; Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder , cit., pp. 72; Id., Trent 1475 , cit., pp. 97-98.

In the vast bibliography on the Regensburg trials of the years 1476-1480, see R. Strauss, Urkunden und Aktenstücke zur Geschichte der Juden in Regensburg, 1453-1738 , Munich, 1960, pp. 68-168; Id., Regensburg und Augsburg , Philadelphia (Pa.), 1939; Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder , cit., pp. 72-85; W. Treue, Ritualmord und Hostienschändung, Untersuchungen zur Judenfeindschaft in Deutschland im Mittelalter und in der fruhen Neuzeit , Berlin, 1989, pp. 52-58. See also the notes in this regard by W.P. Eckert, Motivi superstiziosi nel processi agli ebrei di Trent , in I.Rogger and M. Bellabarba, Il principe vescovo Johannes Hinderbach (1465-1486) fra tardo Medioevo e Umanesimo , Atti del Convegno promosso della Biblioteca Comunale di Trento (2-6 October 1989), Bologna, 1992, pp. 383-394.

Cfr. Strauss Urkunden und Aktenstücke zur Geschichte der Juden in Regensburg , cit., pp. 73-80.

Cfr. ibidem, pp 82-83, 144-148.

Yoseph Colon, Sheelot w-teshuot, Responsa , Venice, Daniel Bomberg, 1519, resp. no. 5; Id., Responsa and Decisions , by E. Pines, Jerusalem, 1970, p. 282, response no. 104 (in Hebrew).

In Hebrew, Ha-ghedolah ha'awonotenu ha-rabbim ekh she-bene', KK. Re'genshpurkh (= Regensburg) hem tefusim . The letter bears the date 8 Iyyar 5238 (=1478), but this is a transcription error for 5236 (= 1476). The Hebrew document is transcribed with many errors from an lost original and inserted in the records of the trial of the priest Paolo da Novara, in an authenticated copy by the notary Giovanni da Fondo, in the dossier of the Trent trial records, signed and sealed by the podestà Alessandro da Bassano, dated 11 March 1478 (ibidem).

The letters in Yiddish are also preserved in the Trent trial records (AST Archivio Principesco Vescovile, s.l., 69, 68). These will be soon be published in full, with an introduction by myself from the Yiddish language point of view, in one of the coming editions of "Zakhor". The letters, which are the most ancient remaining documents in Yiddish, have been partially indicated and with many inxactitudes (cfr. W. Treue, Trienter Judeprozess. Voraussetzungen-Ablaufe-Auswirkungen, 1475-1588 , Hannover Forschungen zur Geschichte der Juden, 1977; pp. 114 ss.; Ch. Turniansky and E. Trimm, Yiddish in Italia. Manuscripts and Printed Books from the 15th to the 17th Century , Milan, 2003, p. 158). The missives, dated the first of May 1476, are drawn up partly in rhymed prose. The recipients are Ellan (Ellin, Ella), and her husband, the banker Crassino (Ghershom) of Novara, while the senders are his/her daughter Geilin, Geilin's husband, Mordekhai Gumprecht, and his brother Yoel.

"Il prete [ gallech ] mi ha visto quando ho ricevuto le lettere che gli ho portato [“the priest [gallech] saw me when I received the letter which I brought him”] (letter in Yiddish dated 5 May 5236 [= 1476].

Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder , cit., pp. 77-82, Eckert, Motivi superstiziosi , cit., pp. 388-389.

The name Rikhard (Reichard), which also appears in the form Reisshart (Rizzardo), is found solely among the Jews of Regensburg in the second half of the Fifteenth Century (cfr. M. Stern, Regensburg in Mittelalter. The israelitische Bevölkerung der deutschen Städte , Berlin, 1934, pp. 48, 55; A. Beider, A Dictionary of Aschkanezic Given Names , Bergenfield, N.J., 2001, p. 406).

Like Rizzardo da Regensburg, who lived at Brescia but had a bank in the district, at Gavardo, where he lived with his two brothers, Enselino and Jacob, another Jewish money lender, Leone di Maestro Seligman, had a dwelling at Brescia, carrying on the money lending activity in the district, at Iseo (cfr. F. Glissenti, Gli ebrei nel Bresciano al tempo delle Dominazione Veneta. Nuove ricerche e studi , Brescia, 1891, pp. 8-14; F. Chiappa, Una colonia ebraica in Palazzolo a metà a del 1400 , Brescia, 1964, p. 37).

"Modo possunt essi anni sex vel circa in loco Seravalli, cum Arone eius Patre staret, idem Aron dixit sibi Lazaro, quod fuerat interfectus quidam puer in dicta Civitate Ratisbonae et quod Rizardus frater Aron dixerat sibi Aron, quod habuerat de sanguine illius pueri interfeci Ratisbonae" [“Perhaps about six years ago or thereabouts, in a place called Serravalle, when Aaron was there with his father, Aaron told Lazzarus that a boy had been killed in that city of Regensburg and that Rizzardo’s brother Aaron told him that he had some blood from the boy killed at Regensburg”] [Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica , cit., p. 143.). See also Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento , cit., vol. II, pp. 15, 24-25, 37-38; Po-Chia Hsia, Trent 1475 , cit., pp. 91-92.

"Primo anno quo ipse Angelus habitavit in castro Gavardi territorii Brixiae cum Enselino, Rizardus Hebreus, qui habitavit Brixiae, scripsit unas litteras Enselino, in quibus significabat quod ipse Ricardus emeret de sanguine et quod inserviret sibi de eo" [“The first year that Angelo lived in the city of Gavrdo in the territories of Brescia with Enselino, Rizzardo the Jew, who lived at Brescia, wrote Enselino a few letters, in which he said that Ricardo sold blood and that he had used some of it”] (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi , cit., vol. I, pp. 294- 295.

"Isac dici audivit ab Angelo quod Rizzardus de Brixia habuerit de sanguine cuiusdam puerii alias interfecit in Civitate Ratisbonae" [“I heard Isaac tell Angelo that Rizzardo had some blood from the other boys killed at Regensburg”] ([Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica , cit., p. 144). See also Divina, Storia del beato Simone da Trento , cit., vol. II, pp. 36-37.