Reviews

JEWS AND MAGIC IN MEDICI FLORENCE:

THE SECRET WORLD OF BENEDETTO BLANIS

Robert Bonfil, Department of the History of the Jewish People, Hebrew University of Jerusalem:

"This dazzling, valuable biography combines Edward Goldberg's thorough archival expertise with his fresh, fluent writing style to create a vividly detailed portrait of Benedetto Blanis and seventeenth-century Florence. Goldberg compellingly shows how the episodes of Blanis' life reflected a complex, deeply moving response to the conditions of baroque Italian society. Since our knowledge concerning Jewish life in this period is considerably limited, JEWS AND MAGIC IN MEDICI FLORENCE must be welcomed as a superb achievement adding substantial components to this puzzle. Travellers can also use it as a muse as they stroll through the narrow lanes of the historical centre of Florence, wondering what it may have been like to walk there five hundred years ago."

Lucia Frattarelli Fisher, Interdepartmental Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Pisa:

"Suspenseful and compelling, JEWS AND MAGIC IN MEDICI FLORENCE plunges readers into the lives and destinies of two figures ­­who strove to explain the world through the language of magical power – Benedetto Blanis, a learned Jew, and Don Giovanni dei Medici, the Duke of Tuscany’s one-time unacknowledged son. Edward Goldberg’s great narrative talent is revealed through his faithful, flowing translations of Blanis’ letters and his vibrant reconstruction of everyday Florentine life."

Interior of the Italian Oratory in Via delle Oche in Florence (watercolor by Ottavio Levi, circa 1900). This scuola was created by traditionalist Florentine Jews who objected to the innovations in the grand new synagogue in Via Farini (built 1872-82). The Italian Oratory (dismantled in 1962) offers a strong impression of the synagogue that Benedetto Blanis knew in the old Ghetto.